Back in Bamako and Off to Dogon

So I have been back at Tubaniso the past two weeks for in-service training. It was hard at first to get used to full days of technical training sessions, especially after having so much free time at site. Overall though, the sessions have been interesting and I hope to try out some of the things I learned here during my service.

It has been neat to hear about my friends' experiences at site and their living situations. Some volunteers are working in rural villages that don't have electricity or a water pump, or even cell phone coverage (imagine that!). Once the sun goes down, you just have a lantern to cook your dinner or do anything else. On the other hand, most volunteers have much easier access to their regional capitals and can meet up with other PCVs. I've mentioned here before how Kenieba is so isolated... it's tough to leave more than once a month because the trip is so long. But I think that's a good thing, as I will be more integrated and hopefully more productive since I'll be at site more often.

We had a big Christmas party last night, and it was great to celebrate with everyone and get in the holiday spirit. Most of the Malian work counterparts are here for training too, so they got to witness an American Christmas celebration. We made some great decorations... paper snowflakes, candy canes, Santa and a Christmas tree. The kitchen staff made a great meal for us. We had popcorn and hot chocolate afterwards, thanks to a generous PCV who got a ginormous can of Swiss Miss in a care package. After a huge Secret Santa gift exchange (I got a Snickers bar!), we watched Home Alone on the projector screen. Some of the Malian counterparts stuck around for the movie, and it was interesting to see how they reacted. They got a kick out of how slippery ice is, and how you can see your footprints in the snow!

In general, Malians learn a lot about other cultures from the TV shows and movies that end up on TV here. Some people, especially those who didn't finish school, think that everything they see on TV is reality. I've watched episodes of 24, CSI, even Knight Rider (that 80's show with David Hasselhof and the talking car). Unfortunately, pro wrestling even made it across the ocean. It's interesting to see how glued they are to the TV. I speak up when there's something that obviously isn't real.

I will be celebrating Christmas with a bunch of friends in Dogon country, a region in central Mali that is home to the Dogon people. After Christmas, we are going on a three day hike on the cliffs to tour some of the villages. Should be a great trip!

I hope everybody has a safe and merry Christmas! Miss you!

Day Trip en Brousse

Matt and I were invited to visit a village near Kenieba for the day. We toured a fruit farm and got to see the rice harvest in action. It was a fun day! I uploaded an album to Picasa and put captions on all the photos. The link is: http://picasaweb.google.com/wbudd3/DayTripEnBrousse

Money Issues

First, a primer on the currency used in Mali: the CFA Franc. The exchange rate is about 450 CFA to the US dollar. It comes in denominations of 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, 200, 250, 500 CFA coins, and 1000, 2000, 5000 and 10000 CFA bills.

I have been able to live comfortably here on a Peace Corps salary, which isn't much compared to home. The cost of living is much cheaper, especially for food. For example, the baguette I buy in the morning for breakfast costs 100 CFA, or about 20 US cents. Sometimes I will buy a brochette, which is a meat sandwich with tomatoes, onions and a delicious sauce, as a mid-morning snack. It costs 250 CFA, or 50 cents. There are street food vendors at dinnertime, selling things like beans, macaroni, salad and meat. You say how much you want of each item, like 200 CFA of macaroni, 200 CFA of meat and 100 CFA of salad (or, in Bambara, "macaroni bi naani, ni sogo bi naani, ni salati mugan"... more on this later). This is plenty of food for me for dinner, and it adds up to a little more than 1 US dollar.

Before I have money to spend, I have to get it out of the bank. Some Peace Corps Volunteers in small villages have to travel to their banking town to get money. But there is conveniently a bank branch in Kenieba, about half a mile from my house. Though the bank is so close to my house, withdrawing money is a chore. First I have to see the bank manager in his office and show him my bank card (a piece of paper with my name and account number) and Peace Corps ID. He then tells me my account balance and asks how much I would like to take out. Then he writes out a check which I have to sign in three places, and hands it to the cashier. After a few minutes, the cashier calls my name and I go to retrieve my money. This is where the fun begins.

I have learned to withdraw an amount like 84,000 CFA. The cashier hands me five 10000 CFA and six 5000 CFA bills, and two 2000 CFA bills. It is impossible to pay for things with these huge bills, so I ask for more smaller bills. He says he can’t give me any more. I get into a little argument, explaining that it is impossible to use 10000 and 5000 bills in the market, nobody has change for them! Sometimes he will reluctantly give me more 2000 CFA bills, but more often than not, I am stuck with a bunch of 10000 CFA and 5000 CFA bills.

When it comes to buying food in the market, from the street food vendors, and other small items at the little butiki shops, there is no way they will take those big bills! There are few shops in town that can make change for a 5000 CFA bill, but you have to buy at least 1000 CFA worth of stuff. The market sellers rarely have change, even if you want something that costs 100 CFA and you have a 500 CFA coin. So you have to come armed with small coins or buy 500 CFA worth of goods.

Even a modern supermarket (just like a supermarket in France or the US) in Bamako doesn’t always have change… one time the cashier wanted to give me some little candies instead of the 50 CFA I was owed in change!

I have some big expenses each month (like paying rent) and can use some of the big bills, but sometimes I end up buying things I don’t really need just to get change that I can use. Oddly enough, it turns out that a reliable place to get change for big bills is at the bars in town. A bottle of beer costs a whopping 500 CFA (yep, one dollar), so they usually have change for the big bills. Go figure!

So it’s a big adventure trying to get small denominations of CFA. It is almost like the smaller denomination coins are worth more than the big bills, just because you can buy so much more with them!

Also, forget about using a credit card outside of the big hotels and tourist traps in the big cities like Kayes and Bamako. All transactions are cash only. When Matt tried to pay for our USB modems at the Orange store in Kayes with a credit card, they couldn't accept it. Orange is one of the major cell phone companies here in Mali, and we bought them in a western-style office, complete with computers at every desk. But nope, we had to pay in cash. Imagine paying for a big expense, like a motorcycle, with a huge wad of cash! But that’s the norm here.

Beyond this whole change issue, they use a weird number system when naming the price of a product. For example, when I ask how much a kilogram of potatoes costs, the seller will say “kemé”. Kemé means 100 in Bambara. The actual price is 500 CFA. So you have to multiply the number they tell you by 5 to get the price of the product. But that’s an easy one… I bought some Obama fabric the other day for 1350 CFA, or “kemé fila ni bi wolonfila”, which translated literally means 270. This makes for some very confusing market shopping. It is hard enough trying to figure out how much something costs, then trying to bargain for a better price! At this point, I’ve started to call the different denominations by their Malian names instead of how much they are actually worth. For example, a 1000 CFA bill is a kemé fila. Kemé fila literally means, (doing the math?), 200. So it’s getting easier to skip all the conversions and translations in my head when I'm buying things.

