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