I'm Not Dead, I Just Had Malaria

Greetings,

First off, I'll stop being a liar by claiming that I'm going to send out updates more regularly.  Clearly, I'm not.  Now that I've established something of a routine and the luster of Africa has worn a bit, I'm afraid to report that I can no longer pump out epic tales at my former rate.  Secondly, I'm sending this post out via email because I don't think Peace Corps would be too keen on some of the things I'm going to write about.  Perhaps I'll post an edited version on my blog later.

So I had malaria about three weeks ago.  I can honestly say it was the worst experience of my life.  The first couple days my symptoms were quite mild and I didn't realize I had anything serious. Eventually, I started to get high fevers that would cycle in and out.  Malaria's symptoms tend to vary widely in any given case.  If there is any constant, however, it's that whichever symptoms you have tend to cycle in and out on 3 to 4 hour rotations.  So I believe it was 3 Fridays ago that my ailment was getting serious.  I had a fever of 101 and hadn't had an appetite for a couple days.  Since about a week prior I had been planning to head to a relatively close city, Sikasso, as I had agreed to help a couple volunteers with a project.  Of course, Peace Corps would have wanted me to notify them, then haul ass to Bamako where they could observe me.  I never did go to Bamako nor tell the Peace Corps that I had malaria (the main reason I'm not posting this on my blog).  Regardless of whether I went to Bamako or Sikasso, I first had to bike the 24 k's out of my village and to the highway.  Normally this trek takes me about an hour and 15 minutes.  This time, it took me over 2 and a half hours.  Luckily, the fever hadn't cycled in, nevertheless, I can't recall ever feeling weaker in my life.  Amongst the malaria (if I'm not mistaken the main way the parasite attacks your body is by destroying red blood cells until you go into kidney failure ) not eating, and having biked 46 k's two days prior... well, it was a pretty miserable bike ride.  I felt more or less ok until I made it into Sikasso but the next three days were hell.  My fever, now around 103 degrees, would cycle in and out 2 or 3 times a day for 3 to 4 hour spans.  When they hit I couldn't even move. I just laid on a couch with a blanket over me and shivered uncontrollably in a room that was probably 110 degrees.  By that point I had realized I probably should have gone to Bamako after all.  Bamako, however, was now at best 5 and a half hours away by bus.  As you might imagine from some of my previous posts, bus rides in Mali can be a harrowing experience in their own right let alone with malaria to boot.  I ended up consulting a couple volunteers who had already had malaria and took the medication that the Peace Corps doctors prescribed.  Long story short I was over it in about 48 hours.  I think one of the most striking aspects of the experience was that when I was in a cycle, especially towards the end when I was utterly exhausted, I literally had no ability to imagine life as being enjoyable.  I tried to recall good memories from the past, both in and out of Africa as well as focusing on things I'd been looking forward to doing in the near future.  All of it to no avail.  That feeling only ceded with the malaria.  So yeah, good times!
Otherwise, life here has been pretty normal, at least by my current standards.  Projects are still going frustratingly slowly.  After about 3 months of trying to start a pump project in my village, I finally got an estimate from the Malian in charge of the Peace Corps water sanitation sector. In addition to the estimate was a note telling me that this company will not come to my village as it's too far away for them.  So now I'm trying to find pump construction companies a bit closer to my neck of the woods.  About the only projects I have been successful with thus far are smaller ventures that dont require peace corps admn assistance.  I've helped a couple more volunteers complete world maps at schools and hand washing murals as well as hand washing stations.  I'm also working with a couple volunteers doing a weekly radio program from our market town, Kolondieba.  So far, we've addressed ways to combat malnutrition, personal hygene, and malaria prevention (perhaps I'm not the best person for that last one). 

I'd like to address dental hygene during our next radio program as this next story will demostrate its need... So, about a month ago I was just chillin in my concession, reading some books, when a woman and her 5 year old son walked in to see my homologue, Sitafa.  Little did I know Sitafa was the village dentist.  I'm not sure exactly what was wrong with the kid but he looked like he had a baseball stuck in the right side of his mouth.  Sitafa preceded to scurry around the concession until he was able to find a nail. Next, he drew a 3 x 3 grid in the sand. He followed this by breathing gently on the nail, whispering some sort of prayer and then began sticking the nail into different squares of the grid he just etched.  Everytime he'd stick the nail in a square, he'd ask the kid if any pain was alleviated.  Finally, Sitafa found what must have been the correct square, hammered it all the way into the ground, erased the grid and sent the kid and his mother on their way.  To which I just shook my head in disbelief and returned to my reading. Couldn't have made that up if I tried.
Seli Ba, one of the biggest Muslim holidays of the year, wrapped up yesterday.  I can't say what it is Seli Ba is actually a celebration of but I can tell you it was a hell of a time.  Just about every family slaughters a couple sheep and it's a non stop meat fest for three days.  Interspersed between all that meat are drum circles, dancing, and guys who dress up as "kono wulus" (bird dogs). They dawn some traditional African masks, get all done up, and run around trying to whack kids with sticks.  One of them actually got me pretty good on the arm.  Immediately, he and about 17 other Malians were apologizing profusely and telling me that they were honestly just trying to beat the children.  Ah, Mali.  Later that evening a DJ set up shop and we were all jamming to some Malian tunes.  After awhile I tried to get some of my own music playing.  Perhaps I should have seen this coming, but rather than everybody dancing to the new music, all 200 Malian villagers at the party thought it more fun to stand and watch me and another volunteer dance like fools.  It was most excellent.

