10 days into Homestay...

So us Water/Sanitation and Health trainees just returned to Tubaniso, the Peace Corps training facility, after our first 10 days of homestay. During homestay, each trainee is paired with a host-family in a local Malian village in order to adjust to the culture prior to our actual deployment to our respective sites.

We will stay in our homestay sites for the next two months before we depart to our sites for two years. During the two months in our homestay sites, after a couple of weeks, we will head back to Tubaniso for a couple days for training within the water/sanitation sector. This is where I am now, until Wednesday morning. Just a quick note... I do not have any internet access whatsoever at homestay.

Thursday, July 8th, our stage was informed of our homestay villages. I was headed to a small Bamanankan village of about 800 inhabitants with 7 other Water/Sanitation trainees. Our Peace Corps transport vehicle departed around 2pm, and we headed off through the hectic roads, through Bamako, around 5 miles past the airport.

We then turned off onto the most grizzled dirt road, completely unmaintained and marked by huge 3+-foot deep trenches all throughout, filled with muddy water. The road was lined with agricultural fields of the local villagers. After driving down this road for about 7 miles, we were able to see the fringes of our village.

When we drove into the center of the village, we could hear and see the fete that they arranged for us. We were briskly ushered out of our car and into the center of a ring of villagers. Four musicians, two playing the native wooden xylephone, two playing local percussion instruments, were at the front of the circle, providing the music for the fete, while an older man in colorful garb and a large ceremonial hat would sing in spades.

Us eight trainees danced in the center of the circle, as the villagers laughed at us Toubabs. Several times, the music would stop, and we would be sent to our seats along the inside-fringe of the circle. A village elder would get up and speak between the dance sessions.

At one point, I was instructed to stand and receive gifts from the village. One man handed me 10 kola nuts, a traditional token of gratitude, while another man handed me two live roosters, held by the legs. I took both of them at the same time, the kola nuts with my right hand and the roosters with my left hand. I heard a gasp from the crowd – the left hand is considered dirty in Malian culture. But they do understand that we are just learning the culture, so all is good.

Training in Tubaniso...

So last Thursday, I arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for Staging. After some brief orientation, and a fun night and good food out on the town with my fellow 80 Malian Peace Corps Trainees, we took a bus up to JFK Airport in New York City and flew out Friday night to Paris, and then to Bamako. After our flight was delayed a few hours, we finally arrived in Bamako around 11 pm.

The Peace Corps Trainee concrete huts with straw-thatched roofs at Tubaniso, the Peace Corps Mali training facility outside of Bamako.

We moved into our huts that night, and had a snack in the refectoir (the kitchen). We are staying in three-person concrete huts, with straw-thatched roofs. The huts actually have electricity, with a ceiling fan and light! It has made sleeping in the heat and humidity of the rainy season very much bearable. I have a small twin-sized mattress with a mosquito net.

Our latrines are basically a concrete pad with a surrounding concrete structure. There is a hole in the concrete pad for the toilet, and a shower head as well. This training village, Tubaniso, is very much a halfway village of sorts, with many elements of the rural villages we will be placed in combined with a few creature comforts, like plumbing and electricity.

The terrain here is mostly plains with very green trees and shrubs. It is not quite as arid as I expected, but it has been in the 80's an 90's with high humidity, being the rainy season. We were told that it is very possible to see monkeys here on the site, but I have only seen lizards, cockroaches, and lots of mosquitoes and flies so far. It is exciting to know that non-American forms of wildlife are around, though.

The past couple days have been full of training courses, including safety and security, medical, food and water treatment, and other standard core subjects of the Peace Corps. We have been getting accustomed to Mali meals, receiving additional vaccinations, and beginning our malaria medication. We are now getting used to life in a much more rustic setting. Today, I washed my clothes by hand for the first time.