Hope all is well and everyone is getting ready for thanksgiving, I’m so sad I won’t be there but you better believe I’ll be eating well, a feast is planned!!
Just after Halloween I experienced my first bashe ride (Malian public taxis) which consisted of a van gutted of all the insides and stuffed with about 25 Malians and my two friends (Alaric and Shelby). We were going to Fangasso which is Shelby’s site about two hour bashe ride north to spend the day. Of course this is Mali so we blew a tire about an hour into the trip which was actually a blessing because my butt was numb and I really wanted to stretch. When we made it Fangasso we wondered the market for a bit then spent the day with her homologue and family before heading back to san.
Nothing too exciting has happened at site over the past two weeks. I took a bit of a tumble one morning while running which the kids found absolutely hilarious. The incident did involve an exposed tree root and a low hanging branch… I’m fine, just a few bumps and bruises, but I had to take a few days off running to try to heal my knees and hands and my pride. Fortunately, because rainy season is over, flesh wounds heal really quickly without too much concern for infections. Unfortunately, with rainy season ending, I can already see in increase in the level of dust in the air. Apparently during hot season in May, there is so much dust in the air you can’t even see the stars at night, which is a real shame because there is no light traffic to inhibit my view of the sky at night which is one of my favorite parts of my nightly routine.
I spent a day in the garden trying to learn some of the trees and fruits here but Malians don’t really understand that their trees don’t exist in the US and that the average American doesn’t have to know about agriculture to survive. I pulled water from the well for the first time and I have an all knew respect for how strong these women are who have to water the entire garden every day from the well, my arms were burning after two buckets from the well.
I got a hold a week old baby a few days ago which was terrifying. I love kids from about 6 and older, but babies are one of the scariest things imaginable for me. I was so afraid I was going to break him but at the same time I was entranced by him. Babies have their eyebrows drawn on by eyeliner and also wear eyeliner then they all covered in white powdery stuff so it was exactly the cutest baby in the world, but it was pretty amazing to be able to hold him.
The hardest part of the past time at site was when I went to the schools for the first time. It was both exciting and totally overwhelming and unbelievably frustrating. I met the director and 6 teachers after the 45 minute walk to the school with two of my host sisters. The school in itself was really nice cement building with big windows for a nice cross ventilation. It was approximately 7-9th grade but the kids aged from about 14 to 20. At 7:45 there was a flag raising ceremony where they sang their national anthem then the school director took me to each of the three classrooms and introduced me to the students and that was the overwhelming part. I walked in and was greeted with 130 smiling kids. 130 kids in a classroom no bigger than my classrooms in the US… Kids were sitting five to a bench that should have only seated two, some were on the floor and others sitting on the window sills for class. Totally unable to process the 130:1 student teacher ratio I was talking to the English teacher who confesses that the teachers know the problems raised with the unfair ratio but there is nothing they can do because they can’t afford more teachers or more classrooms. Talk about frustrating.
Days pass both painfully slowly and quickly just as days pass at home and it’s a comfort to know that my bad days are always followed by good ones.
Love,
Cait
Halloween 2009
I hope you are all ready for Halloween and the upcoming holiday season, I know I am.
Thanks so much for the letters and packages, it’s so nice to come into san and have letters to read, it’s really easy at site to feel a bit disconnected from the…world.
I’m absolutely falling in love with my site and some of the kids especially have already worked their ways into my heart. While days certainly can creep by, the weeks since I last came to san have absolutely flown by.
I led a short meeting the other day because my community had established the problems they faced to improve their animal raising and one of theirs one a lack of water. So I asked why they didn’t fix their pump and the next day my homologue came back to me with a committee they had formed…unfortunately I can’t really help much until after IST but it’s awesome that I’ve got such a motivated village to work with. Other good news, I’ve really started to develop a good relationship with the school director so I hope I can work with him. He wants me to paint a world map and a map of mali in the schools.
Apparently a dog just had a litter of puppies and both my homologue and my host family have taken on new puppies so that has filled my life with a sort of happiness that only puppies can bring and I have to admit, they are so cute. They offered to give me one and you will all be proud to know that I turned it down. I want to travel with the burden of having a dog plus, can you imagine the tears when I’d have to leave it. So, now I have the best of both worlds because I’ve got puppies everywhere and not the responsibility of taking care of one of them.
