Written May 27, 2011
I am writing this blog entry on my bed which is located in my beautiful new room in my amazing new house!! I LOVE IT HERE! Tonight is going to be my second night by myself. The first night was great. It was almost as if I had no idea what to do with all the privacy! I spent most of the day unpacking, then I read for a couple hours in my hammock, then cooked a delicious meal (Knorr Pasta Sides, Stroganoff), and then set up my Bug Hut tent to sleep outside. I was outside in my tent for a good 4 hours before my fear completely engulfed me and I had to go inside. It's unfortunate, but I have been afraid of the dark for since I can remember. In college I even slept with a night light! I'm totally cool when I have someone in the room with me, but when I'm all alone I need some kind of light source, sad I know. Back at my homologue's house I had a tiny flourescent light wired into my room that was powered by his solar panel. It was almost as if my homologue knew about my fear and prepared for it even before meeting me! Unfortunately for me I don't have enough money to buy a solar panel, and thus there will be no tiny flourescent light for my new room. To make up for this I left my head lamp on for the entire night, well until dawn when I woke up and switched off the light and then went back to sleep. I'm sure you're thinking that this is going to get ridiculous after a while, but no worries! I have rechargeable batteries and a solar charger!!
Anyway, besides my nighttime darkness issue, I'm seriously obsessed with my new house. This morning I was able to walk to the bathroom in just shorts and a sports bra! (My house is completely surrounded by a very high wall) Back at my old house I basically had to follow all the conservative clothing rules at all times, but now that no one can see me, anything goes!! Today I also spent some quality time with my garden, tilling the soil and so on. I can't wait to see what my green thumb is capable of! I was also able to do my laundry outside! This is big because for the past 9 months I had been doing my laundry in my room because I didn't want people watching me wash my clothes and then critiquing what I was doing (when it comes to manual labor Malians won't let you do the work on your own, they will either take over completely or constantly critique what you are doing and tell you that you should be doing it this way or that way). It feels so good to be able to do anything and everything without always having eyes on me!
Oh and cute story: I think my homologue and his family miss me living with them. I have barely been gone for 24 hours and they have already visited me like 20 times. My homologue keeps coming to check in on me. He's like a mother bird who's experiencing empty nest syndrome. Oh and tonight his son and Brehma (the boy that lives with them and helps out with the chores) walked all the way to my new house to bring me tea! Too cute!
Monday, May 30, 2011
Lovin' the New House!
Written May 27, 2011
I am writing this blog entry on my bed which is located in my beautiful new room in my amazing new house!! I LOVE IT HERE! Tonight is going to be my second night by myself. The first night was great. It was almost as if I had no idea what to do with all the privacy! I spent most of the day unpacking, then I read for a couple hours in my hammock, then cooked a delicious meal (Knorr Pasta Sides, Stroganoff), and then set up my Bug Hut tent to sleep outside. I was outside in my tent for a good 4 hours before my fear completely engulfed me and I had to go inside. It's unfortunate, but I have been afraid of the dark for since I can remember. In college I even slept with a night light! I'm totally cool when I have someone in the room with me, but when I'm all alone I need some kind of light source, sad I know. Back at my homologue's house I had a tiny flourescent light wired into my room that was powered by his solar panel. It was almost as if my homologue knew about my fear and prepared for it even before meeting me! Unfortunately for me I don't have enough money to buy a solar panel, and thus there will be no tiny flourescent light for my new room. To make up for this I left my head lamp on for the entire night, well until dawn when I woke up and switched off the light and then went back to sleep. I'm sure you're thinking that this is going to get ridiculous after a while, but no worries! I have rechargeable batteries and a solar charger!!
Anyway, besides my nighttime darkness issue, I'm seriously obsessed with my new house. This morning I was able to walk to the bathroom in just shorts and a sports bra! (My house is completely surrounded by a very high wall) Back at my old house I basically had to follow all the conservative clothing rules at all times, but now that no one can see me, anything goes!! Today I also spent some quality time with my garden, tilling the soil and so on. I can't wait to see what my green thumb is capable of! I was also able to do my laundry outside! This is big because for the past 9 months I had been doing my laundry in my room because I didn't want people watching me wash my clothes and then critiquing what I was doing (when it comes to manual labor Malians won't let you do the work on your own, they will either take over completely or constantly critique what you are doing and tell you that you should be doing it this way or that way). It feels so good to be able to do anything and everything without always having eyes on me!