As much as I have complained about the money, it is nice to use a currency that is fixed to the euro and guaranteed by the French treasury (according to the Rough Guide). So it is not subject to high inflation like other African currencies, namely Zimbabwe’s two hundred million percent inflation. And at the current exchange rate, more than $1.50 for 1 euro the last time I checked, it is nice getting paid in CFA! Another good thing about this currency is that it is used in most francophone West African countries, including neighboring Senegal and Burkina Faso, two countries that I would like to visit on vacation someday. It’s like using the euro around Europe!

Kalo

I inherited a cat when I moved into my house. His name is Kalo, which means moon in Bambara. The PCV who used to live in my house originally had two cats, Kalo and Tile (moon and sun). Tile never came back one night (before I moved here), so now it’s just Kalo. She got them only about a year ago when they were kittens, so Kalo is a young cat. I hope that explains some of his antics…

I have never had a cat as a pet before so I didn’t know what to expect. As far as I could tell, at first this cat was a royal pain in the ass. He used to meow incessantly to get what he wanted (and still does from time to time). He was not happy when I fixed the screen on the door so he couldn’t go outside and come back inside whenever he wanted. So the first few nights, in the middle of the night, he would meow and meow and meow until I got out of bed and let him out or in. Sometimes it would happen multiple times in one night! I got pretty fed up with this, to say the least, and gave Kalo some “Malian feedback”, essentially a good whack, so he would learn. He’s much better now, and won't bother me until I get up in the morning.

The old PCV used to give Kalo real cat food to eat, but you can only get this in Bamako. I haven't been to Bamako since pre-service training and didn’t bring cat food with me before moving out here. So he has been eating what I eat every day for lunch, usually white rice and sauce. Sometimes he likes it, but sometimes he doesn’t, and just won’t eat. If he is still hungry, he lets me know! Cue the incessant meowing.

But things are better now; he understands that rice and sauce is what he’s going to get, more often than not. It has taken a while, but we have warmed up to each other. He comes and cuddles on me if I’m lying in bed. If anything, it is great to have a cat around to keep the (other) pests out!

Tabaski

Made it to Kayes today after a long, uncomfortable bus ride from Kenieba. It's hard to put into words how unpleasant the trip was, but basically we were crammed in there. There were 7 people to a row, (6 small seats and someone standing or sitting on a water jug in the aisle) all bouncing around as the bus crawled down the dirt road. Needless to say, I'm relieved to be here and enjoying all the room to stretch out!

Anyway, here's the first entry, about the big holiday last weekend.

Tabaski is one of the biggest holidays in Mali. The tradition is for each family to sacrifice a goat and enjoy a big feast. There was a lot of preparation leading up to the big fête… the elementary schools had Thursday and Friday off. Women were getting their hair done a few days before. Friday, the day before Tabaski, was like a huge shopping spree. Matt and Jim had to take out money at the bank, and they said the scene reminded them of a commodities trading floor in the US, people pushing into the office to take out money for the holiday. The market was packed… hundreds of people buying their supplies for the big feast. I bought 2 kilograms of potatoes for my host family as a gift for the fête.

I woke up on Saturday morning, the day of the big feast, to the sound of roosters, motos speeding down my road, and sheep baa-ing. When I was leaving my concession to buy some bread for breakfast, I told my host dad that I was surprised to see the sheep had not been sacrificed yet. He explained that they first go to a big prayer session (I found out later that over 2,000 people were there), and when they get back, it's time to sacrifice the sheep.

So I got ready for the big day, and walked next door to get a front row seat for the butchering of the sheep. I can’t say I have witnessed something like this before, but it was less gruesome than I thought it would be (I conveniently missed the actual slaying). My host dad did a good job taking the insides out and cutting out the good stuff for us to cook and eat. At around noon we ate an awesome meal of tender meat, fried potatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, onions, and a delicious mustard/vinegar/oil sauce to top it all off. It was really good.

I figured that this meal was our lunch for the day, so I asked if I could bring some of the leftover food back for Kalo, since that’s what I usually do after lunch every day. My host mom, Fanta, gave me a strange look and reluctantly put some in a bowl for the cat. Little did I know, “lunch” would be coming at 3 PM! Go figure. It was another delicious meal of meat and bashi, a couscous like food made from corn.

Like at the end of Ramadan, kids from the neighborhood came around to wish my host family and me a happy Tabaski and that I will have as prosperous a celebration next year. Lots of family friends came by as well to say hello and say the various benedictions.

Late in the day, as the sun was setting, I went around the neighborhood and took photos of my host family and my neighbors. They were all really excited about it, as they had their best clothes on for the big fête. All in all, a fun day!

I put up a photo album from the holiday... be warned though, the first few pictures are of the sheep getting cut up, so if you want to skip that, click the first link:
Tabaski 2009 Photo Album (without butchering)
Tabaski 2009 Photo Album (with butchering)

I also put up more photos from a big hike that Matt and I went on in November.

Picture Post - Halloween Hike

I uploaded some photos from a hike that Matt and I took on Halloween. We visited a village on top of the cliffs. Here is the link: http://picasaweb.google.com/wbudd3/HalloweenHikeEtc#

More photos and blog posts to come, in a couple weeks!

The Seasons are Changing

It has been a busy month in Kenieba. My landlord hired a painter to come and paint all of the walls in my house, inside and out. He finished a few days ago. The house looks really good, and since I had to move all the furniture around, it feels kind of like I moved into a new house! I have also been meeting with more artisans and other Malians who have ideas for community projects.

The rainy season ended in October (we haven’t had any significant rain in a few weeks), and the “cold season” has begun. It is still hot in the middle of the day, but at night the temperature drops into the 60s. Most Malians don their heaviest clothes when the sun sets… big winter jackets, wool sweaters and big hats. I thought about taking out the one sweatshirt I brought from home, but it has been so nice to bask in the cool weather! Admittedly, even I have felt chilly when I am outside at night, but the inside of my house stays warm after baking in the sun all day. It has been great sleeping weather!

This time of the year is also "burn your trash" season. Every family has been burning their trash. I have been reluctant to ignite my trash pile, but someone comes and takes my trash every once in a while so it is probably just burned with someone else’s trash. There have also been brush fires on the outskirts of town. I'm not sure if the brush fires were set on purpose or if a trash fire spread to the brush, but all of this burning has caused a big haze to set in over Kenieba. Also, since all the roads are dirt, the dust has really picked up. My host mom told me to close all the windows because otherwise everything will be covered in dust. So, the smoke and dust has been something to deal with as the dry season sets in.

