August 20, 2010
So I'm back at Homestay now. I've been here since Tuesday (today is Friday), and I only have until next Saturday left. On the Sunday after next, we head back to Tubaniso for a week, and then we get sworn in as official Peace Corps Volunteers at the US Embassy. Anyway, the past couple of days at homestay have been alright. I definitely wish that I was back at my actual site though because it is so much nicer than my homestay village. In my homestay village I cant go anywhere without being called 'Tubaboo', which is perhaps the world's most annoying word especially when said in the sing-song voice that the children here love so much. I realized today that it would be impossible to sneak up on someone here because a child a mile away will see me coming and start shouting Tubaboo Tubaboo Tubaboo! and then whoever I was trying to sneak up on would be alerted.
I knew coming into Mali that it was probably going to be a little difficult for me to live in a predominately Muslim country, but I had no idea how incredibley difficult it would be. I'm not talking about Christians getting along with Muslims (it's actually super chill here, they could care less that I'm Christian and not Muslim), I'm talking about the extreme lack of sleep I'm getting because of the 4:30 am call to prayer. Also now that it is Ramadan, there is a 3:30 am call for everyone to wake up so that they can eat before the day of fasting begins. Unfortunately my house is like 500 ft from the Mosque so I always get woken up by the loudspeaker. It is almost impossible to fall back asleep once I've been woken up. The worse thing is that It's not just the loudspeaker that wakes me up, but also the chickens, donkeys, goats and dogs that love to make noise at all hours of the night. It's really unfortunate because I'm always so tired during the day which makes language lessons torturous. Oh well, I only have 1 week left here!!
So today I had a very interesting discussion with my host-dad, in French of course because my Bambara is horrible, about the moon. It all started by him asking me if we had a moon in America, and I said of course we do, and he was shocked by this and then said 'but not the same moon, right?' And I was like 'no, we have the same moon.' To that he was like 'no way! That moon is for Mali, you have a different moon in America, a smaller moon.' I couldn't stop laughing because he was completely serious. Between laughs I tried to explain that the whole world shared the same moon, and that there is only 1 moon and 1 sun. I also told him that we shared the same stars too. I'm pretty sure I wasn't able to convince him, and I'm pretty sure he thinks every country has their own moon, sun and stars, or none of those at all. My host-dad attended some school, so I wonder if the teach the solar system at all in school? I think I'll try and find that out.
So 2 days ago I discovered something that will make my next 2 years here a lot more bearable: Vache qui rit cheese!!! (we have it in the US too, except its called Laughing Cow Cheese). This cheese doesn't have to be refrigerated and is spreadable, so I eat it with the baguette that I get every morning, SO DELICIOUS. I ration one triangle of cheese per morning so that I have something to look forward to. Breakfast is now my favorite meal of the day because I get half a baguette with my vache qui rit triangle, a hard-boiled egg, and tea made with powdered milk and sugar. One thing that I find funny is that I'm obsessed with eggs here in Mali! This is weird because I hate eggs in the US. You could very rarely find me eating eggs, and the few times I did, I only ate them scrambled, and I especially hated hard boiled eggs. But in Mali I can't get enough of them! I think it may be because my body is protein deficient, so it craves any source of protein. Whatever the case is, I can eat eggs anyday, allday. I even hope to raise chickens at my site just so I can have eggs whenever I want.
August 28, 2010
I'm very hungry and I can't go back to sleep because the Mosque woke me up (it's 5:22 am) so I thought I'd write a blog post. Today is my last day at Homestay!!! I'm super incredibley excited because I was starting to get sick of this place. I can't wait to be sworn in as a legit volunteer and I can't wait to be back in Sikasso. I only now slightly feel like I'm going to miss Homestay because lastnight we had a sort of Thank-you gathering for all of the host families were we told them how greatful we were that they allowed us to stay in their homes and that they took such good care of us. I invited my host dad and his 2 wives to come to the gathering, but none of them showed up, instead they sent 2 of their daughters in their place (one of the daughters really gets on my nerves so I really was unhappy to see her their instead of my host-parents). At first I thought the reason that they didn't come was because they didn't care, and that they were just as ready for me to leave as I was. Turns out this wasn't true at all. After the gathering, when I got back home, I gave my host parents the gifts I wanted to give them at the gathering (a watch for my host dad, and bracelets for my host moms). They all seemed genuinely happy to receive them, but nothing can top my host dad's reaction when I handed him the watch. The man was choking back tears. It was so precious. I have never ever ever seen him that happy! He could just not believe that anything like that would ever happen. Now because of his reaction I feel kinda bad... and the reason being that it was just an $8 watch from Walmart, granted it looked pretty nice and is probably better than any watch he'd buy, but still. Anyway I was super touched by his reaction, and I now know that they aren't in a rush to get me out of here and that they will miss me, and knowing this makes me kind of sentimental too whereas before I was telling people that there was no way I was gonna miss homestay and that I couldn't wait to get out of here. I think my problem was that I associated all of Homestay with language class alone, which I hate, and not with how nice of a family I got and all the super nice things they did for me.
So anyway that brings me to my next little blurb: I'M DONE WITH LANGUAGE CLASS (*sort of)!!! Yesterday afternoon I took my End-of-Stage (oral) Language test. For this test we have to achieve a score of Intermediate-Mid in Bambara to be sworn in as volunteers. I was EXTREMELY nervous because my Bambara isn't the greatest, and I wasn't sure that I'd be able to achieve inter-mid. So anyway I took the test and I wasn't very happy with myself because I had memorized some pretty advanced sentences and I never got the chance to use them. I spent several hours after the test ragging on myself because of this. I later found out from my LCF (my Bambara teacher) that everyone in my homestay village passed!! I won't actually receive the results from my test until Monday, but I'm super relieved to hear that I passed (hopefully this turns out to be true).
