Tuesday, September 21, 2010
fun times
So I'm heading back to my village today. I've had a really fun couple of days in Sikasso! The reason I'm heading back is because tomorrow is Mali's 50th anniversary of it's independence from France, so the whole country is partying it up. Tonight, the night before the big day, my village is having a big balofone (kind of like the xylophone) party. I've been told that all day tomorrow will be a party too, but I'm not sure what they have planned. I know that there will be a bike race on the main road, but since my village is 8k off the main road I won't be seeing that. I'm sure there will be lots of balofone playing and dancing. I'm excited for tomorrow, but at the same time I'm kind of tired and I don't really want to party all day. Also I'm come to realize that I'm not really a big fan of big groups of Malians, because all they do is stare at me, so I'm not really looking forward to that either. Anyway, by internet. I will see you in a few weeks when I come back to Sikasso for a week of language training (October 3-9).
Saturday, September 18, 2010
village life
So unfortunately I wasn't able to put up a blog post before I left for my village because the internet was pretty shotty, but anyway since my last blog post I've been in village for almost 2 weeks! I really haven't done much of anything because the first three months in village are supposed to be focused on further language acquisition, however I haven't been doing that either. I'm supposed to have a language tutor, but my village has been pretty slow in trying to help me find one. Everyday I ask my homologue if they've found me a tutor yet, and everyday he says he hasn't talked to the Mayor yet, but that I should know soon. So yea, hopefully that happens because I can honestly feel my Bambara seeping out of me because all I really use is French here since people don't usually speak Bambara here. Although I have come to find out that most people in my village do actually speak Bambara, they just don't. I'm starting to get really annoyed by Senufo. I honestly hate how it sounds and I hate how everyone insists on speaking to me in Senufo first even though they know I don't know any at all. Why can't they just speak to me in Bambara?? My homologue and other villagers keep pestering me to learn Senufo, and I've explained to them about a million times now that after the first 3 months are over I will I have to go back to Tubaniso to take a Bambara language test so I need my focus to be on Bambara not Senufo. Ah well hopefully they will get it soon.
So anyway, as I said earlier, I haven't done much of anything since being here. In the mornings I wake up around 8 am, take a bucket bath, make my breakfast and then do some kind of household chore like laundry or sweeping. After that I usually read. I've read 5 books in the past 2 weeks! I should probably slow down because I'm not going to have any books left. At about noon I walk to my Djatigi's house (basically my host family) for lunch. Everyday except for the first day I have had Toh and it has been disgusting. I can't stand Toh. It's awful. The consistancy is gross and the sauce is nasty. I'm sure I've lost like 5 lbs in the past 2 weeks because I barely eat anything. After lunch I usually have a tea session somewhere; all three rounds, so this usually takes like 2 hours. After tea I take a 1-2 hour nap, and then around 5 I take a bucket bath and then cook my dinner. For dinner almost every single night I've had macaroni and cheese. Ridiculously amazing! Favorite part of the day. I first boil the macaroni over my gas camp stove then I drain out some of the water, add powdered milk and some weird margarine spread that doesn't have to be refrigerated, and then I add 3 triangles of Vache qui rit (laughing cow cheese) which also doesn't have to be refrigerated. Sooooo good. After dinner I usually go outside and hang out with my homologue's family and watch TV with them or I read inside my room. I go to bed around 9, and then I start it all over the next day. God I'm boring.
So I found out that I'm not a cat person a few days ago. Ever since I got my nomination to join the Peace Corps I knew I wanted to get a cat to keep me company no matter where I went. In fact one of the first things I asked my homologue when I came for my site visit like a month ago was if it was possible for me to get a cat in village. So pretty much as soon as I got here he told me he knew of a family with a kitten for me. I was super excited and went to see the cat the next day. It was this super cute female kitten that was white with brown patches and blue eyes. I told the family that I would come get in the next day because I had to pick up food for it first. So the next day I went to the butiki (little shack store) and bought some sardines. the cat was so cute when I picked it up, and didn't fidget or make a noise in my arms the whole walk home. That all changed as soon as I put it down inside my house. From that moment on the kitten wouldn't shut up. My homologue and I figured that it was just crying for it's mom and that it would stop in a day or two once it got habituated. But it didn't. It got habituated alright, and even became a very loving cat, it just never stopped meowing. It constantly wanted attention, and followed me wherever I went. If I even left the room for a second it would start meowing soooo loud! I know this may sound cute to you, but to me it was beyond annoying. After the third day I was already looking for a way to get rid of it. It was so annoying I didn't even bother to give it a name because I knew I had to get rid of it. I was able to pass it off to some random family in the village who was in need of a cat for mice catching or something. I bought the cat on Saturday and was rid of it on Tuesday. It's kind of embarassing that I couldn't handle that small animal, but I guess I'm a low-maintenance pet/ no pet at all person.
