The Power is in the Pagne

During the past two weeks at home stay I found myself getting more and more frustrated with the gender roles on Mali. Everyday I see women working so hard. Women are always the first ones awake in the morning-off fetching water, firewood and items for breakfast. While the breakfast is cooking the women start pounding corn or millet for the rest of the days meals. As the children awake, of course they want their Mamas, usually for nursing and simple affection that is given. As other family members rise, buckets of water are fetched for their bathing and breakfast is served

After breakfast, last night’s dishes must be washed and dirty clothes gather for laundering-by hand. Most women then head to the fields with babies and small children tied to their backs, leaving their daughters to finish washing clothes and preparing lunch. The women work alongside the men planting rice, or picking corn all the day long-heading home before it gets dark. While the women prepare supper the men tend to yala yala away the evening and half of the night at times only being home long enough to eat.

Currently most people are fasting throughout the day and only eating before the sun comes up and after the sun goes down. Everyone eats and then heads to the mosque when they are called to prayer. I had the opportunity to go to mosque with my grandparents. Wearing my veil I followed them and every other villager over the age of 60 to the mosque ( seemingly only the elderly go) as I start to head inside my arm is grabbed and I’m pulled backward-women don’t actually enter the mosque they pray outside. –Learning this only added to my frustration of women’s inequality! After going through the motions of the 30 min prayer I am told it is over and I turn to leave once again my arm is grabbed and I’m told I have to wait. The women have to wait until all of the men exit the mosque before they can leave! I don’t like it, and I don’t understand! Women work extremely hard all day long and cannot even enter into the same room to pray to the same God as the men.
After expressing my annoyance and frustration to a fellow volunteer I am reminded of a few Malian proverbs we were told upon arriving in Mali- one being “the power is in the Pagne. A Pagne is the fabric used to make the skirts wore by the women, and the fabric used to tie children to their backs. After being reminded of that I started to realize that no one really does give the women any grief about anything! They all know better! Children know if their mom finds out they did something bad they have a tree branch or a hard hand waiting for them at home. Men know not to argue-more often than not they stay silent and let the women get their say before walking away.

Also I remembered telling my PC recruiter at my interview that I didn’t need to have four walls, a roof and a sign saying United Methodist Church to praise and worship my God. So I guess these women don’t either. The walls of the mosque hold no special power, God still hears their prayers outside of its walls.

Another Malian Proverb that I have grown to liking is, “Whatever the beard says during the day was whispered to him by the braids the night before.”-Which is equally empowering to women!

This past round of home stay was full of Bambara classes-no “field trips” to Bamako, and nothing too exciting happened-but all of the classes paid off in the end because I passed my language exam! Right now most Malian are celebrating Ramadan like I previously mentioned, one great part about Ramadan is that my family still made me lunch a long with the big feast they ate every evening- so instead of fasting I was practically eating double. They break fast around 7:00pm eating millet porridge called Monni. It. Is. So. Good.!!! Everyone would eat monni and then there would always be something else, rice with sauce, to, or noodles- sometime even a third thing to eat. I would always eat at much monni as I possibly could and then only eat a few bites of the next course-which my family thought was hilarious. “Marium you ate too much monni! Your stomach is too full of monni,” or my favorite “ Marium your stomach is going to get really really big if you keep eating monni!”

My two weeks were also very full of conversations with my host family comparing Mali to America. One night when the moon was full, I asked my host mother the word for moon (Kalo) then she asked me if we had a moon in America. I told her yes, we do, and I tried to explain that it was the same moon in American as in Mali. She seemed to believe me, until I told her it was the same sun too. Then she just thought I was crazy! “ Ohh Marium you don’t know what your saying! Its hotter here than America, it can’t be the same sun!”
One night my host father decided he wanted to learn English, and I was going to teach him. Greeting people is really important here in Mali so I decided to teach him how to say “Good Morning, Good Afternoon, and Goodnight.” After he got that down he told me that he was going to keep studying English for the next two years and then he would come back to America with me and marry one of my friends -thinking this was a full proof plan until I told him a few facts about America. First I explained that in America men can only have ONE wife, and men cook, clean and wash their own clothes! He thought that was absolutely crazy! On my last full day at home stay he took me to the cornfield with him. We were picking corn and putting it on a pile and then gathering the pile into a big feed sack and then dumping the feed sack on to the back of a donkey cart-and when I say “we” I really mean “they”- I was hot, sweaty, dirty, it was muddy, I couldn’t keep my shoes on, and I was afraid of snakes; therefore I mostly chatted and followed others around the field pretending to work. When I told my host father that in America a machine does all of this he laughed so hard and said “Marium you are so funny!”