Oh and cute story: I think my homologue and his family miss me living with them. I have barely been gone for 24 hours and they have already visited me like 20 times. My homologue keeps coming to check in on me. He's like a mother bird who's experiencing empty nest syndrome. Oh and tonight his son and Brehma (the boy that lives with them and helps out with the chores) walked all the way to my new house to bring me tea! Too cute!
I am writing this blog entry on my bed which is located in my beautiful new room in my amazing new house!! I LOVE IT HERE! Tonight is going to be my second night by myself. The first night was great. It was almost as if I had no idea what to do with all the privacy! I spent most of the day unpacking, then I read for a couple hours in my hammock, then cooked a delicious meal (Knorr Pasta Sides, Stroganoff), and then set up my Bug Hut tent to sleep outside. I was outside in my tent for a good 4 hours before my fear completely engulfed me and I had to go inside. It's unfortunate, but I have been afraid of the dark for since I can remember. In college I even slept with a night light! I'm totally cool when I have someone in the room with me, but when I'm all alone I need some kind of light source, sad I know. Back at my homologue's house I had a tiny flourescent light wired into my room that was powered by his solar panel. It was almost as if my homologue knew about my fear and prepared for it even before meeting me! Unfortunately for me I don't have enough money to buy a solar panel, and thus there will be no tiny flourescent light for my new room. To make up for this I left my head lamp on for the entire night, well until dawn when I woke up and switched off the light and then went back to sleep. I'm sure you're thinking that this is going to get ridiculous after a while, but no worries! I have rechargeable batteries and a solar charger!!
Anyway, besides my nighttime darkness issue, I'm seriously obsessed with my new house. This morning I was able to walk to the bathroom in just shorts and a sports bra! (My house is completely surrounded by a very high wall) Back at my old house I basically had to follow all the conservative clothing rules at all times, but now that no one can see me, anything goes!! Today I also spent some quality time with my garden, tilling the soil and so on. I can't wait to see what my green thumb is capable of! I was also able to do my laundry outside! This is big because for the past 9 months I had been doing my laundry in my room because I didn't want people watching me wash my clothes and then critiquing what I was doing (when it comes to manual labor Malians won't let you do the work on your own, they will either take over completely or constantly critique what you are doing and tell you that you should be doing it this way or that way). It feels so good to be able to do anything and everything without always having eyes on me!
Oh and cute story: I think my homologue and his family miss me living with them. I have barely been gone for 24 hours and they have already visited me like 20 times. My homologue keeps coming to check in on me. He's like a mother bird who's experiencing empty nest syndrome. Oh and tonight his son and Brehma (the boy that lives with them and helps out with the chores) walked all the way to my new house to bring me tea! Too cute!
Monday, May 23, 2011
I'm the proud new owner of a BRAND NEW HOUSE
Written May 19, 2011
It's mini story time again!
New House:
My windows and doors were delivered to my village today!!!! You have no idea how happy I am! It was slightly over 2 months ago that my APCD agreed to have my doors and windows paid for with Peace Corps money. It has been such a long and frustrating wait, but I'm happy to say that I am now that much closer to moving into my new house! The doors and windows are all the remains in the construction of the house, so once my homologue installs them I will be good to go! I seriously cannot wait!! I have major plans for my new house! I'm going to start a garden as well as hang up flower pots (well oatmeal tins, basically like small coffee cans) all around my gwa. Also I am going to cover my walls with glow in the dark stars as well as display my Gator Pennant, oh and maybe even paint a Gator head on my wall! The possibilities are endless! But most of all I can't wait for my PRIVACY.
Wedding Season:
Weddings, weddings, weddings! It seems like there is one every single day in village! This week alone I attended 2 weddings and heard of 3 others. There have also been quite a few civil marriages at the Mayor's office in the past few weeks (Malians have to have a civil ceremony, which is basically like getting a marriage license back home, where they swear to a bunch of stuff and have witnesses and have someone from the Mayor's office as the officiant. It's not obligatory, and many Malians can't afford to do this or often times they wait several years before they do this, but a wedding party is thrown after the bride and groom return from the Mayor's office. This, I guess, could be compared to the reception after a wedding back in America. Basically at these parties all the men sit together at one side of the family's concession and all the women sit together on the other side. Or actually the women are usually not sitting, but cooking and cleaning and getting things for the men; even the female guests are put to work! The men spend the whole party conversing, eating, and playing cards. At some point a main meal is served, usually Zame (sort of like fried rice or jollof rice), by the women, the men eat and then the women eat and then dancing starts or people (men) go back to their conversations or card games (women start to clean up). Attending weddings is something I definitely like to do here because it means lots of free food! Although weddings can also be kind of sad because arranged marriages are something quite common here, and often times a very sad bride gets paired up with an old man. One of the marriages I attended had a bride that looked like she was near tears, she could barely answer the questions asked of her at the Mayor's office. I feel really bad for these women, but to be honest, it's times like these that I'm so happy to be an American where I have free will!
