One more month what.

Yes. Only one more month until vacation in Spain which I am totally looking forward to. I can’t wait. Next week the new volunteers will have their site visit. I will be hanging out and helping the person in Koila Bamanan for the first few days next week. 

Now I’m in Segou eating. I really came in to work on a project proposal but I’m going to need to have a village meeting before I submit the proposal. So I could go back today but I think I’ll wait for tomorrow. Why not. It’s a little difficult now to get things done because most of the village is in the fields planting millet and getting the rice fields ready. 

Not too much has happened in the last two weeks. My friend Baro Sisi came back from Bamako, finally, after about 4 months. I was surprised to find out that she was staying in the exact same  neighborhood in Bamako as the Peace Corps Bureau and the hotels that we stay at are located. Crazy. So it was good to see her after such a long time. I learned how to make Zambe, a rice dish made with lots of oil, tomato paste and what else but MSG. I bought all of the ingredients and then cooked it with Nafee who is Lassanas 2nd wife. I also got a sweet picture of him wearing his Barack Obama apparel that my mother bought him in Washington, DC. I left my camera in my mud hut but I will post them sometime next week.

I have been running lately though. I bought a nike running band while I was in DC and it’s great because I have no idea how maybe miles or how far a mile is in village so the running band records the time, distance, pace, and calories burned during your run. 

Today I made Banana Bread that I’m going to take and give my host family. It should be good.

My American Vacation

As many of you do or do not know. I took a medical evacuvacation July 11th through July 23rd. It was the most awesome trip since I’ve been a PCV. While I was fine before I left to America the US government wanted to make sure I was extra okay, because of me living in Africa. It turns out I’m fine. But anyways I was in Washington, DC for this time and it was amazing. 

I hung out with many other volunteer from around the world that were in DC for very different and more important reasons than my own. It was great to share very different experiences with other volunteers.

I have more to post of course but I will wait until later.

For now. I leave you with the cutest girl in the village of Makili. My best friend, Safia-tu.

 

Safia-tu needs to come to Ameriki with me

I ni Fa ma. It’s been a while.

So It’s been a really long while since I’ve written but now I feel the need to. 

April was In-service training and Easter which was a pretty good time. It was spent in Djoro in the mission. It was awesome. Amy and I went to Church in the morning, it was all in Bambara, so little was understood, but we got called out at the end to introduce ourselves but we did well. Then we ate couscous which is deliciously awesome.

May was went the fish farm people came to work in Makili. It was a lot of intense questioning of the village and it made me realize that because I live in the village I already know way more than the EWB team does. I know what’s going to work and not work and it felt good. But most of all it felt good when it was over because I got my house back and I didn’t have to translate for anyone. On a downside there was no more tasty rice dishes from Nafi. Boo. So now I just eat millet stuff everyday. Which I’ve gotten used to. April was also the month of running which I forgot to write. I ran almost every day for like 30mins to an hour. Then I did a four hour bike ride Saturdays (2 hours both ways) to Djoro Market, which is so awesome it’s like a mini Segou. I can find coke there. Really Really cold coke. Colder than I’ve had in America maybe even. Oh it’s so great. So here are picture of the EWB team, I just tried to upload and failed maybe later. We’ll move on. 

June- It’s still just as of this morning so I suppose I’m not too behind on my bloggings. June has been start running again month. Because the EWB was here most all of May I just ate a lot of rice and didn’t run. So I’ve been running and staying at site! I was a site for darn close to a month. With an exception of coming back in to segou the second saturday because my gas tank was empty. I had to ride all the way to Djoro with this twenty pound tank on the back of my iron horse. Bike. It was challanging. Then I got transport from Djoro to Segou to get in changed, picking up things for sloppy joes at the same time and then heading back to Yollo the very next day. It was pretty great, the sloppy joes. I think I didn’t even put it on bread. I just ate it straight. 