November 2nd marked 9 months in country.  I'm now more than a third of the way through my service. The past couple months have made me a bit more cynical and apathetic. That however, is quite normal in this experience.  I'm quickly approaching the one year mark and from everything I've heard, it's the toughest part of the service. Most volunteers, myself included, don't feel they have enough to show for all that time spent. You start to get a little sick of being in the 3rd world, miss home, etc. etc.  Additionally, with all my time to sit and read lofty tomes on morality, humanity, and social justice as well as ponder the mysteries of the universe (and equally perplexing, development work) certain questions arise: What am I doing here? Am I making a net positive or negative impact on this society?  Am I a good volunteer? Is western society really that much better?  Do I really want to introduce all the downsides of the culture from which I hail? Can the planet handle the 3rd world catching up to 1st world levels of natural resource consumption?  Does that concern trump the basic dignity that people everywhere, including Mali, deserve?  On the otherhand, is cultural stasis the answer for these people? What kind of perception of America am I giving to my village? What will be the long term, unintended effects of my 2+ years spent in this country? Where does one draw the line between cultural relativism and human rights abuse?  Why do I feel like a neo colonialist at times?  Is the fact that I often think all these decisions/problems and their effects lie in my hands a sign that my ego has grown so dangerously large that I should have my head examined? Probably. 

My time here continues to be some of the most challenging and rewarding of my life and often for reasons I'd never have guessed.  There are days I want to pull out my hair and days when this country and its people inspire the hell out of me.  I can't believe a third of my service is already over and I know the next few months will go even quicker.  We're gonna throw some big parties for Thanksgiving and Christmas, I'm going to vacation in Senegal in January, there's a huge music festival in February, and we just got the o.k. to travel to Cote d'Ivoire.  So if nothing else, I should have a lot of stories to tell over the next few months.  In the mean time, I'm gonna keep on truckin.  Until next time, friends.



Peace and Love,

Rege

Mopti, Ramadan, and a Quarter of my Service in the Bag

Hola,


Time for more tales from old Mali.  In my last email I mentioned rainy
season's arrival.  Rainy season did indeed start about two months ago,
but unfortunately it's turning out to be a very poor one.  Luckily
we're not drought ridden like Somalia, yet this lack of water is
certainly going to have an impact on the rest of the year.  All the
Malians I've spoken to are quite anxious about their harvests and food
security throughout the upcoming cold and hot seasons.  I had heard
horror stories from older volunteers about city and village roads
flooded with latrine run-off during August and September.  I don't
think that'll be a problem for me this year.  I would take it over a
poor harvest year if I could. Sadly for countries like Mali, there's
not much that can be done for weather and yields like this other than
to be more hungry than usual.

I took some time to travel around Mali a bit and gain a better image
of the place I've called home for the last six months.  Mali, I'm
finding, is almost as geographically diverse as it is ethnically.  I
started out heading west to Sikasso, near the border with Burkina
Faso, then headed north through Koutiala, Bla (no that's not a typo),
San, and finally into the Mopti region.  I spent a night in Koutiala
and then in San, but the focus of the trip was the Mopti region.  Once
I got there, I spent time in Sevare, Bandiagara, Fatouma, and
Mopti-ville.  The whole Mopti region is beautiful, especially the
Dogon country and Mopti-ville which sits right on the Niger River.
The Dogon people are one of the many minority ethnic groups in Mali.
They're more isolated from other ethnic groups and as such their
language and culture are a bit more distinct.  The region is a part of
the narrow geographic belt known as the Sahel, which runs from the
Atlantic to the Red Sea.  The Sahel is a transition zone between the
Sahara in the north and the Sudanian Savanna in the south.  I believe
I had previously mentioned that my village was in the Sahel, but it's
actually considered part of the savanna.  Although Mopti is
technically not in the Sahara, it's pretty damn close and dramatically
different from my neck of the woods.  On a side note, I've heard that
the Human Planet mini series features Mali in three different
episodes.  One covers the Kidal region which is way up near the border
with Algeria while the other two cover the Mopti region.  Anyways, it
looks and feels like a desert up there.  Most of the vegetation is
scrub brush and Gum Arabic trees.  Aside from that it's sand, red
dirt, naked rock outcroppings ranging from small hills to huge cliffs,
and a big, big sky.  Mopti gets the most western tourism in all of
Mali and probably all of inland West Africa.  That's no surprise
considering the world class hiking you can do there and ancient Dogon
ruins.  I'm sorry to say my camera was out of batteries during this
trip so I don't have any photos to post.  Fret not though, I'll
certainly be returning to the region.  Some of my best friends in
country live up there, gotta get in on the hiking, and Bandiagara is
where Mali volunteers usually congregate for Christmas.  Some
volunteers did a half day hike when I was there but I think I'm gonna
hold out till Christmas and have a proper three or four day outing.

I've been meaning to write about the ferocity of the storms here.
They're not coming as frequently as we'd like but they're unreal when
they do hit.  The thunderheads usually roll in quickly, especially for
storms that last as long as they often do here.  A couple minutes
before the rain starts pouring the temperature drops dramatically and
terrific winds pick up, easily over 60 mph.  Then it's pretty much a
flash flood.  Sandy soil doesn't drain all that well.  The rains are
even more of a spectacle up north where they are immediately preceded
by sand storms.  You just see this reddish brown monster eating up the
sky, coming at you faster than you've ever seen clouds move with the
dark thunderheads looming, barely visible above and behind.  The
volunteers who went on the half day hike got chased out of the cliffs
by one of these storms.

The holy month of Ramadan started up about two weeks ago.  In case you
haven't brushed up on your Islam lately. It's the ninth month of the
Muslim calendar (they use a 13 month lunar calendar) when they fast
from sun up to sun down for the purposes atonement, spiritual clarity,
and submission to God.  That means no food, no water, and no getting
frisky during daylight hours for a month.  While I haven't been
participating in the fasting, it's still a pain in my ass.  For
starters, there's way less food to be found during day light hours and
every Malian is turning into a huge curmudgeon.  I can't really blame
them though, especially when Ramadan falls in rainy season like this
year, for being cranky as hell.  I believe Eid ul-Fitr is the official
Arabic term for the celebration that follows the end of Ramadan.  It's
referred to as Tabaski (sp?) here in Mali.  I understand the streets
run red with sheep blood for the festival.  Older volunteers say you
barely get any meat for 360 days out of the year, but you make up for
it in a short week when Tabaski hits.  Needless to say, it's a fairly
popular celebration with us toubabs.