Thanksgiving is not celebrated in Mali, but an important Muslim holiday, Tabaski, happens to fall on the Saturday after Thanksgiving this year. Since the Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar, Islamic holidays fall on a different day every year. The tradition here in Mali is to sacrifice a sheep and prepare a big feast for the holiday. It should be a fun day!

Matt, Jim and I are at one of the big gold mines this evening, getting our Internet fix and hanging out with some of the workers. It's a nice facility up here... I'm freezing right now in the air conditioning! Fortunately, since the mine isn't too far from Kenieba, I will be able to update this blog more often than I have been the past few months.

We are heading up to Kayes the first week in December and then on to Bamako for a Peace Corps training session. So I will be in Kenieba for Thanksgiving. Happy Turkey Day to everyone back home!

Back to Site

I uploaded the second batch of photos to Picasa, from my classroom visit on the first day of school and my second hike on top of the cliffs. This time, instead of writing the stories behind the photos in a blog post, I typed them into the captions under the photos. Here's the link.

Also, I added a new box to the right side of the blog called Twitter Updates. I found out from another PCV that you can "tweet" from your cell phone here... meaning I can send short text messages and they will be posted to my Twitter account. Since I don't have Internet access in Kenieba, I thought that sending an occasional Twitter update would be a fun and easy way to update the blog. I am not yet sure if it will work, or if I will have anything interesting to tweet about, but I figured it would be a good experiment.

It has been a good week in Kayes, but I am looking forward to getting back to Kenieba. The next time I plan to be back here will be the week of Thanksgiving... I can't believe it's only a month away!

Picture Post – First Hike, End of Ramadan Fête, Dance Party

I just uploaded the first batch of photos. Before I share the link, here are the stories behind the photos:

The First Hike: I talked about it in yesterday’s post… before she left, a former PCV who served in Kenieba guided us on a hike up the escarpment to the top of the ridge. It was a beautiful hike; enjoy the photos!

End of Ramadan Fête: The end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting, is a big holiday in Mali. Families gather together to celebrate with a big feast, kind of like our Thanksgiving. People were preparing for “fête day” at least a few days ahead of time, getting their hair done, having nice clothes made, and slaughtering goats and preparing other food for the big day. Since there was so much preparation for this big day, I had pretty high expectations for the big feast.

Hakim invited me to spend the afternoon with his family, so one of his sons picked me up and we walked to his house. It was a subdued atmosphere when I arrived, just lots of people around the concession still preparing for the fête. So much for a day-long party! The women were still doing each other’s hair, and most of the family members were not dressed up yet. I came over in my Malian complet, a collared shirt and matching pants, and ironically I felt pretty out of place! Hakim and I ate lunch, nothing extraordinary, and then we just lounged around as the women prepared for the feast. The food they were making looked really good, so I thought maybe it would be served for dinner. Since Hakim wasn't doing much of anything and I was getting pretty bored, I asked if I could take photos of the kids. They were really excited to see their photos on my camera. As you’ll see, some of the kids were in nice outfits!

Once the kids were dressed, they went out to greet other families in the neighborhood. Hakim explained to me that they give blessings for a good fête and that they will have as plentiful of a fête again next year. It was fun to see the kids come by all dressed up and recite their blessings. The other “event” of the afternoon was the griots. Griots are essentially Malian storytellers who walk from house to house, giving lots of blessings and telling stories about how great your ancestors were. Each last name has a different family tradition and story, for example the Samakés were traditionally hunters so the stories are about the great hunts. Then they expect to be paid at the end. We were told during our cross-cultural training that in general, Malians love the griots and are happy to pay the griots a considerable amount. Then the griots leave and do the same thing at the next family. I had seen griots before at the weddings I went to in Baguineda, but I didn’t know they also come around during holidays. Quite a way to make a living!

I spent about 3 hours at Hakim’s house, and the party never really started, as far as I could tell. There were no signs that it would start anytime soon, so I headed home and told them I would come by for dinner at the usual time, 7 PM. Since the women were cooking a lot of food in the afternoon, I was ready to eat a big dinner. Well, I arrived back at Hakim’s house, and everyone is huddled around the TV watching a Malian soccer team play a Nigerian team. At halftime, we sat around the bowl and get ready to eat what I figured would be some amazing food… and it turns out to be spaghetti and pieces of meat. Though it was better than the average Malian dinner, this was the only course we ate. So much for all that food the women were making all day! I’m not sure if I had missed something, but something must have been lost in translation. Oh well, at least it was the end of Ramadan; everyone would be in happier spirits from then on, since they were not fasting all day anymore! The Malians lost the soccer game, by the way.

Dance Party: Jim and I were sitting in my house one afternoon, and all of a sudden we hear a really loud siren, and all these sounds that in the US you would associate with an emergency, an air raid, like the world is coming to an end. Well here, apparently those noises mean that the DJ has just set up his system right outside your house and is preparing for a huge dance party. Literally, he had set up the speakers and dance venue at the intersection right outside my house. Jim and I peeked our heads out the window, and there was not much of anything happening, except for really loud Malian dance music and some energetic kids dancing in the street. A few hours later, at least 100 people were crowded around the dance venue, having a good time. You could imagine that it was pretty loud in my house… there’s nothing I could do about it, so we played some games with the kids and kept ourselves busy. When I went out to take pictures of the party, someone grabbed my hand and tried to pull me out onto the dance floor. I said “kofé!”, later! With the hopes that she might just forget… well she definitely did not.

After dinner, we were in the playing cards with some of the kids in the neighborhood. The same girl came up to my door and pretty much forced me to come out and dance. So I went… I don’t think I’ve ever been so nervous… I said in the best Bambara and French I knew that there better be a lot of people dancing out there with me! Well there were 8 other women and me dancing in a sort of line dance, kind of like how it looks in the photos. As soon as I got out there, of course people were laughing at the white person trying to dance… but I just went with it, and by the end of the song was having a good time. But I can’t say I would volunteer to do that again! Surprisingly, the party ended around midnight (I had heard these dance parties can go until 2 in the morning), so I could still get a decent night’s sleep. I asked my host family the next day how often these parties happen, and they said twice a year… this one was to celebrate the end of “summer vacation” as school was starting up the next week. The next one is in November or December. As long as they are only twice a year, I can put up with a really loud dance party and maybe even join in the fun right outside my door!

Photos are up at: http://picasaweb.google.com/wbudd3/FirstMonthAtSite#

First Month at Site

Overall, it was a good first month at site. I am happy to finally be settled in, and have all of my things unpacked for the first time since I arrived in Mali. It has been fun to explore my new home and start to have a daily routine.

Some highlights from the past month:

A PCV who worked in Kenieba for two years finished her service and moved back to the US at the end of September. We overlapped in Kenieba for about a week, and she was really helpful in getting us oriented. We met with two community groups that she had been working with, a women’s gardening association and chicken raising group. It’s great to have the opportunity to continue working with these groups, as both projects will hopefully become income generating activities.