Since I had been sharing so many facts about America with my family, my host mother thought it would be a good idea for me to make American food for them before I left. So being really unprepared to actually cook something I decided to go with the classic peanut butter and banana sandwich. Malians use peanut butter in their sauces, but they only use a little bit so buying a lot of peanut butter at one time was a really hard concept for the lady selling peanut butter at the market. Explaining that I was going to put peanut butter and bananas inside of bread to eat was an even harder concept to explain to my family. But in the end they all ate it, and they loved it!

Since our education sector did not have any field trips to Bamako or anywhere this time around, we made time to have our own “Tubob time” One of these times we were climbing the rocks and having a really deep discussion as to why we were in Africa, and suddenly a lizard crawls across my friend and we all scream and then laugh-of course I’m laughing so hard and the next thing I know a lizard is crawling up my skirt! I jumped up, screaming and instantly became the talk of the town because when I told my family what happened they told the neighbors! Anyway before that happened, while having our quality time together we found ourselves talking about the things we do, and the things that occur in Mali that would never, or rarely be acceptable in America. We dubbed this “Wearing Mali Goggles”
Here is some of our list of things it is okay to do while wearing your Mali Goggles:
It’s okay to crap your pants
It’s okay to self medicate
It’s okay if you miss the hole
It’s okay to be given goat head for breakfast
It’s okay to not know what it is..that your eating..that your walking in..
It’s okay to have to get out and push three times in one trip
It’s okay to eat it…as long as it’s hot
It’s okay if a baby pees on you
It’s okay to be live entertainment
It’s okay insult people in English
It’s okay when people try to rub your moles off, or the white off your skin
It’s okay to no longer have standards…

* This is a running list that will be continued over the next two years…

As training is coming to an end we are all busy mentally preparing ourselves for the next two years. In a matter of days 81 new Peace Core Volunteers (we gained John from Botswana) will be sworn in to serve the next two years in Mali. This also means that with in a few days everything I’ve known as normal in the past 12 weeks is about to change. The people I’ve become friends with are being scattered all across this foreign country-BUT not until after we party on Friday!!

Home Site Home

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?

The Mali Beat

I survived another two weeks with my host family, and we’ve reached the one-month mark! Hooray! Throughout these past two weeks my language has improved immensely compared to the first two weeks. My host mother now cheers for me when I say more than three sentences in 10 minutes! She even calls the neighbors over when I learn new words- for example we were borrowing our neighbor’s donkey to mow our grass (at least that is what I have concluded…) and he started going crazy! He worked himself into a tizzy and wrapped his rope around the tree so he couldn’t go anywhere. I looked at my host mom and pointed to the donkey and said “Foli Fato” (which isn’t even a sentence just donkey crazy) and she cracked up and called the neighbor over and told her- “Marium said the donkey was crazy she learned a new word!" I also accidentally told her that horses eat bread in America.. whoops! You see, in the wonderful language of Bambara, one word has about 10 meanings! The word for house is “so” and the word for horse is “so.” I thought she asked if I ate bread in my house in America.. I only figured out that wasn’t what she said when she was surprised and asked if donkeys ate bread too..and this is all with my “immensely improved” language skills….its going to be a long 2 years!

