Festival sur le Niger and such

Music, food, good people.

Here in Segou for Festival sur le Niger, a five-day music and cultural festival. I have loved the artists I’ve seen so far (even though I didn’t know them before) and I’ll have to try to post a video for you all soon. It has been similar to an American music festival with the smaller acts during the day on other stages and the headliners on the main stage at night. Several booths are set up with people selling food, fabric, jewelry, artwork, etc and information about different companies and non-profits in Mali. Even though most people in Mali are Islamic and thus do not really drink, there are a few beer gardens. The street vendors have increased and are more persistent than ever because of all the tourists in town. I have not seen this many Toubabs since I left the States. There are about a hundred Mali PCVs here for the festival and some PCVs from Ghana, Senegal and Benin. I’ve enjoyed getting to meet and to hang out with everyone here. It still blows my mind how many of us are in country. I believe we have one of the larger programs, in terms of number of people serving at a time and PC has been here since 1971.

I’m writing from the packed Stage house and keep getting distracted, but I will get this post done! And then it’s downtown to the fest! I’m so thankful to have been placed in Segou. Even though I haven’t made it to the other regions in Mali, besides Bamako and a few surrounding villages, I think it is safe to say it is the best I feel like Segou could be compared to KC in that it has pretty much everything you need even though it is not as big as Bamako, the capital. Bamako would be like NY, with tons of people and you seem to constantly be on your guard (thefts, crazy taxis, etc).

I love the options we have for food here, unlike back in village and you can do it on a PCV budget. One of our favorite restaurants is The Shack (called this by PCVs, but I don’t remember its actual name) where they have amazing Capitaine (flaky fish) that is grilled with tomatoes and green peppers. You really start to crave good veggies and fruit and DAIRY products in village. You can also always find a sandwich vendor on the street. For the equivalent of a dollar you can get one with grilled beef, tomatoe, cucumber, onion, plantains and hot sauce. LOVE IT.

I will have to update you all on what is going on back at site before I leave Monday morning, but for now I’m going to soak up as much as I can. It has been in the 90s all week (yeah sorry people back home with snow haha), but it is not even hot season yet. That is what I keep thinking, IT’S NOT EVEN HOT SEASON YET! So if you want to send a cold front this way, that would be great!

New Kid In Town

Three months to the day that I left the Good Life to come to Mali. Seems like forever ago or like it happened only a few weeks ago. Time is bizarre.

I have spent about two weeks now at site. Right now my main goals are getting to know everyone in town,  continuing my learning of Bambara, observing and integrating into my new community.

My days begin with making breakfast that until recently was boiling water for instant coffee and unwrapping a Cliff Bar. I’ve been able to have eggs a few days a week now that I have my little gas grill set up. When I leave my house I immediately step out into the dugutiki’s concession and the greetings begin. How are you? How is your family? Did you sleep well? Was there peace? Where are you going? It is Malian culture to greet everyone that you pass in this similar fashion.

Oh and my community changed my name to Miriam instead of MusoKoura. Some people still call me by my old name, but Miriam Traoré has been spreading through town.

Some days I went to the CSCOM, our community health center, to get to know the staff and kind of see how they operate. On one of the days I helped weigh and measure babies to monitor growth when women were bringing their babies in for vaccinations. I probably saw around 50 babies from my town and surrounding villages. They have some sort of system set up so that everyone doesn’t come in the same week. So there are more babies out there. So many children here in Mali! I found out that the only medicine that they distribute for free is Coartem, which is used to treat Malaria. Also there are about 150 mosquito nets sitting in storage right now donated from USAID. They are supposed to be distributed to children and pregnant women. Already I am seeing things I can begin working on. There is not a doctor at our center, with the nearest doctor being in Markala about 65K away. The staff includes: a highly trained nurse who is the head of our CSCOM(male), a vaccinator (male), a matrone (female) and a sort of pharmacist (female). I asked what were the most common sicknesses in the area and they said Malaria and dehydration issues when small children fall ill. Country wide, Malaria is the leading cause of death.

