Written July 27, 2011
So I'm 23 now... This was my second birthday in country (July 18th) and I have to say it wasn't too bad. I did happen to be quite sick but overall it was a better birthday than last year where I spent the day getting my hair done all alone with none of my friends to celebrate with me. Three days before my birthday (the 15th) I woke up feeling like I was going to throw up. All I wanted to do was stay in bed, but I had to go to Sikasso that day because we were having a Site Visit party for the PCTs (Peace Corps Trainees) new to the Sikasso Region. I didn't actually throw up until halfway into my 8k bike ride out of village, and then from then on I pretty much couldn't stop throwing up. I never really stopped biking either, I just kept pedalling and whenever I felt a heave coming on I just stuck my head over my arm and let it all out. It was probably my most miserable bike ride ever. I managed to hold off throwing up again until after the bus ride to Sikasso where about 30 minutes after arriving I threw up all the water I had just tried to drink. From that point on I threw up on average about once an hour. The really unfortunate thing was that we were having a Mexican food night complete with guacamole, mango salsa, taco meat and velveeta for the new kids. The thought of missing out on that was completely unacceptable to me so of course I forced myself to eat a giant burrito. I'm sure you can guess what happened abouit 2 minutes after I shoved the last bite in my mouth... I stayed sick for the next 4 days (the 16th, the 17th, my birthday, and the 19th) but as those days passed I got progressively better- On my birthday I only threw up twice! Besides my sickness my birthday was actually really fun. Several of my friends in country left their sites to come down to Sikasso to celebrate with me. On the night of the 17th we made loaded nachos (salsa, guac, spicy cheese sauce, and taco meat) and then went out to a bar that had a dance floor. We danced and danced to an awesome playlist that myfriend had previously made and that the DJ let us play for most of the night. At midnight I kept hearing this little jingle go off and I thought it was someone else's phone because it wasn't my ringtone, but then it turned out that the sound was coming from my bag. I took my phone out and then noticed that it was a set notification that was making my phone sound. The message, "Happy BIrthday to me!", literally made me laugh out loud because I have no memory of ever entering that in my phone. Overall it was a great night and I especially enjoyed singing "Go girl it's your birthday!" along with Trey Songz to his song "Say Ahh." The next morning we woke up early to get ready to go to the Woroni Waterfalls. After a quick vom in the bathroom I was ready to go. Before heading to the falls we picked up schwarmas for lunch and then began the long drive (2 hours) to Woroni. I had yet to go to the waterfalls, so when I finally saw them I found them to be quite breathtaking, seriously one of the coolest things I've ever seen. After fully taking in the falls we all took out pagnes to spread out on the ground to take naps (we were all still very tired from the night before). I got about 2 hours of sleep in waterside before it started to rain. We had planned on staying at the falls all day, but the weather cut this trip quite short. Suprisingly we were all okay with this and were all ready to leave. We all just wanted to crash on a comfy matress. Once we returned to Sikasso and once we all took even longer naps, we cooked pancakes, bacon and eggs for dinner ( Thanks to my mom for sending all the essential items of this dinner!) and then red velvet cake for dessert!! It was DELICIOUS!! All in all this was a pretty decent birthday.
As for village life things have been going pretty well lately. My homologue and I are making progress on the library plans (we just completed our 2nd try at coming up with an acceptable and affordable building plan) as well as on my garden (we've planted mint, cilantro, basil, okra, tomatoes and bell peppers). When it comes to my homologue I feel genuinely blessed to have gotten him selected to help me in my village. My homologue is always willing and ready to do anything I need him to do, and he usually goes above and beyond my expectations. He is incredibley motivated to improve his village and to learn just about anything. He also has the most infectious laugh ( I call it a cartoon laugh because it seriously sounds fake and something that could only come from an animated animal).Besides his laugh, the thing I like best about my homologue are his story telling skills. He always has some story to tell me, whether it be about his childhood or something that happened in the fields, and it always comes complete with sound effects and hand gestures! There is almost never a story telling moment where he doesn't have me cracking up and where he isn't laughing himself! My homologue is a key factor in my enjoying my time in village.