I helped my host sister the other day with her English homework which was really awesome because she had a lot of fun and has come to me with questions not even related to school work. All the young girls in village want to braid my hair so after a few days of taking out my braids I’m swarmed. Young kids especially still stare and often poke me…too make sure I’m real I think. It’s also really funny to great people I don’t know in bambara and watch their faces contort as they process the fact that I can speak, or try to speak, their language.
It’s harvest season right now which means my days are absolutely filled with helping the women work. It’s mostly peanuts that they’re harvesting right now so I pick the peanuts from about 9am until 4pm… it makes for long days but they go by fast always having something to do and the women love it! Pretty much everyday about 40 women go to a different house and work all day making big bowls of porridge or toh (both make me gag thus I go home for lunch to eat) but it’s pretty cool to see the strong ties of the community. The men are gone from about dawn until dust at the fields working so everyone is generally exhausted at night which is great for me because now they don’t look at me quite so strange when I go to bed at 9pm.
I’ve started running in the mornings (they find this very entertaining too) so I’m up around 5:30am and belive it or not, it’s almost brisk, for about 5 minutes until I’m sweaty, but I’ve found some gorgeous trails to run on. There are some huge trees that I’ve come to love and use as land marks, if you’ve seen the lion king and can imagine the big tree that rafiki lives in you can imagine the magnitude of these trees. It’s gorgeous to run and it’s such a nice escape to be out in my own without having to think about work or bambara or life as a volunteer.
Love,
Cait
Thanks so much for the letters and packages, it’s so nice to come into san and have letters to read, it’s really easy at site to feel a bit disconnected from the…world.
I’m absolutely falling in love with my site and some of the kids especially have already worked their ways into my heart. While days certainly can creep by, the weeks since I last came to san have absolutely flown by.
I led a short meeting the other day because my community had established the problems they faced to improve their animal raising and one of theirs one a lack of water. So I asked why they didn’t fix their pump and the next day my homologue came back to me with a committee they had formed…unfortunately I can’t really help much until after IST but it’s awesome that I’ve got such a motivated village to work with. Other good news, I’ve really started to develop a good relationship with the school director so I hope I can work with him. He wants me to paint a world map and a map of mali in the schools.
Apparently a dog just had a litter of puppies and both my homologue and my host family have taken on new puppies so that has filled my life with a sort of happiness that only puppies can bring and I have to admit, they are so cute. They offered to give me one and you will all be proud to know that I turned it down. I want to travel with the burden of having a dog plus, can you imagine the tears when I’d have to leave it. So, now I have the best of both worlds because I’ve got puppies everywhere and not the responsibility of taking care of one of them.
I helped my host sister the other day with her English homework which was really awesome because she had a lot of fun and has come to me with questions not even related to school work. All the young girls in village want to braid my hair so after a few days of taking out my braids I’m swarmed. Young kids especially still stare and often poke me…too make sure I’m real I think. It’s also really funny to great people I don’t know in bambara and watch their faces contort as they process the fact that I can speak, or try to speak, their language.
It’s harvest season right now which means my days are absolutely filled with helping the women work. It’s mostly peanuts that they’re harvesting right now so I pick the peanuts from about 9am until 4pm… it makes for long days but they go by fast always having something to do and the women love it! Pretty much everyday about 40 women go to a different house and work all day making big bowls of porridge or toh (both make me gag thus I go home for lunch to eat) but it’s pretty cool to see the strong ties of the community. The men are gone from about dawn until dust at the fields working so everyone is generally exhausted at night which is great for me because now they don’t look at me quite so strange when I go to bed at 9pm.
I’ve started running in the mornings (they find this very entertaining too) so I’m up around 5:30am and belive it or not, it’s almost brisk, for about 5 minutes until I’m sweaty, but I’ve found some gorgeous trails to run on. There are some huge trees that I’ve come to love and use as land marks, if you’ve seen the lion king and can imagine the big tree that rafiki lives in you can imagine the magnitude of these trees. It’s gorgeous to run and it’s such a nice escape to be out in my own without having to think about work or bambara or life as a volunteer.