One day I sat in on a class at the elementary/middle school. I noticed that many of the classrooms only had about 6-10 children in them. I spoke with one of the teachers and he said that many of the kids are working out in the fields or their parents say they cannot afford to go to school. This is something I hope to learn more about as I get to know people better in my community. Education is a huge issue in Mali as most drop out of school around the age of 12. Currently the nearest high school is in Markala. They just started work building a high school in Dioro, but that is still a long bus ride away.

I’m really starting to like my host family. My host dad’s wife passed away about 5 years ago so I usually spend most of my time with his brother’s family. The brother has two wives and is about to take a third. The current two wives are not happy about it, but Islamic law allows up to four wives. My family consists of my host dad Aloo, his daughter Amenetta and her baby also named Aloo. Then there is Aloo’s brother, Lasigne and his two wives Mama and Kanee. Between them they have 5 children ranging in age from about 16 to an 8 month old baby. I love hanging out with the women of this family. Almost every afternoon they sell sweet potato french fries so I have been helping make those. The night is usually finished with a mini dance party with the kids, music provided from someone’s cellphone.

Every Sunday my town has a market. The town becomes filled with vendors selling produce, baked breads, livestock, household items, street food, etc. This is also the day that I get to see other PC Volunteers and speak English! I have two other volunteers within biking distance from me, Mike and Shawn. Mike is a Water & Sanitation Volunteer from the East Coast who worked as a civil engineer for a few years before coming to PC. He has been here for about 18 months so he acts as our translator often during market day. Shawn is from Iowa and was in my training class. I feel spoiled that I get to see other Americans at least once a week and they are both great guys!

It’s been an emotional roller coaster settling in. Some days my Bambara just seems to flow and I’m able to have some good conversations. Other days are frustrating and I get sick of people staring at me. Sometimes I just have to go in my house and listen to music, recharge. And I have been missing friends and family a lot lately. But overall I am doing well. My community is growing on me and I cannot wait to really start working with them. I am already observing some possible projects and people that would make for great work partners!

Will be heading back to my town very shortly. I will be back to Internet on February 15-19, when I am back in Segou for the music festival. I cannot wait! Segou is going to be hopping and the music played right on the river.

Hope you are all having a great start to the New Year!

 

A Good Laugh

I will be updating you all very shortly!

First though it’s time for some pizza, beer and the African Cup of Nations.

And a few Skype dates.

Then I’ll write a real post.

For now, enjoy this hilariously true video about Peace Corps, courtesy a fellow Volunteer in Mongolia. (Thanks Krissy!)

Mad Hatters

Happy New Year everyone!

New Year’s Eve was celebrated by our stage at the “Trash Pile,” followed by a dance party in the Environment Hangar. In Mali, usually the younger crowd will go into Bamako to go out to the clubs. However most spend it with their families and have chicken for dinner (an expensive meat here). Several kids in my homestay village lit off fireworks. They turned it into a game, running up to the lit firecracker, and then waiting as long as possible before running away at the last minute. Yikes!

Training is done and I am now an official Peace Corps Volunteer! We had our swear-ceremony January 6th at the US Ambassador’s house. Speeches were given by four people in our stage in French, Malinke (Kenieba), Malinke(Kita), and Bambara. They all sounded wonderful, especially since we have only been learning the language for 2 months now (except for French). We did the whole raise-your-right-hand-I-state-your-name thing as we said the Peace Corps oath. I felt pretty patriotic and proud of the relationship between Mali and the US Peace Corps that has endured 40 years.

It is almost 3 in the morning here so I hope this all makes sense because my thoughts are all over the place right now. I’ll try to keep this short.