Here are two random mini-stories:
1.The other day I went to see an English teacher who is back in my village for vacation and who has offered to tutor some of the 7th graders. I sat in on his tutoring session where he asked me to look over all of his writing and then proceeded to have one of the longest conversations I've ever had with a non-Peace Corps staff Malian. One of the things he told me was that he wants to practice his English with me so I told him that he can come over to my house any time to chat and to that he gave me a confused look and then explained that he had been warned to never go to my house. He told me that people in my village had told him that no one is to go to my house because an American lives there and they don't like when people bother them. I was shocked to hear this! I honestly have no idea where he heard this. I made sure to ask around and find out if other people had heard the same warning. No one confirmed what the English teacher said, so my homologue and I figure that he must've just imagined the whole thing out of some misconception he has about white people (he kept calling me white regardless of how many times I pointed to my skin to prove I'm not white).
2. Today has been a day of gifts. This morning my homologue and his son came over with a chicken for me. He said that his mother had given it to him to give to me. I was pretty confused by this because normally chickens are given to newcomers and strangers to the village, and since I've lived here for an entire year, I have no idea why I was presented with this gift. I didn't however question it and had no problem graciously accepting this large source of protein! My next gift of the day was money to go buy a soda in market from the Mayor. Again this was another unprecedented gift that I had no problem accepting. My final gift of the day was one of my few female friends in village asked me to go with her to the photo studio to have a picture taken with her baby. She originally wanted just me and her son in the picture, but then I convinced her and her older daughter to sit next to me and the baby. She is going to have a copy of this picture printed out for me. People really are incredible nice in my village and I feel so grateful that I am able to live with these people during my time in Mali.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Friday, July 15, 2011
Cabo Verde!
Written July 10, 2011
Whoa! It has basically been forever since I last wrote a blog post... sorry. So I'm gonna use this post to catch you guys up on everything that has happened over the past month and a half.
World Map:
Before leaving for my vacation I wanted to do something for my village that I knew they would really appreciate, and to be quite honest, something that would be so visible to them that they wouldn't forget me while I was gone. So I decided to paint a 2 meter by 4 meter world map at the primary school. Helen and Chelsea, the two closest volunteers to my site, came to help me paint my map. It took us about 3 days to complete the map. It was pretty miserable standing outside for at least 10 hours everyday gridding, then drawing and then finally painting. I'm so happy we finished and I'm very glad we did it, but I honestly never want to do another world map again!
Vacation:
So I've actually been away from site for quite some time. On June 8th Melissa, Meredith and I flew to Cape Verde by way of Dakar. We spent two days in Dakar awaiting our flight to Praia, CV. While in Dakar we ate tons of Nice Cream (Dakar's delicious Ice Cream Parlor), did tons of shopping and even got to jump on the oceanside trampolines! Meredith called jumping on the trampolines the most fun 15 minutes she's had in Africa! On our flight to Praia we decided that we were going to make the most of our super expensive tickets by asking for as much food as we could possibly get. I think I ate 3 sandwiches and who knows how many little cakes. Melissa's family is from Cape Verde and she still has several family members living there, so they are the ones who met us at the airport and opened their house to us. We spent about 7 days on the island of Santiago dividing our time between Melissa's family and Peace Corps Cape Verde volunteers that we had met back in February at WAIST. The CV Volunteers basically showed us all over the island. They first took us to Tarrafal which is this gorgeous cove on the north side of the island. We had to drive up and down the mountains to get there, and I was scared out of my mind the entire time (I have a slight fear of heights...). Tarrafal has some of the clearest water I've ever seen, and it seemed so secluded. It would definitely be an ideal place to live! The CV volunteers next took us to Cidade Veija (I can't spell in Portugese, so I'm pretty sure that is misspelled but it means Old City). It was so quaint there because it is a World Heritage Site, so it looks just like a little colorful town out of the 1800s. This was the original city on Santiago and was a major slave trading post. The final place we were shown was the black sand beach on Santiago. This was probably one of the coolest things I'd ever seen in my life. The sand was so black that it looked like mud, but it felt just like white sand! The waves at this beach were also perfect for body surfing. Meredith, Melissa and I had so much fun catching waves. Although the absolute most fun that I had in Cape Verde was at a Rave on the Beach. A company called I Love House Music (I think...) set up this huge tent on the beach with wood floor boards. The music was so loud and pumping that you could feel it move through your body! The best part about it though was that since the floor boards were made of wood they would bounce with everyone dancing on them and it made this kind of clapping sound (kind of like Riverdance!). I was having so much fun that I couldn't stop laughing and I even yelled out "This is the most fun I've ever had in my life!!!" to Meredith. Cape Verde is one of the best vacations I've ever taken in my life and I am so greatful to Melissa's family and the Peace Corps Cape Verde Volunteers for showing us a good time and letting us stay at their houses.