Love,
Cait
October 10, 2009
I’ve successfully managed to survive another two weeks at site. I was surprised last Saturday when my LCF (Malian teacher during pre-service training) Salifou Bengaly showed up at my house two days early for a week of intensive one-on-one language training. Not only did it prove to assist in my language level, but it also gave me some credibility among the village people because they would come sit in on my lessons and hear that I can in-fact speak Bambara just slowly and very directly. Since Salifou left a few days ago I’ve inherited a whole village of teachers who speak to me very slowly and enunciate absolutely everything (for some reason they think they can talk about anything and I’ll understand if they just speak slowly enough) so it’s been pretty entertaining.
My homologue has discovered my love of soccer so when Mali plays he gears up his tv and about 30 men huddle around the tv to watch the game and then there’s me…the lone girl. I’ve tried to enlist my host sisters to come watch with me but they get nervous being on the same level as the men in village so they won’t stay for more than a few minutes. I guess that’s one more thing I can work on during the next two years. Most of the women are painfully subservient and inferior to the men, so I’m doing my best to encourage my girls to stay in school and not get married when they're 16.
I’ve had a little success already in my village. My homologue is the head of the mens association and they want to improve their animal raising. One of their problems was that there was no one to take care of the animals during the day while the men were in the fields and the women are working in the house except for the children. School started last week and I noticed that everyday one of the kids didn’t go, so salif explained to me that the kids would rotate the days they took care of the animals so we suggested to my homologue that they hire an older boy who had either finished or already dropped out of school. This way the kids get to go to school and we’ve created a job for someone who wouldn’t otherwise have one.
I love nights here! Because there's no electricity people chat and everyone is welcome in everyone's house so the whole community is very tightly knit. Plus the sky isn’t tainted by lights so the stars are very crisp and clear and shooting stars are absolutely everywhere. Friday nights, the choir at church meets at the church for rehersal and dance and sing along with the drums and guitars and that has quickly become one of my favorite weekly routines. This past Sunday the church gave me a hymnal so I can sing along even if I can’t understand what I’m singing and that makes the village people pretty excited.
I just passed my three month anniversary in country (10-10-09) which is pretty crazy because it has absolutely flown by…well, most days have flown by, and others have been so painfully slow that I’ve had to check to make sure that my watch was working. I’ve noticed that time is a very loose term here; it’s like an electrician when they say they’ll be at your house between 8 am and 5pm…great, really helpful.
The rainy season is winding down thus harvest season has started and fortunately the hungry season is also winding down. Watermelon just started and while the interior of the watermelon is a shade of pink that could pass as white, it’s still delicious and a nice change. My diet is regrettable in that protein and fiber are hard to come by. Peace Corps makes us take iron daily and I’ve taken to cooking my own breakfasts and lunches because I can’t stomach some of their foods and I’d rather cook for myself then force down food that has literally gagged me.
Love,
Cait
My homologue has discovered my love of soccer so when Mali plays he gears up his tv and about 30 men huddle around the tv to watch the game and then there’s me…the lone girl. I’ve tried to enlist my host sisters to come watch with me but they get nervous being on the same level as the men in village so they won’t stay for more than a few minutes. I guess that’s one more thing I can work on during the next two years. Most of the women are painfully subservient and inferior to the men, so I’m doing my best to encourage my girls to stay in school and not get married when they're 16.
I’ve had a little success already in my village. My homologue is the head of the mens association and they want to improve their animal raising. One of their problems was that there was no one to take care of the animals during the day while the men were in the fields and the women are working in the house except for the children. School started last week and I noticed that everyday one of the kids didn’t go, so salif explained to me that the kids would rotate the days they took care of the animals so we suggested to my homologue that they hire an older boy who had either finished or already dropped out of school. This way the kids get to go to school and we’ve created a job for someone who wouldn’t otherwise have one.
I love nights here! Because there's no electricity people chat and everyone is welcome in everyone's house so the whole community is very tightly knit. Plus the sky isn’t tainted by lights so the stars are very crisp and clear and shooting stars are absolutely everywhere. Friday nights, the choir at church meets at the church for rehersal and dance and sing along with the drums and guitars and that has quickly become one of my favorite weekly routines. This past Sunday the church gave me a hymnal so I can sing along even if I can’t understand what I’m singing and that makes the village people pretty excited.
