May She Rest in Peace

The end of 2010 was marked by some very sad news. My host mom, Fanta, did not return with her kids in October for the beginning of school because she was pregnant. She delivered the baby in November, a healthy baby girl, but there were complications following the pregnancy and she passed away a few weeks later.

Death is a difficult subject in any culture. Sadly it is a more common occurrence in Mali than in most parts of the world. The chances for a baby to live past five are shockingly low, and adult life expectancy is only 52 years. But for a mother to pass away, no matter the circumstance, is such a sad event for any family.

My host dad was able to see his wife in Bamako before she died. He chose not to tell the kids before returning to Kenieba a week after Fanta died, so he could tell them in person. I found out the sad news from one of my neighbors, and struggled not to tell my host brother and sister, two of my closest friends here, about their mother’s death. I was basically in denial, only telling my friends and family over the phone. It was a really difficult week, so much so that when my host dad returned to Kenieba, it was practically a relief.

On the night my host father returned, I went over to greet him and meet Fanta’s mother and sister, who came to help console the kids. It was a normal conversation; though I could tell something was wrong, nobody brought up Fanta’s death. I didn’t want to be the one to bring it up; I wasn’t sure how to do so or whether it was the right thing to do. Later that night, people started coming over to give their condolences and blessings.

The next morning, after my host siblings left for school, I came over to the house and my host dad broke the news to me. I gave as many Bambara blessings as I could remember, like may God have pity on the deceased and may her resting place be peaceful. We talked about Fanta, how much I enjoyed her cooking. I left as more people came over to give their condolences. Occasionally I would hear people bawling and just felt helpless. It was a tough morning.

Fanta’s sister brought her two year old daughter, Hawa, with her as well. Having Hawa around certainly lightened the mood. It was an interesting parallel, as there were also infants around when my grandmother passed away a few years ago. It’s amazing how certain things like the circle of life transcend cultures, mourning a family member's death while recognizing that these infants have their whole lives ahead of them.

For two days, the family fasted during the day in honor of Fanta’s death and to affirm their Muslim faith. It was a somber week. My host family is really special; they have three smart and polite kids, which I can’t say about most Malian families. To have their mother taken from them so suddenly is heartbreaking.

I feel the most sad for Tenin and Zakariyah, my host siblings. Though they are 16 and 12, they are still just kids with promising futures ahead of them. The oldest daughter is in high school in Bamako, and presumably Tenin and Zakariyah will follow her path and gain a good education. My host brother didn't want to tell anyone, not even his teachers, that his mom died. He had school exams coming up that same week, and he was worried that if more people knew, they would continue to remind him of his mother’s death. Though I protested when I heard that, my host dad said that it’s a private matter and his personal decision. Also, my host dad told me that the newborn baby will be brought up by his brother and his brother's wife in Bamako.

Fanta’s mother and sister stayed for about ten days, and Tenin and Zakariyah left with them to spend the school vacation with family in Bamako. It was nice to get to know Fanta’s mother and sister towards the end of their time here. We got to travel on the same bus together, as I left for the Christmas holiday at the same time. Hawa was really afraid of me when she first arrived, but warmed up to me and would even come and sit on my lap by the end. It was an uplifting ending to a very difficult time.

Tenin, Fanta and Zakariyah
(taken November 2009)

Thanksgiving & Waterfalls

For Thanksgiving this year, I travelled to the Sikasso region in southern Mali, where the Sikasso PCVs organized a big American thanksgiving feast and party. It was a big gathering as more than 60 volunteers came. It was great to catch up with friends, some of whom I hadn't seen in a year. We ate lots of good food for Thanksgiving dinner, including turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, and salad, and we enjoyed some pumpkin and apple pie for dessert.

We had a pool party and Mexican dinner on Friday, and then headed out to some waterfalls for a camping trip over the weekend. The waterfalls were really cool to see and we had a great time camping by them, eating tons of guacamole and hanging out around the campfire.

This is the transport we took out to the waterfalls, a beat-up Peugeot 504. It's called a sept-place in Senegal because seven people travel in it with a driver, but in Guinea and Mali they cram as many people into them as they can. I think we fit 12 people into the one I was in. It's definitely not a comfortable ride! This car has seen better days.

One of the many stops to fill up for gas or put some other unknown fluid into the makeshift engine.

The waterfalls.

Our campsite. Looks like an REI commercial!

Tabaski 2010

On November 17th, Muslims around the world celebrated a holiday called Eid al-Adha, or Tabaski in West Africa. It’s also known as Seliba, which means big prayer in Bambara. Here’s a short summary from Wikipedia:

Eid al-Adha is an important religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide to commemorate the willingness of Abraham (Ibrahim) to sacrifice his son Ishmael (Isma'il) as an act of obedience to God, before God intervened to provide him with a ram to sacrifice instead. The meat is divided into three parts to be distributed to others. The family retains one third of the share, another third is given to relatives, friends and neighbors, and the other third is given to the poor & needy.

This is the time when Muslims make the pilgrimage to Mecca, which they are supposed to do at least once in their lives if they can afford the trip. Here in Mali, Tabaski is the biggest holiday of the year. Families save up for the big feast and buy a sheep to sacrifice if they can afford it. About a week before the holiday, women started to braid each other’s hair, kids were fitted for nice new clothes, and animal herders came into town to sell their sheep. Families save up a lot of money for Tabaski to buy a sheep to sacrifice for the holiday feast.

This year my host family was fortunate enough to buy two sheep for the feast. Each day, my host brother would bring the sheep over and tie them up in my yard during the day. It was nice to have some sheep around for a week, since they ate all the overgrown grass and weeds that took over my yard during the rainy season. I didn’t get warmed up to the sheep since their days were numbered, but I did give them names: Taba and Ski. My host brother thought that was hilarious.

On the morning of Tabaski, all of the men in town went to a central location and all prayed together as the imam led the service. Once the imam had sacrificed his sheep, everyone could go home and do the same. Our sacrifice was especially graphic this year with two sheep to kill. As with tradition, my host dad delivered some of the sheep to an old woman in town, and also gave some to our neighbors.

The feast was plentiful; we ate two big courses during the day and another at night. As with every Malian meal, we all ate together, with our hands, in a shared bowl. We had salad, liver, fries, and bread for the first course, and Moroccan cous cous with onions for the second course. At night we had more meat and potatoes in an oily sauce. I haven’t been that stuffed in a long time!

Mali-Senegal Bike Ride

For my latest trip out of site, I decided to bike to the Peace Corps house in Kedougou, Senegal. It's 135 kilometers (85 miles) from Kenieba to Kedougou. It's actually the closest Peace Corps house to Kenieba, as Kayes (the house I usually go to) is 250 km and Kita is 210 km on a road under construction. There is public transport on most of the route, but I decided to ride my bike on the 85 mile route from Mali to Senegal.

It is not as crazy as it sounds; Senegal PCVs have ridden the route and stayed with me in Kenieba, including my friend from high school last January. The road is in perfect condition, recently paved and little to no traffic on the whole route. I counted a total of 20 cars or trucks that passed me the entire day. I had plenty of fallbacks in case I ran into bike trouble or was too tired to keep going; there are Peace Corps volunteers working in Saraya, a town two-thirds of the way to Kedougou. I also brought a ton of Power Bars and granola bars that my parents and grandparents sent over in care packages, and I took two Nalgene bottles and a couple half liter bottles with me, and had Gatorade drink packets to mix in with the water. So I was well prepared for the ride!