After the ceremony we all went to lunch at the American Club and hung out around the pool. To celebrate we all got to stay the night at a hotel in Bamako and go out to a couple clubs. It was at the last club that we learned our stage name. Each training class that comes into Mali is given a name by the PCVTs (Peace Corps Volunteer Trainers). Right now there are people from five different stages serving and are as follows: Risky Business, Team America, The Kennedys, Goodfellas and now Mad Hatters. We were given this name because we were all on Mali time for the most part (a tad late to meetings) and I guess they think we are all a bit crazy. Sounds about right. Overall it was a fun and relaxing weekend before we all head off to our respective sites (the village/city where we will be living and working for the next two years. PC has too much lingo!)

I’m writing you all from our stage house here in Segou ville, as I get attacked by mosquitoes about 5 hours before I will be leaving to move into my new home. Yesterday the other new volunteers in the Segou region and I went shopping to furnish our houses. I’m starting to get better at bargaining in Bambara. Dooni, dooni! There money system is weird and requires more math than normal. Example: 3,000 CFA is said in Bambara “Keme wooro” or “500 and 6.” And 100 CFA would actually be said as “20.”  Everything is multiplied by fives. It gets confusing r doing math in a foreign language!

I’ve never had to do buy everything on my own for because I’ve always had at least one other person living with me. First time living on my own and in a new culture! Ahhh! I hope I got everything. I’m excited to start cooking for myself and just got a cookbook put together by past volunteers to help get started. I am going to try to eat with my host family for at least one meal though to continue the whole integration process. Plus, who likes to eat alone?

I’ve been trying to post pictures on facebook, but it is going extremely slow. The plan is to stay at my site until the music festival, which starts February 16th. This would mean no internet for a month. We will see if I make it that long. In the mean time, keep me in your prayers as I go through another adjustment phase. I am excited to get started, but I know it is going to be a bit nerve racking having to speak Bambara 24/7 and getting to know everyone in my community. For our first three months at site we are not supposed to start any projects because we need to focus on developing language and through many conversations, discover what the community needs and wants. I will most likely be drinking A LOT of tea and having some awkward conversations. However, Malians are extremely inviting and I know it will only be a matter of time before I feel at home.

K’an ben kofe! (Talk to you later!) Ala ka su here caya! (Have a good night!)

Our first mural! Painted on the wall of the women's association in Mountougoula. It reads: Wash your hands with soap! Before cooking, before eating, after leaving the negen.

 

 

 

 

 

Site Visit – A glimpse at my future home

I knew I would experience it more than once during my time in Mali. I knew it would happen in more than one form. And I knew it would be sometime soon because everything so far during training was going rather well.

Culture shock

I only spent about 5 days at my site, but those days seemed to drag. Here is my journal entry after my first full day:

13 December 2011 20:16

Wow! Now this is culture shock! I had a feeling this would happen because everything had been going so smoothly. I feel like we learned some fancy, city Bamako Bambara because it seems like only half the people understand me. My homologue is great, Soumaila. I don’t know about my family yet. My house is part of a huge concession. I think my host dad is the dugutiki* and he has one wife, but his 3 sons and their families live here too. My house has 2 rooms with a big and small window in each. I have a little walled-off patio and a giant private negen*. THANKFUL for my bug hut! I don’t have a bed frame so I’m sleeping on the floor on a “mattress” (foam pad that’s very thin). We didn’t get to my site until almost 5pm after leaving from Bamako at 5:30am, so I was tired! I went straight to my new home with Soumaila, got settled a bit, talked briefly with my family, showered and had dinner. It was millet* “cous cous” with a spicy peanut sauce. Then Soumaila’s wife brought me rice and sauce. I quit eating with my family since they didn’t wash their hands. Back up: I asked where the soap was to wash my hands and one of the guys took me over to the big tree in our concession and started to put a nail in the trunk. I thought, Is water going to come out? Nope. He stepped back and was kind of like “There you go!” WTF?! I then said that I need to wash my hands and they all just looked at me weird. I went and got my own soap, frustrated and asked for the salidaga*. Still blank stares. I finally found one. So frustrating! I started eating with my family again because I wasn’t sure if Soumaila would come, but his wife did. Rice and sauce. Thankful for that because one of the women in my family was hacking up a lung. Today I went to the CSCOM with my homologue. He kind of left me there to talk with a couple of the staff. So awkward. I thought they knew French, but they didn’t use it much. The main guy working had to go into some sort of meeting so I was left with a couple of the women. It was so boring cause they didn’t really talk to me. I tried asking questions, but that was an epic fail. A few times the doctor guy or whoever he was said, “I m’a faamu kosebe,” you don’t understand a lot. Or something of that nature. I wanted to say “Yes I do, but you all ask things weird here.” Like at one point a guy just said, “I ba? I fa?*” and when I looked at him funny he said “ Votre mère? Your mother? Votre père? Your father?” I know the words buddy, but I don’t know what you are trying to say. Ahh! So I just started talking about my family and where we all live. They asked if I had been to NY and I said no so they asked why and I said it is far from where I live. Nebraska ni Kansas be Ameriki cemance la ani New York be koronton fe*.  Everyone always talks about NY and California. Blah. I almost started crying at different times and had to excuse myself to go to the negen when I was tearing up. As soon as I got in there I crouched down in the corner and cried. This was my first Oh shit! What the hell am I doing here?! moment. When I came out, PTL*, my homologue was there and we got to leave. Had trouble explaining I needed a pail to get water from the pump to drink, but Soumaila helped and my host sister took me to a pump. This was the happiest I felt, just chilling at the pump, talking to the kids and knowing I would soon have water. My homologue and his friend fixed my door because it was very hard to open and close. However, it’s still a pain in the ass to lock. Oh well, c’est la vie. Last night I opened my Bible to where I left off and saw I was starting James. The first chapter hit me hard because it was as if you, God, were trying to soothe my frustration through your word: “Consider it a pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” So here I am God, asking yet again for your help. Grant me peace and comfort during yet another adjustment period. I pray for patience and wisdom as I attempt to speak and understand a new language. I also pray that when people laugh and repeat what I say it is not malicious, but they’re just having fun. Tomorrow is a new day! May it be joyful! Je t’aime Dieu.

Vocab for above, in case I hadn’t explained earlier:

Dugutiki – Chief of the village

Salidaga – Plastic container that looks like a teapot that holds water. This is what you use instead of TP

Negen – latrine

I ba – your mom

I fa – your dad

Nebraska ni Kansas bЄ Ameriki cЄmancЄ la ani New York bЄ koronton fЄ – Nebraska and Kansas are in the center of America and New York is in the East.

PTL – Praise the Lord

 

So that was a bit lengthy, but captures a bit of the rollercoaster I experienced during the past week.

On a depressing note, I experienced my first funeral in Mali. A baby in my concession (the area my host family lives) died the last day I was at site. The first day I saw this baby I thought, Wow that baby is tiny! It has to be only 3 pounds and looks like it was born premature. I wonder if it will make it here. I was just sitting outside my room reading and Somaila came over and said, in Bambara of course, “The tiny baby. He passed away.” Before I could really respond one of the women from my concession brought me a bucket of water to take a bath. Somaila told me to go wash and when I didn’t move right away he said it again. I just looked at him, Are you crazy?! A baby just died and you want me to act like nothing happen and go take a shower?! After I had bathed and got dressed, I came out to a group of about 20 men standing in the middle of the concession in silence. I sat down a few feet away, not knowing what to do. They all started praying softly together and then turned around, led by one man that was carrying the body that was wrapped in some sort of animal skin. I then saw the women and older men sitting on rugs separately from each other. The women motioned me over and I sat with them, still not saying a word. I tried to remember some blessings to say to them, but I was still in shock a bit.

After a little while some of the men came back from burying the baby. No one looked particularly sad or cried. Malians are not known to show emotion. Even during childbirth, women are instructed not to cry because it makes them look weak. I was trying not to cry the entire time. Not only had a baby just died, but I was thinking about how that child would have most likely survived if it had access to specialized medical care. I also was depressed at how no one seemed to be sad, except for the mother, because death of children is so common in Mali. Heck, the life expectancy here is only 50. No one seemed phased by it at all and immediately just went back to life like nothing happened. I wanted to hug the mom, who looked younger than me, but people do not hug here. Such a bizarre, depressing end to my first week at site.