I just passed my three month anniversary in country (10-10-09) which is pretty crazy because it has absolutely flown by…well, most days have flown by, and others have been so painfully slow that I’ve had to check to make sure that my watch was working. I’ve noticed that time is a very loose term here; it’s like an electrician when they say they’ll be at your house between 8 am and 5pm…great, really helpful.
The rainy season is winding down thus harvest season has started and fortunately the hungry season is also winding down. Watermelon just started and while the interior of the watermelon is a shade of pink that could pass as white, it’s still delicious and a nice change. My diet is regrettable in that protein and fiber are hard to come by. Peace Corps makes us take iron daily and I’ve taken to cooking my own breakfasts and lunches because I can’t stomach some of their foods and I’d rather cook for myself then force down food that has literally gagged me.
Love,
Cait
New Blog
Due to popular demand, I've decided to start a blog in attempt to stay better connected to my family and friends. As internet access is limited and updates few and far between, I hope this will allow you to read at your leisure and I'll do my best to keep you informed. It will be impossible to encapsulate my past six months in one entry, so I've decided to post some of my past letters I wrote home and will, from now on, update my blog each time I come to San. .
September 29, 2009
I’m so sorry that I haven’t written in so long, it’s a rare day when I get to have internet access.
Now that I’m officially a volunteer my life has slowed down drastically. I’ve moved into my house in San and bought furniture and dishes which has helped make it more homey. One day I devoted to just making my house a home buy “sewing” curtains and hanging pictures up. I was just starting to feel comfortable when I woke up a few night ago with this huge lizard staring at me through my mosquito net… there was screaming involved. My days are pretty simple, I wake up around 6 and clean my house and make breakfast and sit outside for a couple of hours reading and studying Bambara then I make lunch then sit for a few more hours chatting with my host family or counterpart sometimes playing cards and always making tea. Several days I’ve biked to neighboring villages to meet the mayor and doctor and teachers and pastor and village chiefs, etc. I’ll be working a bit with a shea butter association in addition to my village association and I’m getting started on painting a mural of the world map at t he school (my friend had to explain to the teacher that there were more than four continents…). Every day is certainly an adventure. On Thursdays I bike to dJely where my market is at (about 9kilometers away). To say dirt road is being generous it’s more sand/gravel/dirt currently mixed with water as it’s the rainy season. Needless to say, by the time I make it market I’m covered in mud and dust which is made all the more entertaining because I was in a skirt the first time. I’m almost exclusively in skirts but I quickly learned that while I can bike in a skirt and stick to social norms, I can’t wear a skirt and maintain my dignity while riding a bike.
On Sundays I go to church with my family which is surprisingly similar to church back home. The choir is unbelievable and while I understood very little of the service I had a good time. The men and women sit on separate sides of the church with the kids in the front and in the middle. In the afternoon of that first Sunday my sister took me to the church and there was a ton of singing and dancing then we started walking and kept walking out into the middle of the African wilderness to a huge lake. It was a baptism. The minister waded out into the water and then one by one about 20 people were baptized by being dunked in the water after saying a prayer, it was fascinating.
This past Sunday, pretty much changed my life. I got up and got ready for church when my counterparts wife came up to my house and told me to get my bike, her son had to be taken to the hospital because he had malaria. My counterpart was already there so the two of us biked to the doctor’s office. When we got to the hospital the little boy, Izac, was lying on the table screaming as the doctor tried for about an hour to get in IV in. Apparently he was severely dehydrated and impossible to find a vein. More than once I almost puked…it was hot and there was a lot of blood and needles, but I held his hand until they finally got the iv in. Later I was sitting on another bed and watching the family and overwhelmingly powerful to see that human nature is universal and the love parents have for their children transcends national boundaries. It was incredibly moving to see them bent over their son praying and holding on to each other. These families have so little that perhaps their bond is even stronger as they rely on each other exclusively and izac is their only son, he’s six.
Right now I’m in San, about a 30 kilometer bike ride from home to do some shopping and get the internet but I’ll probably be heading home tomorrow or Wednesday. I hope you all are doing well.