Also the first week I was back in Makili, my village, A kid comes to my house to give me a cat. This cat is tiny maybe a month old and shy and scared and just hides in the corners of my house. Anyways so i kept it for a little over three weeks until Tuesday when I gave it to the kids of Makili. This was, of course, after a desired attempt to pawn it off on some other family. No takers, so I gave it to the kids of Makili. When in Bambara translation means that they probably killed it to eat it. But I didn’t cry because I knew that was going to happen and this cat one, was crazy, two I think it was sick, and three it peed in my house and made me sneeze like mad. I’m sorry Allah for sort of contributing to killing an innocent (peeing in house) cat. Also June was the month of watching TV at site. That’s really watching it on my iPod. But still pretty awesome to watch episodes of Arrested Development or HOw I met your mother in the middle of Africa. 

July- What to do in July. Well. July fourth is a big day because it equals a party in Peace Corps talk. This year as most years I think the parTAY is in Manantali which is in the Kayes region. It’s a long ways away and I’m not sure If I will make the trip. Most likely I will be staying in the Segou regions to dance. This is the shirt that i found in Djoro Market for the occasion. I think it’s pretty funny and aweosme.

 Barack Obama the Super Hero of U.S.A. It’s so great. Do they have these t-shirts in America or maybe it’s just a West African thing. 

 

I apologize for saying awesome like a bajillion times. As I said earlier I’ve been watching How I met your mother and if you watch one episode you will know what I mean. 

 

So July=Fourth of July Fest. July 10th I will be meeting the newbies at the aeroport in Bamako. The airport day last year was one of the scariest days since I’ve been in Mali. It was like a mad dash to find our bags at the airport then we were shuffled into buses to take us all the way the the training center across Bamako and told how to use a teapot as a substitute for toilet paper. I’m excited that I not only get to go to Bamako, and meet the new kids but I also get to do the teapot demonstration. 

I suppose that’s it for now.

My life as of April 17th

Well. I usually say not much has happened. But wait for it wait for it. This time it’s different. Things have happened in Mali!

I was in Village for about 4 weeks. I went to Segou the weekend of March 28th to say goodbye to one of the volunteers who early terminated. It was sad but a good time was had by all and I hear that now he’s doing great in america. 

I’ve been cooking a lot more in village, which may not seem exciting but when village food is millet “stuff” Cooking is great. I’ve been making fajitas a lot because I like meat and I can by green peppers and onions in village. I’ve also learned how to make tortillas with flour, salt, baking soda, oil, and water. So that’s great too. 

The garden project is underway and the wells are being dug as you read this. Probably. Hopefully in the next few weeks that project will be finishing up in time for Engineering without Boarders to get here. Estimated time of arrival is April 30th and they will stay for about 3 weeks. Unfortunately they will not be digging the pond this trip but work hopefully will start around the same time next year. 

We had another In-service training that ended up being a waste of time but a good time to see people we haven’t seen in a while. We had some dancing fun one of the nights and everyone had a good time. 

So I’ll go back to site Sunday and stay until the EWB arrives. It should be an exciting trip for them. Right now though I can’t think of anything except lunch.

New things

Nothing super exciting has happened recently. I fixed the hanger of my house that was falling down. Now it’s not. 

I have the fencing for the women’s garden coming tomorrow or sometime this week and the fish pond EWB keep sending me countless emails about the size, shape, and location of the pond. So I have work to do. Finally. 

I’m pretty sure Baiousu from my family’s house, around age 5, has whopping cough. Almost but not positively sure. It’s a really bad cough that usually leaves him bent over and vomiting. It’s sad but I’m not sure it’s life threatening, or so the internet says. 

People have been asking me what kinds of jobs they can get when they come with me to america. What? No you can’t come with me to america. And there are no jobs for you. We have machines to farm and vending machines to sell cokes. Especially if the american people can’t find jobs, there aren’t going to be jobs for malians with little or no schooling, who can’t speak french or english. For some reason they think there are way more jobs in america, because people have way more money. They thing Barack Obama is going to give all of the American people and Malians jobs in america. N ma famu. I don’t understand.