Random tidbit for you guys: So turns out it's shockingly rude to ignore a phone call here. My homologue in Sikasso is now in the habit of calling me everyother day (mind you we can barely understand eachother because my bambara sucks and my french isn't that great either) to ask me how I'm doing and to tell me how happy he is that I'm doing well. This may sound "cute" to you, but it's not, it's actually annoying as hell. So anyway, a few afternoons ago I was getting my hair braided when my phone started ringing. I looked down to see who it was, and yep it was my homologue. I let out an exasperated sigh and pressed ignore. The lady who was braiding my hair and her husband, who was sitting near by, both let out these gasps of shock. That completely threw me off guard because I had the habit of ignoring phone calls quite a bit in the US (not as often as Jenn though). I tried to explain to them that I didn't want to talk to him, but they didn't seem to get it. I later explained the whole ignoring the phone call situation to my LCFS and I got the same shocked reaction from them too! My LCF, once he lost his shock, explained that in Mali you never ignore a phone call because if someone is willing to spend the little money the have on phone credit to talk to you than you shouls be polite enough to answer. So his explanation made total sense and actually made me feel really bad about ignoring my homologue's call. Lucky for me though he called back literally a minute after my LCFs explanation, so of course I answered the phone! Again it was just a call to see how I was doing, and it didn't even last more than a minute. I guess from now on I'm just going to have to put up with these minute-long annoyances.
*it's only sort of because I have to do some language tutoring for the first 3 months at site.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Friday, August 13, 2010
loved it!
I decided to bring my laptop to site visit because I remembered really wanting to journal/blog my first night of homestay. I am going to write a little bit each day so that by the end of the week I will have a mini entry for each day.
Day 1 (August 8)
So I don't think I've ever been so nervous in my entire life. I literally felt like throwing up the entire morning because my stomach was so knotted with stress. This morning we were told to wake up at 4 am so that we'd be ready to leave at 5 am. While eating breakfast my homologue came up to me and showed me his ticket and said something to me in Bambara, so I figured he was saying that he got both of our tickets. After breakfast we went to load the bus, but it turned out that there wasn't enough space for all of us on the one bus so my homologue and I actually got split up. I didn't find this out until later though, so I spent the entire ride to the bus station panicked because my homologue wasn't on the bus. When I finally reunited with my homologue at the bus station it was a great relief, but then I found out that he didn't actually have my ticket and earlier he had told me to go get my own ticket in Bambara. So this news made me panic even more because I thought there might be a chance that they wouldn't let me on the bus, but thanks to my amazing homologue everthing was smoothed out and I had no problems getting on the bus. My bus ride was a very very long 6 hours, although at some point along the trip I found out that my homologue lied when he said he only speaks a little French, because really he speaks beacoup! I was super relieved to find this out because now we can actually communicate, when before I could only tell him about my basic needs in Bambara. On the bus there was a driver and three attendants (they collected the money and helped people with luggage), and after my bus ride when we got off at our stop, all three of the attendants got off the bus and I could see them whispering to eachother. I knew they were talking about me, but I didn't know what about until one came over to me and asked me for my number! lol, I gave him an 'are you kidding me!?' look and then told them all off by saying that they didn't know me, so why should they want my number (all in french). They all cracked up and got back on the bus. My 8k (which is about 5 miles) bike ride to my actual village wasn't at all as bad as I thought it was going to be. I did get covered in mud though because it had just rained. Once I got to the village I found out that I'm living in the same concession with my homologue and his family, not with the chief of the village as I was told. The 2 rooms that they have for me are attatched to their house, and my negen isn't even built yet (everything was supposed to be finished before I got here). I also don't have a hangar in front of my house that can be like a gated area for privacy. What they have provided for me doesn't follow the Peace Corps guidlines, so once I get back to Tubaniso I'm going to have to make sure someone finds out what is going on. Besides my house not being in order, everything else was great! I really like my homologue and his family and everyone that I have met so far in my village, even though hardly any of them speak Bambara (they all speak Senufo, so yay for me having to learn another language when I really don't like language learning!) All in all I'd say that it was an awesome first night, and I think I'm gonna like this place (especially if they get my housing issues situated).
*cool fact: I'm the first American ever in my village, and my homologue said he was going to write "Elizabeth Coomber, the first American in our village" in their history books. Insanely awesome!
Day 2 (August 9)
I feel like I live in Busch Gardens. I know that sounds weird, and I think I'm going to have some trouble explaining this, but I'll give it a shot. So I always felt that amusment parks like Busch Gardens exaggerated the huts and vegetation for what Africa is supposed to look like. I felt this way because I lived in Nigeria for 2 years and never once saw a mud hut with a thatched roof. Well in my village they're everywhere! Almost every household has a round hut with a thatch roof! It looks so fake, just like Busch Gardens, but they're real!
Anyway I did quite a bit today with my homologue. He basically gave me a tour of my entire village. My village has a primary and a secondary school, so I got to visit both of those, as well as the health clinic and a bunch of little random graineries and gardens. I also met the Chief of the village today, he's this cute little old man with coke bottle glasses and a huge smile. He was super excited to meet me, and I also found out that I'm actually the 2nd American to come to my village because the Chief said that when he was a small boy he met an American man and this man gave him 5 francs. I can't believe he can remember something as small as that! Today was another great day!