I got up before sunrise, strapped my backpack on the back of my bike, locked up the house and and began my ride to the border at 6:45 AM. The road is not paved yet on the Mali side but it's graded and well-maintained, and easy to bike on. The toughest part was shielding my face from the dust cloud that would appear after pickup trucks carrying construction workers would pass. The bridge workers head out to the construction site each morning. The bridge is not finished and the water level is too high right now to wade across (since rainy season just ended), so I had pay $3 to cross the river in a dugout canoe. I held on tight to my bike to make sure it wouldn't fall into the river!

The road on the Mali side

The bridge under construction at the border

Once I reached Senegal, it was easy riding. The road is in perfect shape, a two lane road with packed gravel shoulders all the way from the border to Kedougou. There are milestones at every kilometer for the 112 km from the border to Kedougou, so I knew how much farther I had to go every kilometer of the trip.

It was fun to greet people in Malinké as I rode by. Some were harvesting their peanut crops, others were walking to or from school, and others just relaxing under a tree. There were a few Senegalese on their bikes who rode alongside me for a few minutes and we chatted a bit as we went along. I arrived at Saraya at 10:45 AM, way before I thought I would. I refilled my water bottles, had bananas and Biskrem cookies for brunch, and decided to continue riding while the air was still cool. Well, it was only like that for a little while longer, and it started to get really hot in the middle of the day. I took lots of breaks to escape the sun (and give my butt a break!) whenever I saw a big shady tree to stop under. I put 60+ sunscreen on before I left Kenieba and reapplied at my lunch stop, but I still got pretty burned under the African sun!

Crossing the Gambia river right before I arrived in Kedougou

After a few big hills right at the end, I arrived in Kedougou just before 3 PM. It has been fun to hang out with the Peace Corps volunteers here for the past few days and compare stories about life in Mali vs. Senegal. The house is not actually a house but a cluster of huts: two sleeping huts, a kitchen hut, library hut, and a big hangar to relax under. They also just got a really cute puppy who's been fun to play with.

The new house puppy in Kedougou

I'm headed back to Kenieba at sunrise tomorrow morning, and will be there for a few weeks. I'll be leaving next for the Peace Corps Thanksgiving party (including a full Thanksgiving dinner... turkey, pies and all) which should be a lot of fun!

October Musings

Rainy season was still going strong through mid-October this year. It rained at least once a day in August and September and the rain continued to fall a few times a week in October. It’s nice because even though there are some hot days, a rain storm will come through and cool things off for a few hours, or overnight if it hits at the right time. Some of the rains are really intense monsoon-like storms that flood the roads and make it hard to get anywhere. And Malians traditionally don't do anything inside their houses other than to sleep and make babies, so they are anxious for the storm to pass so they can continue their daily activities.

School started back up the first week of October. I think both kids and parents were more than ready for school to begin. Especially by the end of summer vacation, the kids are just bored with nothing to do. There are few toys to play with, and like any group of kids, they find mischief really easily.

My host family came back at the beginning of October in time for school. It was great to see them again and great to eat lunch with them every day! Though it was fun to cook lunches for myself during the summer, it was a lot of work. I definitely have more respect for Malian cooking now! My host mom didn’t come back with the kids though, and a friend’s wife is watching the kids cooking for us. I found out indirectly that my host mom is pregnant. Pregnancy is a hush-hush subject here. On November 3, the day before I left for my Senegal trip, my host dad announced that his wife had a baby; it’s a girl! I almost asked what her name was, but remembered that the baby isn’t named until the baptism, held about a week after birth. There’s a chance that mom and the new baby girl will be back in time for Tabaski, the big Muslim holiday that will take place the week before Thanksgiving.

Work is really picking up now, with projects starting up all over town. I’m going to be working on projects with the food security committee, artisans’ union and associations, high school, and one of the primary schools, as well as teaching some English vocabulary classes to interested Malians. I’ll write more about all of these topics in future blog posts.

Cinquantenaire

Mali celebrated its 50th anniversary of independence, the “cinquantenaire”, on the 22nd of September. There was a big military parade (like the Bastille Day parade down the Champs Elysees in France) and huge choreographed show in Bamako which was broadcast on the national TV station. Out in Kenieba, there was also a celebration but it was poorly planned and not nearly as exciting. The women in the shea butter association invited me to walk with them in the Independence Day “parade”. They had been talking about the parade since July, and how we would give the mayor, prefet and other town leaders some of their shea butter as a gift.

Me with some of the shea butter association members

One of the members holding some of the shea butter they made

When I hear that there’s going to be a parade, especially one on Independence Day, I think of groups of people walking down the main road wearing the national colors and spectators watching and cheering. The parade in Kenieba was more like a rally, and could be best described as chaotic. It took place in the big square in the center of town, where I at least a thousand people were crowded around the perimeter to watch some dignitaries speak. You couldn’t hear them over all the noise of the crowd, and definitely not over the extremely loud rifle shots that would randomly go off every few minutes. When it came time to line up for the “parade”, we walked outside the square and crammed together like sardines even though there was nobody behind us. When it finally became our turn to walk in the square, we walked at a brisk pace to the VIPs and then walked right past them. We only realized after we passed the VIP tent that we didn’t give them their gift! So some of us walked against the parade to deliver the shea butter to the VIPs.

Independence Day ceremony in Kenieba

The VIP tent

After the parade I had a delicious feast with one of my neighbors (fried rice with meat, sweet potatoes and other vegetables, and fried plantains), and then went up to watch a soccer game that was apparently the championship game of a tournament that had been going on between different teams in Kenieba. It was surprisingly well organized with each team sporting matching uniforms, and there were referees and linesmen officiating. The field is another story it’s all dirt, with some dried up drainage streams that make it uneven on one entire side of the field. So the game was mostly played on one side of the field. After 90 minutes the game was 0-0, but there were some good shots and it was pretty entertaining. The game took place at the end of the day and the sun was going down so they couldn't play overtime. They finished the game two days later.

These photos of the soccer game were taken with my cell phone camera, so they're not the best quality:

In the end, it was nice to be a part of the 50^th anniversary celebration, which was certainly a moment of national pride. After all, celebrations like this only happen once every 50 years!

September Musings

After the trainees officially became Peace Corps volunteers at the beginning of September, I helped the new Kayes region volunteers buy stuff for their houses. I helped them navigate the labyrinth of the Kayes market and bargained for mattresses, kitchen supplies and other big items. It really put things into perspective realizing that I was in the new volunteers’ shoes this time last year, with everything being so new and foreign. Now that I’m so used to bargaining for just about everything I buy, it’ll be hard to transition back to shopping in stores when I get back to the states!

The new Kenieba volunteer and I headed down with Peace Corps transport for installation. It was a relatively quick trip down the long dirt road in the Peace Corps car, but the road was basically all mud since it was the middle of rainy season. The new PCV has been off to a great start, bonding with her host family and meeting her neighbors and potential work partners. She’s also working really hard to learn the language spoken in Kenieba, a mix of Bambara and Malinké. Both she and I learned Bambara during pre-service training, but it’s hard to keep using Bambara since it’s not the language spoken here. The structure is the same as Malinké but most words are pronounced differently. People can understand us when we speak Bambara, but they will respond to us in Malinké or the hybrid Kenieba language. It’s definitely not the easiest way to learn a new language! I’ve picked up key phrases in the time I’ve lived in Kenieba and can have basic conversations, but usually I resort to communicating with the men and some literate women using French.