These past few days in village I have witnessed a lot of dancing (Ramadan just ended so there was a big party called Seli that day, and I also went to a Soiree held by the Club des Jeunes, basically a youth club, where there was a concert by the Balofone player Neba Solo). I can't handle Malian dancing. Not only does it look like people are having seizures, but it's just too much booty shaking! Senufo dancing is a little different than the dancing that I had seen when I was in Bamako. Here the women, and men too, bend over, stick their butts out and then start stomping the ground at an incredibley fast pace, kind of like they're trying to step on ants. (Mom- it looks just like their doing Kevin's Irish Jig!). The funny thing is that they think their such good dancers! I think they look awful! I guess it's just because I'm not use to it, but honestly it's ridiculous. I'm definitely going to have to take a video of it so that you all can experience it too.
Not only are Malians terrible dancers, they are also terrible dressers, when it comes to wearing Western clothes that is. Their traditional outfits are beautiful, but when they try to look modern it's laughable. I think the 1980s was dumped on Mali. All of the young men wear tight jeans with random pictures and ornamentation on them, with belts with decorative belt buckles, tight shirts, and jackets that look like Member's Only Jackets. The men also pop their collars, and wear militaryish type button ups with fake medals and insiginia. The men also seem to think that a mullet type hair cut is cool here too. The top of their hair is a square cut, and the back is a little longer than the front, i.e. a black man's mullet. They look very much like 1980s Wesley Snipes or Eddie Murphy. The women aren't any better than the men because they wear these super shiny ill-fitting tight shirts over their traditional Pagnes. Fashion here is a hot mess! Oh and I forgot to mention the biggest trend amongst men now, the jelly sandal! I don't know if you will remember this, but I think sometime in the early 90s, when I was in about 3rd grade, jelly sandals were very popular amongst girls. They were plastic sandals that buckled on the side and came in all sorts of colors and usually had glitter mixed into the plastic. Well in Mali, practically ALL of the men have a pair. They're white or clear usually, but they're the same exact things that I was dying to wear as a little girl. Every time I see a 20-something year old dude in a pair of jellies with his tight pants and popped-collar Member's Only jacket I have to bite the inside of my mouth to keep from laughing. Oh Mali.
So anyway, as I said earlier, I haven't done much of anything since being here. In the mornings I wake up around 8 am, take a bucket bath, make my breakfast and then do some kind of household chore like laundry or sweeping. After that I usually read. I've read 5 books in the past 2 weeks! I should probably slow down because I'm not going to have any books left. At about noon I walk to my Djatigi's house (basically my host family) for lunch. Everyday except for the first day I have had Toh and it has been disgusting. I can't stand Toh. It's awful. The consistancy is gross and the sauce is nasty. I'm sure I've lost like 5 lbs in the past 2 weeks because I barely eat anything. After lunch I usually have a tea session somewhere; all three rounds, so this usually takes like 2 hours. After tea I take a 1-2 hour nap, and then around 5 I take a bucket bath and then cook my dinner. For dinner almost every single night I've had macaroni and cheese. Ridiculously amazing! Favorite part of the day. I first boil the macaroni over my gas camp stove then I drain out some of the water, add powdered milk and some weird margarine spread that doesn't have to be refrigerated, and then I add 3 triangles of Vache qui rit (laughing cow cheese) which also doesn't have to be refrigerated. Sooooo good. After dinner I usually go outside and hang out with my homologue's family and watch TV with them or I read inside my room. I go to bed around 9, and then I start it all over the next day. God I'm boring.
So I found out that I'm not a cat person a few days ago. Ever since I got my nomination to join the Peace Corps I knew I wanted to get a cat to keep me company no matter where I went. In fact one of the first things I asked my homologue when I came for my site visit like a month ago was if it was possible for me to get a cat in village. So pretty much as soon as I got here he told me he knew of a family with a kitten for me. I was super excited and went to see the cat the next day. It was this super cute female kitten that was white with brown patches and blue eyes. I told the family that I would come get in the next day because I had to pick up food for it first. So the next day I went to the butiki (little shack store) and bought some sardines. the cat was so cute when I picked it up, and didn't fidget or make a noise in my arms the whole walk home. That all changed as soon as I put it down inside my house. From that moment on the kitten wouldn't shut up. My homologue and I figured that it was just crying for it's mom and that it would stop in a day or two once it got habituated. But it didn't. It got habituated alright, and even became a very loving cat, it just never stopped meowing. It constantly wanted attention, and followed me wherever I went. If I even left the room for a second it would start meowing soooo loud! I know this may sound cute to you, but to me it was beyond annoying. After the third day I was already looking for a way to get rid of it. It was so annoying I didn't even bother to give it a name because I knew I had to get rid of it. I was able to pass it off to some random family in the village who was in need of a cat for mice catching or something. I bought the cat on Saturday and was rid of it on Tuesday. It's kind of embarassing that I couldn't handle that small animal, but I guess I'm a low-maintenance pet/ no pet at all person.
