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#