Barack Obama fini clothes!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So this is the Barack Obama cloth that peace corps helped us find. It kind of looks like Barack I guess and the design isn’t really all that attractive but I got them made into a sweet pair of pants. They look like this

Sweet pants what?!?!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I got them made in four different fabrics. Pretty sweet I think. They have an elastic waist which I paid extra for but it allows me to eat as many pizzas as I want in Segou and as little toh or (millet stuff as mother dubs it) in village. It’s pretty great. 

Sad news. My packages from my mother have not made it to the Segou post office yet which is disappointing. I’m heading to the post office today to check once more before I leave for village. Now it’s about 8:30 so I’m thinking maybe around eleven or noon i’ll head to the PO and check. Then I’ll head off to the Gare to hopefully find a ride back to site early so I don’t have to sleep at Satu’s house in Yollo because I would rather sleep in my bed. 

More Sad news. My cat Mufasa has been murdered. What? Yes. Some people already know. I told the people of the facebook world about this and they were shocked with outrage. At first I didn’t want to know who the killer was. I thought it would be a bad idea to know. Then I had to tell Kyle about it. “Kyle I left for in-service training and while I was in Bamako someone killed Mufasa (to him Mr. Jones) and ate him. I’m so sorry”. I’m so sorry I said. He was a upset, after all it was his cat just as much as mine. He said we should get some chickens out of the deal. At least two he said, from the killer. So now I’m like Lassana who killed my cat? He doesn’t know but I know he can find out. I’ve also been asking the kids. They reply that it was Modibo that killed and ate my cat. Usually I wouldn’t believe kids but they were probably with “the killer” when he did it. Modibo denies the accusation according to Lassana but would the children really lie about that?

I found a chicken raising book and I’m, in the next month or so, planning on building a chicken coop. Why? because the only chicken eggs I can buy are 30 km away in Diorro. Then maybe my village will follow suit and will be able to sell the eggs in the market for a profit! What an idea!

Well I just finished sending a video email to mom. If it ever sends. Internet here is a little less that fast. We’ll see. And I’m going to drink some more instant coffee now (yummmm, sarcasm) and hang out before I leave. I miss you all terribly. Love you.

Alright. I lied more. I thought I would tell you about the weather in Mali right now. It’s only about 87 degrees right now. It’s also only 9:30am. The temperatures for the week range from 98 degrees to 110 degrees. I would like this time to post pictures of the Malian airconditioning system. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stop with the pictures already. What? I know. But posts with pictures are just more fun right? Photobooth is just so addicting. Technology where is it in Mali?

And this is it. Malian Air Conditioning. How great huh?

Sunday Morning

Amy and I got into Segou yesterday afternoon after waiting for hours to find a ride from Djoro, despite it being market day. We hung out at the bureau for a while and then headed to the Djoliba Hotel for pizza night. What pizza? Yes. It’s expensive. 4 000 cfa, about 8 US dollars. Which I suppose many people reading this might not think that’s a lot but when your monthly income is 136,000 cfa around 275 US dollars it’s a lot. 

Today is Kyle’s Birthday so we are heading to the pool in town for the day. Before that Amy and I are heading to the Tailor to get some sweet pants made. 

I’ve been sporting this headwrap all morning. This is what Malian women wear everyday all the time. I imagine it getting pretty hot but I rarely wear it. Amy thinks I’m crazy, true. Well I’m off the tailors. I’ll write more about projects and whopping cough later. 

This is me tying my headwrap.

Lookin good.

Pictures

 

This is my homologue while we were traveling to Babugu for a market day.

These are kids outside my mud hut.

 

Aminata, My friend from my village

This is the Niger River in Djoro.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After Praying on Tabaski

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the tree on the way to Djoro.

 

 

I thought I would post a couple of pictures that I thought were worthy of postcards or National Geographic magazines. This one to the right is a picture of Lassana on our way to Babugu’s Market day. It was a 15 km ride and their market didn’t even have bread. 

This is Amy and a whole bunch of donkey carts on the way home from Djoro’s market, which is the best Market ever because they have bread and cocacola. 

These are kids from my village. Sometimes we sit in my concession. They are all Lassana’s children except for the one in the middle, her name is Umu. and she is Lassana’s grandaughter. 