Food!!:
I would have to say that Malian cuisine is definitely no where near the top of my favorite foods list, but there are a couple of dishes that are working their way up there! One of these is Moni. I'm not really sure how to describe it, but it is basically a porridge that is made with little balls of millet flour that has lait caille (kind of like yogurt) and lots of sugar mixed in. I thought Moni was disgusting the first time I had it back during PST, but now I can't stop craving it. I use to say no thanks everytime it was presented to me, but about a month ago I decided 'oh what the hell, why not give it another chance,' so I did, and it was AWESOME!!! Now I eat it every chance I get!
My other new found Malian food favorite is Cabbage! I know there is cabbage back home, but this is different. Malians came up with the brilliant idea to add cabbage to their sauces to be eaten over rice. Cabbage in Tige Dege Na (Peanut Sauce) is legit one of my favorite things to eat, and it's good for me!
All Alone:
Well this isn't really true, but it is kind of a sad time in village because several of my friends have left. My friends were Stagiers, or teachers in training, who were here to be student teachers, and their school-year long program has come to an end. The stagiers were from a bunch of different regions of Mali, so they basically all went back to their hometowns to take their final exams and become real teachers. These were the guys I would play Uno for hours with. They also were the only ones besides my homologue that I could have a legitimate conversation with because they are fluent in French. I will miss them greatly, and I hope the stagiers next year are as cool as these guys were.
Things people call me:
So I found out the other day that kids in my village have been calling me Toubaboo Nyera which means Red Toubab! I find this to be incredibly amusing and also very interesting! Back in America people of my skin tone are often called "redbones" and Native Americans who share my skin tone were also called red. It's kind of cool that I'm all the way across the world and similarities like this can be found.
I also found out that Secondary school students have developed an odd fascination with my real name, Elizabeth Coomber. They love to repeat it over and over. They also try to spell it out loud to each other to see who can get it right. I found this to be amusing at first, but then it started to really annoy me. The reason I find it so annoying is because they are so terrible at pronouncing my name. They say Eh-liz-a-bette Cum-bear. The other day I got fed up and tried to correct them, I announced that it's Coooom- bur not Cum- bear. After this one of the boys had the nerve to tell me that the English teacher told them that it's Cum-bear, implying that I must be wrong. Um no! I think I'm the authority when it comes to pronouncing my own last name kid!
It's mini story time again!
New House:
My windows and doors were delivered to my village today!!!! You have no idea how happy I am! It was slightly over 2 months ago that my APCD agreed to have my doors and windows paid for with Peace Corps money. It has been such a long and frustrating wait, but I'm happy to say that I am now that much closer to moving into my new house! The doors and windows are all the remains in the construction of the house, so once my homologue installs them I will be good to go! I seriously cannot wait!! I have major plans for my new house! I'm going to start a garden as well as hang up flower pots (well oatmeal tins, basically like small coffee cans) all around my gwa. Also I am going to cover my walls with glow in the dark stars as well as display my Gator Pennant, oh and maybe even paint a Gator head on my wall! The possibilities are endless! But most of all I can't wait for my PRIVACY.
Wedding Season:
Weddings, weddings, weddings! It seems like there is one every single day in village! This week alone I attended 2 weddings and heard of 3 others. There have also been quite a few civil marriages at the Mayor's office in the past few weeks (Malians have to have a civil ceremony, which is basically like getting a marriage license back home, where they swear to a bunch of stuff and have witnesses and have someone from the Mayor's office as the officiant. It's not obligatory, and many Malians can't afford to do this or often times they wait several years before they do this, but a wedding party is thrown after the bride and groom return from the Mayor's office. This, I guess, could be compared to the reception after a wedding back in America. Basically at these parties all the men sit together at one side of the family's concession and all the women sit together on the other side. Or actually the women are usually not sitting, but cooking and cleaning and getting things for the men; even the female guests are put to work! The men spend the whole party conversing, eating, and playing cards. At some point a main meal is served, usually Zame (sort of like fried rice or jollof rice), by the women, the men eat and then the women eat and then dancing starts or people (men) go back to their conversations or card games (women start to clean up). Attending weddings is something I definitely like to do here because it means lots of free food! Although weddings can also be kind of sad because arranged marriages are something quite common here, and often times a very sad bride gets paired up with an old man. One of the marriages I attended had a bride that looked like she was near tears, she could barely answer the questions asked of her at the Mayor's office. I feel really bad for these women, but to be honest, it's times like these that I'm so happy to be an American where I have free will!