One Year Anniversary:
I've officially been in Mali for an entire year!! It feels so crazy to be able to say that! It seriously feels like I've only been here for about 3 months or so. Before coming to Mali I was told by Returned volunteers that your first year will feel like forever and then your second year will speed by. If this is the case I guess my second year is going to feel like just one month!
4th of July:
This year we spent 4th of July in Manantali, the same place I spent Christmas and probably my favorite little corner of Mali. Meredith and I got to Manantali about a week before the rush of people coming for the 4th and we were all by ourselves at the Manantali transit house. It was incredibly relaxing. We spent our days down by the river and our nights marathoning TV shows (Freaks and Geeks for me and True Blood for Meredith). Once everyone else arrived for the 4th, some 40 volunteers, we spent all of our time hanging out and spending a ton of time at the river. Some volunteers had fireworks to set off and we even had a "hoodrat" game tournament. We played horseshoes, hill billy golf, beer pong ( I didn't play this one, not a big fan of this game) and we even had a 3 legged race as well as a baloon toss. The 4th was really great, and kind of worked as a detox from my vacation to get me prepared to head back to site after having been away for so long.
Back to Site:
I'm surprisingly content being back at site, I say this because I honestly wasn't looking forward to coming back and being all alone (alone in the sense that I'm the only American in my village and that I basically go days without speaking English). I guess I had forgotten how tranquil it is at site and how much I cherished this. I got back to site in the evening, ate dinner and then basically passed out for 12 hours straight! I think my body was very happy to no longer be on the move. 2 new additions came back with me to site which could potentially be life changers for me: a camping egg crate and a shortwave radio. The egg crate is a life changer because this means that I will have a way to bring eggs back to my site which means a huge addition to the protein in my diet. Tonight I even had the best egg sandwich I've ever tasted (2 eggs scrambled with bell pepper, onion, basil, maggi, and salt on bread with mayo and ketchup... insanely good!) thanks to my egg crate! The radio is a life changer because now I actually will know what is going on in the world, whereas before I only got to know the news of the world when I would go into Sikasso and when I would maybe go to Cnn.com. Now I can listen to the BBC all day everyday! I already feel more informed and worldly after just one day!
Whoa! It has basically been forever since I last wrote a blog post... sorry. So I'm gonna use this post to catch you guys up on everything that has happened over the past month and a half.
World Map:
Before leaving for my vacation I wanted to do something for my village that I knew they would really appreciate, and to be quite honest, something that would be so visible to them that they wouldn't forget me while I was gone. So I decided to paint a 2 meter by 4 meter world map at the primary school. Helen and Chelsea, the two closest volunteers to my site, came to help me paint my map. It took us about 3 days to complete the map. It was pretty miserable standing outside for at least 10 hours everyday gridding, then drawing and then finally painting. I'm so happy we finished and I'm very glad we did it, but I honestly never want to do another world map again!