There have been some issues with the new volunteer’s house, mainly the bats who moved in and don’t want to leave. Nobody lived in the house since June, so the bats made themselves at home. And they really are a nuisance, flying around inside and making noise in the middle of the night. A carpenter spent all day on the roof, closing up all the holes and making lots of noise which we thought would get the bats out. After the carpenter’s attempts were unsuccessful, a boy came in and killed some of the remaining bats. But there were still a few stubborn bats that just wouldn’t leave. Though it’s taken a while to persuade him, the landlord agreed to install wooden paneling to create a lowered ceiling. Right now, there is no ceiling, just the metal roof. Once the paneling is installed the bats may still get in, but they won’t be nearly as annoying if there’s a wooden barrier between them and the PCV!

The end of Ramadan was in the middle of September, and there was a big feast and sense of relief after having fasted during every day for 28 days in a row. I noticed this year that people who had fasted, the healthy adults, were noticeably thinner and weaker by the end of Ramadan. I can’t imagine that it can be healthy to fast every day for a month, but it is an important part of the Muslim religion.

Not much happened workwise in September outside of the usual chatting with artisans and other entrepreneurs in town. When I was in Bamako I bought plastic containers for the women to sell their shea butter in. We worked together on pricing and selling strategies for the 45 containers of butter. We decided that I had been keeping track of how much the women were spending each time they made shea butter, things like soap to wash the basins, the fee to use the grinder that turns the nuts into a paste, and firewood to heat the shea butter. We came to a consensus on how much to charge, which gave them a good profit on each container sold. It is more than traditional shea butter is sold for in Kenieba, but we all agreed that since this butter is high-quality, the higher price would be justified.

I Wish I Had a Duck Boat...

At the beginning of October I traveled down to Bamako to meet with staff at the Peace Corps office and do my mid-service medical exam. I travelled from Kenieba to Kayes on public transport, which wasn't too bad; it took all day but that’s par for the course. A few days later I traveled with Vieux in the Peace Corps car from Kayes to Bamako on the “southern route”. It was a long but uneventful trip, parts on paths that I never would have guessed a car could drive through. Vieux has been working for Peace Corps for many years and drives this route every month, so I had no worries on the trip down to Bamako. And having air conditioning and room to stretch my legs was so much nicer than taking public transport. The trip back on the same “southern route” from Bamako to Kayes is where the adventure really begins.

On the second day of the three day trip back to Kenieba, we arrived at a big swamp. The water level was pretty high the week before, but we crossed it then without a problem. Since the village is on the other side of the swamp, we couldn't ask anyone about the crossing, and we figured it would be as easy to cross as it was the week before. Well, Vieux drove into the swamp, but this time the water level kept getting higher and higher, above the wheels, above the engine vents, up the sides of the car! Now this is no average car; it’s a year-old Toyota Land Cruiser with a high clearance, made to get through the toughest of roads. But I can tell you that four feet of water will stop a Land Cruiser in its tracks. Vieux was smart enough to turn the engine off to keep it from flooding! So we were stuck, in the middle of the swamp, and we weren't going anywhere anytime soon.

Not long after Vieux turned the engine off, water began to seep through the floor of the car and a few minutes later, the inside of the car was flooded. We saved as much as we could including Vieux’s cassette tapes that were in the door pockets (yep, they still have tape players in these cars). I quickly remembered that my backpack was sitting on the seat behind me, which contained my laptop and iPod! Luckily I saved it before the water reached the seats, so the electronics were spared. My big backpack wasn’t as fortunate, and I ended up with a lot of wet clothes. Vieux left to get help from the village nearby, and I stayed in the car and rescued as much as I could from the incoming water.

After negotiating a fair price to help us get the car out of the swamp, (they wanted to charge $100 because they saw a white person in the car, but Vieux talked them down to $60), about 12-15 men came to help us get the car out. I got to steer while the men slowly pushed the car to the edge of the swamp. They couldn’t get it up the bank and completely out of the water. There was nothing close by for the winch to attach to either, so the car stayed in place until the mechanic arrived from the town a few miles away. Since the car was at the edge of the pond the water level was only a few inches high, so the water could slowly drain out of both the seats and the engine.

I got out of the car and waited in a family’s concession. By this point it was lunch time and they invited me to eat with them. It was not one of my favorite Malian meals: they call it nyé nyé kini, cornmeal with a gelatin-like consistency, and okra sauce with a snot-like consistency. Not particularly appetizing, but since we were going to be there for a while and didn’t want to offend the people who had just helped us save the car, I ate some of their lunch. I found out that only 200 people from 10 families live here, and the kids have to walk more than three miles and take a ferry across the Senegal River to go to school.

While we were waiting for the mechanic to come, we found out that the villagers had dammed the river! Since rainy season is coming to an end, they put up a dam to raise the water level in the swamp and create a pond. You can’t blame the villagers for doing this, as they can use the water for months to come. It only rains from June to October, so water becomes a scarce resource towards the end of dry season. It would have been nice to know this before entering the swamp!

All in all, we were in that village for about four hours before the mechanic showed up. He replaced the oil and did his magic, and soon after we were on our way. Obviously the car wasn't in perfect condition, and we even got a Little Miss Sunshine random beep going every once in a while. But miraculously we drove the car without any major problems the remaining six hours to Kayes, and continued the next day on the seven hour trip down to Kenieba.

After a nightmarish 24 hour bus ride from Kayes to Kenieba last October (the bus broke down and got stuck in the mud at least 5 times), and the deep swamp crossing this year, I've come to the conclusion that October is a tough month for travel in western Mali!

Catching up...

To all my loyal followers out there- I'm sorry for taking so long to update the blog! It's been a two months since my last post, and I have written bits and pieces of posts, but haven't put them all together yet. And the last time I was away from Kenieba and had Internet access, I wasn't feeling great. Luckily it was nothing serious but I got checked out just to be sure. There have been tons of cases of malaria here, like there are during every rainy season, and when I started to get fevers I wanted to make sure I didn't have malaria either! It turned out to be a viral infection and eventually went away.

Anyway, I have LOTS to write about and will hopefully be posting a lot in the next few days!

Tut tut, looks like rain

Rainy season is in full swing here in Mali. August is the wettest month of the year, and that was definitely the case in Kenieba this year. There’s a heavy downpour just about every day, and the road outside my house becomes a fast-flowing stream, at least until the sun comes out again. It’s been a challenge to keep my yard cleared of weeds and other fast-growing plants. I joked with my neighbors that I live in a forest, because I couldn't keep up with pulling out all the weeds! A bunch of kids helped me finally clear all of it out, but I still find myself weeding a few times a week. Another not-so-fun part of rainy season is the mosquitoes, which are a nuisance even in the middle of the day. Most of the year there are no mosquitoes in Kenieba, but they are out with a vengeance during rainy season.

The little footpaths around town are all grown in now… any open space has become a field of peanuts, corn or millet stalks. The cliffs around Kenieba are lush with vegetation, and there are even little waterfalls popping out from the cliff's edge. The weather is nice and comfortable most days, and I’ve even felt cold after a big monsoon comes through! I’ve gotten back in the habit of brewing tea in the morning, and even heat up some water for a nice warm bucket bath at the end of the day.