Food!!:
I would have to say that Malian cuisine is definitely no where near the top of my favorite foods list, but there are a couple of dishes that are working their way up there! One of these is Moni. I'm not really sure how to describe it, but it is basically a porridge that is made with little balls of millet flour that has lait caille (kind of like yogurt) and lots of sugar mixed in. I thought Moni was disgusting the first time I had it back during PST, but now I can't stop craving it. I use to say no thanks everytime it was presented to me, but about a month ago I decided 'oh what the hell, why not give it another chance,' so I did, and it was AWESOME!!! Now I eat it every chance I get!
My other new found Malian food favorite is Cabbage! I know there is cabbage back home, but this is different. Malians came up with the brilliant idea to add cabbage to their sauces to be eaten over rice. Cabbage in Tige Dege Na (Peanut Sauce) is legit one of my favorite things to eat, and it's good for me!
All Alone:
Well this isn't really true, but it is kind of a sad time in village because several of my friends have left. My friends were Stagiers, or teachers in training, who were here to be student teachers, and their school-year long program has come to an end. The stagiers were from a bunch of different regions of Mali, so they basically all went back to their hometowns to take their final exams and become real teachers. These were the guys I would play Uno for hours with. They also were the only ones besides my homologue that I could have a legitimate conversation with because they are fluent in French. I will miss them greatly, and I hope the stagiers next year are as cool as these guys were.
Things people call me:
So I found out the other day that kids in my village have been calling me Toubaboo Nyera which means Red Toubab! I find this to be incredibly amusing and also very interesting! Back in America people of my skin tone are often called "redbones" and Native Americans who share my skin tone were also called red. It's kind of cool that I'm all the way across the world and similarities like this can be found.
I also found out that Secondary school students have developed an odd fascination with my real name, Elizabeth Coomber. They love to repeat it over and over. They also try to spell it out loud to each other to see who can get it right. I found this to be amusing at first, but then it started to really annoy me. The reason I find it so annoying is because they are so terrible at pronouncing my name. They say Eh-liz-a-bette Cum-bear. The other day I got fed up and tried to correct them, I announced that it's Coooom- bur not Cum- bear. After this one of the boys had the nerve to tell me that the English teacher told them that it's Cum-bear, implying that I must be wrong. Um no! I think I'm the authority when it comes to pronouncing my own last name kid!
Friday, May 13, 2011
Osama
Written May 5, 2011
I was in the middle of teaching my Adult English class when one of my students asked me if I was going to have a party. I had no clue what he was talking about so I asked him 'What for?' He replied to this by laughing and then saying "Osama is dead. All the Americans are happy!!" I was taken aback by this and had no idea how to respond so I just gave a small smile, looked down, and then continued with the lesson. Three days earlier I received a text message from Peace Corps saying that Osama Bin Laden had been killed by the US Military and that we should be aware of the public reaction and for us to keep a low profile. When I got this message I had been in mid-conversation walking through a market in Segou with Melissa and she actually told me to shut up and look at my phone because she had looked at the message before I was able to. We both stopped in our tracks completely shocked. I couldn't believe that the day had finally come, 10 years! this man had been hiding and evading capture all the while still being the venerated leader of a terrorist group that has caused so much pain in the world, and on top of all of that I am receiving this news in Muslim West Africa! As Melissa and I continued to walk my emotion of shock jumped to fear. There are quite a few people in this country who held Bin Laden in very high esteem, as well as a group in the north of Mali who call themselves Al Queda. You could go to almost any market and find Bin Laden stickers to plaster on to your moto. I was very worried that I would be singled out as an American and forced to pay for the death of Osama. Unfortunately for me I was in Segou and had to make my way back to Sikasso that day (a 6 hour bus ride). I didn't know how I would be able to keep a low profile with a whole day of travelling ahead of me. Before heading to the bus station I got my fill of the news from the internet and figured that I should be okay because most Malians don't have access to the same kind of quick info as I do. I was banking on the fact that the news of Osama's death wouldn't hit Mali until several hours after I found out. I was so wrong. I got to the bus station and news of Bin Laden's death was plastered ALL OVER the TV and the Radio! It wasn't just news that he was dead either, they had to throw in the fact that he was dead at the hands of Americans and the Americans everywhere were celebrating. Here I was trying to keep a low profile, and the TV and Radio were making it all the more hard for me. Before heading to the bus station I made the decision to not speak English for the rest of the day, and to basically hide my American-ness. I was so worried that someone would ask me where I was from, as often is the case when I am travelling and someone sits down next to me, but lucky for me no one did. I got away with using only French and Bambara and no one trying to speak to me in English. The only remote give-away I encountered was when I had finally reached Sikasso and I was walking to the Stage House and a little boy shouted out "Toubaboo!" ( what Malians call the French, but what also basically means white person or foreigner) at me. Normally I would yell back "Toubaboo te! Americaine!" (Not a French person, an American!), but this time I just kept on walking and ignored the kid. Once I reached the Stage House all my worries left me and I felt safe again. As surprising as it sounds I pretty much had forgotten about Osama's death until it was brought up in my class; I guess this is proof that life goes on.