Hard to believe, but I'm just about a quarter through my service, give
or take a month.  Our official Close of Service (COS) date is left for
us to decide.  Some people wrap up a little sooner or a little later
based on how their projects are going vs. job prospects & grad school
starting up back home.  I imagine that most of the people from my
class will try to wrap up as soon as possible seeing as we have the
great fortune of suffering through three hot seasons if we COS exactly
24 months after being sworn in.  I'm trying to get my first major
project underway by getting my village a new pump.  All in all, it's a
pretty easy project which has been done by numerous volunteers in the
past.  It's just a matter of finding funding, probably via grants from
USAID, to get the old, broken pump taken out and a new one put in.  I
started talking to the Malian in charge of the Peace Corps water
sanitation sector but then took a 10 day tour of the north.  In that
time my counterpart, Sitafe, has taken time off to visit his family a
couple hours away and probably won't be back till the end of Ramadan.
Hopefully we won't have any more interruptions and can get this thing
rolling soon.  Well, that's the end of my story for now.  See ya next
time!


Love and Peace ya'll

Rege

5 Months

Salutations,

Hard to believe, but it's been just about 5 months since I arrived in country.  As always, time is flying by and I'm accruing crazy experiences on the reg.  I know it's been awhile since my last update, so let me try to fill you in on some of the highlights from my last 6 weeks...

Malian Transportation:

Bashi  a.k.a. deathbox

So, a little over a month ago, I decided to head to my regional capital, Sikassoville, for a weekend.  Once I bike to a main road and catch a bus, it's about a 3 hour ride to this city.  I made it there uneventfully, and enjoyed a relaxing weekend away from my site.  Come Monday, we (me and the volunteer closest to my site) attempted to head back to our sites.  Malian transportation is always shall we say 'interesting', yet, there are varying levels of 'interesting'. In a previous email, I described Bashi cabs.  They're the gutted vans you can find in most cities, hauling upwards of 20 people at a time about town.  Imagine some p.o.s. vehicle entirely gutted, even the upholstery has been ripped out.  It's really just a metal death box with wooden planks for seats.  If you're on facebook, you can see pictures of it. It's the green van.  So anyways, we had intended on taking an actual bus back to site, but that's not how things worked out. After leaving the transit house in Sikassoville, we found a taxi and had him take us to transportation going to our market town, Kolondieba.  The transportation he found for us was of the Bashi variety.  Now, I don't mind riding in the death box to get from one part of town to another, often it's the only choice, but I try to avoid it for longer travels.  So Thera (the other volunteer) and I decided to head to the bus station and find less direct, yet safer transportation.  After getting to the bus station, we bought tickets and were told the bus would arrive shortly.  Not long after, another taxi showed up and the the bus station guy told us to get in and the taxi would take us to the bus.  So we did, and of course the taxi took us right back across town to the first bashi we turned down.  So, bashi it was.  It took some time to get out of town as we picked up some more people, various sacks of vegetables, and of course livestock.  Once we finally got on the highway, things went pretty smooth. however, the highway connecting sikassoville to my neck of the woods isn't finished yet so at various points vehicles have to take dirt paths running parallel to the highway.  As soon as we got onto one of these dirt paths, the bashi blew a tire.  It took a good couple hours for them to get somebody on a scooter to go find a tire from God knows where. But eventually, they did and we were back on the road. Not long after we got moving again, I noticed we turned off the dirt path leading towards our destination onto something that could only be described as a goat trail heading deep into the sub-saharan bush.  After an hour of some of the roughest terrain I've ever seen a vehicle traverse, we rolled up in some remote shanty town.  Now, my village is poor, but at least they have mud brick huts.  This village had straw huts with bits of garbage tied together for roofs.  It was unlike anything we'd seen in Mali to date.  I was quite certain that it was a Cote d'Ivoirian refugee camp, but I later found out it was a mining camp and my bashi was dropping off some vegetables there.  My bashi also decided to stop there for about 4 hours so they could repair it.  By time we left the mine camp it was already dark and long story short, it took 12 hours to travel a route that should take 3.

Malian Night Clubs:  

Believe it or not they do exist in Mali, and they are hilarious. Most Malians wouldn't go to a nightclub for religious reasons, and even those who do go are still strongly under the influence of cultural norms.  So, public displays of affection don't really exist in Mali.  For that matter, I don't think private displays of affection happen either, but that's a whole 'nother topic.  The point being, Malians' idea of having fun at a night club involve all the men dancing individually into  mirrors on one side of the club and all the women doing the same on the other side of the club.  Priceless.

Malian Music Culture: 

Mali has an incredibly rich musical culture and history (even if they are terrible dancers).  Ali Farka Toure is probably the most famous Malian musician as well as one of the greatest guitarist who ever lived, but he died a few years back.  His son, Vieux Farka is phenomenal as well, and hopefully i'll be able to see him at some point in my service.  I did, however, get to see Baba Salah a couple weeks ago.  He played at an awesome little venue in Bamako.  If you dig roots and blues, you should probably check him out.  

Wildlife:

this is bigger than my itouch

this is as big as my fist

Those of you on Facebook have probably seen the pics of some of my new found Malian friends. Since rainy season started, I've seen scorpions bigger than my iTouch, tarantulas as big as my fist, and swarms upon swarms of flying termites.  Oh, and sun spiders... they can run at speeds of 10 miles an hour.  During our In-Service Training, we had a session on snakes in Mali.  There's a boatload including three venomous families.  There are 4 types of Cobras, a few types of Vipers, and 2 mambas.  I've been told that Cobra bites are seldom fatal and Viper bites, especially the puff adder, are more venomous, but still carry a low fatality rate.  Mambas on the other hand...  Tomorrow I'm heading up to a town called Manantali where there'll be a big 4th of July party.  It's about 10 hours west of my site and there are baboons, hippos, another variety of monkeys, and many snakes.  Hopefully I'll return with some good photos.