Eighty new Peace Corps Mali volunteers finished their training last week. There are a bunch of new volunteers in my region, including one who will be working in Kenieba. She had a great site visit in August, and I enjoyed showing her around, introducing her to my friends and work partners. Being her guide around Kenieba really put things into perspective for me, in terms of how well integrated I have become in the community, not only with the women's association and artisans I've done some work with, but my neighbors and other people I've gotten to know over the last year.

During the past few weeks most Malians have been celebrating the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. I'm sharing a link to The Big Picture blog again this year since it does a great job of illustrating how Ramadan is celebrated in different cultures all over the world. According to the Big Picture:

Muslim men and women across the world are currently observing Ramadan, a month long celebration of self-purification and restraint. During Ramadan, the Muslim community fast, abstaining from food, drink, smoking and sex between sunrise and sunset. Muslims break their fast after sunset with an evening meal called Iftar, where a date is the first thing eaten followed by a traditional meal. 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 Thursday, September 9th.

In Mali, people are awake before dawn to eat a big meal and drink enough water to last them through the day. Though they say they are used to fasting during the month of Ramadan every year, it’s still a struggle for some people to make it through the day. They become agitated and anxious in the late afternoon, when they begin the countdown to sunset, when the imam signals over the loudspeaker that they can break the fast. Typically their evening break-fast is a sweet porridge called ceri. Then they head to the mosque for a special Ramadan prayer, and eat a larger meal at around 11 PM. Since they’re up again at 5 AM, they’re not getting much sleep during Ramadan, which must add to the agitation and anxiety! But it is a yearly ritual that affirms their Muslim faith. It is humbling to observe the Malians who continue to work and go about their daily business during Ramadan, because I don’t think I could possibly keep working without food and water all day! I should also mention that kids, the elderly, and adults who are pregnant or sick do not fast during Ramadan. People are not forced to fast; it is a personal choice, a decision between you and Allah, so some adults will still sneak a snack or at least drink some water during the day.

I am headed back to Kenieba tomorrow, in time for the fête on Thursday. I’ll be celebrating the end of Ramadan by eating a big feast with my homologue’s family. My host family is still in Bamako as school doesn't start here until October. So, one more month of cooking lunches for myself as well!

I uploaded some new photos of Kenieba in the rainy season; you can view them by clicking the photo:

Shea Butter Formation Photos

I wrote about the training in a blog post back in May, but realized I hadn't posted photos yet. Click on the photo to view the album:

Tilefana tobi don o don

English translation: Cooking lunch every day

Since I moved to Kenieba last September, I have been eating lunch with my host family every day, enjoying some of the great food my host mom prepares. By Malian standards, she's a really good cook... most of the time we have white rice with a sauce (peanut sauce, leafy sauce, onion sauce) and cooked vegetables. At the beginning of July, my host mom, brother and sister left Kenieba to spend summer vacation in Bamako with relatives. They will be back in time for school at the end of September. So until then, I am cooking lunch for myself each day.

I was never much of a cook back in the states… I was a big fan of Trader Joe’s heat up and eat meals on the few occasions that I cooked for myself. Unfortunately there are no Trader Joe’s on the African continent, so I've been forced to teach myself how to cook. Cooking lunch every day for the past month or so has been an adventure. It has been fun to go down to the market and pick up some vegetables and other ingredients, then figure out what I can make with them. Unfortunately, since dry season just ended and the rains are starting up, it’s not the best time of the year to buy vegetables. Since Kenieba is so hard to get to, the only produce available is what is grown in the surrounding area. Some food products come from Bamako, but not easily perishable goods. For example, you can buy South African apples and Cote d’Ivoirian pineapples. We also get eggs, onions, garlic and potatoes from Bamako.

The vegetable that has been available in Kenieba recently is eggplant, so I use that with onions, garlic, various spices and tomato paste to make a decent vegetable marinara sauce. Combined with spaghetti that I get at the store next to my house, it makes for a good Italian meal. Thanks to sauce packets, I've also made some pesto with fresh basil. Basil is wild here and seems to sprout up everywhere, especially during rainy season. On some days you can buy lettuce and cucumbers, so I've made a decent salad with a balsamic vinaigrette (thanks to the balsamic vinegar sent over in a care package... thanks mom!) I've also bought green peppers in the market, and used onions and eggs to make a decent omelete.

When I tell people that I cook my own lunches, most everyone (especially men) can't believe that I cook for myself. Gender roles are very strict here. I have never seen a Malian man cooking meals, cleaning up a house, or doing other household chores. His role is to work in the fields, raising crops and bring in income for the family, essentially putting food on the table. It's great to tell them about how men and women share these duties in the US, how men sometimes cook and clean, and some women have important jobs and bring in money for their families.

Gold Mining in Mali

I came across an article today from Reuters, "Randgold's Loulo mine in Mali to miss 2010 target", about one of the gold mines close to Kenieba, the one that my host dad and some of my friends actually work at. Though the headline is discouraging, the last paragraph was eye-opening:

"Seeking to take advantage of high metals prices by developing mining, which recently overtook cotton as the country's biggest export earner, Mali is looking to introduce a new mining code later this year."

Gold mining is the dominant economic activity in the region of Mali where I live and work. Many people who live there go out to distant, uninhabited areas and mine for gold using traditional methods with rudimentary tools. Some people strike it rich, but most are lucky to make even a little money after a week's work. I haven't had the opportunity to visit one of these traditional mines, but my friend Dan wrote a great post about his visit to a mine near his site.

Large scale mining companies from South Africa and Canada operate gold mines in western Mali and have bought the mining rights to large swaths of land with plans to expand their operations there. The cheapest way to mine the gold is open pit mining... basically digging up the earth to mechanically and chemically extract the gold. All of this digging creates a pit hundreds of feet deep and easily half a mile across (google open pit gold mining for an idea of what it looks like). Typically only 1 to 2 grams of gold comes out of each ton (1,000,000 grams) of earth extracted.

One would hope that all of this gold mining would bring about positive change to Kenieba and the villages near where all of this land is being dug up and processed. In reality, this is not entirely the case. Prices for goods are inflated in Kenieba, because sellers know that people have money here and can afford to pay the higher prices. The large scale mines employ hundreds of people, many of whom are Malians (like my host dad). The problem is, they are not always employing the local population... many people come from other parts of Mali and other African countries to work at the mine, and people from the villages and towns near the mines are left unemployed. A lot of this has to do with cronyism, but in many cases the local population lacks the skills needed to work at the mines.

So when I read that paragraph about gold becoming Mali's largest export, and that Mali is looking to introduce a new mining code, I hope that the right decisions are made about the code so that the local population benefits from all this gold mining taking place near where they live. I have been told that the Malian government takes about a 15% cut of all the gold mining revenue at these big mines. This has got to be a huge sum, considering Mali is Africa's third largest exporter of gold, and gold still trades close to record highs. But I'm sure that the way it works right now, Kenieba and other towns in the region don't see much of that money, if any. Who knows where the 15% ends up.

The large scale gold mines are here to stay, for at least the next 10-20 years. They are all expanding their operations, and will need more workers. If anything, the money that the Malian government gains from the contracts should be disclosed, and it should be declared where the money ends up. The Malian government should encourage more local employment. People in developing countries like Mali should be directly benefiting from the valuable resources being taken from the land around them.