In order to stick to Peace Corps' recommendation of keeping a low profile, I had decided that I would speak to no one about Bin Laden's death, just like I choose to not ever bring up politics. It's just easier and less messy when topics like this aren't brought up. However, after Osama was mentioned in class, my homologue kept dancing around the topic. While we were walking home after class, my homologue turned to me and said "That Osama was very good at hiding!" and I just thought 'Oh what the hell' and said "yea, for 10 years!" My homologue seemed shocked by this and I could tell he probably didn't have much knowledge on the subject. I asked him if he knew why Americans were so angry at Osama and why they are happy he is dead and he said that he didn't know the story of Osama. In explaining I tried to keep it as unbiased as possible and said that there is a very grave date in American History, September 11, 2001. I said that on that day Osama had planes fly into two sky skrapers and this killed thousands of people (had to keep my explanation very simple because my French skills aren't all that advanced!). I told him that the war with the Arab states was started after this event. He then asked me if Osama was a Muslim. This is where I had to tread very lightly because my homologue is a devout Christian whom I expect would jump on any opportunity to say that Islam is bad and Christianity is better. I told him that yes, Bin Laden was Muslim, but that he was a bad man, but that that doesn't mean that Islam is a bad religion. He seemed to get what I was saying, and I figured that was as far as I should go into the topic. As of now I haven't heard of any backlash against Americans here in Mali, so here's to hoping it stays that way!
I was in the middle of teaching my Adult English class when one of my students asked me if I was going to have a party. I had no clue what he was talking about so I asked him 'What for?' He replied to this by laughing and then saying "Osama is dead. All the Americans are happy!!" I was taken aback by this and had no idea how to respond so I just gave a small smile, looked down, and then continued with the lesson. Three days earlier I received a text message from Peace Corps saying that Osama Bin Laden had been killed by the US Military and that we should be aware of the public reaction and for us to keep a low profile. When I got this message I had been in mid-conversation walking through a market in Segou with Melissa and she actually told me to shut up and look at my phone because she had looked at the message before I was able to. We both stopped in our tracks completely shocked. I couldn't believe that the day had finally come, 10 years! this man had been hiding and evading capture all the while still being the venerated leader of a terrorist group that has caused so much pain in the world, and on top of all of that I am receiving this news in Muslim West Africa! As Melissa and I continued to walk my emotion of shock jumped to fear. There are quite a few people in this country who held Bin Laden in very high esteem, as well as a group in the north of Mali who call themselves Al Queda. You could go to almost any market and find Bin Laden stickers to plaster on to your moto. I was very worried that I would be singled out as an American and forced to pay for the death of Osama. Unfortunately for me I was in Segou and had to make my way back to Sikasso that day (a 6 hour bus ride). I didn't know how I would be able to keep a low profile with a whole day of travelling ahead of me. Before heading to the bus station I got my fill of the news from the internet and figured that I should be okay because most Malians don't have access to the same kind of quick info as I do. I was banking on the fact that the news of Osama's death wouldn't hit Mali until several hours after I found out. I was so wrong. I got to the bus station and news of Bin Laden's death was plastered ALL OVER the TV and the Radio! It wasn't just news that he was dead either, they had to throw in the fact that he was dead at the hands of Americans and the Americans everywhere were celebrating. Here I was trying to keep a low profile, and the TV and Radio were making it all the more hard for me. Before heading to the bus station I made the decision to not speak English for the rest of the day, and to basically hide my American-ness. I was so worried that someone would ask me where I was from, as often is the case when I am travelling and someone sits down next to me, but lucky for me no one did. I got away with using only French and Bambara and no one trying to speak to me in English. The only remote give-away I encountered was when I had finally reached Sikasso and I was walking to the Stage House and a little boy shouted out "Toubaboo!" ( what Malians call the French, but what also basically means white person or foreigner) at me. Normally I would yell back "Toubaboo te! Americaine!" (Not a French person, an American!), but this time I just kept on walking and ignored the kid. Once I reached the Stage House all my worries left me and I felt safe again. As surprising as it sounds I pretty much had forgotten about Osama's death until it was brought up in my class; I guess this is proof that life goes on.