On a happy note (ups and downs galore, I tell ya!), after our site visit I got to spend a couple days in Segou. We hung out with current volunteers from our region who were all very welcoming and fun to be around. One volunteer, George, is from Lincoln and here with his wife Anna. I found out later that he graduated from Pius and his sister was in the same class as my cousin Mark. What a small world!

On our last night in Segou, this past Saturday, we all went on a boat ride on the Niger. We had some drinks at a restaurant owned by a French man across the river. It was one of the nicest places I’ve seen in Mali thus far. On our ride back we got to see the sunset. Beautiful! We then all went out dinner. Hawaiian pizza and schwarma (I don’t remember how to spell it, but is like a Lebanese version of a kabab). What a great night. And I actually needed a jacket! I’ve actually been sleeping in a sweatshirt lately because it has been cold, by Malian standards at least.

My mind still automatically either goes to food or the gutter here. An example was today another trainee said that they needed to have “catch up time,” referring to talking about how everyone’s’ site visits went. I initially thought, Ketchup time?! What’s that? Who has ketchup?”  Yep. Then just a few minutes ago someone said “I don’t think there’s gonna be a DP anymore tonight.”  They were talking about a dance party, but I first was reminded of Dr. Pepper.

Only about 2 ½ weeks until we are done with training! We swear in January 6^th as official Peace Corps Volunteers and we have our final language test on New Year’s Eve. So soooooooon! It will be fine, but I do have some more studying to do. Only 6 days until Christmas! Sounds like we will be able to put together a good menu from supplies the Tubab store. (I don’t know if I mentioned before, but Tubabu is what a white person is called here in Mali. Pronounced too-baa-boo, it comes from the Malian word for a French person. People usually start talking to us in French here and are initially weirded out when we start talking to them in Bambara). I most likely won’t be able to post another blog before Christmas because we go back to our home stay sites tomorrow. We will be back to Tubaniso Christmas Eve, but I will be busy with all the festivities: making cards, white elephant gift exchange, helping cook, Christmas music and movies!

Have a very Merry Christmas everyone! Sending you love from across the ocean!

 

 

Ségou!

Back to the Internet of Tubaniso after a week in Mountougoula with our host families. We are halfway done with training! And we found out our permanent sites today, where we will be living for the next 2 years!

We all sat in suspense as they read off each site name for each person and then put a sticky note in the approximate location that person would be on the mural of Mali in our main hangar. I will be living north of Ségou in a town that has a population of about 2,000 people. From the limited information I was given in my packet my counterpart who I’ll be working with has been a Relais (Community Health Worker) since 1997 for our town’s CSCOM (Community Health Center). The main priorities for the community are: prenatal consultations, malnutrition treatment and prevention, vaccinations, Malaria prevention, and family planning. Possible secondary projects: Working with primary and secondary schools, working with a women’s association on gardening and income generating activities, and/or collaborating with NGOs in the area. I will know more specifics once I am actually living in the community, of course.

The main language spoken is Bambara and it doesn’t sound like many people, if any will speak French. We had our Mid-PST language test Wednesday afternoon. I think it went alright, but I haven’t received what level I am at yet. Our tester always has to go back and listen to the tape (yes, we were recorded too). A majority of our day is spent learning Bambara (8-12:00, 2:30-5, Monday-Saturday) and then that is what we speak when we get home with our host families (I cheat sometimes and fill in with French when my limited Bambara vocab fails me).