Love,
Cait
Now that I’m officially a volunteer my life has slowed down drastically. I’ve moved into my house in San and bought furniture and dishes which has helped make it more homey. One day I devoted to just making my house a home buy “sewing” curtains and hanging pictures up. I was just starting to feel comfortable when I woke up a few night ago with this huge lizard staring at me through my mosquito net… there was screaming involved. My days are pretty simple, I wake up around 6 and clean my house and make breakfast and sit outside for a couple of hours reading and studying Bambara then I make lunch then sit for a few more hours chatting with my host family or counterpart sometimes playing cards and always making tea. Several days I’ve biked to neighboring villages to meet the mayor and doctor and teachers and pastor and village chiefs, etc. I’ll be working a bit with a shea butter association in addition to my village association and I’m getting started on painting a mural of the world map at t he school (my friend had to explain to the teacher that there were more than four continents…). Every day is certainly an adventure. On Thursdays I bike to dJely where my market is at (about 9kilometers away). To say dirt road is being generous it’s more sand/gravel/dirt currently mixed with water as it’s the rainy season. Needless to say, by the time I make it market I’m covered in mud and dust which is made all the more entertaining because I was in a skirt the first time. I’m almost exclusively in skirts but I quickly learned that while I can bike in a skirt and stick to social norms, I can’t wear a skirt and maintain my dignity while riding a bike.
On Sundays I go to church with my family which is surprisingly similar to church back home. The choir is unbelievable and while I understood very little of the service I had a good time. The men and women sit on separate sides of the church with the kids in the front and in the middle. In the afternoon of that first Sunday my sister took me to the church and there was a ton of singing and dancing then we started walking and kept walking out into the middle of the African wilderness to a huge lake. It was a baptism. The minister waded out into the water and then one by one about 20 people were baptized by being dunked in the water after saying a prayer, it was fascinating.
This past Sunday, pretty much changed my life. I got up and got ready for church when my counterparts wife came up to my house and told me to get my bike, her son had to be taken to the hospital because he had malaria. My counterpart was already there so the two of us biked to the doctor’s office. When we got to the hospital the little boy, Izac, was lying on the table screaming as the doctor tried for about an hour to get in IV in. Apparently he was severely dehydrated and impossible to find a vein. More than once I almost puked…it was hot and there was a lot of blood and needles, but I held his hand until they finally got the iv in. Later I was sitting on another bed and watching the family and overwhelmingly powerful to see that human nature is universal and the love parents have for their children transcends national boundaries. It was incredibly moving to see them bent over their son praying and holding on to each other. These families have so little that perhaps their bond is even stronger as they rely on each other exclusively and izac is their only son, he’s six.
Right now I’m in San, about a 30 kilometer bike ride from home to do some shopping and get the internet but I’ll probably be heading home tomorrow or Wednesday. I hope you all are doing well.
Love,
Cait
August 23, 2009
I've just returned from my site visit and can you believe it, I've got a horse!! I haven't seen any horses in Mali but i come to San and there are horses everywhere. Not exactly in the condition that horses in KY are kept, but it's still comforting to hear neighing at night instead of the donkey bray. I left in typical Mali fashion about two hours after arriving at the bus station loading the bus in the pouring rain. i had to disassemble my bike which was pretty entertaining and by the time i made it on the bus which stank of sweat and body odor and other most unfortunate smells, i was covered in mud and soaking wet. We finally left and headed toward Bamako which should have taken 30 minutes took about two hours. We picked up some more people and filled up with gas and then changed the tire (because apparently none of this could have been done before we left). I'm finally starting to dry off a bit when i have to get off the bus to help push the bus back into gear and then run to get back on the bus. It was absolutely hilarious. We broke down a few more times once for 3 hours which was painful but all in all it went pretty smoothly...then we hit a cow. It was quite a day
The San volunteer house is fabulous with electricity and running water and an internet cafe real close by. It's got all the amenities of a big city but is pretty small city. I opened my bank account the next day and then wandered around a pretty cool market. Of course it's rainy season so I'm constantly covered in mud and the market was no exception, but it was pretty fun. My volunteer buddy (who showed me around for a day or two) and i left on our bikes and road for about two hours to my new home. My butt was burning and i was dripping in sweat, but it was awesome to bike by these farms and villages in Africa just doing their daily chores, it was pretty surreal. Off the main road I'm about 5 kilometers on bike on pretty terrifying roads of mud and rock and bushes. I'm already becoming quite a proficient bike rider as it is my only reasonable means of transport.