These past few days in village I have witnessed a lot of dancing (Ramadan just ended so there was a big party called Seli that day, and I also went to a Soiree held by the Club des Jeunes, basically a youth club, where there was a concert by the Balofone player Neba Solo). I can't handle Malian dancing. Not only does it look like people are having seizures, but it's just too much booty shaking! Senufo dancing is a little different than the dancing that I had seen when I was in Bamako. Here the women, and men too, bend over, stick their butts out and then start stomping the ground at an incredibley fast pace, kind of like they're trying to step on ants. (Mom- it looks just like their doing Kevin's Irish Jig!). The funny thing is that they think their such good dancers! I think they look awful! I guess it's just because I'm not use to it, but honestly it's ridiculous. I'm definitely going to have to take a video of it so that you all can experience it too.
Not only are Malians terrible dancers, they are also terrible dressers, when it comes to wearing Western clothes that is. Their traditional outfits are beautiful, but when they try to look modern it's laughable. I think the 1980s was dumped on Mali. All of the young men wear tight jeans with random pictures and ornamentation on them, with belts with decorative belt buckles, tight shirts, and jackets that look like Member's Only Jackets. The men also pop their collars, and wear militaryish type button ups with fake medals and insiginia. The men also seem to think that a mullet type hair cut is cool here too. The top of their hair is a square cut, and the back is a little longer than the front, i.e. a black man's mullet. They look very much like 1980s Wesley Snipes or Eddie Murphy. The women aren't any better than the men because they wear these super shiny ill-fitting tight shirts over their traditional Pagnes. Fashion here is a hot mess! Oh and I forgot to mention the biggest trend amongst men now, the jelly sandal! I don't know if you will remember this, but I think sometime in the early 90s, when I was in about 3rd grade, jelly sandals were very popular amongst girls. They were plastic sandals that buckled on the side and came in all sorts of colors and usually had glitter mixed into the plastic. Well in Mali, practically ALL of the men have a pair. They're white or clear usually, but they're the same exact things that I was dying to wear as a little girl. Every time I see a 20-something year old dude in a pair of jellies with his tight pants and popped-collar Member's Only jacket I have to bite the inside of my mouth to keep from laughing. Oh Mali.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
It's about to begin
So I have one more day left before I'm off to my village for the rest of my 2 years! I'm going to try to come into Sikasso every 2-3 weeks so that I can check my mail and do internety type things. I'm pretty excited to head to my village, but also kind of bummed because being in Sikasso these past 2 days has been really fun. I have done tons of shopping for my house as well as hung out a lot with the 2nd years who are really awesome. I have also had constant access to electricity and internet so that's going to be kind of difficult to part with.
Anyway I have a couple little stories to tell, so here we go:
Three nights ago, my last night at Tubaniso, I woke up to find myself screaming at the top of my lungs (at 1:35 am). Not just any screaming though, I'm talking horror movie, blood curtling screams. The reason for this was that I was having this terrible nightmare that there was a Malian man who had come into my room and was just standing looking at me inside my mosquito net about to kill me. In my dream I sat up and started to scream for help, and that's when I woke up because I realized I was not just screaming in the dream, but also in real life. Upon waking up I also realized that my roommate Eliza was now screaming with me too because my screams had scared her so bad that she had to scream too. Not only was Eliza screaming with me, but my other roommate Deborah was shouting out "Help us! Help us!" just because she had no idea what was going on. There were some people outside of our hut just hanging out, and they all came running to our room to see what the problem was. Through Eliza's screams and Deborah's yells I told everyone that nothing was wrong, that it was just a dream and that I was perfectly fine. Once everyone calmed down none of us were able to go back to sleep, so we left the lights on and I proceeded to watch 4 episodes of the Office. The whole situation was incredibley embarassing/hilarious.
When we got to Sikasso we did this thing called Protocol which means we were introduced to the Governor's office so that they know they have new volunteers in town. We met the assistant Governor and he was super excited to meet us all. He was also super excited for us to give him an American name since we all had Malian names. We all decided that we wanted to give him a really typical American name, but also one that we'd find hilarious. So... we named him Jose Washington! He loved it, and we couldn't stop laughing. It was great.