In order to stick to Peace Corps' recommendation of keeping a low profile, I had decided that I would speak to no one about Bin Laden's death, just like I choose to not ever bring up politics. It's just easier and less messy when topics like this aren't brought up. However, after Osama was mentioned in class, my homologue kept dancing around the topic. While we were walking home after class, my homologue turned to me and said "That Osama was very good at hiding!" and I just thought 'Oh what the hell' and said "yea, for 10 years!" My homologue seemed shocked by this and I could tell he probably didn't have much knowledge on the subject. I asked him if he knew why Americans were so angry at Osama and why they are happy he is dead and he said that he didn't know the story of Osama. In explaining I tried to keep it as unbiased as possible and said that there is a very grave date in American History, September 11, 2001. I said that on that day Osama had planes fly into two sky skrapers and this killed thousands of people (had to keep my explanation very simple because my French skills aren't all that advanced!). I told him that the war with the Arab states was started after this event. He then asked me if Osama was a Muslim. This is where I had to tread very lightly because my homologue is a devout Christian whom I expect would jump on any opportunity to say that Islam is bad and Christianity is better. I told him that yes, Bin Laden was Muslim, but that he was a bad man, but that that doesn't mean that Islam is a bad religion. He seemed to get what I was saying, and I figured that was as far as I should go into the topic. As of now I haven't heard of any backlash against Americans here in Mali, so here's to hoping it stays that way!
Monday, May 2, 2011
Easter
Written April 24, 2011
Today is Easter and I got to eat pork!!! This is huge because since Mali is a predominantly Muslim country (people who practice Islam are not allowed to eat pork), very few people eat pork here. Christians are really the only ones who eat pork, and they really only do it on big holidays. My homologue is one of the few Catholics in my village, so he along with 6 other people bought a pig for the Easter feast. God it was good!! I miss pork so much. I miss bacon. I miss pork chops. I miss pork tenderloin. I miss hot dogs... You get the idea. Anyway I basically shoved my face full of pork today. I ate and ate until my stomach hurt. I figured I should probably eat a ton because it could be another year before I get pork again! Besides our yummy pork feast, we attended a short Mass in the Village's tiny Catholic Church with my homologue as the Celebrant. My homologue is not an ordained priest, so we didn't get to have Communion. The church service was held in Senufo, so i just zoned out the whole time but also tried to pay attention to when people got up to stand and when they went to sit back down. At one point during the service, I guess I zoned out too far, I hadn't noticed that I was the only one standing and my homologue, mid-sermon and from behind the alter, says aloud "Gnire, you can sit down now." It was pretty embarrassing, but oh well. After the service was over, we all walked back home and sat under a big tree to drink tea. My homologue asked me to bring out my Uno cards so that we could play Uno with his friends. We ended up playing Uno for the rest of the day, and I mean all day; we started playing at 10:30 am and continued to play until I left to go take my bucket bath at 6:10pm! They are seriously obsessed with Uno here! Overall it was a pretty nice holiday. I wish I could've been home where I could've participated in the egg hunt and received a well stocked Easter basket, but since I couldn't be there, this was a nice replacement
Today is Easter and I got to eat pork!!! This is huge because since Mali is a predominantly Muslim country (people who practice Islam are not allowed to eat pork), very few people eat pork here. Christians are really the only ones who eat pork, and they really only do it on big holidays. My homologue is one of the few Catholics in my village, so he along with 6 other people bought a pig for the Easter feast. God it was good!! I miss pork so much. I miss bacon. I miss pork chops. I miss pork tenderloin. I miss hot dogs... You get the idea. Anyway I basically shoved my face full of pork today. I ate and ate until my stomach hurt. I figured I should probably eat a ton because it could be another year before I get pork again! Besides our yummy pork feast, we attended a short Mass in the Village's tiny Catholic Church with my homologue as the Celebrant. My homologue is not an