P.S. there are mango trees everywhere in my village!! I can't wait for mango season!!
Day 3 (August 10)
Today was another great day! It started out pretty slow because after I ate breakfast my homologue and I went to the Secondary school to meet the headmaster there. I also got to sit in on a CGS meeting which is Communite de Gestion Scolaire, which is kind of like a school board meeting. They were talking about the schools budget which I found to be very boring and hard to follow because it was in French, but at just the right time I saw my site buddy walk up. She's a 1 year PCV who lives in a village 12k from me. She basically came to check in on me and see how my site visit was going. She's super cool and very nice. She's staying the night at my place so that she can be here tomorrow for when a Peace Corps official comes to see how I'm doing and to introduce me to the Mayor.
Day 4 (August 11)
So I'm positive that I'm going to love living here. I have the best homologue ever! He literally treats me like his daughter and makes sure everything is perfect for me. I have a couple of issues with my house (I am supposed to have my own negen, but right now there's just a giant hole in the ground, my door is wood when it's supposed to be metal. and it opens with a skeleton key which doesn't fit Peace Corps standards) and my homologue says that there's going to be no problem having those things fixed before I'm installed here at the beginning of September. I also explained to him that I would really like my own concession, even though living with him and his family is great, I just want my own space, and he understood completely, and said that after the rainy season is over he will see to it that a new concession for me gets built! He's so accomodating and hospitable! Today I also got to meet the Mayor, and he seems like a really nice guy that I will be able to work with well. Today was also market day in my village!! It was great! It's not the biggest market, but I was able to buy some pretty cool cloth and some orange and blue (go gators) bracelets. The only thing I don't like about my village is that they speak Senufo here, and I've come to realize that it's going to be very difficult to learn this language because it is spoken with the throat, it sounds very similar to Chinese, and it's almost impossible for me to get my mouth in the right position to pronounce words and phrases correctly.
Day 5 (August 12)
Today was my last full day in village because tomorrow I am going to Sikasso with my site buddy so she can show me around. I need to know where my bank is and where I'll be receiving mail, as well as where the Bureau is so I can get internet access. Today was a really chill day. After my bucket bath and breakfast this morning my homolgue took me to a meeting of the village elders (all men of course) and heads of families. They gathered to talk about me and also about the past school year and any issues dealing with the primary and secondary schools in the village. Earlier in the week I had asked the village chief to give me a Senufo name (really I just wanted a new name because I didn't like Sali at all), so now my name is Gnire (pronounced Near-y) and this means first daughter in Senufo. I got this name because I am their first American daughter, so I'm really happy to have gotten this name! Today I wasn't feeling so well so I told my homologue that I didn't want to go with him to a meeting at the Mayor's office, but that I wanted to go back home and read. So I pretty much spent the whole day reading (I also watched a couple episodes of the Office) except for when I ended up having to go to the meeting anyways just to show my face to those who hadn't met me yet. Overall it has been a really good week, and as much as I really like this village, I'm ready to go back to Tubaniso.
Day 1 (August 8)
So I don't think I've ever been so nervous in my entire life. I literally felt like throwing up the entire morning because my stomach was so knotted with stress. This morning we were told to wake up at 4 am so that we'd be ready to leave at 5 am. While eating breakfast my homologue came up to me and showed me his ticket and said something to me in Bambara, so I figured he was saying that he got both of our tickets. After breakfast we went to load the bus, but it turned out that there wasn't enough space for all of us on the one bus so my homologue and I actually got split up. I didn't find this out until later though, so I spent the entire ride to the bus station panicked because my homologue wasn't on the bus. When I finally reunited with my homologue at the bus station it was a great relief, but then I found out that he didn't actually have my ticket and earlier he had told me to go get my own ticket in Bambara. So this news made me panic even more because I thought there might be a chance that they wouldn't let me on the bus, but thanks to my amazing homologue everthing was smoothed out and I had no problems getting on the bus. My bus ride was a very very long 6 hours, although at some point along the trip I found out that my homologue lied when he said he only speaks a little French, because really he speaks beacoup! I was super relieved to find this out because now we can actually communicate, when before I could only tell him about my basic needs in Bambara. On the bus there was a driver and three attendants (they collected the money and helped people with luggage), and after my bus ride when we got off at our stop, all three of the attendants got off the bus and I could see them whispering to eachother. I knew they were talking about me, but I didn't know what about until one came over to me and asked me for my number! lol, I gave him an 'are you kidding me!?' look and then told them all off by saying that they didn't know me, so why should they want my number (all in french). They all cracked up and got back on the bus. My 8k (which is about 5 miles) bike ride to my actual village wasn't at all as bad as I thought it was going to be. I did get covered in mud though because it had just rained. Once I got to the village I found out that I'm living in the same concession with my homologue and his family, not with the chief of the village as I was told. The 2 rooms that they have for me are attatched to their house, and my negen isn't even built yet (everything was supposed to be finished before I got here). I also don't have a hangar in front of my house that can be like a gated area for privacy. What they have provided for me doesn't follow the Peace Corps guidlines, so once I get back to Tubaniso I'm going to have to make sure someone finds out what is going on. Besides my house not being in order, everything else was great! I really like my homologue and his family and everyone that I have met so far in my village, even though hardly any of them speak Bambara (they all speak Senufo, so yay for me having to learn another language when I really don't like language learning!) All in all I'd say that it was an awesome first night, and I think I'm gonna like this place (especially if they get my housing issues situated).