My house is super cute mud hut with a thatched roof which is so pleasant during rainy season because it is so much quieter than the tin roofs. I've got two rooms and a entry way with my own toilet and a little yard. My counterpart is building me a hangar on my porch after rainy season (during "cold" season). I've got a couple of awesome shade trees and room for a garden that I'll hopefully get started when i move back home. I've been given 5 chickens thus far as gifts and they have been delicious. It was pretty funny because i was sitting and hanging out with my family when my homologue comes stands up quickly and says I'll be back. I going to cut the chicken neck. Bambara is a very straightforward language with no sugarcoating involved. I had a leak in my roof that my homologue quickly fixed and i spent pretty much the whole week chilling and trying to greet as many people as possible. I'm in such a different setting than my home stay that it's a huge adjustment, not bad, just different.
I met all the other volunteers in my area and it's such a fun group. There are 13 of us and such a blast. We get to cook at the STAGE house because we have a stove and we freeze our water bottles to have cold drinks when we're there. I left today and successfully managed to make it to Bamako without any holdups via public transport. I somehow managed to sleep the entire 6 hour drive home thanks to my nausea med the doctor gave me and my fellow volunteers were quite jealous. This bus definitely smelled worse than the other one so i was pretty stoked to be medicated. Riding in vehicles is really the only time I'm painfully aware of no AC and i won't burden you with all the gorey details but you can definitely tell people get sick on these buses often.
I'm in a great mood right now though, i got two scoops of yummy ice cream in Bamako before heading back to Tubaniso and i just showered and feel nice and clean. I'm getting ready to watch some TV on a friends laptop seeing as how i won't have electricity again for a while. I don't leave until Wednesday morning so I'll email again before i leave.
Love,
Cait
The San volunteer house is fabulous with electricity and running water and an internet cafe real close by. It's got all the amenities of a big city but is pretty small city. I opened my bank account the next day and then wandered around a pretty cool market. Of course it's rainy season so I'm constantly covered in mud and the market was no exception, but it was pretty fun. My volunteer buddy (who showed me around for a day or two) and i left on our bikes and road for about two hours to my new home. My butt was burning and i was dripping in sweat, but it was awesome to bike by these farms and villages in Africa just doing their daily chores, it was pretty surreal. Off the main road I'm about 5 kilometers on bike on pretty terrifying roads of mud and rock and bushes. I'm already becoming quite a proficient bike rider as it is my only reasonable means of transport.
My house is super cute mud hut with a thatched roof which is so pleasant during rainy season because it is so much quieter than the tin roofs. I've got two rooms and a entry way with my own toilet and a little yard. My counterpart is building me a hangar on my porch after rainy season (during "cold" season). I've got a couple of awesome shade trees and room for a garden that I'll hopefully get started when i move back home. I've been given 5 chickens thus far as gifts and they have been delicious. It was pretty funny because i was sitting and hanging out with my family when my homologue comes stands up quickly and says I'll be back. I going to cut the chicken neck. Bambara is a very straightforward language with no sugarcoating involved. I had a leak in my roof that my homologue quickly fixed and i spent pretty much the whole week chilling and trying to greet as many people as possible. I'm in such a different setting than my home stay that it's a huge adjustment, not bad, just different.
I met all the other volunteers in my area and it's such a fun group. There are 13 of us and such a blast. We get to cook at the STAGE house because we have a stove and we freeze our water bottles to have cold drinks when we're there. I left today and successfully managed to make it to Bamako without any holdups via public transport. I somehow managed to sleep the entire 6 hour drive home thanks to my nausea med the doctor gave me and my fellow volunteers were quite jealous. This bus definitely smelled worse than the other one so i was pretty stoked to be medicated. Riding in vehicles is really the only time I'm painfully aware of no AC and i won't burden you with all the gorey details but you can definitely tell people get sick on these buses often.
I'm in a great mood right now though, i got two scoops of yummy ice cream in Bamako before heading back to Tubaniso and i just showered and feel nice and clean. I'm getting ready to watch some TV on a friends laptop seeing as how i won't have electricity again for a while. I don't leave until Wednesday morning so I'll email again before i leave.
Love,
Cait
August 14, 2009
Hey! Thanks so much for getting the mail sent! Computer access has been limited until now so the updates have been few and far between, my apologies. Today i went to a neighboring village about an hour from Tubaniso (Where i stay with the peace corps) and we worked with a youth group, women and men's associations in implementing some projects. It's a bunch of analysis tools to find out what projects are necessary and feasible. All in all its was very insightful, it just made for a long day.