This is Aminata and she lives in my village. She is somehow related to Lassana, although how I’m not sure because the families are so big and just as confusing. 

This is the Niger River in Djoro, as the caption says. Amy and I meet usually every Saturday. Djoro is great because they also have really good cell phone reception. 

These are the men leaving the praying place on the first day of Tabaski in my Village. this two-day celebration is the most festive and important holiday of the year for many Muslims. I like this holiday because they have rice tours these two or sometimes three days, where you walk around to different peoples concessions and eat rice with them. Also everyone gets new clothing made.

This is a tree just outside my village on the road to Djoro. This is the tree that signals turn right not left!

Last Year

 

I was preparing for Africa last year.

I was looking through my iPhoto pictures today and came across this one.

 

Sometimes I miss America.

A CD I made

\ Dear Caroline. Here is your CD. I hope you like it. If you don’t it’s okay. You can tell me you do anyways to make me not feel bad.

1.     King of Carrot Flowers Part 1 – Neutral Milk Hotel. This song is happy and you can dance to it. Also If I could be the Queen of Carrot flowers that would be awesome because I like to thing that Jeff Mangum would be the King.

2.     Fresh Feeling – Eels. I like the strings and I want a fresh feeling. Also the first time that I heard this song I was in Buffalo Wild Wings. I remember sitting at the table next to this lady that was speaking a different language and trying to figure out which one but not being able to but settling on Russian because that was my best guess. Also that day I ate chicken and Asian Zing sauce.

3.     Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl – Broken social scene. It’s weird and I had to look up the lyrics the first 5 times I heard it but it’s lovely.

4.     Me and Jesus don’t talk anymore – Beulah. I love Beulah and the only chance I got to see them live I was graduating from high school and my best friends went but I didn’t. and then they broke up.  The band, not my best friends.

5.     Terrible Angels – CocoRosie. They incorporate children’s toys into their music. How awesome.? Kind of a sad song but beautiful.

6.     Crushed Bones – Why?.   Why? Not

7.     Monster – You Say Party! We Say Die!. I listened to this a lot in my car and while designing my storm water retention pond for senior design. Its great and I’m not sick of it still. It’s my number 2 most played song on iTunes.

8.     Tumbleweeds – Ohbijou. I can’t pronounce the name, which made me listen, which made me fall in love. Also it’s a good song to play Mahjong to.

9.     Ocean Man – Ween. No comment

10.  Travel – Thao. I listen to this song in my mud hut a lot in October, of this year. Another good song by her is Bag of Hammers which I have and if you like this I can give you more. My favorite part. “But I took a million looks, how they ate me up made me heavy and for what?”

11. Erasing Constellations – Paleo. This guy wrote one song a day for a whole year. I bought the CD. Many of the songs are not good as you can imagine. I like this one though. Kind of like I’d want to be in the Music Video if one exists, I don’t thing one does yet.

12. Sadie – Joanna Newsome. She plays the harp. If the internet was good I would have you look up her playing the harp because it’s sweet.

13. Proofs – Mates of State. I love Mates of State. They are happy and have a CD titled Team Boo.

14. Lazy Eye – Silversun Pickups. I saw this song when I was running at the gym

15. Fake Empire – The National. In the way that KitchenAid standup mixers remind me of Christmas this song reminds me of Calc 4.

16. Salesman at the Day of the Parade – Rogue Wave. I listened to this song while listening to #10 but not at the same time, just at the same time.

17. Jolene – Ray Lamontagne. He has an incredible voice. Plus the live version is just way better. Why was I not at this concert?

18. ABC –The Pipettes. XTC?

19. Police and the Private – Metric. I just can’t wait to sing this in my car

20. Supermellofied – Peter and the wolf. Peter and the Wolf was a band that this boy I liked gave me the CD.  Now he is getting married. But this is a new song. It sounds different from the last CD in the way that it doesn’t sound like it was recorded on Garage Band, Which is good in someways.

