The End

So this post was supposed to be about Segou Music Festival (which was awesome!) and about my impromptu vacation to Spain (I decided 3 weeks beforehand that I would just go to Spain for awhile so I could eat pork and cheese and go to a beach- all the things I missed. Madrid and Valencia were really nice and I loved seeing my friend from college, Crystal.)... but it's not. Instead it is about the end of my Peace Corps journey.

The second day that I was in Madrid, Crystal and I were at the high school where she is an English teaching assitant in the teacher's lounge when one of the English teachers said "Did you hear about what's happening in Mali?" And I told her "Yea you mean the marches and the gunshots heard in Kati?" To which she replied "No, there was a coup d'etat. The President was attacked and the military is now in control." This was schocking information to me, and to be honest I didn't believe her. What would a Spanish woman know about Francophone country in Africa hundreds of miles away??? Crystal allowed me to check my Facebook and email on her iPhone, and that's when I found out that the teacher was right. There in fact had been a Coup d'Etat in Mali. The jist of what actually happened is that a man named Capt. Sanogo and a group of low ranking Army officers were tired of the way Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure, ATT, was handling the Tuareg Rebellion in the north of Mali (Tuaregs are fighting for an independent state in the north that they call Azwad). So to do something about this they ransacked the Presidential Palace in Bamako, declared that ATT was no longer in power and suspended the Constitution. Because of this ATT went into hiding, many ministers of government were arrested, a curfew was put in place, gunshots were heard all over Bamako, cars were stolen, the Senou International Airport was closed, land borders were closed and looting of houses and administrative buildings occurred.

Peace Corps Mali was immediately put on Standfast, where volunteers are to stay where they are and wait for further updates, and then put on Consolidation, where volunteers have to all meet up at the different emergency consolidation points all over the country. My volunteer friends were on consolidation for 8 days when the situation in Mali started to look better. There were no more gunshots heard, the Mutineers had re-opened the airport, no one had been killed, the Constitution was reinstated, and life was pretty much back to normal in the Capital. The majority of volunteers were taken off consolidation, and were even told they could go back to site. But then everything got worse. With the instability of the government in Bamako, the Tuaregs in the north were able to gain a lot of ground for their cause. Tuareg rebels were able to take control of 3 regional capitals in the north: Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu. There have since been reports of imposed Sharia Law, rape, and looting. Luckily there haven't been volunteers as far north as Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu for several years, so no volunteers were in immediate danger, but there were fears that the Tuareg rebels would make their way down to Mopti and Sevare where there are volunteers. Volunteers in the north were evacuated to Bamako, and then a day later all volunteers were brought to Bamako as a precautionary measure. That same day it was decided that Peace Corps Mali would have to evacuate to a neighboring country and Peace Corps Mali would be closed.

All of this happened while I was in Spain (I left for Spain on March 20th, the Coup happened on the 22nd, and I left Spain on the 29th), and then later in Morocco (I've been here since March 29th), where I flew to when I was told I wasn't allowed by Peace Corps to come back to Mali. Peace Corps has put me up in Rabat with a stipend and a hotel room for the past week. Rabat has been very nice, but honestly I've hated being by myself and I've hated the emotional roller coaster I've gone through with the news from Mali constantly changing. I did not enjoy Spain to the fullest because I could not stop worrying about my future in Mali. Morocco has been even more rough because I have been by myself. I hate being alone, and being sad and alone is even worse. When I found out that Peace Corps Mali was being evacuated I can honestly say it was the saddest moment of my entire life. I had grown to love that country and its people with all my heart. I may not have "liked" it there all the time but I truly "loved" being there. All that kept going through my mind was that I never got to say goodbye and I didn't get to finish my library (It was almost done!!! All that needed to happen was painting the building and installing all the furniture). I couldn't believe that I left Mali thinking I'd only be gone for a week but now I may never get to go back.

Mali has been my life for the past 2 years (well almost 2 years, we were just 3 months shy of our 2 year mark). I can't even attempt to explain how my Peace Corps experience has changed me, except to say that it has been the most remarkable experience of my entire life. I will cherish all my memories from my time in Mali and Mali will always hold a special place in my heart. Since I didn't get to in person, I want to use this blog post to say goodbye:


Goodbye Moussa, you have been the best counterpart I could have ever hoped for! I have never met someone as motivated as you. I don't think anything but acting for the good of your community was ever on your mind. Thank you for all that you and your family have given me. For everything from building me a new house when I complained that I needed privacy, to laughing at my dumb jokes, to being the only one who really understood my broken French, to fixing anything that was broken, and even to fetching me water when the tap outside of my house would go dry. I will miss you so much.