One thing I have experienced that is so hard to explain in words is the happiness all Malians have. Everyone always has a smile on their face, and a song in their heart. The beat of Mali never stops..it is like the heart beat of Africa. I wake up to the sound of millet being pounded (at 5 am), followed by the trot of Donkey carts heading to the field, and of course the roosters chime in with the cocka doodle chorus. I fall asleep to the crickets chirping and frog croacking. Malians always have a reason to play music and party, a new baby in village? Lets party! Full moon=Party! Wedding in the Village down the road=Party! My kids drank too much tea and wont go to sleep so I’m going to give them a drum and make them walk around the village=Party! My all time favorite occurred one day walking home from language lesson we hear all this music and singing, as we round the corner as see almost all of the women in the village playing drums and dancing. When we asked why, or what the occasion was the answer we got was “Its Tuesday!” So every Tuesday we party in the in street with the ladies! It is so fun but once again there is no way I can express in words to you how amazingly wonderful and beautiful this is! Everyone wears their best clothes so it’s a sea of bright beautiful colors, all dancing so smoothly and together and right on beat. It is incredible! I try to dance with them but I feel inadequate compared to their gracefulness, and beauty. But that doesn’t stop them from pulling me in the circle to dance with them so once again I can make a fool of myself and they can laugh at the toubob!

One night we decided to cook supper with our language teachers at their house and as we were eating it started pouring down rain! It rained really hard for about two hours and wasn’t showing any sign of letting up so I decided I had better walk back to my hut before it got too dark. I had used my bucket in dinner prep and my teacher told me to put it on my head (I’m pretty sure she just wanted to laugh at me and call be buckethead) So I did and for the first time since I’ve been in Africa NO ONE called my name or laughed at me as I walked down the street because they were all inside and boy oh boy those Malians don’t know what they were missing!! There I was with a bucket on my head, trying to navigate my through the river of a street. I kept losing my shoes in the mud and then I would have to go back and yank them out of the puddle, walk three steps and do it again. I didn’t have one dry inch on me by the time I made it home! (Except for the top of my head! Haha)

I have found out where I am going to be living for the next two years, and I get to go visit next week! I’m headed to the Sikasso Region in the south of Mali. It is about 8k off of the main road so I have to take my bike with me on the visit. I will have my own concession, hut with two rooms, and my own Nyegen! My village is about 1000 people. It has a school grades 1-6. I will be working with my homolouge to help train a school committee, promote education, and possibly start a women’s literacy group. These are all of the requests that my village has of me, however I wont be able to start any project until I have conducted a community assessment in my first three months at site. My homolouge was really excited to meet me and seems to like me even though I haven’t had a real conversation with him yet-I’m saving up all of my Bambara for the 6+ hour bus ride with him on Sunday! Speaking of buses, let me give you the low down on Mali public transportation….you know those old conversion vans that no one in the states really want any more and probably have run up an enormous amount of miles…they get sent to Mali. They get painted green, and all of seats are taken out and sometimes even the windows are removed. Malians pay to cram as many people as possible inside and as much stuff as possible tied to the top. They drive down the road with no speed limit, not stopping for anything but possible passengers, not bikers, not motos, not cows, goats, sheep, not even other cars. So my ride to my village with my homologue, my big back pack, water filter and bike should be a great experience to add to my collection!
I’ll keep you updated on how it goes!