Tout Seul

There has been a big change since my last blog post. The two other Peace Corps volunteers in Kenieba both decided to end their service early and return to the US. One of them had already left by the time I got back at the end of June, and the other came down on Fourth of July weekend to pack up his stuff and leave. I became the only American in Kenieba, which is already in an isolated area of Mali (the closest American to me went from being a 10 minute walk to a full day trip away). On top of that, my host family left to spend their summer vacation with relatives in Bamako. For the next few months, I am the only person living in the compound. I used to eat lunch with my host family every day; now I am cooking lunches for myself.

Obviously, I’m not tout seul (all alone), but it felt like that at first. I had to reevaluate my situation… am I crazy to stay here for another year? If it didn’t work out for the other guys, maybe this isn't for me either? Could I keep living here, being the only white person in a town of 12,000 people? Life is certainly hard… after three months of oppressive heat, it is rainy season now and the mosquitoes, crickets and other creepy crawlers have come back to life. As I've mentioned on here many times, public transportation to and from Kenieba is an ordeal.

I had some tough days, but I worked through it, forcing myself to reconnect with friends and work partners. What’s keeping me going is the friendships I’ve developed with Malians. I enjoy hearing their stories and sharing stories of life in the US with them over countless rounds of tea. It's humbling to witness everyday life here, especially the women who work seemingly nonstop to cook meals, do household chores, and earn money for their family during their precious free time.

The work I am involved in will hopefully bring a new source of income to some of the women and give new skills to some of the businesspeople in Kenieba. I feel I am becoming a stronger person, overcoming these challenges and accomplishing the work I came here to do.

Back from my Eurotrip

I’m back in Mali after a fantastic vacation in Europe, visiting Paris and Grenoble, France with by brother and spending 10 days in Switzerland with the rest of my family. It was the perfect mental medicine after 11 months in Mali… it was so nice to be in the developed world again, enjoying amenities I’ve grudgingly lived without (machine washer and dryer, dishwasher, refrigerator, no daily power outages, cell phone calls without a noticeable delay, a toilet!). Although it’s really hard to compare Europe and Mali, I found some of the differences to be really interesting:

• I couldn’t believe the cats and dogs I saw on the streets of Paris, not only how well trained and well treated they were, but how big and healthy they looked. Malians themselves aren’t getting a nutritious diet, so their animals certainly aren’t getting enough to eat. The cows in Switzerland are huge! No cows look like that here in Mali, literally skin and bones.
• After living through three straight months of 110°+ weather in Mali, I forgot what comfortable weather felt like. It was so nice to put on a light fleece when it was cool, and actually enjoy a nice day outside under the sun. Some people asked me why I wasn’t more tan… I definitely avoid the sun in Mali when it’s so hot outside!
• I had forgotten how long the days are this time of year in Europe. Since Mali isn’t far from the equator, the length of the day only varies by about an hour all year long. You get used to the sun setting by 7:30 every night. The first night I was in Paris, I went to the Louvre in the evening, figuring I would leave once it was dark outside… the sun didn’t set until 10:30 PM!
• Whenever I would greet someone like a cashier or shopkeeper in Paris, I would say “Bonjour!” and get a “Bonjour!” reply, like you would in any French-speaking country. But when I would ask “ça va?” I would get some funny looks. Some people didn’t know what to say, like they were actually shocked to hear that I wanted to know how they are! You can’t just say hello to someone in Mali, you ask how they are, how their family is, did they sleep well or how was their day, etc.
• I didn't notice this one until I got back to Mali... Africa Time. It took me a little while to get used to all the downtime again... in Mali, things run on West Africa International Time, aka WAIT.

It was a strange feeling getting off the plane in Bamako, returning to what most people would say is an exotic place, but a place that has become my home. I didn't hesitate to greet people in Bambara, search for a decent taxi from the chaotic arrivals area of the Bamako airport, and crack some superficial jokes with the taxi driver about eating beans that make you fart. Though it’s still really hot here, it’s good to be back. It was good to see my friends again and share some good Swiss chocolate with everyone.

Two days after I arrived back in Mali, I attended an engagement party in Bamako for a friend of mine, Laura (her blog is Oulesse-what?). I was honored to be a witness at the engagement ceremony. It was fun to attend a Malian party and know the people who were being celebrated, which is not usually the case for me. There was a great feast of lamb, fried rice, sweet potato and eggplant, and delicious marinated lamb kebabs. We also had chicken and fries for dinner. It was a delicious Malian meal and a great party that I won’t soon forget!

It is hard for me to realize that two weeks from now, I will have been in Mali for a full year. I’ve certainly had my share of highs and lows, achievements and frustrations. I was hoping the rains would be in full force when I returned, but it seems to be about the same as when I left… rain every few days to cool things off, but hot and humid on the days it doesn’t rain. The monsoon-like rains should be here in full force soon, which will be great to cool things off, but make it very difficult for me to leave Kenieba! I can’t wait for the landscape to become green again… it’s a spectacular sight that I definitely took for granted last year.

The new Peace Corps Trainees will arrive next week to begin their intensive cultural and language training, the same training I received last year. Some of the trainees may end up working in the Kayes region, maybe even down near Kenieba, so I am looking forward to meeting them when they come out for site visit in August. It’s also an exciting time for the second year volunteers as they are finishing their two year service and will be leaving, a few each week, over the next few months. As for me, it’s one year down, one to go!

Shea Butter Formation

I was very busy during the last few weeks in Kenieba, preparing for, organizing and running a shea butter formation for thirty-six women that took place on May 12, 13 and 14. (Quick French lesson… training = formation, female trainer = formatrice). My funding proposal was approved in mid-April and the money arrived in my account soon after. When I returned to Kenieba at the beginning of May, I met with the women’s association who worked with me to host the formation. There was still a lot of work to do, from buying the materials that were needed at the training, to planning food and drink needs, and making sure the women would contribute some of the necessary supplies. When I mentioned to my friends around town that I was holding this formation, they suggested that I invite women from rural villages to come. That was logical because the shea trees (where shea nuts come from to turn into shea butter) are all out in rural areas, and women in Kenieba will not be as interested in making shea butter because they have other things to do in a big town. So I handwrote four invitations that were delivered to four villages around Kenieba.

All of the preparations seemed to be going smoothly, as the funds had arrived in my account 10 days before the formation was scheduled to begin and the women who were helping me prepare completed the things I had asked them to do. I should have been more suspicious when everything was going so well, because two days before the trainer was scheduled to leave Bamako to come here, I received a call that the formatrice would not be coming out to Kenieba for the formation. She needed to fill in for another trainer at a shea butter formation near Bamako. I was shocked to hear that only four days before the training was to begin, I wouldn’t have a trainer to run the training! A miscommunication resulted in the formatrice thinking that the dates of my training had not been set, so she thought she could hold the training a few weeks later. I had already bought most of the supplies and sent out invitations to four villages, and booked a flight to Europe the last week in May, so postponing the formation by a few weeks was out of the question.

After a stressful 24 hours of trying to decide if I should cancel the training, hold a “conference” where the women could at least come together and discuss their experiences with shea butter, or maybe try to run a basic training myself, I received a call that someone could still come out to Kenieba to hold the training, but the formation had to be pushed back by a few days to accommodate her. Though I was relieved that the training was going to happen, I frantically tried to get the message about the changed dates out to the women in the rural villages, hoping they wouldn’t have to sit around doing nothing for two days! In the end, four of the women did come early, but they didn't mind sitting around. I'm sure it was a nice break from their usual hard work at home.