Goodbye Afu, you have been a great host mom! You were so scared to host me at your house in the beginning because you don't know French and didn't know how we would communicate, but we found our way! Thank you for always having food for me to eat and thank you for being one of the only people who made a daily effort to speak to me in Bambara and not Senoufo. Thank you for helping your daughter Mayi get comfortable being around me, and thank you for letting me in on some of the village gossip! You opened your house and kitchen up to a perfect stranger who you then made feel like family.

Goodbye Mousieur le Mayor (Pornon), Diakalia, and the rest of the Mayor's Office Staff. You guys were my hosts every Wednesday and I could always count on you for a laugh. You were also my providers of a tasty Rice! meal every week. In the last few months you let me charge my computer with the solar panel there, and you always joked that you would build me a bed so that I would have a place to nap whenever I came to the Mayor's Office. You also all invited me into your homes for many a meal. So I just wanted to say Thank You for everything, I don't know if I've ever met a nicer group of guys!

Goodbye Teachers of the Secondary School and my host dad Kafono. You all have been the most understanding of me being an American living in a foreign place out of all the people in village. I could come to you guys for political debates and to talk about current events. Even though we may have argued about teaching methods, I always cherished the time I spent with you. Thank you for being the people I could connect with on a deeper level.

And finally Goodbye Zanferebougou. I don't think I could have asked for a better village. I've seen pictures from other volunteers sites and even though this is incredibly biased, I truly believe that Zanferebougou is the fairest of them all! Zanferebougou is beautifully laid out with cartiers (neighborhoods in French) that actually make sense and follow a grid. Zanferebougou is lush and green with mango trees everywhere. Zanferebougou also has the nicest people I've evr met who were willing to drop everything to help me. I will always love Zanferebougou and I am proud to say that I got to be a member of that community for 2 years.

...


The next step for me is to meet up with my fellow PC Mali volunteers in a neighboring country (I am currently not allowed to publicly disclose this location, but I'm pretty excited to go there!) this Saturday where we will have a 1-2 week Transition Conference where we will basically tie up all the administrative strings before heading back to America. That being said I think I will be back in the States in about 3 weeks. I'm Coming Home!

Let's try that again!

Since the one sentence stream of consciousnesses-esque blog was such a success I'm gonna go ahead and try it again:

While on a mission to find pork in Sikasso, Helen and I instead made friends with 2 Malian Christians, Theodore and Matthew, who gave us free beers and promised to have pig meat for purchase the next time we come.

I've been wearing my hair straightened with a flat iron and out of braids for the past two weeks because I wanted to see how long my hair has gotten; It's about two inches past my collar bone!

There is a very good chance I will get three more piercings done in village(3rd holes on both ears and then a cartiledge piercing)... okay more like a definite chance.

Every time I see a white person, or someone who is obviously a foreigner, I can't help but stare and think 'What the hell are you doing here???'

I finally turned in my Small Project Assistance Grant request for my Library (a request for $4000)!

I appreciate the fact that Sikasso has avocados year round, but I have to say they taste gross and are nothing like black Hass avocados in America.

The thought of city skylines in the US, skyscrapers in particular, surprisingly scares me...How can buildings be so tall!?! (Mali doesn't have a single skyscraper)

My mom's birthday is this month, on the 9th, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!

I am currently researching transatlantic cruises to take back to America as an alternative to flying and a way to see more of the world!

I'm super into marathoning TV shows right now; I just finished How to make it in America and I am currently watching It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (I'm on season 5).

Volunteers in my stage, Team America, are starting to pick their Close of Service dates which means I should know exactly when I'll be leaving Mali very soon!

Since living in Mali I have developed a love of cooking with green bell peppers and fresh cloves of garlic.

Malians, and unfortunately a lot of PCVs who have grown accustom to it, think it's totally cool to pick their noses in public and I'm talking the digging for gold type of nose picking... um GROSS!

My village and the villages around us are starting to prepare for their annual (for my village it's every 2 years) traditional all-village festival where everyone dresses up and dances to balofone music for hours!

The Diva Cup is one of the greatest inventions known to women and I recommend that every girl I know go out and buy one!