We have had more outside activities recently including a trip to a CSREF( a step higher in the healthcare system above the CSCOM) to discuss malnutrition. This center was located in Bamako and seemed to be understaffed as several mothers were waiting to even get checked in. The most difficult part was when we were in the hospitalization room and there was this boy who looked to be around 9 or 10. He looked so skinny and was moaning in pain, as his mother tried to console him. There were babies too, but I think the fact that he was older made it harder for me because at that age you are much more aware of what is going on. I almost started crying, but held it together. Everyone seemed to be unphased by it all at first. However, after leaving I talked with a few people and they had felt many of the same emotions.

This past Tuesday we had some practice with weighing babies at our CSCOM in Mountougoula (I’ll post pictures soon on facebook).  It went pretty smoothly even though several kids were scared of us and started crying. Most of the babies were in the green zone for weight with only a few in the yellow. With each mother we would ask what the child was eating, if they were breast-fed and encouraged variety in their diets. The only problem is not all families can afford to buy meat, fruit and vegetables. Also, even when Malians do buy vegetables, they are often boiled and overcooked, losing their nutritional value.

A typical meal in Mali is rice with some sort of sauce, or toh with a sauce. I have yet to eat toh, which is a grain type paste made out of millet, corn or sorghum. Our host families are given a stipend for our meals so we get a bit more variety, but I always have an egg sandwich and coffee for breakfast and then rice and sauce for lunch. We usually have fish in there too, dried or sometimes fresh. We eat out of communal bowls with our right hand, but I always just eat with one other person, usually Buramma my host brother.

I love my host family and it will be weird to leave them in a few weeks. My host mom is MusoKora Dumbia and I have 4 host “siblings.” Family terms are used very broadly in Mali and someone that we would call a cousin could be referred to as a brother or sister, etc so it gets a little confusing on who’s who. Host brothers, Gaussu(23) and Buramma(14). Host sisters, Aouwa(20) and Sitan(18). Amadu also lives with us and has been referred to as a cousin. I think he is in his early 20s. The other day he was wearing a t-shirt from Rudd, Iowa for Tanks Bar & Grill that read on the back “Win or Lose, We Still Booze.” It is really random the donated shirts that you see around town. Gaussu left about a week after I had got to homestay to go back to University. We became friends rather quickly (through speaking French) and I was sad to see him go. His friends come by all the time still as they are friends of Amadu as well. I have met a man that my family referred to as my host father, but he really isn’t around and I am pretty sure he is my host mom’s brother. From overhearing conversations and just figuring out the family structure, I think my host mom’s husband may have left her, which is very strange for Malian culture. I also found out the other day that Aouwa isn’t MusoKora’s daughter, but her niece. It’s a bit confusing to keep track, with so many people coming in and out of your concession, stopping in to chat with whoever is around.

It will be strange to leave Mountougoula, our host families and have to start from square one. However, it will be exciting to really get settled in a community. The Mountougoula group has become quite close since we are kind of far away from the other homestay villages. There are eight trainees living in the town and I found out that I will still be relatively close to 3 of them when we move to our permanent sites.

Oh I almost forgot to tell you, we all get Malian names. I am named after my host mom, MusoKora Dumbia. My first name in Bambara means “New Woman.” I guess that fits haha.

Favorite things so far: bucket baths under the stars, eating maccaroni with my hands, drinking tea with my host family, how friendly and welcoming Malians are to us, vivid dreams, morning bike rides, BBC Africa Words of Wisdom in the morning, learning another language and using it everyday, watermelon in December, staying healthy(PTL! I may have jinxed myself. whoops), appreciating a cold Coke from the butiki (shack convenience store) and having time to read and just slow down.

Not so favorite: kicking giant cockroaches, animal noises loud in the middle of the night (confused roosters, donkeys, goats), bats dive bombing, awkward BMs or lack there of, thinking about food back home (MEXICAN FOOD, Chipotle, Christmas cookies, REAL COFFEE), having weird/creepy dreams that wake me up (dang mefloquine!), missing friends and family and wondering what they are doing for the holidays.(This will be my first Christmas away from family However we will get to be together Christmas Eve and Christmas day with our stage! Yay PC Family!)