Anyway, the formation went really well, much better than I expected. All of the sixteen women that I invited from rural villages made it. Unlike practically every meeting in Mali, the shea butter training started on time every day. Even on the first day, the mayor showed up at 8 AM, and gave some opening remarks. The women dressed up in their nicest clothes, and I was happy to see that they took this training seriously. I also donned some nice Malian shirts that a tailor friend made for me.

Some of the women were literate and could speak some French, but most of the women could only speak Bambara, and most couldn’t read or write. Each day, the trainer had all of the women sign in using their fingerprint. The training was held in Bambara, so I couldn’t understand everything that the trainer was explaining, but I could catch some words here or there. Sometimes I would ask the formatrice what she had gone over. But it was obviously more important that the women could understand the formatrice and learn from her.

The women respected the formatrice and listened intently to what she had to say. She split them up into two groups and had them write down the ways that they traditionally make shea butter. After comparing the groups’ steps, the formatrice explained that to make high quality shea butter that can be sold to bigger markets (and sold for more money), they need to make shea butter a different way. She wrote down the steps, explained them numerous times, and even had the women repeat the steps to make sure they remembered and understood them. She would call on someone and ask her to recite the whole process of making shea butter. I could tell some of the women were nervous about doing that. It was like being called out in class and the teacher asking you to recite something you just learned… not easy! Also, if she caught any of the women falling asleep, she would call on them and ask what she had just said, basically embarrassing them! There were men who came to observe the formation, and when some of them were falling asleep, she even asked them to leave! That’s not typical here either, a woman telling a man to do something. But the formatrice had some status as she was a professional trainer who came all the way from Bamako.

As the formation continued into the second and third day, I noticed that the women from both Kenieba and from the rural villages were really interested in this new process for making shea butter, and seemed motivated to actually use it in the next cultivating season. It inspired me to help them during the rest of my time here. If they become well organized and take the proper steps to form a cooperative, they could sell large quantities of pure shea butter to buyers in big markets, and generate income for themselves. Although there is a long way to go between the end of this training and the first sale of shea butter to an exporter, I think the women have the potential to make a lot of money doing this, if they are really motivated and interested in doing it. I’d like to help them form a cooperative, get each women’s association the supplies they need to make good shea butter, and help them find initial buyers.

It was great to see these women so interested in a new way to bring in money for their families. I plan to gather all of the women’s association presidents together when I am back in June so we can discuss the next steps. If they are still motivated, and want to put the hard work in to creating this high quality shea butter, I want to work to help these women improve their lives and find a new source of income, other than subsistence farming and dangerous gold mining. Forming and developing this women’s shea butter cooperative will likely become my primary project for the rest of my time here, and I’m excited to help them get started.

This One's For Future Mali PCVs

It’s hard to believe that this time last year, I had just arrived back east from an awesome ski season in Park City, Utah, and received my invitation to join the Peace Corps in Mali that summer. One of the first things I did after receiving my invitation was discover the Peace Corps Journals web site. It is a cool insight into the lives of Peace Corps Volunteers already serving in Mali. I really enjoyed reading those blogs, realizing that I would be going through some of the same experiences. When I arrived at training in Mali in July, getting to meet those PCVs was like meeting celebrities! One of the reasons why I decided to start this blog and make it publicly accessible was to pay it forward: give Peace Corps Mali invitees the insight into my Peace Corps experience so far.

One of my biggest concerns in preparing to leave for Mali was how to stuff the next two years of my life into 80 pounds of luggage. Believe me, it isn’t easy, but an important thing to understand is that you can get pretty much everything you need here (some toiletries and electronics are the big exception), and you will adapt to a simpler lifestyle and get used to not having all the luxuries of home. Here is a list of things I brought that I couldn’t live without. It’s definitely not a complete list, and it’s in no particular order, but I hope it can help you decide what to bring:

• Deodorant – you can only get spray deodorant here, not sticks, so bring a few and plan to have some sent over in the future
• Exofficio underwear – Their slogan “17 countries. 6 weeks. And 1 pair of underwear” is completely true. Though I didn’t bring one pair of underwear, the few pairs I brought have been so nice to wear and really easy to clean. They are still in great shape 10 months in, and they are really comfortable. The best part is that Peace Corps invitees and volunteers get a big discount on Exofficio clothing directly from the company. Check out the Volunteer Discounts page on the Peace Corps Wiki for more information.
• Power adapters, but not Power converters. Adapters are the little things that change the shape of a plug from American to European. Converters are big boxes that convert electricity from 220 to 120 volts. One person’s converter caught on fire in the Paris airport before we even got to Mali. Be sure to check the electric things you are bringing though to make sure they work with 220 volt power (one notable exception is hair clippers, bring a converter if you're bringing those), but any digital camera, laptop, and iPod charger will work here with just an adapter and without a power converter.
• REI Bug Hut… I didn’t use it at first since it was rainy season when we arrived, but now that it’s hot and dry season I have been sleeping in mine each night for the past two months. It’s nice to have an easy to set up, durable, and portable mosquito net tent. They are kind of expensive though… some will be available here from PCVs that have finished their service and are looking to get rid of their stuff.
• Pillow from home – This was one of the best things I brought with me, a nice down pillow. Get one of those Eagle Creek vacuum pack bags that sucks all the air out, and it will be easy to pack the pillow. Eagle Creek sells vacuum pack bags and other packing supplies, and you can get a discount from them too (see Peace Corps Wiki).
• Hostel sheet – this is basically a regular bedsheet stitched together to make a lightweight sleeping bag. I’ve used this so many times, especially during the first two months when you’re travelling all the time between homestay and the training center.
• A roll of duct tape – always comes in handy
• Carabineer – cheap and you'll find a use for one here, I use mine to carry my Nalgene on my backpack
• Headlamp, with extra batteries for it (especially if they’re AAA)
• Nalgene bottle – don’t leave home without at least one of these
• Fly swatter – people gave me a hard time about bringing one but personally, I like having something at quick reach to kill annoying insects. And it doesn’t take up any room in your bag.
• Decent towel – I brought a big quick-drying travel towel that works great. It’s also hard to find a good towel here.
• A good knife – not necessarily a leatherman, but a basic pocket knife would be helpful. In terms of kitchen supplies, bring a good kitchen knife too. You can get everything else here, and once you’re installed at your site, you either get to inherit the previous PCV’s kitchen tools (which I was fortunate enough to do), or buy what you can in the Malian market and have other little stuff sent over
• Keen or Chaco open toe sandals –you will wear them all the time here. See Peace Corps Wiki for discount.
• iPod, with some basic speakers – If you have an iPod, you would be crazy not to bring it with you to Mali. Mine has held up against all the elements (dust, dirt, heat, curious Malians) pretty well so far, and it is invaluable for all those long trips to and from my site. I was so happy I brought my iPod Touch with me, not only for the music but also for a quick way to check my e-mail when there is Wifi (like at the Peace Corps training center and regional houses), and also for all the cool games and other apps. It’s pretty cool that I can download the entire day’s issue of the New York Times and read it on my way back to site.
• Laptop – this is a tough one, because you can definitely do without one here. I was really happy I brought mine. I am fortunate to be in a site with 12 hours of electricity each day, so I can use my laptop at site. But even if you end up in a site that doesn’t have electricity, you can leave your laptop locked up in your closest Peace Corps regional house, and use it for accessing the Internet, syncing your iPod, and getting work done. Most of the Peace Corps houses in Mali have wireless Internet access. And having your own laptop makes getting your activity reports and project proposals done here a ton easier. I wouldn’t go out and buy a new expensive laptop, because it will be ruined in the dust and the heat, but if you already have one, I’d recommend bringing it. Definitely bring some sort of a case or bag that will protect your laptop from the dust when you’re not using it.

