June 2011
Dear Ms. Abraham’s Class,
Thank you for all of your letters! I really enjoyed reading them. I’m sorry I don’t have time to respond to every single one, but I answered some of your questions in this letter.
Most of you asked about what the weather is like here. Mali is in a region called the Sahel, which is next to the Sahara Desert. The weather is hot here all year round. The seasons here are different than in the United States; there is a rainy season (June-September) and a dry season (October-May). I have adapted to the hot climate by drinking lots of water, staying in the shade and resting in the middle of the day. There is a “cold” season (December-February), but it only gets cold at night, kind of like a cool night in the summer.
Malians’ favorite sport is soccer. There are some organized soccer teams and tournaments, but mostly the kids kick the ball around the neighborhood. There are no grass fields in Kenieba, so they play on the street or on a dirt field. Malians also like to play basketball. They also like to play games such as marbles, a card game similar to crazy eights, and checkers. Some kids like to make toys out of old trash. For example, one of my neighbors used an old sardine can, four plastic bottle caps and a piece of string to make a little car! I have also seen kids use old plastic bags and sticks to make kites.
There is a lot of different music in Mali. I enjoy listening to the traditional music. There are different instruments like the kora, a big stringed instrument. There are some singers called griots (gri-oh) who tell stories through music weddings and other social events. Malians love to hear songs of the stories of their ancestors. They also like to listen to American pop music from artists like Akon, Jay-Z and Rihanna. I even heard a Justin Bieber song the other day!
I live in a concrete house that has electricity, but it’s only on part of the day. I have to fetch water from the faucet on the street, do my own laundry and wash the dishes by hand, and go outside to go to the bathroom. The houses are close together in my neighborhood. My host family lives right next door. The center of Kenieba, where the market and bus station and big stores are located, is a five-minute walk away. There are little shops in my neighborhood that sell bread, condiments, cold drinks like Coke, and cleaning supplies.
I eat lunch every day with my host family and dinner most nights of the week with my work counterpart and his family. When I cook dinner for myself, I usually make American food like spaghetti with tomato sauce, salad, and mac and cheese. Malians typically eat porridge for breakfast, rice and sauce for lunch, and a different grain (like fonio, millet, or cornmeal) and sauce for dinner. There are vegetables for sale in the market but they aren’t available all year round. So sometimes we will eat vegetables with the meal and sometimes there won’t be any. The families are poor and can only eat what they grow. It’s hard to feed a big family, and most families have four, six, eight or more kids! They also eat fruits that are in season, like bananas, mangoes, papaya, and watermelon. My favorite food is called djouka, which is a mixture of ground up peanuts and a grain called fonio. It kind of looks like cous cous, and it is really good.
The school system in Mali is similar to ours in the US. There is an elementary school, middle school, and high school. Students need the same kinds of materials for school as you do, like pens, notebooks, textbooks, and homework! The schools are very crowded in Mali though, with three students sharing a desk. There are normally 50 to 100 students in a classroom. The school day starts at 8 AM and breaks for lunch at 12 PM, and then there is an afternoon period from 3 to 5 PM. The school year starts in October and ends in June. During summer vacation, which is rainy season here, the kids help plant and harvest their family’s crops in the field.
I knew when I joined Peace Corps that I would have to get used to a different lifestyle. It was hard at first to get used to living here, but my host family has been really nice and helpful. The Malians in my neighborhood were shy at first, but now they’re really friendly. They love to call out my Malian name, Younoussa Samaké, and greet me when I’m walking down the street. It has been hard to be away from home for a long time, but I have kept in touch with my family and friends back home since I’ve been here. I have also become friends with many Malians and other Peace Corps volunteers.
My job here is to help the local business owners and women’s associations improve their businesses. When I first arrived in Kenieba, I spent the first three months meeting the business owners and getting to know the mayor and other important people in town, and talked about how we could work together. I have worked the most with a women’s association that makes shea butter. Shea butter comes from the shea nut, which grows all over Mali. Shea butter is used in a lot of cosmetic products and is really good for your skin. I organized a training event so that they could learn how to make high-quality shea butter that can be exported.
Here are some photos:
This is my house and one side of my yard. Every day after lunch, I spend time reading under the hangar on the left.
This is a photo of me with some of the members of the women’s association I work with. They’re holding buckets of shea butter that we sold last year. This year they’re planning to make more than 100 pounds of shea butter!Well that’s it for now. I hope you’ve learned a lot about Mali. It is certainly different from life in the United States!
Have a great summer!
-Billy
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