Vacation:
So I've actually been away from site for quite some time. On June 8th Melissa, Meredith and I flew to Cape Verde by way of Dakar. We spent two days in Dakar awaiting our flight to Praia, CV. While in Dakar we ate tons of Nice Cream (Dakar's delicious Ice Cream Parlor), did tons of shopping and even got to jump on the oceanside trampolines! Meredith called jumping on the trampolines the most fun 15 minutes she's had in Africa! On our flight to Praia we decided that we were going to make the most of our super expensive tickets by asking for as much food as we could possibly get. I think I ate 3 sandwiches and who knows how many little cakes. Melissa's family is from Cape Verde and she still has several family members living there, so they are the ones who met us at the airport and opened their house to us. We spent about 7 days on the island of Santiago dividing our time between Melissa's family and Peace Corps Cape Verde volunteers that we had met back in February at WAIST. The CV Volunteers basically showed us all over the island. They first took us to Tarrafal which is this gorgeous cove on the north side of the island. We had to drive up and down the mountains to get there, and I was scared out of my mind the entire time (I have a slight fear of heights...). Tarrafal has some of the clearest water I've ever seen, and it seemed so secluded. It would definitely be an ideal place to live! The CV volunteers next took us to Cidade Veija (I can't spell in Portugese, so I'm pretty sure that is misspelled but it means Old City). It was so quaint there because it is a World Heritage Site, so it looks just like a little colorful town out of the 1800s. This was the original city on Santiago and was a major slave trading post. The final place we were shown was the black sand beach on Santiago. This was probably one of the coolest things I'd ever seen in my life. The sand was so black that it looked like mud, but it felt just like white sand! The waves at this beach were also perfect for body surfing. Meredith, Melissa and I had so much fun catching waves. Although the absolute most fun that I had in Cape Verde was at a Rave on the Beach. A company called I Love House Music (I think...) set up this huge tent on the beach with wood floor boards. The music was so loud and pumping that you could feel it move through your body! The best part about it though was that since the floor boards were made of wood they would bounce with everyone dancing on them and it made this kind of clapping sound (kind of like Riverdance!). I was having so much fun that I couldn't stop laughing and I even yelled out "This is the most fun I've ever had in my life!!!" to Meredith. Cape Verde is one of the best vacations I've ever taken in my life and I am so greatful to Melissa's family and the Peace Corps Cape Verde Volunteers for showing us a good time and letting us stay at their houses.
One Year Anniversary:
I've officially been in Mali for an entire year!! It feels so crazy to be able to say that! It seriously feels like I've only been here for about 3 months or so. Before coming to Mali I was told by Returned volunteers that your first year will feel like forever and then your second year will speed by. If this is the case I guess my second year is going to feel like just one month!
4th of July:
This year we spent 4th of July in Manantali, the same place I spent Christmas and probably my favorite little corner of Mali. Meredith and I got to Manantali about a week before the rush of people coming for the 4th and we were all by ourselves at the Manantali transit house. It was incredibly relaxing. We spent our days down by the river and our nights marathoning TV shows (Freaks and Geeks for me and True Blood for Meredith). Once everyone else arrived for the 4th, some 40 volunteers, we spent all of our time hanging out and spending a ton of time at the river. Some volunteers had fireworks to set off and we even had a "hoodrat" game tournament. We played horseshoes, hill billy golf, beer pong ( I didn't play this one, not a big fan of this game) and we even had a 3 legged race as well as a baloon toss. The 4th was really great, and kind of worked as a detox from my vacation to get me prepared to head back to site after having been away for so long.
Back to Site:
I'm surprisingly content being back at site, I say this because I honestly wasn't looking forward to coming back and being all alone (alone in the sense that I'm the only American in my village and that I basically go days without speaking English). I guess I had forgotten how tranquil it is at site and how much I cherished this. I got back to site in the evening, ate dinner and then basically passed out for 12 hours straight! I think my body was very happy to no longer be on the move. 2 new additions came back with me to site which could potentially be life changers for me: a camping egg crate and a shortwave radio. The egg crate is a life changer because this means that I will have a way to bring eggs back to my site which means a huge addition to the protein in my diet. Tonight I even had the best egg sandwich I've ever tasted (2 eggs scrambled with bell pepper, onion, basil, maggi, and salt on bread with mayo and ketchup... insanely good!) thanks to my egg crate! The radio is a life changer because now I actually will know what is going on in the world, whereas before I only got to know the news of the world when I would go into Sikasso and when I would maybe go to Cnn.com. Now I can listen to the BBC all day everyday! I already feel more informed and worldly after just one day!
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