*cool fact: I'm the first American ever in my village, and my homologue said he was going to write "Elizabeth Coomber, the first American in our village" in their history books. Insanely awesome!
Day 2 (August 9)
I feel like I live in Busch Gardens. I know that sounds weird, and I think I'm going to have some trouble explaining this, but I'll give it a shot. So I always felt that amusment parks like Busch Gardens exaggerated the huts and vegetation for what Africa is supposed to look like. I felt this way because I lived in Nigeria for 2 years and never once saw a mud hut with a thatched roof. Well in my village they're everywhere! Almost every household has a round hut with a thatch roof! It looks so fake, just like Busch Gardens, but they're real!
Anyway I did quite a bit today with my homologue. He basically gave me a tour of my entire village. My village has a primary and a secondary school, so I got to visit both of those, as well as the health clinic and a bunch of little random graineries and gardens. I also met the Chief of the village today, he's this cute little old man with coke bottle glasses and a huge smile. He was super excited to meet me, and I also found out that I'm actually the 2nd American to come to my village because the Chief said that when he was a small boy he met an American man and this man gave him 5 francs. I can't believe he can remember something as small as that! Today was another great day!
P.S. there are mango trees everywhere in my village!! I can't wait for mango season!!
Day 3 (August 10)
Today was another great day! It started out pretty slow because after I ate breakfast my homologue and I went to the Secondary school to meet the headmaster there. I also got to sit in on a CGS meeting which is Communite de Gestion Scolaire, which is kind of like a school board meeting. They were talking about the schools budget which I found to be very boring and hard to follow because it was in French, but at just the right time I saw my site buddy walk up. She's a 1 year PCV who lives in a village 12k from me. She basically came to check in on me and see how my site visit was going. She's super cool and very nice. She's staying the night at my place so that she can be here tomorrow for when a Peace Corps official comes to see how I'm doing and to introduce me to the Mayor.
Day 4 (August 11)
So I'm positive that I'm going to love living here. I have the best homologue ever! He literally treats me like his daughter and makes sure everything is perfect for me. I have a couple of issues with my house (I am supposed to have my own negen, but right now there's just a giant hole in the ground, my door is wood when it's supposed to be metal. and it opens with a skeleton key which doesn't fit Peace Corps standards) and my homologue says that there's going to be no problem having those things fixed before I'm installed here at the beginning of September. I also explained to him that I would really like my own concession, even though living with him and his family is great, I just want my own space, and he understood completely, and said that after the rainy season is over he will see to it that a new concession for me gets built! He's so accomodating and hospitable! Today I also got to meet the Mayor, and he seems like a really nice guy that I will be able to work with well. Today was also market day in my village!! It was great! It's not the biggest market, but I was able to buy some pretty cool cloth and some orange and blue (go gators) bracelets. The only thing I don't like about my village is that they speak Senufo here, and I've come to realize that it's going to be very difficult to learn this language because it is spoken with the throat, it sounds very similar to Chinese, and it's almost impossible for me to get my mouth in the right position to pronounce words and phrases correctly.
Day 5 (August 12)
Today was my last full day in village because tomorrow I am going to Sikasso with my site buddy so she can show me around. I need to know where my bank is and where I'll be receiving mail, as well as where the Bureau is so I can get internet access. Today was a really chill day. After my bucket bath and breakfast this morning my homolgue took me to a meeting of the village elders (all men of course) and heads of families. They gathered to talk about me and also about the past school year and any issues dealing with the primary and secondary schools in the village. Earlier in the week I had asked the village chief to give me a Senufo name (really I just wanted a new name because I didn't like Sali at all), so now my name is Gnire (pronounced Near-y) and this means first daughter in Senufo. I got this name because I am their first American daughter, so I'm really happy to have gotten this name! Today I wasn't feeling so well so I told my homologue that I didn't want to go with him to a meeting at the Mayor's office, but that I wanted to go back home and read. So I pretty much spent the whole day reading (I also watched a couple episodes of the Office) except for when I ended up having to go to the meeting anyways just to show my face to those who hadn't met me yet. Overall it has been a really good week, and as much as I really like this village, I'm ready to go back to Tubaniso.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Sikasso, I'll be seeing you very soon
So I'm leaving for my actual site at 5 am tomorrow morning. I'm not too happy about this. I'm already super nervous about going to my site, having to bike 8k, and actually liking my site, and now I'm barely gonna get any sleep. Tomorrow will also be the first time I've ever taken public transport here in Mali. I'm beyond nervous about that! The buses here don't look that great... Oh well, it has to happen, so there's no use complaining about it over and over again. Anyway, right now my biggest dilemna is whether or not to listen to my ipod on the trip to Sikasso. A reason to listen to it on the way is that it'll make my 4 to 5 hour trip faster, and a reason not to is that I should save the battery for the week that i'm going to be in village. Oh and I can't even charge my ipod with my solar charger anymore because it got stolen... One day last week I was charging the solar panel by the school, and when I left to go home I forgot to pick it up. I realized as soon as I got home (literally 5 minutes later) that I left it. I ran back to the school and it was gone. I assume one of the children took it. I told my LCFs what happened and they said that they would ask around for its whereabouts, so hopefully it turns up. I'm not too angry about it because it didn't work too well and I think it was only like $15. Oh well. Anyway, Sikasso Region, here I come!