Site:

kids from my village

Well, it's been awhile since I've been there and I won't get back till July 7th or 8th. I had two weeks of In-Service Training at Tubani So and since then I've been doing a bit of travelling around the Bamako area before heading towards Mananteli.  Rainy season was just starting as I left so it'll be full on upon my return.  I hope the goats haven't gotten into my garden...but they probably did. Water shouldn't be as much of an issue now that the wells have refilled and that will certainly make life easier.  I have to admit, spending close to a month with other toubabs, travelling about the country, and having some wicked parties makes the thought of returning to site a bit daunting.  There's certainly work to be done though.  One of the first things I'll do (after my language skills allow it) is something called PACA (Participatory Analysis for Community Action).  It's a series of tools and activities that my village and I will employ to precisely figure out what resources they have, what challenges they face, what they need most, and how they can obtain those needs.  I also want to get our village pump fixed asap, for my own needs as well as theirs.  I'm tired of going 2 k's to the next village just to get drinkable water.

My Outlook:

So, 5 months in and my outlook is a bit more realistic.  When we first arrived in country, we were all bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready to bring Mali to the 1st world or something, and refused to admit there was any problem in this country that could bring us down even for a minute.  I can tell you, I don't feel that way anymore.  It does require a conscious effort at times to remain positive about accomplishing real development in a place like Mali.  I often ask myself, what the hell am I doing here and will I help anyone during my service?  Sometimes you see things here that are so ass-backwards, it can be a bit demoralizing.  As I get to know my class of volunteers and the older ones, I'm realizing these feelings are all quite normal in the Peace Corps experience.  I also think right now is a particularly difficult time in my service.  After 5 months, I've learned a lot of the language, I'm getting integrated into my village, in short I've done a lot. And yet, there's nothing tangible I can point to and say, "there, I've accomplished that". It will come, I know that. But for the time being it's a bit frustrating.  In development work, I think it helps morale to focus on the individual rather than the society at large.  So here's an anecdote to highlight that point: Most of the Peace Corps administration positions are filled by Malians, including the positions in charge of each sector (environment, health, education, small-enterprise development, and water sanitation).  The person in charge of the small-enterprise development sector is a man named Yacouba.  About 35 years ago, there was a Peace Corps volunteer in Yacouba's village and his father was the volunteer's counterpart.  Of course, Yacouba was just a kid at this point.  I'm not sure what if any physical evidence remains of that volunteer's service. I don't know if he or she helped them build a school or a hospital, improve food security, better water sanitation, etc.  What I do know is that that volunteer left an impact on Yacouba's father.  He realized the importance of an education for his kids.  Now, 35 years later, Yacouba has lived in the States, received a Masters degree in international development, and has returned to his country, working year round to improve Mali's lot.  75% of Mali is illiterate, Imagine how many Malians have a Masters.  I think change of this nature is the cornerstone of any development work, including Peace Corps.  It's slow moving, and often times you can't tell that you've done anything at all.  Then again, it's rather arrogant and patronizing to assume these are my problems to fix.  They aren't.  In the end, Mali's problems need to be fixed by Malians just as America's problems need to be fixed by Americans.  Hopefully, I can help a couple people out during the next two years while not losing sight of the importance of such work.  

I'll leave it there for now.  As always, I hope everything is going well in your lives. 

L&P

Rege

I Eat my Noodles with Mustard and Shea Butter

Greetings all,

It's been a good month since my last email and I'm sure you're all wandering how your favorite ex-pat is fairing.  Well, rest assured I'm still alive and well!  I won't lie though, this first month at site has been a real challenge, perhaps even more so than I initially expected. There are a number of factors at play here, individually none of which are all that terrible, but combined can make life, err difficult.  1st, As the subject line implies, the food situation here is a bit sub-par.  The problem is not that I don't have money to buy food, but rather, there is no food to buy with my money.  As a result, my diet generally consists of either rice or noodles 3 times a day. Condiments have become my new best friends and are currently my most valued possessions. I'm not certain I'd be able to maintain sanity were it not for the wondrous inventions of mustard, ketchup, and co.  Oh the little things... 2nd, It's still  ridonkulously hot, although not quite as bad as it was a few weeks ago (one day i drank 8 liters of water and still got dehydration). 3rd, Going a month without speaking English... kind of makes you want to punch someone in the face at times. Especially when you're trying to learn a language as vastly different as Bambara.  I've found a Bambara tutor in my village and I've been meeting with him (Bazu) everyday for an hour or two.  There are all the usual frustrations one might expect from this situation: I'm still quite limited in the language, Bazu speaks less English than I do Bambara, and the end result is probably more comical than educational.
       Having Bazu as a teacher has led me to some interesting observations on Malian education. Most notably, that nobody in this country really reads or writes Bambara all that well.  The reason being that Bambara was a strictly oral language up until about 50 years ago. And, it was largely western academia that spearheaded the movement to turn it into a written language.  In schools, if you're lucky enough to be in one past the 4th grade, you pretty much stop learning Bambara and start learning French, Furthermore, the higher your education goes the more everything is taught in French.  As a result, someone like Bazu, who's pretty highly educated by Malian standards, can speak Bambara fluently as well as read, write, and speak French fluently.  Yet he struggles to read his original language and often times misinterprets entire sentences and ideas, which I may realize hours later, much to my chagrin, rendering all that studying pointless.  On the other hand, those who don't go/stay in school speak only Bambara or some other local language, but they cant read or write anything.  Another interesting point is how swiftly and dramatically dialogues change.  Even from villages a couple miles apart, there can be surprising differences in the way Bambara is spoken. This is due, again, to Bambara being an oral language as well as the fact that over 50 languages are spoken in Mali, Bambara being just the most common. Many people in my village are of the ethnic group, Fulani, and speak Fula as their first language. As a result, my little corner of Mali speaks Bambara with an interesting touch of Fula. As you can imagine, with over 50 different languages there are countless ways in which regional and local dialogues can evolve. 
        Another source of irritation, for me as well as the village, is that all our wells have gone dry and the one pump in town seems to be broken.  Everybody has to go to the next village down the road (about a mile) to get their water.  Have you ever tried to limit your water usage to under 3 gallons a day? that includes drinking water, cooking, washing dishes, bathing water, water for my garden and compost pile, oh and don't forget in this country... water+left hand = toilet paper. We don't want to run out of toilet paper, now do we? It's always interesting at the end of the day trying to prioritize your needs based on how much water you have left.

