As my one-year mark is quickly approaching, I seem to find myself stuck in a bit of a lull. It seems like a good time for a reflection on the past year. The first half of the year I spent getting to know the language, and way of life of the culture that surrounds me. The second half of the year I spent still learning the language, and strengthening relationships with people in my village. For the most part I was pretty much awestruck with the beauty of Mali, the excitement of being in a new place with new people and the simplicity of how the villagers lived off the land. Maybe now that I’ve been here for almost a year I’m starting to see things more like a local, (but isn’t that the point of becoming integrated?) but now I am very much less awestruck with my surroundings, the excitement is no longer new, and I would give anything to jump in my car and run to Wal-Mart in stead of live off of the land.
Most recently I have been initiated into, what I would call a Malian fraternity, and not by choice. I was told how all of my male friends, and coworkers pull off having multiple wives AND girlfriends on the side-thus loosing a lot of respect for a few people I consider my close friends. When I attempted to explain how wrong that is, I was only interrupted, and told that this is just the Malian Culture. Oh. Morals, commitment, loving relationships, and respect for your significant other are part of culture- who knew?
Now that I’ve been here, living, and not doing much work for an entire year, I’ve decided it is time to get down to business. I brainstormed, and talked with lots of people about needs and wants of the village, and came up with what I thought was a fantastic list of projects to keep myself busy for the rest of my service. I went to discuss my list with the director of the school in hopes that he would be just as excited as I was for my projects. As it turned out, he was rather disappointed with my super list, because I had no plans of building them a new school, big buildings, or giving them large sums of money to spend at their own will. Clearly this guy didn’t attend the meeting that explained what exactly Peace Corps is all about! I walked away with my hopes and dreams shattered. Later that night over a few rounds of tea I was discussing the projects and the director’s complaints with my friend and was once again reminded that this is the Malian culture. Malians are used to having people come in and build things, and buy things rather than teach the Malians how to accomplish and acquire such items on their own, after all that is how the doctor’s office and school were built in my village.
After lounging around in my hammock feeling a little hopeless, I realized that this is no longer an adventure-this is life. Like every hard, stressful situation in life you have to choose the way you want to look at it! In the beginning I was looking at the big picture. I was looking at Mali as if it were a beautiful kaleidoscope- the culture and the music mixing flawlessly into the food, and the dancing. It was beautiful. It was complex and fit well together. But when I start picking the pieces apart, and looking at each part by its self, the picture wasn’t so pretty- my kaleidoscope is broken. In hopes of cheering myself back up, I joined my friends in a dance party to celebrate one of the many weddings that have taken place over the past few weeks and as I looked around I could see the colors of my kaleidoscope slowly merging back together. Realizing that it may be possible to fit all the pieces of culture, music, food, and dance back together to create the beautiful mixture that I once saw, only this time with a bigger and better understanding.