I arranged a “meal plan” to eat lunch every day with my host family next door. For dinner, I eat four nights a week with my counterpart’s family. My counterpart, Hakim, is a metalworker and a member of the artisans union I will eventually be working with. It has been fun getting to know both families and comparing family life in Kenieba to my first Malian host family in Baguineda. One big difference is having electricity at night; Hakim has a TV and satellite dish, so we watch European football matches and news from the French stations TV5 and France 24. Like my first host family, Hakim has a complex family structure. Some of his brothers have died, and their widows and kids live with Hakim’s family. He and his older brother, whose family also lives in the concession, support the entire family. It makes for a lot going on around the house!

I had another case of dysentery (aka bad diarrhea) in September… bacterial this time, so it was less severe but lasted longer than the amoebas that were wreaking havoc in my intestines in July. I also had a fever for two nights from the dysentery, which was not fun. Since then, things have checked out all right in the health department! I’m hoping it will stay that way for a while…

Some of the best days were spent exploring the area around Kenieba. It is a beautiful region of Mali, very lush and green (especially now, at the end of the rainy season) with a chain of cliffs (escarpments) to the south and east of town. We were guided on a path up one of the escarpments to a village on the top of the ridge, with a beautiful view of the valley. Matt and I have done some more exploring since, and found more great walking paths and small villages “en brousse” (in the bush). We also did a good amount of biking, and made it to the Faleme River which separates Mali and Senegal.

We are in Kayes for about a week to regroup and reconnect. I plan to post a few blog entries while we’re here, so stay tuned for more. Photos are coming soon too!

All Sworn In, and Off to Site!

The past week has certainly been a whirlwind... from taking the final language test on Monday to leaving for site this morning. I am very happy to say that I am officially a Peace Corps Volunteer! There was a really nice swearing-in ceremony on Thursday morning at the US Embassy in Bamako. The Peace Corps Mali Country Director, US Ambassador to Mali, and Malian government representative all had nice things to say about what we have accomplished thus far and gave us their best wishes for our Peace Corps service.

After the ceremony, we had our pictures taken at the Embassy and then headed to the American Club for an awesome lunch buffet. We stayed in Bamako for the evening, had a great dinner at the hotel we stayed at, and celebrated through the night. We certainly had reason to celebrate; after nine hard weeks of training to get to this point, we could finally could call ourselves Peace Corps Volunteers! It felt a lot like college graduation, the end of something great but the start of something even greater.

Essentially, our mission as Peace Corps Volunteers is to fulfill three goals, as outlined by Congress in the Peace Corps Act of 1961. The three goals are:

Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.

Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.

Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans. (http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=Learn.whatispc.mission)

As much as we want to do things the "American way", giving our Malian counterparts as much training and opportunities for development as we can, we have to work slowly. Although we will encourage positive change, it must come from within so that the projects we work on are sustainable even after we leave Mali. At the very least, we will be engaged in small diplomacy, constantly learning about the Malian way of life and sharing a little piece of America with our new communities. And partly through this blog, I hope to accomplish the third goal.

Right now I am in Kayes at the Peace Corps stage house, getting ready to move out to Kenieba. The first three months at site will be focused on integrating in my community, continuing to study Bambara and Malinke (the Bambara dialect that is spoken in Kenieba) and asking lots of questions to learn about what resources they have and what they need.

Unfortunately Internet access is limited in Kenieba so it will be difficult to update this blog from there, but I hope to add an entry at least once a month. Inch'Allah (God willing), I will have some sort of Internet access in Kenieba. So please continue to comment on the blog and send me e-mail updates from home, I love to read them!

End of Homestay & Ramadan

My pre-service training is quickly coming to an end. In four days, I will be sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer! We packed up our things and said goodbye to our host families this morning. It was an emotional goodbye... they really enjoyed hosting me and I felt like I was a member of their family. I hope to visit them again during my service. We are back at Tubaniso for the week and have a packed schedule... we head out to our sites to begin our service next weekend!

There was a farewell ceremony with the community yesterday morning. Because it is Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting, there was no music and entertainment like we had for the welcoming ceremony. Different representatives of the village gave speeches, and they were very poignant. They said things like: don't forget us... remember your time here... now that you have lived here, keep us in mind for future development projects... we would love to host Peace Corps volunteers again... we were worried that you wouldn't like eating our food or living like us, but we were really happy that you became members of our families... you are welcome back in our community anytime.

I meant to share this link before I left for homestay but didn't get a chance. The Big Picture is a fascinating blog from the Boston Globe, a photo essay on different news-related subjects. There was one about Ramadan around the world: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/08/ramadan_2009.html. It starts with a great description of Ramadan:

In Muslim nations and regions around the globe, this is the first week of the holy month of Ramadan, a time for followers to abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and sexual activity during the day, breaking their fast each sunset, with traditional meals and sweets. During this time, Muslims are also encouraged to read the entire Quran, to give freely to those in need, and strengthen their ties to God through prayer. The goal of the fast is to teach humility, patience and sacrifice, and to ask forgiveness, practice self-restraint, and pray for guidance in the future. This year, Ramadan will continue until Saturday, September 19th.

We returned to homestay during the first week of Ramadan. My host family is participating, but they understood that I would not be fasting and my host mom had lunch ready for me every day. I felt guilty having her cook food for me when she couldn't eat all day! People who are sick, the elderly, kids and pregnant women do not fast either, so it wasn't so bad. My host family asked me if I wanted to fast. I told them that if I didn't have any food or water all day long, I would pass out! I also figured that if I fasted, all I would think about is how hungry and thirsty I was, and wouldn't be able to study any Bambara!

As soon as the sun set, my host family would eat some sweetened porridge to break their fast. Then my host brother went to the mosque to pray, except when it rained really hard and the ground was uneven. Since there are many more people praying during the holy month, they have to pray outside the mosque.

Ramadan ends during our first weekend at site. Families get together and put on a big feast to celebrate the end of the month of fasting. Definitely something to look forward to!

Photos are up from the last couple of weeks: http://picasaweb.google.com/wbudd3/Homestay3#

Shea Butter Field Trip

We went on a field trip today to a women's cooperative that makes shea butter. I uploaded some photos to Picasa, the link is: http://picasaweb.google.com/wbudd3/SheaButterFieldTrip#

There is a big effort in Peace Corps Mali to help women improve the quality of the shea butter they produce so that they can earn more money from their labor, and so that more Malian shea butter can be exported.

If you're interested, here are two more links about shea butter in Mali.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7ktkxQuCjI - a Peace Corps Volunteer produced this video
• http://www.maisondukarite.org/eindex.html - the web site of the women's association we visited. The English translation is pretty bad, but you can get the gist of what they're saying.