Friday, August 6, 2010
Site Announcement
So site announcement is something that all of us PCTs have been eagerly anticipating for the past month! It's we finally found out where we will all be going once we swear in. The way that they did site announcement was really cool but also really nerve-wrecking. They made the announcements by region, so that meant that they called out a region and then one-by-one listed all of the PCTs from each sector who will be going there. The whole process and the assignments themselves were kept a big secret, but a few things slipped out. For example beforehand I was told that nobody wants to go to Kayes region because it's the hottest place on Earth. I also didn't want to be in the Koulikoro region because that meant Bamako (the capital city) wpould be my regional capital, and because of that it would lose all of it's novelty and no longer be a big deal to go to. So because of those impressions I had of those 2 regions, my whole body was incredibley tense when the PCTs in those regions were being called out. The one region I REEEEAAALLLY wanted to be in was Sikasso because I heard that it is the most lush region where most of the fruits and vegetables come from (I miss produce sooooo much), and also where they always have a big Thanksgiving party (the reason this is so special is that our first 3 months as sworn in volunteers has to be spent at site, meaning that if you aren't in the Sikasso region you can't come to the big Thanksgiving dinner in Sikasso).
So back to me being super tense. The first region to be called was Kayes. When it came time for the Education volunteers to be announced I was crossing my fingers and praying that my name wouldn't be called, and it wasn't! The next region was Koulikoro, and I again crossed my fingers and said a prayer, and again my name wasn't called out!! The next region to be called was Sikasso. I had pretty much convinced myself that I wasn't going to get what I most wanted because I had basically exhausted all of my luck by not getting Kayes or Koulikoro. They made it through all of the Sikasso announcements and they saved the Education names for last. The Education head got through his 3 or 4 names and got to his very last name, and guess what, it was me!!! I jumped up and threw my arm in the air and yelled out "yes!" and then proceeded to high-five a few people. lol. I was super excited. I got my dream region, but unfortunately I didn't get my dream site. It turns out that I have to bring my mountain bike with me because my village is several kilometers from the main road. I love biking in the US, but biking in Mali is a different story. Besides the fact that it is super hot here and I am constantly sweating during my bike rider, the roads and paths are super terrible, and I often have to bike through nasty puddles and over donkey poop. I also found out that my site doesn't have reliable cell service, so I'm not too sure how I will be making my phone calls. Another thing I got but didn't want was a male Homologue. I really wanted the person I work the most close with to be a woman. i just felt that a woman would be able to help me more, and would be more comfortable around me because a male homologue could feel like he might not want to tell me something because it could be a touchy subject. I don't know. Anyway I actually just got to meet my homologue and he seems like a super nice older man. He speaks Bambara and a little French (or so my info sheet says, but I haven't actually tried to speak to him in French yet so we'll see if this is actually true). I'm glad he looks nice because on Sunday I will have to ride with him on public transport to Sikasso, a 4 to 5 hour drive from Bamako, and him being nice means that the ride will of course be awkward seeing as we've only just met, but not super awkward because he's not a weirdo!
So back to me being super tense. The first region to be called was Kayes. When it came time for the Education volunteers to be announced I was crossing my fingers and praying that my name wouldn't be called, and it wasn't! The next region was Koulikoro, and I again crossed my fingers and said a prayer, and again my name wasn't called out!! The next region to be called was Sikasso. I had pretty much convinced myself that I wasn't going to get what I most wanted because I had basically exhausted all of my luck by not getting Kayes or Koulikoro. They made it through all of the Sikasso announcements and they saved the Education names for last. The Education head got through his 3 or 4 names and got to his very last name, and guess what, it was me!!! I jumped up and threw my arm in the air and yelled out "yes!" and then proceeded to high-five a few people. lol. I was super excited. I got my dream region, but unfortunately I didn't get my dream site. It turns out that I have to bring my mountain bike with me because my village is several kilometers from the main road. I love biking in the US, but biking in Mali is a different story. Besides the fact that it is super hot here and I am constantly sweating during my bike rider, the roads and paths are super terrible, and I often have to bike through nasty puddles and over donkey poop. I also found out that my site doesn't have reliable cell service, so I'm not too sure how I will be making my phone calls. Another thing I got but didn't want was a male Homologue. I really wanted the person I work the most close with to be a woman. i just felt that a woman would be able to help me more, and would be more comfortable around me because a male homologue could feel like he might not want to tell me something because it could be a touchy subject. I don't know. Anyway I actually just got to meet my homologue and he seems like a super nice older man. He speaks Bambara and a little French (or so my info sheet says, but I haven't actually tried to speak to him in French yet so we'll see if this is actually true). I'm glad he looks nice because on Sunday I will have to ride with him on public transport to Sikasso, a 4 to 5 hour drive from Bamako, and him being nice means that the ride will of course be awkward seeing as we've only just met, but not super awkward because he's not a weirdo!
List of Topics
written 8-5-10 (sorry if there's any spelling or grammar issues)
So I have a HUGE amount of info to blog about, so get ready.
Okay, so since my last blog a lot has happened. Seeing as it would take forever to describe everything, I will be giving you all a cliffnotes version of all that has happened in the last (almost) 2 weeks. I don't bring my computer to my homestay site, so in order to prep for my blog updates I fill a page from my notebook with a list of all the things I want to talk about. Here is said list, note that here it can be used as a table of context, if you will:
1.Wedding
2.Soiree
3.Malian men/wedding proposals
4.Sick PCTs
5.Field trips/ restaurants!
