Wassup Mali!!

Written on July 4, 2010
So today is America’s Independence day, and I am in Mali. Seems a little weird, but oh well. To celebrate the holiday we got to go to the American Club (kind of like a country club for Americans living in Mali; we had to show our passports for entry). The American Club has a pool and a tennis court, as well as a volley ball court, and for the 4th they had a big family picnic complete with ice-cream, hamburgers, hot dogs, pasta salad, soda and beer. Unfortunately I left all of my CFA (Malian money) back in my hut and all I had were dollars which they weren’t accepting. This was very unfortunate because all of the American food smelled sooooo good, but I guess it’s a good thing that I didn’t get to eat that food seeing as it is only my second day here and that would be like spoiling myself.
So the flight to Mali felt soooo long, but that was mainly because our flight from Paris was delayed by 2 hours. We were supposed to arrive in Bamako (the capital) at 8:10, but we didn’t end up landing until around 10:30. It was so awesome to get off the plane, because it was one of those flights where you had to walk down the stairs and then actually walk outside to the airport. My first thought off the plane was “wow I’m in Africa again.” I expected it to be sweltering when we got off, but it was actually really cool, like in the high 60s. Immediately off the plane we saw several Malian men (who we later found out were some of our trainers) holding up Peace Corps signs, so we went to them and they handed us our customs papers that we had to fill out. After that we went to get our bags which ended up taking way over an hour because the conveyor belt was so slow! Once we got all of our bags (thank God I got all of mine in perfect shape!) we wheeled them up to security where they had to go through another security scanner, and then we brought them out to the vans where there were a bunch of PC volunteers waiting to help us (by the way there are 80 of us Peace Corps trainees). After loading our suitcases onto this massive truck we were driven to our training village called Tubaniso which was like 45 minutes from the airport. This place is kind of like a mock village. They have it set up so we have our classes in these big outdoor pavilions as well as little classroom buildings. There is also a cafeteria like place (this is where we have wireless internet) and then the whole place is surrounded by huts that are kinda like dorm rooms with 3 or 4 beds in each one. The huts have electricity and even a fan (I think we’re getting spoiled)! The only major difference was that we have to use a nyegen. This is kind of like an outhouse except there is no seat to sit on, instead you have to squat over a hole. Also we were told that around most of Mali the nyegen’s don’t have toilet paper, so instead people take in a little tea kettle of water and basically pour the water down their crack and then wipe with their left hand, because of this you never do anything with your left hand. In Mali it is seen as disrespectful to hand people things with your left hand, to shake hands with your left hand, basically anything with your left hand. Just so you all know, I WILL have toilet paper on me at all times, I WILL NOT be wiping with my hand, ever.
This morning was our first training session, and it basically consisted of us getting introduced to the whole training staff as well as a short medical orientation where we got our malaria prophylaxis (I’m taking mefloquin). The training staff are awesome!!! They’re so hilarious, and basically the whole introduction was a joke where they kept messing with each other. The staff is mainly Malians with a few Americans PC Volunteers. The Malians are here to teach us French and Bambara and then all of the cultural stuff, as well as overseeing all of the sectors (Mali has 5 sectors: Education, Health Education, Water and Sanitation, Small Enterprise Development, and Environment/Agriculture). The American volunteer trainers are basically just aids to the Malians. I can’t wait until we really get into training! Tomorrow I have a language interview to see what level of French I am so that they can place me in the proper class. Wish me luck!