Our last stint at homestay starts tomorrow. It is hard to believe that pre-service training is almost over... only three weeks left until swear-in!

Site Visit Photos

I was pretty tired all day today, still recovering from the long trip to and from Kenieba. I tallied up all the travel... the round trip took more than 32 hours. Too much travel in one week! Tonight's dinner made up for a tiring day... the kitchen staff at Tubaniso cooked up some tacos with cheese, guacamole, beans, ground beef, lettuce and tomatoes. It was awesome.

Photos are up from site visit...
picasaweb.google.com/wbudd3/SiteVisit and picasaweb.google.com/wbudd3/Kayes

My new address in Kenieba is listed in the right column. Any mail that is sent from now on should be sent to Kenieba. I will still get mail at Bamako, but not for a few months.

Thanks for all your comments and e-mails, it's great to hear that you enjoy reading the blog and hearing news from home.

Women's Rights in the Developing World

I haven't thrown many opinions into the blog yet, but I think this issue needs a lot more attention. It is incredible to think that millions of women are still treated so poorly in the developing world. On the bus ride to Bamako yesterday, I read a fascinating article by Nick Kristof called The Women's Crusade. It's a lengthy article, but I encourage you to read it.

The Women's Crusade - http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/magazine/23Women-t.html?pagewanted=all

In Mali, women are second-class citizens, working hard to support their families with little to no recognition for their work. I found out from a BBC article today that the Malian government recently passed a law that gives women equal rights in marriage. Unfortunately though, the BBC reported that tens of thousands of Malians are protesting the new law in Bamako. Considering that the majority of Malian women are illiterate, most will never know about their new rights.

Mali protest against women's law - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8216568.stm

That is one advantage of the Peace Corps' development approach; since we are speaking the local language and working in the same village for two years, we become respected members of the community. We can cross the social divide and talk directly with women to understand their concerns. I'm not sure what my role will be here yet, but I would like to help wherever possible in community development, and the key to success lies in helping women.

Site Visit, Part 2 - Kenieba

Kenieba is a town of about 20,000 people in far western Mali, close to the borders of Senegal and Guinea. It is difficult to travel there overland, as the main road from Kayes is all dirt. The trip from Kayes to Kenieba, about 250 km/150 miles, took us almost 7 hours in a Land Cruiser. The road is even worse in rainy season; we had to drive through huge puddles and cross some streams. The drive down is really pretty though... rolling hills, lush vegetation, and escarpments that rise hundreds of feet up and continue all the way to Kenieba. I'm excited to explore the surrounding area on my mountain bike and hike to the top of the escarpments.

The major commercial activity in Kenieba is gold mining, and the biggest mine is owned by a South African company. A large part of the labor force in Kenieba is employed by the gold mine. There is also traditional mining done on the hillsides, and there is a gold rush mentality in town. People are less focused on the subsistence agriculture that dominates the economy in other parts of Mali, because they can earn a lot of money from the gold they find.

So this presents a unique situation for development work in Kenieba, as people can earn money and support their families just from the income from gold. But there is always room for community development, especially in capacity building. A Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) who has been working in Kenieba for two years, Vanessa, hosted us for the few days we were there. She has worked on many projects in Kenieba, including HIV/AIDS education, a tree nursery, chicken raising, and a community garden. I will be moving into her house in September.

Because it takes two full days to travel to Kenieba, we only had a few days at site before we had to turn around and head back to Bamako. I did not have time to meet with the artisans, but I did meet my Malian counterpart and had dinner with his family. He works with metal to make things like tin roofs and doors. We didn't have much time to talk business, but I told him I want to meet with each of the artisan associations in Kenieba when I return in September.

Even though Kenieba is so difficult to get to, there are lots of amenities here. There are 15 hours of electricity each day, strong cell phone service, a big market, a post office, a bank, and lots of shops and street food. There are no Internet cafes in town, but you can get a USB key that gives basic Internet access through the cell phone system here.

Overall, I really like Kenieba and see myself working on many different projects. It is a beautiful region of Mali, and it will be fun to explore the surrounding area. The bad condition of the road and distance from Bamako worries me, but having these amenities and three PCVs close by will make it a lot easier.

Site Visit, Part 1 - Kayes

I'm blogging from the Peace Corps house in Kayes, the regional capital in western Mali. Kayes was the French colonial capital in the late 19th Century, and it remains an important commercial center. It is on the main route from Bamako to Dakar, the capitals of Mali and Senegal. The bridge is out across the Senegal River, so there are trucks on both sides of the main road for miles waiting for a ferry to cross the river. Kayes is also the halfway point from Bamako to Kenieba, as it takes a full day to travel from Bamako to Kayes and from Kayes to Kenieba. So Kayes will be my closest major city, and the Peace Corps house will be a place to come to meet other volunteers from the region and take a break from work.

The road from Bamako to Kayes is in great shape, paved and pothole-free almost the entire way. Eight of us made the trip here in a Peace Corps car last Sunday... it was a little cramped but the smooth road made for a comfortable trip. After driving ten hours to get to Kayes, we had to wait another two hours for a ferry to take us across the river. A Peace Corps volunteer, Andrew, welcomed us to the Peace Corps house. He cooked up a great Mexican meal, complete with steak, veggies, rice, beans, and soft tacos. The perfect ending to a long travel day!

The Peace Corps house in Kayes is really nice... it has a full kitchen, a few bedrooms, a TV and DVD player with a ton of movies, a library, and a computer with high-speed internet. The bathrooms have flush toilets and showers! It will be nice to come up here every few months for a mini-vacation.

We are back in Kayes now after four days in Kenieba. We will be venturing out soon to explore the city and get our bus tickets for the trip back to Bamako tomorrow morning. More on Kenieba in the next blog post!

Site Assignment!

It has been a very busy week here at Tubaniso, as we have been preparing for our site visit next week. The site announcements were really fun. They called out our assignments by region and put a post-it note with our name on the big map of Mali. It was cool to see where we will all be, spread out across Mali from Kayes to Mopti!

I will be working in Kenieba (pronounced kenya-bah), a circle capital (the equivalent of the biggest town in a county in the US) in the Kayes region of Mali (Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kéniéba). It is one of the furthest Peace Corps sites from Bamako, the capital. It will take us two days to get there! We will have to stay overnight at the Peace Corps transit house in Kayes. I was worried at first about how remote Kenieba is, but two trainees in the environment and education sectors are moving up there with me, and an environment volunteer has lived there for two years and will be there for a third year. I'm looking forward to working with them on secondary projects.