6.Museum/American Club
7.Sleeping (so hot, fan)
8.Food (likes and dislikes)
9.My Negen
10.Pokemon
11.Mice (Milk and Sugar)
12.Underwear
...(I told you I had a lot to write about)
1. Okay so I think I mentioned in my last blog that I was going to get to attend my host sister's wedding, and that I was super excited about that. Well... the wedding sucked. It was soooo boring. I spent the entire day sitting on a bench in the hot sun with my fellow tubabs (white people) while the bride spent the entire day inside her little room. I later found out that a common tradition in Mali is for the bride to stay inside all day because once her head has been washed she is not allowed to greet anyone except her husband. So while my host sister was in the room the whole day, all the wedding guests sat around and talked with eachother. There was some dancing to a random beat by some random dude who was playing this teeny drum. The dancing was only done by women and all they do is shuffle their feet and go around in a circle. I've heard that weddings are supposed to be super fun, but I definitely didn't experience any fun at all (maybe my host fam doesn't know how to throw a raging party). One cool thing about the wedding was that my host sister got a TON of gifts. She got all kinds of cloths, buckets, bowls, an armoire, and a bunch of other random stuff! Another cool thing was that everyone had on really cool clothes. I loved all of the bright and beautifully patterned fabrics!
2. A few days ago I got to go to my first Malian soiree (basically a block party at night with lots of dancing that they charge money for entry, and it is usually for a cause). This was super cool because I got special permission to stay at my friend's homestay village just to attend this party because nothing ever happens in my quiet little homestay village. Anyway, we got to the soiree, which was being held at a local restaurant, around 10:30 pm. This was super difficult for me because I'm so use to going to sleep at 8:30 now. My friends and I didnt have to pay to get in because the friend that I was staying with's brother either paid for us or was able to convince the guards to let us in for free. Once we got in we noticed that no one was there except for maybe like 10 people. The reason for this is because parties dont start until like 12:30 here, just like in the US! Once the party finally did get started I noticed a ton of differences between a Malian soiree and a US party. The first is that Malians dance like theyre having seizures. There was no rhythm at all to their dance moves. They were literally flailing their arms in random motion while jerking their bodies every which way. It was hilarious. My friends and I couldn't stop laughing! (I'm sure the Malians thought we danced weird too and I'm sure they were also laughing at us). Another difference is that they leave the lights on. I think this may be because this is a very conservative country and if the lights were to go out, then who knows what kind of hanky panky could occur! Another kind of weird thing is that dudes dance in groups together and girls dance in groups together. It seems that there is gender segregation in every facet of life here, even partying!
3. Malian men are not my favorite men in the world. It seems that almost every other day I get wedding proposals. One of my guy friends in my homestay village with me has several times pretended to be my husband to get the guys to leave me alone. He will be like "no she is my wife, you can't have her!" It can be pretty funny, but also really annoying. Groups of guys will yell at me to come over and talk with them whenever they see that I'm alone, and I always just tell them that maybe I'll come talk with them later... maybe. And then I never do.
4. It seems as if a ton of my fellow PCTs are getting sick! I have yet to get sick *knock on wood*, but others have had some pretty crazy ailments! One of my fellow education trainees got *Gasp* MALARIA! I also know of 2 trainees who have gotten Giardia (disgusting. This one has symptoms like explosive fouler than usual smelling diarrhea and burps that smell like sulfur). Another trainee cut her toe and it got badly infected and she hasn't been able to return to her homestay village in the past 2 weeks. A huge amount of people have had diarrhea and fevers, and I know of one girl who has a parasite. I reeeallllly hope I don't get sick!
5. As Education trainees we get to go on a lot of field trips to NGOs offices and random organizations in Bamako that we will be working with, unlike other sectors who basically just stay at their homestay villages and do language classes for the full 2 weeks. We've been able to visit the USAID office at the Embassy, as well as some other organizations that are aiding in improving literacy and numeracy in Mali. My favorite thing about our field trips is that we get to go to restaurants in Bamako for lunch, and Peace Corps pays! My favorite place so far is this place called Broadway Cafe. It's super nice inside and the food is sooooo good and the ice cream is even better! I got a cheeseburger and fries and then a scoop of both vannilla and strawberry.
6. This past Sunday was what they called a "fun day" for us PCTs. We got to meet up with our entire stage (all 80 of us) in Bamako, where we were split up into 2 groups with one group going to the American Club and the other going to The National Museum. My group went to the American Club first, and there I ordered a cheesburger and fries and then after eating just relaxed in their TV room on a comfy recliner and we watched the first half of The Breakup (a movie I'd already seen). We spent about 2 hours at the American Club and then switched with the other group to go to the Museum. I didn't like the museum at all, but that's just because I don't like art museums. The exhibits were of things like figurines, wood carvings and textiles. The museum was super tiny, but it took the full 2 hours to go through it because our tour guide gave us the most comprehensive descriptions of every last item. I was bored out of my mind, and very sleepy after just relaxing at the American Club.
7.Sleeping is an interesting thing for me here. I barely get any of it. I go to bed super early, so technically I should always be well rested, but it's really hard for me to fall asleep here. There are all kinds of random noises, but the worst thing is the heat. My room basically bakes all day because it has a tin roof, so when I lay down on my bed at night it feels like I'm inside an oven. I usually fall asleeop dripping with sweat. It's pretty gross. As for the noises, I've got the Mosque's 4:30 am call to prayer everyday, donkeys that sound like they're being murdered and roosters that crow like every single hour. Eventually I hope to get use to and be able to sleep through all the noise!