organic mango cooperative in Bougouni

        It's not all doom and gloom though.  In fact, the dog days are almost over. We've gotten rain 3 days this week including one hell of a gully washer 2 nights ago.  By the end of the month hot season will be over, rainy season will be upon us, the heat will drop, food will grow, wells will fill, and an angel will get its wings, or something like that anyways. Oh, and how can I forget the other factor that makes life livable during this time of the year? MANGOS!!! The most beautiful ones you've ever seen. Luscious, sweet, delicious, ripe, plentiful mangos! I probably eat 7 or 8 a day. There are more mangos in Mali during hot season than people know what to do with. Literally, some volunteers spend their whole 2 years trying to help Malians create a market for all the excess mangos that end up just rotting on the ground.  In lieu of a refrigerator, I've started my own little preservation operation.  I started my first batch of wine last month, and what better wine to make than mango wine?  For a first attempt, I'm quite proud of it, especially considering my lack of appropriate tools, and 100+ degree weather everyday.  I should give this batch more time to mature, but it's certainly drinkable and I'm eager to apply the lessons learned from this first process to more fruitful creations.

urine? no. just mango wine

      As much as I may gripe about the difficulty in learning this language, my abilities are improving, slowly but surely. Yesterday and today were especially successful as I navigated public transportation, banking, shopping, and general conversation with Malians with uncommon ease. Lastly, there are a couple more upsides to going through all these difficulties now.  1st, if I can make it through the foodless, drought laden drudgery that is hot season with very limited Bambara while still adjusting to the severe lack of English speaking and overall culture discomfort, then I'm more certain than I ever was that I can handle whatever the next 2 years throws my way. 2nd, in terms of getting work done as a volunteer, this turned out to be a great time to come to Mali. Nobody does any work during hot season, for good reason. Come rainy season, Malians are too busy planting their fields to devote much time to some project a crazy toubob (me) wants to start. The best time to get things done is during the cool/dry season which goes from mid October to mid February. Come that time, I should be well adjusted to my life in Mali and I will have a much stronger grip on the language.  In the meantime, I'll eat my noodles with mustard and shea butter, sip my mango wine, and try not to go crazy.

P & L

Rege

End of PST

Salutations,

 

So, as the title states, I'm just about done with Pre-Service Training in Mali and about to be sworn in as a volunteer, 2 days from now to be exact.  My time at homestay with my host family has come to an end and they will surely be missed.  I look forward to visiting them again one day when I'm actaully able to have a full conversation in Bambara.  Speaking of which, I've passed my final language test and scored intermediate-mid (whatever the hell that means), so I'll be able to survive on my own when I reach my new digs.  We're not supposed to leave our site for the first 2 months once we're installed.  This is to ensure we get a strong grasp on our new community's culture and improve language skills right off the bat.  While 2 months away from another english speaker (not to mention other luxuries) is a bit daunting, I'm certainly looking forward to being an actual volunteer... a process I started well over a year ago.  Before that begins, however, there are some festivities at hand.  There's not much on my schedule for today aside from laundry... which takes a bit longer when you use a washboard.  Tomorrow is our swear in party. Normally this takes place the night we get sworn in but because our class is being sworn in by President Amadou Toumani Touré at the Presidential palace, there's been some logistical issues.  So, as you might imagine, tomorrow will be a pretty massive party. From what I understand, most if not all of the 150+ volunteers already in country will be joining my class of 61 soon-to-be volunteers.  We'll be starting the day at the Ameriki Club... a former Marine house that's been converted to accomodate American expats. There's an in-ground swimming pool, barbeque, bar, tennis and basketball courts, etc.  After that, we're free to do as we like and we've all reserved hotel room in Bamako.  Then on Tuesday we'll arive at the President's pad at 5:00 pm for the swear in and then return to Tubani So (training compound) for a nice dinner with all the senior staff and admn from Peace Corps Mali as well as the U.S. ambassador.

 

A lot has happened since my last email update, but unfortunately nothing really flows together as a single narrative like my site visit. It's all been a bunch of mini adventures and inside humor/experiences that probably won't translate that well via email, but I'll try my best.  I will say that my class has really bonded quite well in the last week.  There's definately a plurality of people that you would "expect" to be in the peace corps. That being said though, I'm still surprised by the amount of diversity in our group.  When we all first met in D.C. I couldn't imagine what business some of my fellow volunteers had volunteering for the peace corps.  Everyone seems to bring their own unique experiences and abilities to the table though, and I think we'll all be able to do some good work over the next 2 years. 

 

 I'm getting more familiar with navigating Bamako. In the last week, I've gone into the city using public transportation several times.  Usually, I'll take something called a sutrama into town.  There are thousands of these all over Mali.  Imagine one of those molester vans you see in Law & Order, but painted green, gutted aside from a metal floor and a wood bench that raps around the interior, and open holes where the windows should be.  These sutramas cruise around on a certain route picking people up whereever they can.  Oh, you're also usually sharing your ride with about 20+ Malians by time you reach your destination.  The sutrama line ends in what's called the Sugu ba...translation: big market.  Big is an understatement.  I'm not sure if any of you have had the pleasure of visiting a major 3rd world market.  I can assure you, it's an experience you won't forget.  You're surrounded by the lovely aromas of burning garbage, rotting sewage, animal shit, pollution, and exhaust.  There are taxis, sutramas and motor-bikes flying by everywhere, a million people meandering about in every direction, and a million more people trying to sell you whatever they can.  It's fun for awhile, but more than an hour or so and I can't wait to get the hell out of there.