Live, Learn, Laugh Until You Cry

For the past two weeks I have been living with my host family in a small village about an hour outside of Bamako. My host family is made up of: Bwa (Grandfather) Ya (Grandmother) Bwatoma (Aunt) Amadou (Father) Marium (Mother) Ladjj (5yr old bother) Mama (baby sister) and Fatim, Detu, Solomon, and Bwa (Nieces and Nephews) and me Marium Diarra-actually they named me something different to start with, but I kept forgetting so they changed it to something easier. The past two weeks I have tried to live like a Malian, which is way easier said than done! My daily routine consisted of first waking up at the crack of dawn to donkeys, goats, and roosters chattering. Then I give my bucket to my host mother and she would fill it and carry it into the Negen. I then try to bathe-try being the key word here, it is hard to say how clean I am actually getting while standing over a hole in the ground used for the bathroom, all the while being surrounded by walls made of mud bricks, packed together with more mud. After getting dressed and slathering my self with sunscreen and bug repellant I am given my breakfast of bread (and fried eggs on one wonderful occasion) and a sweet coffee-ish drink. Upon finishing my breakfast I have to insisted to my mother that I am full ( n’fala, n’fala tuw tuw) and thank the Lord for my food (A Barika, a Barika Allah Amiina). I then have to greet every member of my family who is older than me, starting with the oldest. By this time my host mother thinks I am going to be late for language class and insists that I leave, even though I still have about an hour-which is strange considering we are now on “Mali time.” Mali time means no one is in a hurry to do anything, or go anywhere, partially because of the heat, but mostly because in Mali you greet everyone you pass along the way to where you are going, by saying “Good Morning, How did you sleep? How are you? How is your family? How is your mother? How is your father? How are your children? Where are you going? May God grant you with a peaceful day." And then each person asks you all of these same questions. So I start my walk down the road to the school, which in America would have taken me 3-5 minutes, however in Mali I’m a toubob (white person) and everyone wants to talk to the toubob, so I make it to the school if I’m lucky in 25 minutes! We have Bambara lessons for four hours then make the journey back to our houses for lunch- which usually consists of rice with sauce. The afternoons in Mali are pretty relaxed and easy unless it is a laundry day. If it is nice outside and it is not a laundry day everyone in my concession takes a nap on mats in the shade and prays for a breeze. I then head back to class and try to learn more Bambara. When this session is over, my evenings are always full of surprises- sometimes I walk around the village and attempt to talk to my neighbors, sometimes I have tea, play with kids, ride my bike, help cook dinner, or just study. My family eats pretty late usually 8:00 by lamp light- which is nice, especially on nights when we have fish (Jeka)- that way I can’t see it’s face staring back at me! Then I enjoy the cool open air while listening to the radio, sipping tea, or trying unsuccessfully to talk to my family before heading to bed and starting all over the next day.

There is no way to really describe to you what I have experienced over the past two weeks-amazingly the two weeks went really fast, but at the same time I feel like I’ve been here for months! Throughout the past two weeks there were times when it was rough, times when it was easy, times that were funny, and times that were down right hilarious-but through it all I learned so incredibly much!
For starters I have learned how say more than just good morning, how is your family, in Bambara. I have learned how to successfully eat just about anything with my hands without making a complete mess. I have learned how to wash, shampoo, and condition my hair all with ONE bucket of water. I have learned in order to avoid creepy crawling creatures it is best to avoid the Negen all together between the hours of 8pm-5am ! I have learned that no matter how hard it is raining, no matter how hard the wind is blowing, no matter how scary the storm, my tin roof will in fact stay intact (thus far!). I have learned that Malian’s are not that great at charades-but have no problem laughing their heads off when I’m attempting to act out what I’m trying to say.
I have learned that Malian children LOVE attention! In Mali, or at least in my village children of all ages are given a ton of responsibility -responsibility to do their chores, as well as look after each other. It is very common to see a 6 or 7 year old girl with her baby sister or brother tied to her back. The children love when anyone pays attention to them-especially a new toubob! However there are the few that are absolutely terrified of me, and for the first time, ever in my life I actually have had little toddlers run away crying after seeing me. The children love anything you do with them, toss a ball, play soccer, throw a Frisbee, or my personal favorite say-the-name-of-what-I’m-pointing-at-game. A new experience for me is walking down the street and hearing Marium, Marium, Mum, Mumoo, and other various forms of my name being shouted from every street corner, tree, window, and any other place children hide- I usually try to at least wave in every direction I hear it coming from..but pretty soon before I know it I’m surrounded my 25 children all reaching out dirty little hands for me to shake or high five. One night there were a bunch of children running around my concession so I blew up a beach ball and tossed around with them and they LOVED it! They played and played for hours with a simple beach ball from the dollar store! It was amazing!
Most of all I have learned that laughter is a universal language- Thank the Lord! We all know I’m good at laughing! One of the best ways to practice language, and pick up on new words is to just wonder around the village and see what everyone is up to. ( this is called Yala Yala) In Mali you don’t have to be asked to come into any family’s concession- you are always welcome! Some people just do the general greetings, ask you about your family, where you are going, what you are doing, but then there are the tricksters who throw something new and different in there. I try to say that I don’t understand, and to that most just say it slower, and louder as if some how magically that will make me understand. When all else fails I shrug my shoulders, and laugh- in Mali this is totally acceptable! They love it! I actually think some people try to say something I wont understand just so they can laugh at me. Sometimes even when I do know what they are saying and I respond correctly they still laugh just to laugh. Some days laughter is the only way I can get by- this is especially true the one night after I experienced my first Malian tea. Let me tell you- this ain’t your Grandma’s tea (not mine at least!)!! They serve you tea in a shot glass and this stuff is 100 proof! It is strong and sweet and the second you swallow it your heart beats faster! Unknowing all of this, I agreed to tea with my host mother at 9:30 at night… So there I am laying in my bug hut, fanning myself just thinking. Not thinking about anything in particular but something that I can’t remember now struck me to be so funny and I started laughing- hysterically laughing- pretty soon I’m just laughing at myself for laying in my bed all alone laughing-I laughed until I cried.