I would be happy to answer any questions you have about getting ready to leave, life in Mali, etc. My e-mail address is wbudd3@gmail.com. Unfortunately I only have access to the Internet once a month, but I will respond when I’m back online. Good luck packing, enjoy the rest of your time in the US, and eat lots of cheese, ice cream, and other favorite foods!

Surviving the Hot Season, One Mango at a Time

The hot season is in full force here in Mali, meaning the temperature reaches at least 110 degrees Fahrenheit every day. A friend of mine explained the weather here perfectly: it literally feels like you’re in a blow dryer. It's really hot, dry air. It is still cooling off at night, at least, so I am able to sleep comfortably in my bug hut (mosquito net tent) on the patio outside my house. Since the days are getting longer, I have been waking up earlier. It's nice to be up early though, so I can take advantage of the cooler weather in the morning before it gets uncomfortably hot!

I changed my daily routine a bit to avoid being out in the heat of the day. After breakfast, I ride my bike to the center of town, chat with various artisans, shop for produce in the market and run any other errands I might have to do. Then I head home in the late morning, take a bucket bath to cool off, and wait for my host family to call me over for lunch. After lunch, we all sit under their big tree and socialize while we make some tea. They showed me how to brew tea so I've been the tea maker recently. It is a long process of steeping the leaves, adding the right amount of sugar (though everyone has a different opinion on how much to add), and serving in little tea glasses. There are three rounds of tea, and each successive round is sweeter and not as strong. It is a pastime for Malians to brew and drink tea, often a few times a day. After lunch and tea, I spend the rest of the afternoon in my hammock, reading and taking a nap, and waiting for the sun to start setting. Then I'll take another bucket bath, and enjoy the breeze from my floor fan when the electricity kicks on at around 5 PM. The hot season has been difficult, but not unbearable. I have found ways to stay cool and keep myself distracted from thinking about the heat too much.

One positive thing about hot season is that it is also mango season. Literally millions of mangoes are ripening all over Mali, and everyone is enjoying the mango harvest. I have been invited to pick mangoes with my friends in Kenieba. It is a fun time, picking the low hanging fruits and trying to pick the mangoes high up in the trees. Each time I've come home with a ton of mangoes that I share with my host family. They are so sweet and juicy... I'm eating 2 or 3 mangoes a day. I'm a happy PCV :)

I have been planning a big project the past few weeks, a shea butter and soap training for 30 women in Kenieba the second week in May. My sitemate Jim and I submitted a proposal to Peace Corps, to pay for a trainer to come from Bamako and teach the women how to produce high quality shea butter, and also teach them how to make soap using shea butter and other locally available ingredients. Mali is one of the only countries in the world where shea trees grow, and shea butter is in high demand in cosmetic products all over the world. Unfortunately Mali has a reputation for making bad quality shea butter in the past, but one of the Peace Corps' big initiatives in Mali is to change that reputation and empower women with income generating activities, or IGAs. Once the international road is finished next year, the women in Kenieba will have the opportunity to sell their good quality shea butter to buyers in Bamako and Dakar. I have been planning this training for a while now, meeting with the women, searching for prices for the various supplies and materials and organizing the logistics for the trainer's trip out to Kenieba. There is still a lot of work to do, but hopefully the funding will come in time and it will all go well.

After the training, I am headed to France to visit friends, and then meeting my family in Switzerland. I am looking forward to a few weeks in the developed world, out of the extreme heat, and can’t wait for the adventures to come! The rainy season normally starts at the end of May, cooling things off and making the countryside green again. So by the time I am back from Europe in June, it should be more comfortable again in Mali!

Senegal Trip

Sorry for the long gap between blog posts... I have actually been busy, meeting with artisans, attending a regional training in Kayes, and working on a funding proposal, amongst other things. More on that later, but first, my awesome trip to Senegal in February:

Last month, a big group of Peace Corps Volunteers from Mali took a 24 hour bus trip to Dakar, Senegal, to participate in the West African Invitational Softball Tournament, or WAIST. There were a lot of teams participating, including US Embassy workers, missionaries, high school students, and even a Senegalese team. They were in the "competitive" league; the Peace Corps teams from Senegal, The Gambia and Mali participated in the "social" league. We had a really fun time playing our games. I actually played pretty well, got a hit each time I was up, but my fielding was sub-par. It was fun to play softball with other Americans and feel "at home" again, if only for a weekend!

Dakar is a beautiful city, set on a peninsula right on the Atlantic coast. After being in Mali for 7 months, I felt like I was in a European city. Dakar is so much different from Bamako, the capital of Mali. It is much more developed and there is a lot more investment going into the infrastructure. In Bamako you're often walking down a road with open sewers, domesticated animals (like goats and sheep) roaming the streets, and no sidewalks! The neighborhood where we stayed in Dakar was the exact opposite, and it was right on the ocean, a nice bonus!

We also ate really well in Dakar. Not only were the concessions during the games good (hot dogs and pulled pork sandwiches!), but the dinners were out of this world (at least my world in Mali): steak with Roquefort sauce, thai food and tapas. It was so much better than rice and sauce! Not to mention the ice cream from N'Ice Cream in downtown Dakar, some of the best I've ever had. The three scoops of Strawberry Tiramisu, Ferrerro Rocher, and Passion Fruit ice cream were AMAZING. I happily took on the challenge of eating all of this ice cream in one sitting!

After the weekend of softball and fine dining in Dakar, some of us headed down the coast to a little beach town called Toubab Dialaw. We stayed at a cool hotel right on a cliff overlooking the ocean. I was lucky enough to be in the first cab to arrive at the hotel, and got to stay in a fun little house that opened up right on to the ocean. Check out the photos:

It was so nice to spend a few days here, relaxing on the beach, reading some books, hanging out with friends and enjoying the great weather. One morning we walked up the beach to a fishing community and helped the men pull in their catch. They dropped a huge net about 1000 feet into the ocean. They were happy to get our help pulling it in; it was a lot of work! It was fun to see what we caught... lots of sea snakes, an octopus, and a bunch of little fish and jellyfish were in the net. We also ate well in Toubab Dialaw; there was a great little creperie down the beach, and we got some delicious snacks at a little grocery store, like gruyere cheese with sausage and bread, green olives, and BBQ Pringles.

After our stint on the beach, I split off from my friends who headed back to Mali, and continued to the Kedougou region of Senegal to visit a friend of mine from high school who is a Peace Corps Volunteer there. He's the same friend who came to visit me in Kenieba in January. It was a great visit; we spent a night in his thatched hut and hiked out to a 300 foot tall waterfall. He has a huge host family of 20 people, most of whom are little kids. There's rarely a dull moment around his house! It was neat to visit a Peace Corps Volunteer working in a rural village, too. It is such a different environment than the one I am working in, a town of 15,000 people with cell phone service, electricity, and running water. I'm living in a six room concrete house with a tin roof and wooden ceilings. My friend's house is literally a one room hut, about 8 feet in diameter. He has to fetch his water from a well a few minutes away from his house. There's no electricity at night, just solar panels to charge his cell phone battery, and lanterns and head lamps to use at night. He does have cell phone service, but there are not many places left in the world that are out of range!

