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I made it safely through a whole week on my own at the site where I will be working and living for the next two years! I feel like I have just accomplished a MAJOR life event! I felt so confident by the time I made it back to Bamako I was able to argue the price of my taxi ride from $10 to $6.50 ( so it’s not as impressive converted to American money…) However, just to clarify and so you don’t think I’m getting a big head this confidence and feeling of accomplishment was very much lacking when I left last Sunday, actually it was non existent, and came and went, faded in and out all week long.

Sunday morning was very stressful to say the least! I woke up to the sound of pouring rain hitting our tin roof. Wide-awake, I get up and packed up all of my thing and headed to breakfast. When I got there everyone was telling me that my bus was leaving right then but I thought I wasn’t leaving until 7:00am and it was only 5:30am. I ran to the bus and started to put my stuff on and then someone came and said I wasn’t on this bus so then I had to get my stuff back off of the bus. So finally that was all cleared up, and I was able to calm down a little, but I was still feeling very nervous. 7:00 rolls around and we head to center city Bamako to the Gare- a very scary place! Good thing my homologue knew where he was going! He got us on the right bus and made sure my bike was tied securely to the roof and told me to get on. We sat in silence for the entire two-hour bus ride. It continued to rain and the harder it rained, the more the bus leaked! Finally we make it to our stop along the road and started our trek/adventure down the 8k to my village. It was an adventure because the road was flooded, muddy, and practically impassable- it was the longest 8k of my life! It wasn’t all bad though, the 8k passes through some really amazingly beautiful mango groves, Shea tree groves, fields of rice, corn and peanuts. On a nice day I’m sure I would appreciate more of its beauty!

As you enter the village my concession is one of the firsts ones you stumble upon. As I walked behind my homolouge through the very loose gate with rusted hinges, every feeling of doubt, frustration, nervousness, and fear I had throughout the day was washed away with the rain. I was about to see MY home! I unlock the door and push open the screen banging my head on the top of the doorframe but I’m so excited I could hardly care! My hut is awesome! The volunteer who lived there before me must have had a lot of extra time on his hands because he tiled the floor and painted the walls. The first thing I notice as I walk in is the huge mosaic yin yang tiled right in the center of my floor. The second thing I notice is of course the loaded bookshelf he left me! My hut is two rooms one for cooking, and one for sleeping. I don’t have a bed yet so I had to sleep on the floor in my bug hut with my pillow and a sheet. Right now I have a few tables, a dresser, and two shelves but I will be able to get more furniture before I actually move in. I have my own Nyegn and its pretty nice for being a nyegen-its roomy and clean. I also have a brick oven in my concession so hopefully I can do some baking.
Everyone in the village is really excited for me to be there! The Dugutiki (chief of the village) held a meeting at his house to introduce me to the village and lots of people skipped going into the fields that morning just to meet met! In Mali, that’s a big deal! I didn’t really understand what all was being said about me, I just sat there in the center of everyone and smiled, and they were okay with that.

My week consisted of me eating with my neighbor and his family and yala yala-ing around the village greeting people, getting lost, asking people how to get back to my house, and drinking lots of tea! Malians have super human memories, I can tell them something one time and they remember forever-so its really funny to them that I can’t do that! I had to ask someone to show where my homolouge’s house was and he cracked up laughing and said Marium you were just there yesterday! I made friends with the butikitiki, (store owner) his name is Sekouba, he has two wives and at least two children and one on the way. He is a really nice guy and actually takes the time to help me learn Bambara. He is really good at charades too and will do just about anything to make sure I understand what he is saying!
Once I bike the 8k into the main road I am only 12k away from Bougouni. Bougouni is my banking town, there is a post office, and Internet café there-also Peace Corps gives me one hotel voucher a month to stay over night there. I was able to visit Bougouni with current volunteers and they showed me around a little and they will be there when we actually move into site too. Rumor has it that we take public transportation to Bougouni and stay there for a few days and order all of our furniture and get everything we need for the first three months at site, and then Peace Corps comes with the rest of our luggage and helps us move everything into our huts. Bougouni also has a bus station where I can catch a bus pretty much to anywhere in Mali. I went there to catch my bus back to Bamako. It was a little nerve wracking literally being all alone with no one there who was responsible for me like on the way to my site. I sat in the very last available seat beside a nice fellow who insisted on speaking French to me for 20 minutes before he realized that I kept asking him to speak Bambara. Malians have this way of speaking Frambara-a mix of French and Bambara as if one language isn’t enough for me try to pick up on they through French in there too! When I made it to Bamako as soon as I stepped off the bus I was bombarded with people in my face selling stuff, asking if I needed a taxi, strangers trying to take your bags for you, and it was very overwhelming! Thank goodness the man who sat beside me noticed that I was a litte flustered. He pulled me to the side and told everyone to leave me alone. Then he helped me wave down a taxi and let me explain where I wanted to go, and bargain down the price all on my own. Once he knew my bike was tied to the top, the driver knew where he was going he put me in the car and bid me good-bye. Malians are so nice!

Right now I’m a full bag of mixed emotions! I am so excited to only have three more weeks of training left until swear in, but at the same time I’m going to miss my home stay family and all of my Toubob friends I’m with now. I am very excited to move to my site and to start creating friendships and work relationship with the people in my village- actually writing about it now kind of makes me miss it! I enjoyed my week of “freedom” and being on my own but am I really ready to be all on my own?