ordained priest, so we didn't get to have Communion. The church service was held in Senufo, so i just zoned out the whole time but also tried to pay attention to when people got up to stand and when they went to sit back down. At one point during the service, I guess I zoned out too far, I hadn't noticed that I was the only one standing and my homologue, mid-sermon and from behind the alter, says aloud "Gnire, you can sit down now." It was pretty embarrassing, but oh well. After the service was over, we all walked back home and sat under a big tree to drink tea. My homologue asked me to bring out my Uno cards so that we could play Uno with his friends. We ended up playing Uno for the rest of the day, and I mean all day; we started playing at 10:30 am and continued to play until I left to go take my bucket bath at 6:10pm! They are seriously obsessed with Uno here! Overall it was a pretty nice holiday. I wish I could've been home where I could've participated in the egg hunt and received a well stocked Easter basket, but since I couldn't be there, this was a nice replacement
ATT
Written April 19, 2011
I've been in village now for almost a week since I got back from Bamako where I attended the New Stage's Swearing In Ceremony. This bunch of new kids, I think there are 60-something of them, has been lucky from the beginning. Their Staging was held in Washington DC where they got to meet Aaron Williams, the Director of the Peace Corps, and their Swearing In Ceremony was held at the President of Mali's house with the President himself giving one of the speeches! I am supremely jealous of the new kids and all of their luck! Anyway... the ceremony itself was awesome! The President's mansion, called Kouluba (big hill in Bambara), is this huge compound on the top of the big hill in the middle of Bamako. Kouluba is the prettiest place in Bamako for sure! The ceremony was held in the banquet hall and after the ceremony the were refreshments served at the front of the palace. Amadou Toumani Toure (ATT), the President of Mali, is surprisingly nice! In his speech he made several jokes and talked about how much he appreciates the Peace Corps. After the ceremony and on his way to the refreshments table, ATT shook my hand and asked me "Ca va?"!! It was great! I think I probably said 'ca va' back, but who knows! I got to meet the President!! A few minutes later everyone and their mother was trying to get a picture with ATT. This all started after one of my best friends here, Melissa, was brave enough to be the first to ask his Excellency for a picture! Because I get really nervous around famous people (the reason I was never able to get an autograph from Tim Tebow even though I saw him almost everyday on the University of Florida campus!), I decided to stay away from the crowd. I reallllllyyyy wanted a picture with ATT, especially after Melissa was able to do it, but I couldn't bring myself out of my state of nervousness long enough to ask for one. Lucky for me ATT asked me for one instead! Well sort of... Amadou Toumani Toure, the President of Mali, saw me standing near him and waved me over to come and get in a picture with him and some other people! How many of you can say a President waved them into a picture??
So that's probably the most exciting thing that has happened to me in Mali and probably the most exciting thing that will ever happen to me while I'm here. Besides that my life has been slow and uneventful, as usual. One thing that has severely disappointed me is that my house is still not done yet. It is completely built and pretty much ready to be used, except that it has no doors and windows. Because Peace Corps promised to pay for and deliver the doors and windows, there is nothing my homologue or I can do except for wait. To pass the time my homologue dug out and bordered a garden plot for me within my enclosed yard and he also put up my hammock. For the past couple of days I have been going to my new house in the afternoons to hangout by myself. I figure that since my house is basically done, why shouldn't I make use of it? It is super breezy and shaded over there, so I really enjoy laying in my hammock with a good book for a couple hours. Someone else has noticed how comfortable it is at my new house and has decided to hangout there in the afternoons as well, a big fat pig! I find this stupid pig right under my hammock every time I enter my yard! Luckily it listens to me when I yell GET OUT! because I have no desire to spend the afternoons with him. My homologue tells me we will be eating him for Easter, so I guess I will only be having this unwanted house guest for a short while longer...