 

 

Well, there are certainly more stories to tell, but I'm struggling to get them across via email... that and it's breakfast time. I'll leave it there for now.  I leave Tubani So for good, bright and early Wednesday morning (late Tuesday night for yinz guys).  Hope all is well in your worlds!

 

 

Peace & Love,

 

Rege

Site Visit

Greetings,

 

I got back to Tubani So today, after 5 days in M'piedougou and it's been an interesting week to say the least.  We left Tubani So at 7:00 am last Sunday for the bus station in Bamako, quite a seedy place, and boarded the most pathetic vehicle I've ever seen. This bus, if you can call it that, looked as if it had been constructed from parts of 50 year old buses, 25 years ago.  Not only did it get me to my destination without breaking down, it was able to traverse the many miles of dried up river beds, which Malians call roads.  The bus took me as far as the town Kolondieba, my banking/market town. I had to bike the final 23 k's (14 miles) to M'piedougou.  I knew I'd be biking the last leg of the journey, but I wasn't aware it was 23 k's.  That wasn't the bad part though.  No, what sucked was biking 23 k's at 1:00 in the afternoon, in Africa, during hot season, with no water. By time I made it to my village, I was seeing spots of light in my peripheral vision.  Then to my great pleasure, I realized they don't sell bottled water in my town. Since I didn't have room to bring my water filtration system, I had to use the iodine tablets the Peace Corps provided me. And those take 1/2 hour to treat the water. Good times.  While I was counting down the 1800 seconds until I could drink water, I checked out my house.  It's a 2 room, mud-brick house. I wont have to worry about being alone though, because I have plenty of roommates... spiders, scorpions, cockroaches, various other insects, bats and rats.

 

All of the insects, I expected, because well, it's Africa.  The bats and the rats are a bit of an issue though. My counterpart, Sitafa told me he'd "take care" of it, so we'll see what comes of that. In case you're not aware of the counterpart concept, every volunteer serving in every country gets assigned a counterpart from his/her village. That person is supposed to serve as your partner in all endeavors over the 2 years of service. So my counterpart is Sitafa Sangere. He is 46, married to one (he's aiming to pick up a 2nd wife) and has 8 kids.  He's a farmer and an adult literacy agent.  One of the first thing I noticed in my house was the gigantic spiders on the walls.  I swatted one with my shoe and hit it directly. There was a big glob of spider guts on the wall, but I couldn't see what happened to the carcass. Finally, I realized  it was still on the wall but about 4 feet to the right. I wasn't sure how it got there, but at that point my water was ready so i lost interest in the spider.  I drank my water, came back to my room, and much to my chagrin, realized the spider had moved up the wall again. Yeah, the bastard was still alive after enduring a direct blow from my shoe.  Impressive to say the least. 

 

Not long after that battle, my counterpart served me dinner which was overcooked spaghetti with plenty of msg and vegetable oil.  Let me tell you, nothing's more appetizing after partial dehydration than overcooked, msg-laden noodles, drenched in oil.  As I said, my banking/market town, Kolondieba, is 23 k's away. Every Monday there's a bus to K-dieba. Any other time I have to bike 46 k's round trip if I want to buy anything. So I planned on going the next morning and buying myself some food for the week. Well, nobody told me the bus leaves at 7:30 am, so there was no market for me.  There are a couple little stores in M'piedougou but they sell cigarettes, matches, tea, sugar, salt, and sometimes stale bread.  Aside from that, there's nothing.  And since we're approaching the height of hot season, there's not much growing in the fields/gardens right now and the water table looks like it's about 30 meters below. 

 

Another issue was that they hadn't quite finished my outhouse yet.  They'd put a whole in the ground, so it was "functional" but only 3 of 4 walls were put up.  Eh, what can you do?  They did end up finishing the last wall by Thursday.  There's definitely some issues and aggravations I'll be dealing with over the next 2 years, but that's probably why I'm here.  My village is beautiful. It's like stepping 200 years into the past and there are a lot of areas in which I can work. Childhood malnutrition is a big problem throughout Mali and it's particularly bad in my region.  I'm going to try to focus a lot of my projects on food security and food education as well as environmental work. Some projects I hope to get started are working with the women's association to improve the community garden and to make sure that the village is actually getting some of the produce and they're not just selling it all.  I also want to work on storage methods because a stupid amount of food just spoils on the ground.  There's a tree called Moringa which grows very well in the Saheil and it's incredibly nutritious.  The leaves have something like 3Xs the vitamin C of oranges, twice the iron of spinach, and 4Xs the calcium of milk. The seeds are also edible and you can use them to filter water. The root is edible as well.  So, I want to start educating my village on the use of that tree. I told my boss, Yacouba Kone, I was interested in raising goats for milk, cheese, and meat. He was happy to hear that b/c he's wanted an environment volunteer to start a goat's milk project in my region for awhile.  Northern Malians use goat milk all the time, but the concept is pretty much unheard of down south.  Once again focusing on food security, goats milk is another continuous and sustainable source of nutrition year round.  I also plan on raising chickens, ducks, turkey, and guineafowl for my own personal use.  I never heard of guineafowl before coming here, but they're delicious.  Well, the internet que is building up so I'll leave it there for now. Hope everything is going well back home.