My homologue and i bonded a little today, i think he's going to be very much a father figure for me. Today a couple of boys were giving me a hard time and he grabbed my hand and pulled me away then shushed the boys away, it was pretty funny. I'm guessing he's about 55 years old and pretty shy but i think once i charm him with my bubbly personality we'll get along pretty well. I'm leaving for site on Sunday morning and it'll be about a 12 hour travel with my homologue on public transport which will be a real adventure. I'll be at site for a week then back at Tubaniso for a day before returning back to home stay (baguenda camp). I miss my home stay family so I'm pretty excited to see them and so sad that I'm almost done with my time there.
I've been one of the fortunate few trainees yet to have amoebas (the dreaded Mr D) and with the exception of my one vomiting spree I've been in superb health. With many thanks to inheriting dads sleeping patterns, i sleep through the nights without difficulty despite waking up in several layers of sweat. I only sleep in shorts and a sports bra with no sheets and I'm still pretty sweaty when i wake up. Fortunately, Malians believe in bathing every few hours so I'm not dirty for too long. It is crucial to greet everyone in my family many times a day but only after you've bathed, so after my morning bath i greet everyone then eat and go to class. I come home for lunch and then back to class and get back home around 5 pm. I usually have tea with my brother at our concession or a friends where we chat until dark. Sometimes we play soccer which they all love the fact that i can play and Alu brags about me a little. We have dinner about 8pm and I'm in bed on a normal night by 9:30.
So some funny things that have happened in my first month in Africa:
1. When it rains it becomes muddy and thus slippery. I fall on paved dry flat roads, so you can imagine my coordination on slippery, muddy, slanted roads... On my way to a dance with my brother and his three best friends i proceed to step in a mud puddle, slide about 3 feet before falling to my butt. Alu (brother) had to pull me up and then dig around for my flip flop which was suctioned off in the mud- I should have preceded this story with the fact that Malians like to laugh at us when we do ANYTHING, let alone wipe out in front of 3 20 year old boys.
2. After Alu told the whole neighborhood about my lack of coordination (which took all of five minutes to spread to the neighboring village) my family has taken it upon themselves to watch me try to cross our concession (courtyard) after it rains as a source of entertainment. Unfortunately, under their watchful eyes i become increasingly conscious and thus less coordinated. I'm up to 6 falls in the concession. It has become such entertainment that when it rains, they invite friends over and then call me out of my room to watch me try to navigate the mud. Once i was on my way back from the negen (bathroom) and i made it all the way to my room without falling and i hear this applause coming from the main house, i look up and see my entire family smiling and cheering my successful trip to the bathroom...
3. My teacher shot a snake out of a tree with a slingshot.
4. I had a monkey sitting on my windowsill screeching at me for about an hour in the middle of the night.
5. I have a pet lizard named George. He seems to find me every day i have class in the SED hangar at Tubaniso and he climbs up and sits on my shoulder. He won't sit still on anyone else.
6. i played soccer with some friends and the giant termite mound become the opposing teams best defensive player as it took me out not one, two or three times, but 4 times
7. I went to a wedding rehearsal dance that had to be postponed because a cow got loose and destroyed the chairs that had been set up.
8. A taxi of goats passed us. they were inside the car.
I'm sure there's plenty more but these are some of the more interesting ones. So much of what would have seemed weird a month ago are common place now so I'm having a hard time remembering that things aren't "normal". Becky said something in passing about getting her counters done and it occurred to me that it will be really nice to eat on a counter again instead of the floor and how nice a fork will be instead of my hands. There are countless examples of these situations that I'm just used too now. I don't miss cold drinks because i never have them so its hard to miss what i can't really remember and won't have for a while. That's pretty much the same way i feel about AC, toilets, electricity, etc. I love that i don't have the option to watch TV when I'm bored, the bonds people have here are so intense because you are surrounded by people at all times. It's pretty amazing to experience.
I know i don't tell you guys enough but i love you all and think about you often. i can't talk or write as often as I'd like but knowing I've got so much love back home is a huge comfort and has kept me from getting homesick yet. I'm getting the best of both worlds right now so even when I'm away from you guys know i love you and miss you very much.