Today was a nice day because after hanging out with my homologue and some of his friends, my homologue and I explored the hill behind my new house. This is going to sound dumb, but I had no idea that there was even a hill there! My excuse is that it is sort of hidden by tall trees, but I guess I never really looked close enough. Anyway it is basically awesome up there. You can see all of my village and all of the fields, hills and plateaus past it. This hill behind my new house is actually a plateau as well. As we climbed up, my homologue pointed out all of these different fruits I had never seen before in my life. Most of them tasted gross, but it was really cool to discover new things! The top of the plateau was really cool looking. There were all of these boulders everywhere, and it was fairly barren which was a cool contrast to all of the trees and shrubs that populate the sides of the plateau. The landscape of my village is so diverse and beautiful, I really love it here and can't wait to go exploring some more!
I've been in village now for almost a week since I got back from Bamako where I attended the New Stage's Swearing In Ceremony. This bunch of new kids, I think there are 60-something of them, has been lucky from the beginning. Their Staging was held in Washington DC where they got to meet Aaron Williams, the Director of the Peace Corps, and their Swearing In Ceremony was held at the President of Mali's house with the President himself giving one of the speeches! I am supremely jealous of the new kids and all of their luck! Anyway... the ceremony itself was awesome! The President's mansion, called Kouluba (big hill in Bambara), is this huge compound on the top of the big hill in the middle of Bamako. Kouluba is the prettiest place in Bamako for sure! The ceremony was held in the banquet hall and after the ceremony the were refreshments served at the front of the palace. Amadou Toumani Toure (ATT), the President of Mali, is surprisingly nice! In his speech he made several jokes and talked about how much he appreciates the Peace Corps. After the ceremony and on his way to the refreshments table, ATT shook my hand and asked me "Ca va?"!! It was great! I think I probably said 'ca va' back, but who knows! I got to meet the President!! A few minutes later everyone and their mother was trying to get a picture with ATT. This all started after one of my best friends here, Melissa, was brave enough to be the first to ask his Excellency for a picture! Because I get really nervous around famous people (the reason I was never able to get an autograph from Tim Tebow even though I saw him almost everyday on the University of Florida campus!), I decided to stay away from the crowd. I reallllllyyyy wanted a picture with ATT, especially after Melissa was able to do it, but I couldn't bring myself out of my state of nervousness long enough to ask for one. Lucky for me ATT asked me for one instead! Well sort of... Amadou Toumani Toure, the President of Mali, saw me standing near him and waved me over to come and get in a picture with him and some other people! How many of you can say a President waved them into a picture??
So that's probably the most exciting thing that has happened to me in Mali and probably the most exciting thing that will ever happen to me while I'm here. Besides that my life has been slow and uneventful, as usual. One thing that has severely disappointed me is that my house is still not done yet. It is completely built and pretty much ready to be used, except that it has no doors and windows. Because Peace Corps promised to pay for and deliver the doors and windows, there is nothing my homologue or I can do except for wait. To pass the time my homologue dug out and bordered a garden plot for me within my enclosed yard and he also put up my hammock. For the past couple of days I have been going to my new house in the afternoons to hangout by myself. I figure that since my house is basically done, why shouldn't I make use of it? It is super breezy and shaded over there, so I really enjoy laying in my hammock with a good book for a couple hours. Someone else has noticed how comfortable it is at my new house and has decided to hangout there in the afternoons as well, a big fat pig! I find this stupid pig right under my hammock every time I enter my yard! Luckily it listens to me when I yell GET OUT! because I have no desire to spend the afternoons with him. My homologue tells me we will be eating him for Easter, so I guess I will only be having this unwanted house guest for a short while longer...
Today was a nice day because after hanging out with my homologue and some of his friends, my homologue and I explored the hill behind my new house. This is going to sound dumb, but I had no idea that there was even a hill there! My excuse is that it is sort of hidden by tall trees, but I guess I never really looked close enough. Anyway it is basically awesome up there. You can see all of my village and all of the fields, hills and plateaus past it. This hill behind my new house is actually a plateau as well. As we climbed up, my homologue pointed out all of these different fruits I had never seen before in my life. Most of them tasted gross, but it was really cool to discover new things! The top of the plateau was really cool looking. There were all of these boulders everywhere, and it was fairly barren which was a cool contrast to all of the trees and shrubs that populate the sides of the plateau. The landscape of my village is so diverse and beautiful, I really love it here and can't wait to go exploring some more!
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