 

Peace and Love friends,

 

Rege

M'piebougoula

Greeetings all,

 

I'm off to visit my permanent site for the first time in about half hour. The name of my village is M'piedougou.  Don't bother trying to research it b/c the internet is unaware of its existance.  It's just a small farming village in the far south of Mali with a population of 700.  There's a slightly bigger town 2 k's down the road called Mena. M'piedougou is part of the Mena commune. That's where I can go to a market and buy some essentials. Finally, the nearest town with a bank is 23 k's away.  That is Kolondieba which is the main town in the Kolondieba Circle... Mali is broken down into 8 regions, each region has X amount of circles, each circle has X amount of communes, and each commune has X amount of villages. So my region is Sikasso,my circle is Kolondieba, my commune is Mena, and my village is M'piedougou. Here's a site and map about the Mena commune: http://travelingluck.com/Africa/Mali/Mali+%28general%29/_2453518_M%C3%A9na.html#local_map  I got to meet my counterpart... (every volunteer works with a counterpart from his/her village)  My counterpart's name is Sitapha Sangare. He's married with 8 kids and is a farmer and a literacy agent.  He does not speak any English and he will be my main point person for all the work I'll be doing over the next 2 years.  Obviously we can't communicate all that well just yet but he seems like a good guy with a genuine interest in improving his village.  I've been told that to begin with I should build a relation with the local women's association in M'piedougou and try to help them start a community garden as well as help them find secondary sources of income. Other environmenta projects that the village wants to work on are bee keeping, fish farming, and starting a Moringa tree nursery.  Moringa trees are incredible nutricious and have a wide range of uses.  Of course, none of that is set in stone and as I get to know my site better over the next coouple months I might end up doing completely different projects, so I'm excited to get started.  Well, that's all for now.  Talk to you soon.

 

 

Peace and Love

 

Rege 

I'm going to Sikasso... Africa is freaking hot!

Hey yinz guys,

 

It's been another splendid couple weeks in Mali and now I'm back at the training compound, Tubani So.  Things are still great with my host family and I'm finally able to effectively communicate with them. Unfortunately, I won't have much more time with them.  I do, however, have a lot of new and exciting news. I passed my mid pre-service training language exam this morning.  I am now intermdiate low in Bambara which means i can make basic conversation in the past, imperfect, present, and future tenses. I can haggle and negotiate prices at the market, talk about my family, daily activities, and job, and give/recieve directions amongst other things. Pretty amazing what a month of intense language immersion can do for you.

 

But the BIG news for today is that I found out where my permanent site will be.  I will be in the Sikasso region just south of a city called Bougouni (I'm sure that carries a lot of meaning, right?) So, Sikasso is comprised of the south central and south east of Mali bordering Cote D'Ivore to the south and Burkina Faso to the southeast.  This is exactly where I wanted to be as it recieves the most rainfall in Mali and I'll be able to grow a ton of shit in my garden, haha. The downside is that it's the muggiest and buggiest region of Mali, but such is life.  In other exciting news, we were told today that our swearing in ceremony will be hosted by the President of Mali at the Presidential Palace... they must have heard I was here.  This is the first time this has happened with Peace Corps Mali. 

 

I've been given a bit of info on my site... I'll have no electricity but a water pump will be near by. My house will have a minimum of 2 rooms and a brand new nygen (outhouse)  [mmmmm, fresh nygen... what a luxury!!] {haha, you think I jest} I will have a large concession/yard with plenty of room for a private garden, trees, and composting. My village has about 700 ppl and I'm 23 Ks from the main banking and market town. I can get there via donkey cart, hitch hiking, taxi, or my bike. And the nearest peace corps volunteer is 15 ks down the road.  All in all, I'm stoked.

 

So... Africa is freaking hot. I told myself I new that coming into the Peace Corps... but naah, i didnt really know.  The best part is that i"m still in the beginning of hot season.  If you mention the month of May to a Malian, they'll just cringe in  sheer disgust, so there's something to look forward to.  It's all good though. FYI to those who plan on paying me a visit sometime over the next 2 years... come between october and january.  Here's another indication of the heat... I drink a bout 6 liters of water a day and only have to piss about once a day... yeah, sometimes I dont have to go at all.  Well, that's about all i got for now, hope you're not offended by my crudeness, haha. Gots to keep it real! 

 

Peace and Love friends,

 

Call me sometime...

Rege

12 days in the 3rd world

Greetings Friends,

 

So I had my first real taste of life in Mali over the last 12 days. I'm not going to count the first 5 days in the country since they were spent with the luxuries of native English speakers, running water, electricity, and the inter-web machine. Anyways, things are going quite well.  I spent nearly 2 weeks with my host family in a little village called Soundougouba Coura.  It was certainly stressful at times, especially considering my family doesn't speak English, but my Bambara is getting better everyday and although we struggle to communicate at times, my host family is great. 

My host father's name is Madou  Diarra and my host mother is Animata. They have 8 kids, ages ranging from 21 to 7 months old.  In case you're interested their names are Sita (female 21), Moma (female 18), Alieu (Male 16), Fatima (Female 15), Bafe (Male 13), Jemene (Female 10), Prinze(Male 4), Brahme (male 7months).  Moma has a child as well. Her name is Fanta (yes, like the soda) and she is 4 months. And yes, that means Fanta's uncle is Brahme and he is 3 months older than his niece.  As you might imagine the compound is rather lively. They also have 2 cows, a bunch of chickens, a dog and a cat.  The compound is roughly 40 yards by 30 yards enclosed on all sides by a mud brick wall. There are 3 mud brick structures on the compound and I have my own room. 

 

My average day goes as such... I'll wake up around 7am and they'll feed me breakfast which is usually bread with mayonnaise (amazingly it never goes bad), a rice based porridge called siri which is quite good, and hot tea. I walk to language class for 8am where I study Bambara, or Bamanankan as Malians call it. We (me and the 6 other volunteer trainees in this village) have class from 8 till 12 then return home for lunch.  I go back for class at 2:30 and it'll last until 5:30. I then return home and enjoy a nice cool bucket bath... no running water here. We usually eat dinner around 7 or 7:30.  Malian food isn't bad but they don't have much in the way of variety. they also love salt and MSG which has already started to get old, but oh well. I usually eat all my meals with my host brother, Alieu. After dinner, I'll sit with the family and try to work on my Bambara.  From time to time we have technical training sessions, but for the most part we're focused on the language during this stage. 