At my village there are six other education volunteers with me and as weird as this may sound I feel like I have known these people all of my life! I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know them! We have all really depended on each other the past two weeks depended on each other for a good laugh, a shoulder to cry on and an ear to vent to and I know that our friendship will only get stronger from now until swear-in on September 3rd.

First Week in Mali

Bonjour Everyone! Finally I made it to Africa, and have been here for a few days now-although it seems like way longer! My days have been packed chalk full of things to do, sessions to go to, people to meet, acronyms to figure out, and TONS to learn!

Currently I am staying at Tubaniso with 79 other PC trainees, which is comparable to Peace Corps summer camp! Tubaniso is and enclosed area surrounded by three wall and a river. We are split up into huts there are two other girls which sounds really nice but let me describe the hut… think of the smallest room in your house and then shove in three beds with mosquito nets, three girls who just packed their lives away for two years, three boxes with water filters, a waste basket, and a hand broom! There is not a lot of space and it fills up very quickly! There are four huts that share four neygens-bathrooms.. two of the neygens have a shower the other two are just holes in the ground. Here ate Tubaniso we have access to the internet, electric lights, and ceiling fans and spotty running water. So far so good!
It is currently the rainy season here in Mali and the whether is considerably cooler than the hot season! It hasn’t rained yet really, but last night we thought there was a huge storm brewing outside! We heard rain on our tin roof, and the wind was blowing like crazy! A tree outside of our hut was scraping against out roof making a horrible sound! We seriously thought HOLY COW! But when I went outside the ground was dry, not even damp! The air was nice and cool and breezy it felt very nice actually! The wind must have blown the storm to another town down the road!…but if that wasn’t a storm I’m a little scared to actually experience one.
Thursday I am going to met and move in with my host family! I’m getting really excited and anxious! My host family is expecting me, and will have prepared a single room for me to stay in. In my host village there will be 7 or 8 other volunteers and the 8 of us meet with 2 Language and Culture Coordinators daily for the two weeks we will be there. During these two weeks we are given tasks we have to perform, like conducting interview dialogues with 3 Malians, shopping at the market, and learning what ever we can! After our first two weeks we then come back to Tubaniso and recap everything we’ve learned and learn lots more and attend more sessions for a few days then we head back to our host family for two more weeks and this continues until September.

Yesterday was a very very busy day! We finally were devivded into our sectors and had a session giving an overview of what it is that we will be doing and working on over the next 27 months! These sessions left everyone so pumped and excited to be here! Then we had a panel of current PC Volunteers here to answer any questions we had and they stayed to help us with lunch. Malian’s eat sitting on mats on the floor, they do not use sliver wear and they eat from a communal bowl. Thus far we have been eating with plates and sliver wear sitting at tables so this was a totally new experience for me! We had a fried rice with bits of meat (beef? No one really tells us what we are eating) and chucks of potatoes (can you say HELLO carb-overload! That’s all Malins eat!) We can only eat with our right hand because our left hand is considered dirty. We had to scoop up some rice and squeeze it together so it is like a little patty and eat it that way. It was really messy and could have the potential to make us very sick if other don’t wash their hands..but all in all was pretty fun and not as bad as it sounds! Also yesterday we had our first Bamabra lesson! All we learned was how to greet people and I’m already feeling a little overwhelmed…but I’m not the only feeling this way so it must be normal?!
Today was our first really experience to be around Malians, Malians that don’t work for the Peace Corps or Tubaniso. We had a Cultural Fair! It was pretty cool! Malians were here to sell fabric, a tailor was here to make things for us, musicians were here playing drums, ladies here were cooking us good food and it was so great!! Older Volunteers were also here and they really helped calm all of our worries about leaving for Home Stay Tomorrow.
Well that’s all for now..