My primary project will be to work with an artisan's union to build their business capacities. The union is composed of different trade associations, including tailors, carpenters, auto and bike mechanics, radio technicians, welders, and blacksmiths. The union requested a SED Peace Corps volunteer to work with them for the past three years, but it has been difficult to get to Kenieba until recently. Apparently the road has been reconstructed and the road is now passable in the rainy season.

My job description is pretty vague, and it sounds like I will have a lot of work ahead of me to figure out what skills they currently have, what they want to learn, and what I can offer them. During the first three months, I will be conducting a need assessment and developing strategies to help the artisans build their business capacities. The ideas they came up with for me to work with them include: identifying the right training to improve their managerial and operational capacities; introduce illiterate accounting; conduct adult literacy and numeracy training; teach literate artisans how to use the computer and Word/Excel; train them in product development and differentiation. It will be interesting to see how motivated they are to learn all of these new skills. Also, it will be a long time before we get any formal training done; the first three months at site are focused on building relationships with community members and conducting the need assessment. But overall, it sounds like a good assignment for me and something I can certainly keep working on for 24 months.

Our homologues (Malian counterparts who we will be working with, especially in the first few months at site) arrived at Tubaniso a few days ago. My homologue is a woodworker and seems very nice. I have not been able to understand his French very well so conversations have been difficult thus far, but I hope that this improves as I learn more Bambara.

We leave for Kenieba on Sunday morning and will hopefully arrive sometime on Monday. We will be back in Tubaniso at the end of next week, so I will post my first impressions (and some photos!) of Kenieba then.

PS I added a little box on the right side of the blog that lists things I would love to receive in a care package. You don't have to send a package, letters/postcards are great too! Hopefully I will get a PO box in Kenieba since they have a post office there, but for now use the Bamako address. I can still get mail there even after I move out to Kenieba.

My address is:
William Budd, PCT

Corps de la Paix

BP 85

Bamako, Mali

If you're just sending little things, write zero value on the customs form (you can still put a description). It helps avoid hassle on this end when receiving the package. Thanks!

Second Stint at Homestay

It has been a good two weeks at my homestay site, especially since I am amoeba-free! I am making pretty good progress at learning Bambara... I have the greetings down, and can have a basic conversation with someone. The language class continues to be taught at a really fast pace, and it has been a lot of work to keep up. But with more practice and forcing myself to use Bambara (and not French) whenever possible, I think that I will have a good knowledge of the language by the end of training.

There was a wedding in my family last weekend, which made for an eventful week. My host sister came from Bamako to stay with us and brought her little kids, who were a lot of fun to have around. They were really entertaining and a good distraction for everyone (away from staring at me all the time!).

My cousin married a woman in the same village, and each family had a big ceremony, so it was a big day in my village. A Malian wedding is a lengthy occasion, with multiple ceremonies and celebrations. The ceremony that I attended started at 9 AM, when the bride and groom left for the mayor's office to sign the legal papers and officially become married. I stayed under the tent and waited with Baba and others for them to come back. The kids were really entertaining and I took a ton of photos of them while we waited for the bride and groom to return. They got back at around 10, with a huge parade of motorcycles and cars escorting them. Then the couple went to greet the elders and get their picture taken, which was a chaotic scene. Not long after that, the couple went into the house and then left. My host brother told me they went to the bride's family's ceremony. It's interesting how impersonal the ceremony was, with the couple nowhere in sight, but it was a fun time. The music was great and fun to listen to. We ate some delicious fried rice, meat and goyo (a bitter vegetable) for lunch. After some more dancing and great music, I went back to my house at around 2 PM. The ceremony continued through the evening and into the early morning. My host brother told me that the women have their celebration during the day, and the men celebrate at night. Overall it was really fun to attend the ceremony, and I'm glad I could be a part of the family's big day!

My host family had a shirt made for me to wear, which fit pretty well considering they didn't take any measurements! I really like it and have worn it numerous times since. I haven't had time to have clothes made, but look forward to doing that when I get settled in at site. On the clothing note... at the wedding, I noticed that the women kept changing their outfits. I found out later that they wear a lot of outfits to show that they are wealthy and can afford all these clothes.

In other news... I taught Go Fish (Taa Jégéminé) to my host siblings and their friends, and they loved it! They would ask to play after dinner almost every night. It was also great practice for me to ask questions in Bambara, as well as listen to their conversations and pick up on the numbers.

I can't believe we are halfway through Pre-Service Training already! It's incredible to think that I have only been in Mali for a month. The training has certainly been hectic and stressing at times, but I know that this pace will really slow down when training ends in September.

That's it for now... all the trainees are back at Tubaniso for the week as we prepare for our site visits. I will post in a few days about my site assignment, where I will be working for the next two years.

Photos are up at http://picasaweb.google.com/wbudd3/Homestay2

Amoebas

The Internet connection is not working too well today, so I'm going to make this a quick post.

My big story from homestay was that I came down with amoebas! Amoebic dysentery, to be specific. I had a bad case of diarrhea and nausea on Wednesday morning, and it got much worse on Wednesday afternoon, to the point where I couldn't sit in a chair without feeling like I was going to pass out. We called the Peace Corps medical officer, who sent a car to take me to the medical office in Bamako. I started taking Cipro and felt much better the next morning. When the test results came back positive for amoebas, I started taking Fasigyn. It is a powerful drug that kills the amoebas, but it also set me back a few days. My last dose was on Saturday night, and I am happy to say that I feel much better!

Amoebas caused me to miss two days of language classes, so I have been working on catching back up. In the long run, it'll be fine. As an optimist, I figure it's better I get amoebas early so hopefully it's out of my system for good! A lot of trainees have felt sick this week, so I hope I just got it and it's done.

We are headed back to our homestay villages tomorrow morning and will be there until August 10th. I find out my site assignment, the village where I will be working for the next two years, that night!

Younoussa Samaké

That's my Malian name, Younoussa Samaké! It took a little getting used to, but I'm warming up to it. My clue to help me remember it was to say UNICEF, without the F.

I figured I would approach this blog post with some sort of structure... a day in the life.

I wake up at 6:15 AM, usually to the sound of pigeons landing walking on my metal roof. If not, there's a rooster or loud donkey not soon after. I usually set my alarm clock anyway, just in case. At around 6:30, my host sister will knock on my door to get my bucket so she can fill it up with water and bring it to the nyegen. She comes back a few minutes later and says "ji sigi na", the water is ready. Then I head to the nyeggin with my towel, soap and shampoo and take a nice warm bucket bath. It's not a bath in a bucket, by the way... more like pouring water over my head with a cup. It's more comfortable and relaxing than it sounds. Then I head back to my room to get dressed.

At around 7 AM, I have breakfast with my host brother, Baba. I leave a teabag out for him to make the tea, and buys some bread to eat in the morning. I usually eat 3/4 of a baguette with butter, tea, and some ceri, which is kind of like oatmeal. Both the tea and oatmeal have a ton of sugar in them... Malians love their sugar!

