1 Year and Counting

Already at the end of July! I pretty much can’t believe that I survived my first year in Mali! I know it sounds crazy, but those of you that I have spoken with on a regular basis know… there were plenty of times that I was ready to pack it up and head home. Thanks to all my amazing and supportive friends and family at home, as well as my new Risky Business friends that I have made along the way.

It’s now 1 week tomorrow, until I take a month vacation home! I’m so excited, but very busy trying to tie up all the loose ends over here before I go. Things in Dioila are going well, I just found out that I officially get to stay in my house and have begun to fix it up. We want to make it more “homey” feeling, (Owen is pretty good at this home décor business!) I also have corn growing in my yard! By the time I get home from vacation it should be just right to eat.

Working with Djiguiya womans association has been fun thus far, we went to the Peace Corps Cultural fair at our training facility Tubaniso and it went really well. Which is very encouraging for the women! We have been struggling a little bit to see eye to eye on everything, us coming from the American “time is money” and supply and demand stand point vs. the Malian, “Eh if we sell something cool, if not that’s cool to, we will just sit around and talk all day” stand point. After the cultural fair we were able to show the women and help them completely understand that it’s better to sell more products at a lower price than to sell a few things at a ridiculously high price. Now we are on the same page and I am happy to continue moving forward with the Bogolan.

I am going to start learning French! I know I should have already picked some up before, but I didn’t. I just stuck with Bambara,  but I figure…. Why not? I have enough Bambara to get by, and Peace Corps has an amazing language program, I might as well get a year of French in if I can huh? The last time I was in Bamako I had a funny experience, (typical experience actually, but I chose to write about this one) I went to a Vietnamese food stand which have delicious sandwiches and egg rolls. I usually don’t go to them by myself and realized as I walked up to the counter that I doubt they speak Bambara… I obviously don’t speak Vietnamese, or French… they don’t speak English… SHIT! Luckily I know my numbers in French so it was easy to just point and say a number, but the trouble happened when I needed more sauce and another package of veggies because I ordered two orders and they only gave me fixings for one order… Yeah that didn’t go over very well! Haha… we were both talking and nobody was listening, she was calling over everyone and their moms, it was sad. Finally a Malian man came over to translate for us. I told him what I needed in Bambara and he translated to her in French. SAD! This my friends, is one of the many reasons that I need to learn French… so I can order Vietnamese sandwiches in Africa!

I can’t wait to get back to America where everything is so “easy”! hahahaha…. See you soon Seattle!

Happenings

Life is actually good right now in this crazy place we call Africa! I have been keeping busy fixing up my new house, which is pretty awesome. Hopefully before Chris leaves we will do a film our Dioila cribs video... haha If we do I'll post it.

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!!