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#