But really, its crazy having electricity, I never go to sleep before 10pm now, as opposed to village, I never stayed up past 8:30pm! We collaboratively bought a fridge for the house, its so funny how much easier it makes life, you can cook something and put leftovers in the fridge! I know, I know basic concept... well not so much here! I forgot how convenient a refrigerator is, not to mention being able to drink cold water, its a privileged not a right here. I also bought a multi-speed fan, and a 3 seat bamboo type couch. Between all the furniture Irina had, all the furniture I brought and the stuff Chris already had I now have a fully furnished 3 bedroom house. My land lord just pained both houses in my concession and is building my fence higher and putting spikes on top to make it more secure. They also pained a chalkboard on my wall outside. After talking with Peace Corps yesterday i found out that I need to write up a new lease, and that i get to keep both of the houses in my concession as the new Dioila Transit house for all the volunteers in the area, I get a guard to watch the house when I am not there and even when I am because I am a girl living alone... AAAANNNDDD We are working on getting internet at my house! I am almost living better here than I did in America!
Project wise things have been really moving and keeping me busy which is great! I don't feel like I am going crazy anymore staring at the wall. At the end of may we did our "Pedal Protected against HIV/AIDS" bike tour, which oddly enough turned out pretty well. We were able to reach over 1,000 villagers, with over 200 getting tested. There were 11 PCV's who rode about 70K to 7 different villages. All of the villages were pretty excited to see us and we had big dance parties in each village. There is definitely room for improvement with this project, but then again when is there not room for improvement?
We never cease to find hilarious shirts on villagers, This is one of my favorites from the Bike tour. "Kiss me before I sober up" is funny anyways, but when worn by a child in a non drinking, Muslim country it's even funnier!
Oh yea this was a good one to... I think its pretty clear why!
I am not sure who took this picture, but yep, that's me. I rode a bike about 70K! I don't think I have ridden a bike that much, ever... not even all bike rides in my whole life combined!
This is Me, Suzy and Veronique trying to teach the children the Thriller dance. The DJ insisted on playing it over and over... unfortunately we were all pretty rusty and just ended up making it up! Atleast everyone got a good laugh out of it, volunteers and villagers alike.
And these are the children in the village watching us do the Thriller dance! hahaha.... They are obviously entertained! A few of them did try to do it eventually... Really!
Thanks to Chris Romero (shout out) I have also gotten involved with the Djigyiua Woman's Association in Dioila. Nakoria Doumbia is the founder, president and the person that i hang out with most in village. She is a very rare breed of Malian woman who has drive and ambition. She has started her own NGO which takes in orphans whose parent's have died from HIV/AIDS. We have begun working on an income generating activity to raise money for the organization. The women are going to start a bogolan (earth cloth) business from the ground up. The exciting part is that I really believe this can work, each of the women has more of a vested interest in this business working. Most businesses want to make money solely for their own benefit, but in this case the profit is for the benefit of the orphans. 45% of all money earned will go towards food security. The organization will buy grains and other food items in bulk and distribute them between all the women to ensure that each orphan has adequate food. 40% of all money earned goes to the education of the orphans, because public education here in Mali isn't free. The money earned will pay for the enrollment fees of each orphan as well as buy school supplies. The last 15% will go back into the business, like to buy more supplies or for whatever is needed. This project is coming through Peace Corps as a donation only project, when it is approved I will attach the link to my blog so that people can donate!
This is Nakoria the founder of this NGO, and another man (I forgot his name) who is helping the women learn to freehand mud drawings.
Unnamed man again... I feel like its Moussa, showing more women how to use stencils for adding prints onto the cloth.
This is the wall art that I designed for my grandparents, in stage 2. The plain cotton cloth is dyed yellow from special leaves soaked in water over night, then put out in the sun to dry. When they are completely dry, the first layer of mud is added, the black color. All other colors and designs are added in stages to make a final product with different shades of grey, browns, yellows and white.
Other than those two projects I have been busy saying good bye to friends! It is COS season (close of service) I cant believe that in about a week it will be 1 yr in Mali for me... I am going to be spending the 4th of July in Manatali, which is in the Kayes region. It is supposed to be very cool, and I hear they have hippos and monkeys up there. I'm sure it will be fun!
Happy 4th of July from Africa!!