8. Food here is not my fav. I'm basically on a 95% carb diet. In the morning I eat a half loaf of bread with a cup of super sweet milky tea and a teeny hard boiled egg. For lunch I usually get rice with eith a peanut sauce or leaf sauce that has a little tiny chuck of fish in it, and then for dinner I usually get either spaghetti that has been tossed in oil and some seasoning or boiled potatoes/yams with nothing on them and that's it. I am so tired of carbs!!!! My favorite food here is when I get my boiled potatoes covered in a tomatoe and onion based sauce, delicious! This unfortunately has become a rareity. I most often get the spaghetti oil thing.
9. Ahhh the Negen. except not really, because it's more like take a deep breath of fresh are before you go into that nasty thing. At first it was pretty hard for me to crouch over a hole to use the bathroom, but as of now I've gotten pretty good at it, and even find it to be somewhat comfortable. My aim isn't what it should be, but I have 2 years to work on that ;). I hate that I have to do all my normal bathroom activities in the Negen. It's so gross to have to shower and brush your teeth and change and wash yopur face where you and everyone else poops. vom, or should I say foono which is Bambara for to vomit.
10. Pokemon for Gameboy Color is my savior. Many a day when I had nothing to do but sit and stare at the ground was joyfully spent playing pokemon. Unfortunately I just beat the game 2 days ago so there won't be much for me to do now, but I guess I can always start over or just continue to battle my pokemon or catch more pokemon. Everyone laughs at me whenever they see me pull out my gameboy and start to play pokemon, I guess it is somewhat childish of me, but whatevs, Pokemon rock!
11. So one thing that is really starting to get on my nerves is that my room has a serious mouse problem. The mice chew through and eat everything! Earlier this morning my host dad gave me a bag of shelled peanuts and when I returned in the afternoon to get them 3/4ths of the bag was gone!! The mice have also chewed through the bags of sugar that I keep in my room for my morning tea as well as my powdered milk. What sucks is that I have t throw away everything they chew through because rodents carry some pretty nasty diseases here that I have no desire to acquire.
12. So a big taboo here in Mali is letting other people see your underwear, and because of this I can't include underwear in the laundry that I give to your host mom everyweek. Instead I have to wash them in private and make sure no one knows that that is what I am doing. This is super awkward because I am always being watched and I'm sure they know what I've been up to when I come out of my room with a bucket full of soapy water. Oh well.
Wow that took forever! So on top of everything I just wrote, I aactually found out my site assignment today! I'm going to go to bed now, but tomorrow I'll write all anout my soon-to-be site and my homologue!
So I have a HUGE amount of info to blog about, so get ready.
Okay, so since my last blog a lot has happened. Seeing as it would take forever to describe everything, I will be giving you all a cliffnotes version of all that has happened in the last (almost) 2 weeks. I don't bring my computer to my homestay site, so in order to prep for my blog updates I fill a page from my notebook with a list of all the things I want to talk about. Here is said list, note that here it can be used as a table of context, if you will:
1.Wedding
2.Soiree
3.Malian men/wedding proposals
4.Sick PCTs
5.Field trips/ restaurants!
6.Museum/American Club
7.Sleeping (so hot, fan)
8.Food (likes and dislikes)
9.My Negen
10.Pokemon
11.Mice (Milk and Sugar)
12.Underwear
...(I told you I had a lot to write about)
1. Okay so I think I mentioned in my last blog that I was going to get to attend my host sister's wedding, and that I was super excited about that. Well... the wedding sucked. It was soooo boring. I spent the entire day sitting on a bench in the hot sun with my fellow tubabs (white people) while the bride spent the entire day inside her little room. I later found out that a common tradition in Mali is for the bride to stay inside all day because once her head has been washed she is not allowed to greet anyone except her husband. So while my host sister was in the room the whole day, all the wedding guests sat around and talked with eachother. There was some dancing to a random beat by some random dude who was playing this teeny drum. The dancing was only done by women and all they do is shuffle their feet and go around in a circle. I've heard that weddings are supposed to be super fun, but I definitely didn't experience any fun at all (maybe my host fam doesn't know how to throw a raging party). One cool thing about the wedding was that my host sister got a TON of gifts. She got all kinds of cloths, buckets, bowls, an armoire, and a bunch of other random stuff! Another cool thing was that everyone had on really cool clothes. I loved all of the bright and beautifully patterned fabrics!
2. A few days ago I got to go to my first Malian soiree (basically a block party at night with lots of dancing that they charge money for entry, and it is usually for a cause). This was super cool because I got special permission to stay at my friend's homestay village just to attend this party because nothing ever happens in my quiet little homestay village. Anyway, we got to the soiree, which was being held at a local restaurant, around 10:30 pm. This was super difficult for me because I'm so use to going to sleep at 8:30 now. My friends and I didnt have to pay to get in because the friend that I was staying with's brother either paid for us or was able to convince the guards to let us in for free. Once we got in we noticed that no one was there except for maybe like 10 people. The reason for this is because parties dont start until like 12:30 here, just like in the US! Once the party finally did get started I noticed a ton of differences between a Malian soiree and a US party. The first is that Malians dance like theyre having seizures. There was no rhythm at all to their dance moves. They were literally flailing their arms in random motion while jerking their bodies every which way. It was hilarious. My friends and I couldn't stop laughing! (I'm sure the Malians thought we danced weird too and I'm sure they were also laughing at us). Another difference is that they leave the lights on. I think this may be because this is a very conservative country and if the lights were to go out, then who knows what kind of hanky panky could occur! Another kind of weird thing is that dudes dance in groups together and girls dance in groups together. It seems that there is gender segregation in every facet of life here, even partying!