Love,
Cait
My homologue and i bonded a little today, i think he's going to be very much a father figure for me. Today a couple of boys were giving me a hard time and he grabbed my hand and pulled me away then shushed the boys away, it was pretty funny. I'm guessing he's about 55 years old and pretty shy but i think once i charm him with my bubbly personality we'll get along pretty well. I'm leaving for site on Sunday morning and it'll be about a 12 hour travel with my homologue on public transport which will be a real adventure. I'll be at site for a week then back at Tubaniso for a day before returning back to home stay (baguenda camp). I miss my home stay family so I'm pretty excited to see them and so sad that I'm almost done with my time there.
I've been one of the fortunate few trainees yet to have amoebas (the dreaded Mr D) and with the exception of my one vomiting spree I've been in superb health. With many thanks to inheriting dads sleeping patterns, i sleep through the nights without difficulty despite waking up in several layers of sweat. I only sleep in shorts and a sports bra with no sheets and I'm still pretty sweaty when i wake up. Fortunately, Malians believe in bathing every few hours so I'm not dirty for too long. It is crucial to greet everyone in my family many times a day but only after you've bathed, so after my morning bath i greet everyone then eat and go to class. I come home for lunch and then back to class and get back home around 5 pm. I usually have tea with my brother at our concession or a friends where we chat until dark. Sometimes we play soccer which they all love the fact that i can play and Alu brags about me a little. We have dinner about 8pm and I'm in bed on a normal night by 9:30.
So some funny things that have happened in my first month in Africa:
1. When it rains it becomes muddy and thus slippery. I fall on paved dry flat roads, so you can imagine my coordination on slippery, muddy, slanted roads... On my way to a dance with my brother and his three best friends i proceed to step in a mud puddle, slide about 3 feet before falling to my butt. Alu (brother) had to pull me up and then dig around for my flip flop which was suctioned off in the mud- I should have preceded this story with the fact that Malians like to laugh at us when we do ANYTHING, let alone wipe out in front of 3 20 year old boys.
2. After Alu told the whole neighborhood about my lack of coordination (which took all of five minutes to spread to the neighboring village) my family has taken it upon themselves to watch me try to cross our concession (courtyard) after it rains as a source of entertainment. Unfortunately, under their watchful eyes i become increasingly conscious and thus less coordinated. I'm up to 6 falls in the concession. It has become such entertainment that when it rains, they invite friends over and then call me out of my room to watch me try to navigate the mud. Once i was on my way back from the negen (bathroom) and i made it all the way to my room without falling and i hear this applause coming from the main house, i look up and see my entire family smiling and cheering my successful trip to the bathroom...
3. My teacher shot a snake out of a tree with a slingshot.
4. I had a monkey sitting on my windowsill screeching at me for about an hour in the middle of the night.
5. I have a pet lizard named George. He seems to find me every day i have class in the SED hangar at Tubaniso and he climbs up and sits on my shoulder. He won't sit still on anyone else.
6. i played soccer with some friends and the giant termite mound become the opposing teams best defensive player as it took me out not one, two or three times, but 4 times
7. I went to a wedding rehearsal dance that had to be postponed because a cow got loose and destroyed the chairs that had been set up.
8. A taxi of goats passed us. they were inside the car.
I'm sure there's plenty more but these are some of the more interesting ones. So much of what would have seemed weird a month ago are common place now so I'm having a hard time remembering that things aren't "normal". Becky said something in passing about getting her counters done and it occurred to me that it will be really nice to eat on a counter again instead of the floor and how nice a fork will be instead of my hands. There are countless examples of these situations that I'm just used too now. I don't miss cold drinks because i never have them so its hard to miss what i can't really remember and won't have for a while. That's pretty much the same way i feel about AC, toilets, electricity, etc. I love that i don't have the option to watch TV when I'm bored, the bonds people have here are so intense because you are surrounded by people at all times. It's pretty amazing to experience.
I know i don't tell you guys enough but i love you all and think about you often. i can't talk or write as often as I'd like but knowing I've got so much love back home is a huge comfort and has kept me from getting homesick yet. I'm getting the best of both worlds right now so even when I'm away from you guys know i love you and miss you very much.
Love,
Cait
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