Anyway I have a couple little stories to tell, so here we go:
Three nights ago, my last night at Tubaniso, I woke up to find myself screaming at the top of my lungs (at 1:35 am). Not just any screaming though, I'm talking horror movie, blood curtling screams. The reason for this was that I was having this terrible nightmare that there was a Malian man who had come into my room and was just standing looking at me inside my mosquito net about to kill me. In my dream I sat up and started to scream for help, and that's when I woke up because I realized I was not just screaming in the dream, but also in real life. Upon waking up I also realized that my roommate Eliza was now screaming with me too because my screams had scared her so bad that she had to scream too. Not only was Eliza screaming with me, but my other roommate Deborah was shouting out "Help us! Help us!" just because she had no idea what was going on. There were some people outside of our hut just hanging out, and they all came running to our room to see what the problem was. Through Eliza's screams and Deborah's yells I told everyone that nothing was wrong, that it was just a dream and that I was perfectly fine. Once everyone calmed down none of us were able to go back to sleep, so we left the lights on and I proceeded to watch 4 episodes of the Office. The whole situation was incredibley embarassing/hilarious.
When we got to Sikasso we did this thing called Protocol which means we were introduced to the Governor's office so that they know they have new volunteers in town. We met the assistant Governor and he was super excited to meet us all. He was also super excited for us to give him an American name since we all had Malian names. We all decided that we wanted to give him a really typical American name, but also one that we'd find hilarious. So... we named him Jose Washington! He loved it, and we couldn't stop laughing. It was great.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Guess who's a new PCV... this guy!
I AM NO LONGER A TRAINEE, BUT A BRAND SPANKING NEW PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEER. The very, some-what excruciatingly long 2 month training period is over. Yesterday we were sworn in as PCVs at the US Embassy by the PC Mali Director and the US Ambassador. The ceremony is usually held outside, but that morning the heavens decided to dump out all of its contents onto the city of Bamako. It was seriously a torrential down pour, and the dirt roads turned into brown rivers. The worst part about it was that we were all dressed up in Malian outfits (mine was all yellow with gold embroidery) and we got soaked in them. Unfortunately for me, the cloth my outfit is made out of is incredibley see-through when wet. Thank goodness I was wearing a jacket because I was able to use it to cover up my bright blue underwear that was showing through my skirt. So I spent the entire ceremony with my jacket wrapped around my waist. Besides being miserable from being wet, the ceremony was really nice. The Ambassador gave a really touching speech, and even shed some tears! We all said an oath, and then afterwards 5 of my fellow PCVs gave thank-you speeches in the languages they had been studying (Fulfude, Bomu, Tomokan, French and Bambara). After the ceremony we all took a bajillion pictures in our outfits. We were then shuttled to the American Club where they had a big buffet for us with delicious AMERICAN FOOD (cheeseburgers, pasta salad, fruit salad, potato salad, quesadillas, and french fries). The American Club has a pool, so I spent most of my time poolside trying to fix this awful tan that I've acquired from wearing only shirts with sleeves and skirts that go past my knees. Swear-in Night is always a big party that is planned by the current volunteers for the new volunteers, so after the American Club, the current volunteers (I may also refer to them as 2nd year volunteers now that I am a volunteer too) organized it so that we would spend the night in a hotel and go out to 2 different clubs in Bamako. The hotel that we stayed at was pretty nice (air conditioning, bathroom, tv) and it was basically across the street from the first club. Both clubs were awesome!! I had soooo much fun dancing and celebrating being a new PCV (the clubs were suprisingly similar to American clubs, they even played mostly American music). After clubbing we didn't get home until almost 5 am, and my hair now reeks of old cigarettes.
Tomorrow morning begins my 3 month lockdown at my site (well technically a lockdown besides the 2 times we're allowed to go to our regional capitol, Thanksgiving, and our week long regional language session). My bus leaves tomorrow at 7 am, and from Tubaniso I have about a 6 hour ride to Sikasso where I will spend 3 days buying stuff for my house. I'm super excited to buy a bunch of new things but also kind of annoyed that I will have to move all of these new things into a house that I will only be living in for a few months as I wait for my actual house to be built. Oh well.
So I don't know if you could tell this earlier, but I'm super excited to be a volunteer and be done with training!!
Tomorrow morning begins my 3 month lockdown at my site (well technically a lockdown besides the 2 times we're allowed to go to our regional capitol, Thanksgiving, and our week long regional language session). My bus leaves tomorrow at 7 am, and from Tubaniso I have about a 6 hour ride to Sikasso where I will spend 3 days buying stuff for my house. I'm super excited to buy a bunch of new things but also kind of annoyed that I will have to move all of these new things into a house that I will only be living in for a few months as I wait for my actual house to be built. Oh well.
So I don't know if you could tell this earlier, but I'm super excited to be a volunteer and be done with training!!
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