3. Malian men are not my favorite men in the world. It seems that almost every other day I get wedding proposals. One of my guy friends in my homestay village with me has several times pretended to be my husband to get the guys to leave me alone. He will be like "no she is my wife, you can't have her!" It can be pretty funny, but also really annoying. Groups of guys will yell at me to come over and talk with them whenever they see that I'm alone, and I always just tell them that maybe I'll come talk with them later... maybe. And then I never do.
4. It seems as if a ton of my fellow PCTs are getting sick! I have yet to get sick *knock on wood*, but others have had some pretty crazy ailments! One of my fellow education trainees got *Gasp* MALARIA! I also know of 2 trainees who have gotten Giardia (disgusting. This one has symptoms like explosive fouler than usual smelling diarrhea and burps that smell like sulfur). Another trainee cut her toe and it got badly infected and she hasn't been able to return to her homestay village in the past 2 weeks. A huge amount of people have had diarrhea and fevers, and I know of one girl who has a parasite. I reeeallllly hope I don't get sick!
5. As Education trainees we get to go on a lot of field trips to NGOs offices and random organizations in Bamako that we will be working with, unlike other sectors who basically just stay at their homestay villages and do language classes for the full 2 weeks. We've been able to visit the USAID office at the Embassy, as well as some other organizations that are aiding in improving literacy and numeracy in Mali. My favorite thing about our field trips is that we get to go to restaurants in Bamako for lunch, and Peace Corps pays! My favorite place so far is this place called Broadway Cafe. It's super nice inside and the food is sooooo good and the ice cream is even better! I got a cheeseburger and fries and then a scoop of both vannilla and strawberry.
6. This past Sunday was what they called a "fun day" for us PCTs. We got to meet up with our entire stage (all 80 of us) in Bamako, where we were split up into 2 groups with one group going to the American Club and the other going to The National Museum. My group went to the American Club first, and there I ordered a cheesburger and fries and then after eating just relaxed in their TV room on a comfy recliner and we watched the first half of The Breakup (a movie I'd already seen). We spent about 2 hours at the American Club and then switched with the other group to go to the Museum. I didn't like the museum at all, but that's just because I don't like art museums. The exhibits were of things like figurines, wood carvings and textiles. The museum was super tiny, but it took the full 2 hours to go through it because our tour guide gave us the most comprehensive descriptions of every last item. I was bored out of my mind, and very sleepy after just relaxing at the American Club.
7.Sleeping is an interesting thing for me here. I barely get any of it. I go to bed super early, so technically I should always be well rested, but it's really hard for me to fall asleep here. There are all kinds of random noises, but the worst thing is the heat. My room basically bakes all day because it has a tin roof, so when I lay down on my bed at night it feels like I'm inside an oven. I usually fall asleeop dripping with sweat. It's pretty gross. As for the noises, I've got the Mosque's 4:30 am call to prayer everyday, donkeys that sound like they're being murdered and roosters that crow like every single hour. Eventually I hope to get use to and be able to sleep through all the noise!
8. Food here is not my fav. I'm basically on a 95% carb diet. In the morning I eat a half loaf of bread with a cup of super sweet milky tea and a teeny hard boiled egg. For lunch I usually get rice with eith a peanut sauce or leaf sauce that has a little tiny chuck of fish in it, and then for dinner I usually get either spaghetti that has been tossed in oil and some seasoning or boiled potatoes/yams with nothing on them and that's it. I am so tired of carbs!!!! My favorite food here is when I get my boiled potatoes covered in a tomatoe and onion based sauce, delicious! This unfortunately has become a rareity. I most often get the spaghetti oil thing.
9. Ahhh the Negen. except not really, because it's more like take a deep breath of fresh are before you go into that nasty thing. At first it was pretty hard for me to crouch over a hole to use the bathroom, but as of now I've gotten pretty good at it, and even find it to be somewhat comfortable. My aim isn't what it should be, but I have 2 years to work on that ;). I hate that I have to do all my normal bathroom activities in the Negen. It's so gross to have to shower and brush your teeth and change and wash yopur face where you and everyone else poops. vom, or should I say foono which is Bambara for to vomit.
10. Pokemon for Gameboy Color is my savior. Many a day when I had nothing to do but sit and stare at the ground was joyfully spent playing pokemon. Unfortunately I just beat the game 2 days ago so there won't be much for me to do now, but I guess I can always start over or just continue to battle my pokemon or catch more pokemon. Everyone laughs at me whenever they see me pull out my gameboy and start to play pokemon, I guess it is somewhat childish of me, but whatevs, Pokemon rock!
11. So one thing that is really starting to get on my nerves is that my room has a serious mouse problem. The mice chew through and eat everything! Earlier this morning my host dad gave me a bag of shelled peanuts and when I returned in the afternoon to get them 3/4ths of the bag was gone!! The mice have also chewed through the bags of sugar that I keep in my room for my morning tea as well as my powdered milk. What sucks is that I have t throw away everything they chew through because rodents carry some pretty nasty diseases here that I have no desire to acquire.
12. So a big taboo here in Mali is letting other people see your underwear, and because of this I can't include underwear in the laundry that I give to your host mom everyweek. Instead I have to wash them in private and make sure no one knows that that is what I am doing. This is super awkward because I am always being watched and I'm sure they know what I've been up to when I come out of my room with a bucket full of soapy water. Oh well.
Wow that took forever! So on top of everything I just wrote, I aactually found out my site assignment today! I'm going to go to bed now, but tomorrow I'll write all anout my soon-to-be site and my homologue!
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