 

So my days are full but the routine is pretty simple. I've never had a language immersion like this and it's amazing how quickly I'm picking up an entirely foreign language with no ties to English. I'd say I learned more in 2 weeks here than I would have in an entire college semester, at the very least.  I did have my first bout with intestinal parasites which made for a couple interesting days, but I'm fully recovered and my system is that much more acclimated to Africa.

I returned to the training compound, Tubani So (which means house of doves by the way) yesterday and I'll be here till Wednesday morning. Then it will be another 12 days with my host family.  I'm still taking things one day at a time and looking forward to improving my Bambara as I'll be placed in my permanent village in early April... then the real fun begins.  Hope all is well in your lives.  Keep me posted on what's going on back home.

 

K'an ben kofe

 

Rege

I ni sogoma! I ka kene?

Greetings,

 

I ni sogoma! I ka kene? or Good morning and how are you? in Bambara. Today is already my fourth day in Mali and I've been kept very busy. We usually wake up around 7am and wash up a bit then go down for breakfast.  Breakfast here usually consists of tea, bread, peanut butter sauce and jam. At 8 we start our sessions and aside from an hour and a half lunch break we go till 5:30.  Some of the sessions we've had so far are Bambara lessons, cross cultural training, diversity training, safety and security, malaria training, bike repair training, and food and water preparation/diarrhea training... oh yeah, it's gonna happen.  I'm not gonna lie, training is definitely stressful at times but I'm loving the challenge. Tomorrow, we find out where are homestay (host family) will be and then Tuesday morning I'll get to meet them and pretty much get adopted by them. Odds are I'll be living with a big family including some extended family members like grandmothers. Malian men often take 2 or 3 wives so there will most likely be a lot of children as well.  It's still fairly cool here but I understand that hot season comes on strong in late February so I'm trying to prepare myself for that. While we stay with our host families for the next 2 and a half months we'll still have classes 8 hours out of the day. I'll be concentrated on learning bambara, environmental sector training, and cultural training. After about 9 weeks (and assuming the Peace Corps is satisfied with my cultural, technical, and language skills) My days of being a PCT (Peace Corps Trainee) will end and I'll be sworn in as a PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer). Tomorrow will be the last day I have regular internet access for pretty much the next 27 months.  I do return here to Tubani So every 2 weeks throughout the 9 weeks of pre-service training. Once I'm a volunteer I'll get about 3 days a month where I can go to a regional Peace Corps house and have internet, real showers and some other western accommodations.  Point being, if you want to communicate anything with me you should try to do so by late Monday afternoon.

 

Oh, and I have been issued my cell phone and you can contact me from the States if you'd like.  There are 2 main cell carriers in Mali, Malitel and Orange. As such, I have a phone number for both. So, if you're going to call, the first thing you want to do is get a calling card. I understand the best rate you can get is from callingcards.com  The website is very easy to use. There's a box that will prompt you to pick what country your calling from. obviously that's America, (unless your name is Finian) When you go to pick your calling destination, make sure you click Mali Cellular. Then you can buy the card online and they'll email you the pin number or whatever. The going rate is 0.17/minute. So you have to dial the numbers the phone card says, then  011 to dail out of the U.S. then 223 to dial Mali. then my number: 77286460(Orange) or 64654547 (Malitel). Different regions get better or worse coverage with either carrier. For the time being only use Orange. If I go to an area where malitel is better, I'll let you know So... to clarify, follow the directions on your calling card, then 011 223 77286460.  Like I said, I wont have regular internet access after tomorrow so it'll be hard to make prearranged calls so just try to remember that i'm 5 hours ahead of you. Between 4 and 5pm eastern standard time would probably be best for me. Well, i've been hogging this computer for awhile so I gotta run.

 

Ka tile here caya, May you have a good day

 

Rege

My 2nd (Full) Day in Mali

Greetings all,

I'm sure you're all wandering what it's like where I'm at and what I'm doing
so I'll try to give you a base description.  I'm staying at a training
compound called Tubani So. It's 7 hectares of land which is a little over 17
acres. All 60+ volunteers as well as a training staff of about 30 are
staying here. Most of the Training staff are Malian and they are incredibly
warm and welcoming hosts. We're all staying in huts while we're at this
compound. They are made of cement and have thatched roofs. I'd say they have
a diameter of 15 feet and the thatched roof goes up in a cone shape so there
is plenty of room to stand.  We sleep 3 to a hut and there's just about
enough room for 3 cots and a little table. The compound and the huts have
electricity. There's also a large brick building where we come for meals
(and internet) as well as numerous outdoor "hangars" where we have our
classes and training sessions. We will be here until Tuesday and then we
will go to our host families. All the host families will be concentrated in
9 different villages or neighborhoods in and around the Bamako area, so
there will be somewhere between 5 and 8 volunteers very near by. After
Tuesday we'll spend most of our time with the host families but we will come
back to Tubani So every week or 2. Yesterday, we did a lot of sessions on
basic safety, security, and personal health.  All in all it was pretty
easy.  Today, however, things start to kick into high gear. Most of the next
4 days will be spent learning Bambara, the most prevelant language spoken
here, as well as cultural training.  We do have running well water here and
you can take a shower. The toilets however, are... shall we say interesting,
haha. Imagine an outhouse with a hole in the middle of the floor and nothing
else save a bucket of water... I'll just leave it at that.  The weather has
been beautiful here the last couple days and I actually needed a blanket
last night. It's a fleeting luxury though as the cool dry season will soon
be ending and the hot season will soon begin.  I heard that last year they
had 40 straight days of 120+ degrees...so, that should be interesting to say
the least.  During the hot season, people generally work till 9 or 9:30 am
and then find a tree to sit under until 4 or 5.  I haven't seen too many
animals yet, just some birds and some frogs. You do hear exotic bird calls
constantly and they say there are monkeys that live in this area as well as
scorpions and snakes. I guess they live further in the bush and don't come
out too much. I haven't seen them yet anyways.  Well, breakfast is about to
begin and I have a long day ahead of me so I'll leave it there for now.


Peace and Love

Rege