21. Chills – Peter Bjorn and John. I don’t know, but this is a good dancing or sewing song.

22. Your Rocky Spine – Great Lakes Swimmers.  I was trying to remember where I heard this song, It might have been an OC song.

23. My Slumbering Heart – Rilo Kiley. Audrey just showed me this song like 4 days ago. I’ve listened to it many times since. I think it’s great. Thank her.

24. Badlands – Bruce Springsteen. The Boss is awesome.

25. Kids – MGMT. Great Song Great CD.

26. Finer Feelings – Spoon. Can’t go wrong with spoon and this song makes me want to ride my bike*  *in Ameriki.

27. Consequence of Sounds – Regina. I sound just like her when I sing I swear. Okay not really.

28. Sweet Jane – The Velvet Underground.

29. Beautiful Mess – Jason Mraz. New CD. Plus I dig Jason Mraz. Like some kitchen dancing.

30.  Feist – Mushaboom. She’s from Canada

31. Junkyard – Page France. I just downloaded this song. How do you feel about it/.

32. You – Atmosphere. Hip Hop yet catchy at the same time. Im not sure. 

33. Knife – Grizzly Bear. This song is so Spec. I might have not liked it the first 3 times I heard it but now it’s great.

34. Tbtf – Kevin Drew. Tbtf. I don’t know Kevin drew. All I know is he was in Broken Social scene. Is it weird yes. But it’s cuter than it is weird.

35. Serpentine – Chris Bathgate. Chris Bathgate is from MI and I’m in love.

 

New Years on UP

New Years on up.

 

New Years I went to Bamako. It was interesting to say the least. It started out at the hotel Daphina with Amy. Amy and I spent the better half of Dec. 31 deciding if we were going to head to Bamako or not. I was kind of in a slump and really just wanted to go back to site. We eventually talked ourselves into going to Bamako, promising that we would just stay one night. We wanted to avoid getting sucked into the big city. Well we flaked because we stayed two nights. Jan 1^st is apparently not a very good travel day.  But  a good recover day instead.

 

Rewind now though. We ended up at a friend of a friends house on New Years Eve. An Ex-Pats house maybe. Really nice house. With shag carpet and a huge flat screen TV. It was  beautiful but weird also in the fact that there were only 3 of his friends there, and around 16 or so Volunteers. So where were all this guys friends? But he had drinks and food and it was awesome. We finished the night up at a dance club next to the Famous Relax Cafe, where we scarfed down a cheese and onion pizza before we got to the hotel.

 

We returned to the Hotel late, errr or Early rather. We all got up around noonish and headed to Broadway Café to eat lunch. It’s an amazing Café with American food. Pancakes, cheeseburgers, salads, milkshakes and everything good, but expensive. Then the next day we headed back to Segou with a couple of people.  The next day I bought a sewing machine table with the foot pedal that I have yet to figure out how to work and then the next Sunday the 4^th I got back to site, which just happened to be my market day which made the transition easier. It was nice to only be there for a week and then I came to Tubaniso where I am now.

 

It’s the worst place ever. Never in my life have I felt less productive. I could be out learning language, talking to people, working on this project that is going to start soon, but I can’t because I’m here. The only good thing is that I have email contact and am able to talk with the people from Engineers without Boarders about them coming in May. 

 

Interesting things that have happened while here:

We had a picnic Saturday the 17^th that was pretty neat. All the americans and RPCVs from the Bamako region came to Tubaniso and we had burgers and French fries. It was amazing. Then I flew kites with some of the kids. The kids were probably the coolest part because they grew up all around the world and could speak so many different languages. Then a couple of us went to the Bar down the road to hang out for a little bit.  We met a chimpanzee that was tied to this tree in the middle of the bar. We shook it’s hand and it was scary. It’s name is Rouge Keita. It was about 5 years old and it was found in the forests of Guinee.

 

The Other (only) exciting thing that has happened was the Inauguration that we spent at the American Club in Bamako. We watched it on a projector and ate a cheeseburger which was really good. 

 

This is all I have for now. And a CD that I made for Caroline that I might also post.