Music Playlist I made to help me sleep:

1. A Place Only You Can Go – Needtobreathe
2. Come Pick Me Up – Ryan Adams
3. Satellite-Steve Moakler
4. If You Can’t Sleep – She & Him
5. Breathe Me – Sia
6. Track 13 from Heartbreaker(names got messed up) – Ryan Adams
7. Thing About Us – Steve Moakler
8. The Garden You Planted – Sea Wolf
9. White Blank Page – Mumford & Sons
10. I Will Not Take My Love Away – Matt Wertz
11. Dreaming With A Broken Heart – John Mayer
12. Colors – Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
13. The Moon – Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
14. Poison and Wine – The Civil Wars
15. Sparks – Coldplay
16. Passenger Seat – Death Cab For Cutie
17. Paradise – Coldplay

I’ve also been listening to a little Christmas music, which is so odd when you are sweating and there isn’t a cloud in the sky. Send me some snow! The song “Blue Sky Christmas Eve” by Andrew Ripp describes it well.

I wish I hadn’t looked at the time…3am here….breakfast is at 7…the US Ambassador to Mali will be here to talk to us at 8:30. Oh well it was worth it to get to do a quick update and chat with some family on Facebook.

Oh and check this out! I will definitely be going to this music festival in Segou!

Hope all is well, wherever you are and you are having a great holiday season!

“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” Hebrews 13:6

Technology and I are the bestest of friends

I had this nice blog post typed up for you all (okay well it was about halfway done, but already at a page!), but my computer decided to just shut off and not turn back on I am so thankful for the community computers here at Tubaniso!

I am not sure why it was difficult for me to write this next post. I guess I don’t know what you all want to hear about because I feel lik so much has happened and it has only been a month. I also kept putting it off because I wanted to spend time in the real world and not miss hanging out with my fellow Trainees and current Volunteers. I also had a good connection Sunday night on Skype and was able to talk with my dad and Stephanie in Lincoln and my mom, Alex, and Luke in Olathe. Yay for technology that works! (The connection was great because I was up at about 1am my time talking to them when I knew there wouldn’t be very many or any people on the Internet.)

A few nights ago we had a bonfire and people brought out a guitar and ukeleles. This is one of my favorite things! All we needed were some s’mores! Some of the songs were original related to things that have happened in the previous stage others were “Home” by Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeroes and Karen and I sang “Landslide” in front of the group. Thank you to people who brought guitars!

Well, I should probably get some sleep because we are headed to the Malnutrition Center in Bamako tomorrow morning. We will then head back to our host families, but we’ll be back to Tubaniso next week so I’ll have Internet again then. I’ll do my best to update you all then!

Just know that I am loving it so far and I miss you! Hope all is well in your world!

K’an ben sooni!

 

 

Une semaine!

ellooooo!

I finally got WordPress to work so I will attempt to make all further posts on here. I had tried a tumblr account, but it wasn’t working how I wanted it to so I will stick to this.

Where to begin….

Today was again full of lots of information. We divided into our sectors this morning to find out more on what we will be doing. As many of you know, I am in Health Education (the best one of course Yes all the sectors make this claim). The other two are Environment and Small Enterprise Development. We discussed the goals of Health Education for Peace Corps and went through our huge manuals a bit. I don’t have the stuff in front of me right now, but the main focuses for Mali are maternal and child health, organization and developement of institutions and preventable disease. I am excited to get started even though it seems like a lot of ground to cover!