Peace and Love

Happy father's Day

So I know it’s a little early for Father’s Day but I am dedicating this blog to all Fathers- well actually just mine! Daddy-this one is for you!

I was blaring my ipod enjoying a big empty house all to myself when Billy Ray and Miley’s song “Ready Set Don’t Go” came on. I have heard this song umpteen times since it first came out but I guess the words never really meant anything to me until now. As I listened I realized that Daddy probably feels a lot like Billy Ray. I mean let’s face it fathering three girls is tough enough now they are all grown up, moving out, having babies (Welcome baby Gia!), and starting their own families- I’m the only one left! Being the youngest of Daddy’s little girls and of course his favorite ( Sorry sisters..But we know it’s true!) It is probably hard see us all grown up and moving on to new phases in our lives because it forces you into a new phase of your life too! (Pappy) It’s one thing for Elaina to live next door and Allison three hours away, but for the next 27 months I will be a 20+ hour plane ride away! In a different time zone, in a different country on a different continent! Daddy it’s going to be hard! But I’m going to be okay! This is my dream, this is what I want, and if you’re not ready to talk about it yet that’s okay we still have a month! But I’ll leave you with some advice with the help of Billy Ray:


I’ve got dreams too big for this town and I need to give them a shot. I’m at the starting line of the rest of my life, as ready as I ever been I’m waiting on your blessing before I hit that open road I say things are falling in place- to you it feels like they’re falling apart But it’s time for you to paint a big old smile on your face and hide your breaking heart. I know this is where you don’t say what you want to bad to say. This is where you want to, but you won’t get in the way of me and my dreams and you’ll let me spread my wings!


Love you Daddy!

Torn and Tattered

Counting down from today I have exactly 6 more days of work. As the days dwindle down I am beginning to experience so many emotions! I’m so excited to finally be moving on to this new chapter in my life, but at the same time I’m going to miss the same old story line I follow every day! I’m not quite ready for new characters in my life- I’m still getting used to the ones I have in my life now! I’m not ready to leave my clients- leave them feeling stranded like they felt a mere 5 months ago when their previous counselor moved on to a new job. I suppose all of these feelings and emotions surfaced today when my manager started interviewing for my position! I’m jealous! I don’t want some else experiencing all of the greatness, pleasure, and happiness that seems to radiate from my clients! (Most of them anyway) I’m not ready to give that up, or share it with anyone else! I’m hoping this feeling will go away or at least lessens after I actually tell my clients I’m leaving next week. I was advised not to tell them until my last week here-so much for termination! But a week will have to do!

Not only am I feeling torn about leaving my job, but last night my nephew Caleb was over and I was getting ready to go see a friend. Caleb looked up at me with the saddest face I have ever seen and his little shoulders dropped as he said “ Aunt D, Where are you going?” it was heartbreaking!

Not to mention, my sister is having a baby in June, and I’m going to miss my best friend’s wedding, and her dad’s MJ impression :-)

So here I am torn..torn and tattered..

BUT

I’m 100% sure I’m making the right decision choosing Africa, choosing the Peace Corps over all of the above statements! This is the decision I need to make, This is where I need to be in my life at this time! I know that leaving my job, my friends, and my family will be hard, but I’m sure nothing will ever compare to the experience I will have over the next 27 months in Mali! This time last years the Peace Corps was a far off dream, now being 41 days away from actually leaving its becoming more and more real- And I couldn’t be more excited!

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