I also got to spend a couple days at the Peace Corps house in Kedougou, the regional capital, before going back to Kenieba. I got to meet the volunteers there and check out some of their projects. My friend has a radio show on the community radio station once a week, so I got to sit in on the show and introduce myself on the air. They played some American music and a recording they had made of the Princess Bride in Pulaar, the local language there. They even invited the community to call in and talk to them on the air! It was pretty impressive, and well received by the community. I also got to talk to a volunteer about a shea nut and peanut sheller machine that he helped build. It is pretty inexpensive and very efficient, so I think I might try it out with some associations I am working with in Mali.

The trip back to Kenieba was pretty easy, since Kedougou is only 150 kilometers away, and most of the trip is on a brand new paved road! The trip that I usually take to get back to Kenieba, from Kayes, the regional capital, is 250 kilometers away on a dirt road. So this made for a much better and more relaxing trip back. All in all, it was a great vacation, a real escape from work and life here in Mali. I have a good feeling I will be back to Senegal again in the future!

January Recap

Another month has gone by, and with each progressive month, I am becoming more productive and more integrated in my community. I have been making it a habit to visit different artisans during the week, drinking tea with them and socializing. Sometimes the conversation turns to work, but most of the time we talk about lighter topics, typically cultural differences between Mali and the US. It has been great to build these relationships with the various artisans in town. This is definitely a good first step towards doing some beneficial projects together in the future.

The transport out of my site is difficult any time of the year. It took us 12 hours this time to travel 150 miles. Yep, an average of 12 miles an hour, crawling up a rough dirt road in an old rickety coach bus, stopping occasionally to repair flat tires and other mechanical issues. It's an exhausting trip. I got in on Monday and have been recovering, getting some work done and getting ready for a fun weekend in Dakar, Senegal. The West African Invitational Softball Tournament is held every President's Day weekend in Dakar, and Peace Corps Mali will be fielding three teams this year. I had an old baseball glove sent over, so hopefully I will get to play! There are fun events planned each night as well. Afterwards, I'm looking forward to some time on the beach and hanging out with friends before heading back to Kenieba. I'm also looking forward to escaping the heat that's creeping into Mali. It has been over 100 degrees here every day, and it's only getting warmer.

The Africa Cup ended a couple weeks ago, and unfortunately Mali had a pretty poor showing, despite that surprise comeback in the opening match against Angola. When Mali was still in the tournament, Kenieba was fired up on game days. I came across a little parade through the market one morning, with guys dressed up in funny big hats and flag capes, playing their drums and getting the crowd fired up for the game. There were little Mali flags hanging like banners across the main street, like we have at home on Fourth of July. It seems as if there is more national pride when the Mali national team is playing a big game than on their Independence Day! Unfortunately Mali did not play well in its other two games and was out of the tournament after the first round. But we continued to watch the Africa Cup until the final match at the end of January. The electricity in town would turn on an hour early, at 4 PM, so that people could watch the games. They definitely love soccer here!

At the end of January, a friend from high school came to visit. He is a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal and his site is not far from mine. It’s a funny coincidence to grow up in the same town in the states, and end up so close to each other in remote West Africa! It was fun to show him around Kenieba and learn about how his Peace Corps experience has been. It was also interesting to compare daily life in Mali and Senegal. For example, there are lots of warthogs and bushbuck (african deer) roaming around the Senegalese plains, but there are none in Mali as far as I've seen. It seems like most wild animals have been hunted out in Mali (including lions that used to roam through Kenieba years ago!). They are protected in national parks in Senegal, so they thrive there. Senegal also benefits from the tourism; since the animals are there, foreigners pay big money to go on a safari and see these animals in the wild. I am planning to visit my friend on my way back from Dakar, so I will get to see his site before he finishes his Peace Corps service this spring.

I’m off to pack and get ready for this big weekend in Dakar. Though I’m longing for winter and the snow at home, I’m looking forward to a fun weekend and relaxing on the beach for a few days.

Bonus Post!

I'm still in Kayes... been here for almost a week now! My friend Jeremy and I waited 7 hours at the bus station last Thursday for a bus back to Kenieba, and never left. Jeremy wrote about the not-fun experience on his blog.

We made the best of our extra days in Kayes. We went to a reggae concert on Saturday night and watched Mali play Angola in the opening match of the Africa Cup soccer tournament last night. Mali staged an incredible comeback, down 4-0 with less than 15 minutes left, to tie Angola 4-4 by the end of the game. When Mali scored the fourth goal in the last minute of the game, all of Kayes (and I'm sure all of Mali!) erupted in loud cheers. Everyone was shocked by the huge comeback, and Malians were celebrating in the streets for hours after the game ended. One guy was doing cartwheels and flips! There's a good article from BBC News about the atmosphere in Angola on the night of the opening match.

Hopefully you won't be hearing from me again for a while, and I actually get back to Kenieba tonight!

Christmas Recap

Happy New Year everyone! 2009 has been an incredible year, from skiing in Utah to moving to Mali and completing six months of Peace Corps service here. Although it has been a challenging year moving to one of the poorest countries in the world, I am fortunate to be working here with the support of my friends and family back home. 2010 is shaping up to be another exciting year; I am looking forward to starting some good projects and continuing to do good work here.

December has been a whirlwind month, and I am very ready to get back home to Kenieba. I've been away for 38 days, most of it for Peace Corps training but also enjoying the holidays with friends. I am anxious to get back and see my host family and other Malian friends, and stop living out of a backpack again!

Unfortunately I have some sad news to share... I checked in with the guy who has been watching my house, and he told me that my cat died, apparently of natural causes. Though I was not a cat person before coming to Mali, I enjoyed having Kalo as a pet. I'm definitely considering getting another cat, if the opportunity arises. I'm sure my house will feel different without Kalo around.

On a more positive note, I really fun time celebrating Christmas with a bunch of friends up in Dogon Country. We stayed with a Peace Corps volunteer, and both she and her work counterpart did an awesome job hosting us. We had a great time exploring her village, enjoyed an awesome Christmas feast, and completed an incredible three day hike.

The terrain there is actually pretty similar to Kenieba, a long chain of cliffs that dominate the landscape. The Dogons live on top of these huge cliffs, literally on top of the rock. There is not much dirt or arable land, so their houses are made out of the rocks. They are really impressive; the photos explain it much better. It is definitely not as green as Kenieba, as you are not far from the Sahara desert up there!

One drawback was that the region is a big tourist attraction and we were there in the height of the tourist season. The kids were pretty obnoxious, asking for a gift, candy, a pen, or our empty water bottles all the time! I must have heard "Monsieur, bouteille" at least a few hundred times, to the point where I thought my name was Mr. Bottle! The average tourist loves to give gifts to the kids, so they expect some from any white person who is walking through their town. That is something I am glad to not have to deal with in Kenieba. We are way off the tourist track down there!

Luckily we saw Dogon Country beyond the average tourist's perspective. The first few nights we stayed on the roof of the Peace Corps volunteer's house. It was an incredible experience to sleep under a blanket of stars and wake up to a beautiful sunrise each morning. The three day hike was probably the best hike I have ever done. We descended the cliffs and traversed across the plain through various villages, and worked our way back up the cliffs on the last day. The pictures explain it best. Here's the picture link: http://picasaweb.google.com/wbudd3/Christmas2009#