At 7:40 I get ready for class, and leave at around 7:50. It takes about 5 minutes to get to class, but I leave early because I need to greet practically everyone I encounter on the way there. A Malian greeting is not a simple Good morning! either... more like Good morning! How was your night? How is your family? your father? your mother? How were their nights?. Malians can go through the entire greeting in 10 seconds or so, but I'm still hesitating with each question/response, so it takes a bit longer.

At 8 AM we all assemble in the LCF's (language and culture facilitator) commission, say our morning greetings and socialize. By the way, a commission is like the footprint of a family's house... the rooms are all around it and pretty much all social activity takes place there. It's basically the equivalent of a family room/dining room/living room/playroom. There are photos of my commission on Picasa. We then have language class until around 10, a half-hour break, then language class until 12:30.

We have a two hour break for lunch. By this time it's usually pretty hot outside, and if I'm not breaking a sweat already, I definitely am now. Lunch is typically fish with a vegetable called goyo in an oily sauce of some sort, eaten with my hands, of course. Usually my host brother is not home for lunch, so lately I have been bringing out my radio and listening to Radio France International on FM to try to figure out what's going on in the world. I haven't had any luck picking up the BBC on shortwave and I found Voice of America once, but it was just a country music show and the broadcast was cut at the end of the show!

Language class continues at 2:30 until around 4, when we either have a break or move to one of the trainee's commissions, where we have a cross cultural session. We have covered topics like respect for elders (there is a lot of respect for elders, not only your relatives but strangers too. In queues at a bank, government office, etc. they get to go right up to the front of the line), social ceremonies, and ethnic groups. The time that the afternoon class varies, but we usually have an hour or two to just relax. I might walk around town with some of the other trainees, hang out at a friend's house, or just head home and get started on homework.

Dinnertime varies, but it's normally sometime between 7 and 8:30. I take another bucket bath before dinner, as the sun is going down, which feels great. Some dinner meals have been couscous, rice, beans, and spaghetti, sometimes with fatty meat or fish. For the most part, I've enjoyed eating the food, though I don't love eating with my hands.

After dinner, I may join my host siblings in a game of cards. They love to play a variation of Crazy Eights... my family plays with just a 32-card deck, which makes for some quick rounds. I brought Uno with me, which was easy to teach them since it's so much like their game. They liked it! Thanks for the idea Daina!

I usually get ready for bed around 10, and I am trying to fall asleep by 11. Unless it has rained during the day, which luckily this time of the year is more likely than not, it is hard to fall asleep. The window that's literally 1x1.5 feet, and the metal door that's closed at night for safety and security reasons, makes for a hot room. Most of the time though, I can fall asleep after fanning myself for a while.

...then it all starts again! We have language class six days a week, with Sunday off. Last Sunday there was a wedding in my village which was fun to observe. I added a bunch of photos from the wedding to Picasa.

I added a box on the right side of the page called Friends' Blogs. I figured you might want a different perspective on life as a PCT in Mali, so for those of you who are interested, check it out. I added Daina and Sarah's blogs there too. Daina is currently a PCT in Nicaragua, and Sarah is an entrepreneurship fellow in India. They are good friends of mine from Babson.

I have an interesting story or two to share, so I will try to post them before I head back to my homestay village on Wednesday. I hope everyone is doing well back home, or wherever you may be reading this blog from! Thanks for leaving comments; it is great to hear that you enjoy reading my posts.

First 12 Days at Homestay

Well, the last twelve days have been quite an experience. If you'd like to see the photos first, the link is at the bottom of the post.

My host family is really nice, and my host brother has been taking care of me. He speaks French pretty well, so I have been able to speak with him and a little bit with some of my other siblings. My mom is also really nice but only speaks Bambara... I can say things like "Good morning", "I'm full, thank you for the meal", and "Have a good day/night". My Bambara is improving every day... we have covered how to greet people, ask What is this?, numbers, days of the week, describing family, and how to bargain in the market. It is a really fast learning pace, but I am doing my best to keep up and keep speaking Bambara whenever possible.

I took a ton of photos of the village, including the welcoming ceremony, my house and family, and at a wedding that took place in my village. The kids are really cute (some are pretty annoying though, saying "Toubabou", or white person, nonstop!) and it's fun to practice our Bambara with them. The link to the album is: http://picasaweb.google.com/wbudd3/Homestay1.

I plan to post again in a day or two with more detail about what I have been up to.

Training and Homestay Preview

It has been a busy few days here at Tubani So, the Peace Corps training center. We have been busy learning about Malian culture and customs, and how to keep ourselves healthy and safe. We move out to our homestay villages tomorrow morning! I just found out my homestay assignment, in a pretty big town of about 30,000 people. There are 11 of us in the village, all with different host families. My host father's name is Yaya! I will be learning Bambara, the lingua franca in Mali; the majority of the population speaks Bambara, so it will be easy for me to travel around Mali when the time comes.

The Peace Corps has a unique approach to language training, and based on the past experiences of volunteers here, it works. I will be taking language classes six days a week in the village with a Language and Culture Facilitator (LCF) and only a few other trainees. We will not be taking written notes at all during the lesson; it will strictly be learning by sight, context, and lots of conversation. Then we will return to our homestays at night, where we will practice interacting with our host familys in Bambara and completing small assignments by asking them questions. It will be a complete immersion, from the time we wake up, to walking around our village, to attending class, to eating meals with our family. This community-based training will be a great way to learn a new language, in my opinion. If all goes well, I will be a Bambara speaker in just a few weeks!

During one of our cross-cultural sessions late this morning, some big intimidating clouds appeared above the trees. The class continued as usual for a few minutes, but when it was apparent that it was going to pour, some of the trainees ran back to their huts to grab their laundry off the clothesline. I stayed in the hangar (a thatched hut with screens as walls, about 30 x 30 feet) and watched the storm blow through. It was a huge rain storm with some big winds... we got pretty wet, but it cooled everything off and the rest of the day was very comfortable. It was interesting to see how the weather dictates life here in Mali; a passing rain storm can change the course of a day.

Malian families eat their meals around a large metal bowl with the meal inside, scoop up a bite in their right hands, and with fingers out, bring it up to their mouths, and slide it into their mouths. To prepare for our homestays, we practiced eating with our hands at lunch yesterday and today. It is forbidden to use your left hand when eating, or doing just about anything. This is because Malians use their left hand to wipe themselves after using the "nyeggi", or pit latrine. So it makes sense not to put their left hands in the food bowl!! As many of you know, I am left handed, and was worried when I first arrived that it would be difficult for me to eat. But it worked out fine... I used my right hand to pick up the food without thinking about it. So I should eat well at my homestay! The food has been great at Tubani So: lots of potatoes, vegetables, meat and yummy sauces. It will be interesting to see what I will eat at the homestay... probably less meat and more grains.

The blog will be dormant for the next two weeks while I am at the homestay village. I can't wait to be immersed in Bambara and Malian culture! Thanks for all the comments by the way, it is great to know that you are reading my blog and enjoying it.

PS A new Peace Corps director was just nominated by Obama today, Aaron Williams, a RPCV from the Dominican Republic. He seems like a great choice to lead the Peace Corps. It will be interesting to see the direction he takes this great organization. More information about him: http://tiny.cc/n2lv0

PPS Unfortunately no photos with this blog post... I brought my camera to take photos of eating with our hands, but left the film in my computer! I will definitely have some from my homestay village to share.

Arrival and First Day of Training

After a looong trip overseas, 65 brand new trainees and I arrived in Mali last night. It was a hectic scene in the arrivals hall, with a few hundred impatient passengers prying their bags off the tiny conveyer belt and pushing their ways through the crowd. The Peace Corps gave us pieces of yellow yarn to put on our bags before we left (a PC tradition since the 60's), and it was a huge help when only a few of us could get bags off of the belt. It took us a good hour to squeeze our way through the X-ray baggage screener (very strange), get out of the building and dodge the taxi hecklers to get to the Peace Corps SUVs.

We drove about 45 minutes on some nicely paved roads (aka no potholes) through Bamako to our training center, Tubani So. One of the current volunteers showed two trainees and me to our hut to drop our bags and give us a quick orientation on the basics, like using the latrines and washing our hands, which water has been treated, etc.. After a quick snack/meet and greet in the dining hall, we were all exhausted and went to bed. It was hot falling asleep, but there's a nice ceiling fan in the hut and I think the jet lag helped me fall asleep quickly. Tonight might be a different story. We took our first malaria pill this morning, Mefloquine, and its main side effect is some vivid dreams, so that's something to look forward to tonight!

The first day of training was today, and it was packed with events and training sessions. It's all relative though, because there was still a good amount of downtime throughout the day. One of the key takeaways from the morning session was to slow down. Even at the training center, with a full schedule, I can tell that the pace of life is much slower here, and will be a welcome change from the states. We also had a medical orientation (don't brush your teeth with dirty water, only eat fruits/vegetables that have not been peeled, etc.), and started our cross-cultural training.

Some other things to mention:

- It is definitely a warm climate here, with temps in the 80's, bright sunshine, and very humid air. I don't think I've stopped sweating, and have had a ton of treated water to make up for it. I'm hoping that in a few days my body will adjust to the new climate. There was a nice breeze that really helped cool things down a bit, so I'm hoping that's a daily thing.

- There is electricity and wireless internet at Tubani So (the Peace Corps training center), so it will be easy for me to post to the blog when we are here. We leave for our homestays on Wednesday and will come back to Tubani So periodically during the 9 weeks of training. I will be able to post to the blog from Tubani So, at least a few times a month until September!

PS I uploaded some photos to my Picasa Web Albums account... this seems to be the method that works, so I'll add more there with each blog post. The link is: http://tiny.cc/nnKhg

PPS Bono wrote a great column on Obama's trip to Africa, it's a good read: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/10/opinion/10bono.html

Some Background Information

Sometimes I still can't believe that I will be on a plane to Mali in three days. Sure, I've been to Africa before, but to serve in the Peace Corps and help make a positive difference in the lives of Malians for two years is like a dream come true.

Here is some background info on Mali (from a fellow trainee, Matt):

Mali is a landlocked country in West Africa. It’s about twice the size of Texas and is home to Timbuktu, a major center of civilization during the 15th and 16th centuries. It was colonized by the French in the late 1800’s, but became independent in 1960. However, because of colonial influence, the official language is still French, even though many native languages are still prevalent throughout most of the country.

Mali is home to roughly 12 million people and is considered to be one of the poorest countries in the world. About half the population is under the age of fifteen. Just over half the population has access to safe drinking water and less than half have adequate sanitation. AIDS is a concern, but not to the extent as in neighboring countries. The big health problems are respiratory infections, diarrhea, and malaria.

Geographically, Mali is spread across several climate regions. The northern part is in the Sahara Desert. The middle is in the Sahel, a semi-arid region. The southern part is a sub-tropical savanna, where most of the population lives. Temperatures in the capital, Bamako, average about 86º F, but can be as high as 110º F or as low as 65ºF. There are three main seasons: rainy (June-September), cool (October-February), and very hot (March-June).

...and what I'll be doing there:

I will be training near Bamako, the capital, for the first nine weeks. It is an intensive training session; I will be learning a new language and culture, living with a homestay family, and training to become a Peace Corps volunteer. At the end of training (September 10th), pending the results of a language exam, I will be sworn in as a Peace Corps volunteer and move to the village where I will be working for the next two years. I will be settling in to my new community during the first few weeks, meeting the people, and determining how to best serve this community.

Right now my job description is vague. I will most likely be living in a city, small town, or large village of at least 3,000 people. I will be assigned to work with a municipality, non-governmental organization (NGO), microfinance institution, or a village association in the community. The ultimate goal of a business volunteer in Mali is to reinforce the capacities of individuals and organizations to that they can better contribute to the economic needs of the community. I don't know much more than this right now; I will find out what my job will be and which counterpart agency I will be working with in August. Until then, I will be focused on learning a new language and adapting to Malian culture.

That's it for now; I'm looking forward to enjoying my last day at GLP tomorrow and boarding a plane to Philly on Wednesday morning. After a quick Peace Corps registration, orientation, vaccinations, and a cheesesteak for good measure, I will depart for Mali with 75 other Americans on Thursday night!

After the Party

T minus 10 days to my departure for Philadelphia, then for Mali. My family hosted a big going away party for me last night, which was a ton of fun. We had around 70 people at the beach house, a huge pig roast, and some front yard gaming before the night was over. Thanks to everyone to could come, it was great to see you all. It was an emotional night, saying goodbye to so many family members and good friends, but I'm really happy I got to see so many of you before I left.

I'm headed home tomorrow to pack up all my stuff, then back to the beach for one last week. I'm worried that I'm way over the 80 pound weight limit, so this will be an interesting packing job. My mom is an expert packer, so I'm not too worried and gracious to have her help.

This blog is a work in progress. I'm sure there will be another rainy day before I leave to work on making it look a little better. I look forward to updating the blog as often as I can while I'm abroad.

Again, thanks to everyone who could come to the party. I will miss you all!

New Blog

Welcome to my blog! I accepted an invitation to serve as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mali, West Africa, starting this July. I will not be updating this blog very often before I leave.