My host family made fun of me for paying $4 for a sweatshirt because they say it should have cost $2... seriously I heard them speaking in Senufo and constantly saying my name and "sweatshirt" and "$4!?" for like an hour.

For the past 2 weeks I have listened to 4 songs on repeat, and these 4 songs only: Sexy and I Know it by LMFAO, Rack City by Tyga, Dance (A$$) by Big Sean, and Rain Over Me by Pitbull... seriously, this is no joke.

The African Cup of Nations Soccer Tournament is currently going on in Gabon and Equitorial Guinea and Mali actually isn't doing all that bad.

There is quite a bit of terrorist activity going on in the North of Mali right now (near Timbuktu and in the Gao region) but to be honest I feel safer in my village than I ever did in suburban America.

As my Peace Corps service is coming to a close I have started a journal to document all the things I will miss about Mali as well as all the things I definitely won't miss.

I am trying to read as many "Classic" books as I can while in Mali... I'm currently reading 1984.

I leave for Segou in 10 days to spend 2 days at Melissa's site and then go to Festival sur le Niger which will most likely turn into a 5-day crazy Peace Corps party.

This is getting difficult

So it's probably pretty evident that I'm terrible at this whole blog writing thing. I haven't written anything in weeks going on months because it is so hard to motivate myself to sit down and write when I could be watching a movie instead! Writing a blog post in village means using precious computer battery life... This is why I'm writing this post in Bamako where there is constant access to electricity!! Choosing to open my computer to write isn't the only problem I have with writing a blog post, there's also the fact that I most often feel like I have nothing to write about, or at least nothing people other than me would find interesting (For example my version of a "big story" is that everytime I hear a rooster crow I think of the opening soundtrack to Network Africa on the BBC... now who wants to read about that? No one.). So this time around I'm gonna try something new. I'm going to write a post entirely of random one sentence stories... Maybe this will spice things up a bit?

My Handwashing Campaign, aka my first official project, was a complete success with 30 tippy taps erected all over my village and two murals depicting the importance of soap use.

I spent Christmas this year in Manantali with a small group of good friends, like last year, and it was so relaxing and just nice to get out of the normal swing of things.

New Year's Eve was spent in Bamako again, only this year was a lot more chill than last year with a small house party and no firecracker shenanigans.

My Library project has finally hit the ground running!

I've recently watched a ridiculous amount of movies, my favorites having been Repo Men, Contagion and Inside Man.

My heels constantly cracking is the biggest worry on my mind at present.

I've been adding one bracelet to my wrist for every month that I have spent in Mali, I'm up to 18 now!!

It shocks me how different my youngest brother Kevin looks in pictures, and to be honest I'm kinda nervous to go home and find a giant has replaced my sweet little shoulder-height baby brother.

In America I was super anal about my eyebrows looking good, in Mali I let them grow to be catepillars and only pluck them before seeing other Americans.

One of my best friends in country, Meredith, is back in Mali after having been Medivaced then Medically seperated and finally reinstated!

I loooovvve going to the market in Bamako to look through piles of old second hand clothes hoping to find that one cute top to wear out to one of Bamako's ridiculous clubs.

By just looking at my pictures on facebook it may seem that all I am doing in Mali is partying, but in actuality I party once a month if that.

I just had one of the best paninis I've ever had in my life, Mexican Steak Panini, and it was in Bamako, Mali.

The worst mosquito bites are the ones on your face, the soles of your feet and the palms of your hand.

I painted a gigantic American Flag in my bathroom at site one day just because I was bored.

My 2 year old host sister Mayi peed on this guy that no on really likes' foot and proceeded to laugh hysterically about it.

I gave my homologue a Florida Gator hat which he now wears almost everyday... The Gator Nation really is everywhere.

I am going through an odd obsession with processed meats like summer sausage, pepperoni and jerky.

My 8k bike ride out of my village to this day still kicks my butt and in my defense it's mostly uphill!!

To pass time at site I have been making beaded bracelets and surprisingly it is primarily the men that have asked me to make them one, but I say no way that they are just for women!

The newest stage in Mali was named the Madhatters, and they are all now at site beginning their 3 month lock down.

My village's Mayor's Office just got a computer which is powered by a solar panel which now means I can charge my computer at site!!!

It is currently cold season in Mali where I actually sleep with a blanket and I have to remind myself to cherish these moments because hot season is fast approaching.

I bought my ticket to Segou Music Festival (Festival sur le Niger), so that's the next big event coming up in my Peace Corps life.

...
That wasn't so bad.