So I know you all kept asking me about how many shots I had to get, and originally I said not that many. Well, I lied. Yesterday I had to update my Meningitis vaccine and today I had to get one for rabies and for Typhoid fever. The Typhoid fever arm still hurts even after about 9 hours later. Oh well, at least I won’t get that! And I managed to avoid rabies already once while living in Hotel California

We learned all about Malaria today and how to use everything in our medical kits Peace Corps provides us with. See? A lot of information! We also learned about the upcoming Muslim holiday called Tabaski (Pronounced Ta-bas-key). Apparently we have come at a great time because this is like the mother of all celebrations. Everyone dresses in their best, women get their hair done and all that jazz. It is a celebration of when Abraham went to sacrifice his only son Ishmael (Isaac in Christian history) in obedience to God, but God stopped Abraham at the last-minute and had him offer a ram instead. Thus, on Tabaski a ram is slaughtered by the men and then cooked by the women for the celebration. It is also about giving gifts and blessings to friends, family and people of your village. I cannot wait to be in the midst of it all! I don’t know if I’ll be able to wat the ram slaughter though. It’s not the blood, it’s the fact that it will probably be squirming around a lot. We will see! Tabaski will happen this Sunday…pictures to come.

The real test begins tomorrow, when we move in with our host families. I had the best packing experience I’ve ever had with packing tonight. Other trainees coming in and out of our hut, dancing to music, sewing pants and having facials (Thanks again Akinyi!). When we get to our host families, there will be about 8 of us at each site. We will have language class everyday, trying to master Bambara. It will be about 3 weeks before we come back to Tubaniso, so no internet for a while! Even though it will be a tough transition, our group seems like it will be a lot of fun. Our whole stage is pretty great though, as I’ve mentioned before.

I wanted to post a picture here, but unfortunately I am on one of the communal computers and I don’t have my USB camera cord. Sorry!  There are a few on facebook though and I’ll have more to come after homestay! For now I will use a google photo so my post doesn’t look so plain.

These frogs are EVERYWHERE! They mainly come out at night

And I almost forgot that my 24th birthday is in 2 minutes (Mali time). It doesn’t feel like it is since it’s November and I’ve never been anywhere really warm during my birthday. Still getting used to the whole non-season thing. Tonight after dinner they made a cake and sang to celebrate all the November birthdays. The cake kind of had a banana taste to it and was covered in chocolate. YUM!

 

And on that note, I bid thee adieu. Or should I say, K’an ben!

 

P.S. In case you didn’t see it on Facebook and want to send me something

Jessica Szalawiga, PCT
Corps de la Paix
B.P. 85
Bamako, Mali, West Africa

 

***the West Africa part needs to be included or the post office might send it to Bali, or Malawi***

C’est le début!

Chillin at the Hampton Inn. (Doesn’t quite have the same ring…)
Should be repacking stuff for tomorrow, but we’ll get to that in a bit.

Last night in the U.S.! In Philadelphia, where it all began.
Ok. I am really distracted right now so I’ll make this quick.
Got up a bit earlier this morning with my “roommie” Cynthia and met up with other trainees Jill and LeeAnn to see a bit of the city. Wish we could have had more time because I love history!

Staging was long, but I can already tell we have a great group. I cannot wait to get to know everyone over the next two years

Tomorrow morning we check out and take a bus to New York. Our flight leaves around 6 from JFK and then we stop in Brussels and it’s on to Bamako! We will arrive in Mali around 4 on October 30th.

I’ll try to update you all as soon as I can! Thank you for all of your encouragement and for supporting through this journey!

Love,

Ginger

Tuesday Tunes

Woke up to some interesting, but pleasant music this morning on 89.3.

Made my way to the kitchen to start the coffee pot and bake some mini cinnamon rolls. Brought the laptop into the kitchen to start some music.

Music

Always seem to be surrounded by it.

Been trying to decide how to bring some music Mali. Old school disc-man with LOTS of batteries? A battery operated CD player?(Size D Batteries are supposedly more accessible) Solar charger and an iPod?

Also, I will most likely be bringing an acoustic guitar (hopefully that’s cool Kelli! (: )  Finally, I’ll be able to have some more time to learn!

Let’s say you are going on a long trip and you can only bring 10 CDs ….which ones would you bring? I would LOVE to hear what you think. I will also accept single songs, you know, those songs that you wonder how you had ever lived before you had heard this song. Or maybe just one that you never get sick of hearing.

Here is an example of one of these songs, one I will be bringing with me somehow: