A Day in the Life... My First Month as a Volunteer

My homologue, Lassana Diarra, the tallest Malian I've known, and myself in my new Malian threads, called a 'bornɛ.' 

I have just completed my first month at site as a volunteer. It has gone rather smoothly, with my time thus far being spent integrating into the community and continuing to learn the local language of Bambara. This past Sunday, I made my first trip into Ségou since being installed. I will be staying here in Ségou for a week for language training with my fellow regional volunteers.

A quick aside about the people of Mali… Tuesday at lunch, I went to get my hair cut. As I was leaving, after negotiating the price of my haircut down by half, the men asked me to stay and drink tea with them. I told them I would, but I am very hungry and want to get something to eat. One of the men then told me his family is about to eat, and asked me to join them. So I walked with him to his family’s house a block away, and ate a very good meal of rice, onion sauce, fish, cabbage, and carrots. They even offered me a spoon, but I told them in Bambara, “I am a Malian now. Eating with my hands is good.” So I ate out of the communal bowl with five other men. But that is just one of many stories which illustrate the uncompromising hospitality of the Malian people.

I figured that I would give you all a quick rundown of my daily activities at this point. Again, Peace Corps encourages us to take at least the first 3 months of service to simply integrate into our communities and learn the language, so there is not much in terms of work happening right now.

Aisseta Traoré, one of the local village women, proudly holding up a peanut plant she grew in her plot of the women's garden. Aisseta is one of the many women who like to constantly joke with me about being a Diarra, her 'joking cousin,' by calling me a donkey, telling me I eat beans, etc.

I plan on beginning my baseline survey work shortly after I return from Ségou, which involves walking from concession to concession with my homologue, Lassana, to ask each family about water and sanitation concerns in their family and the community at large. I also hope to facilitate the creation of a Water and Sanitation Committee, made up of both men and women, in my village to decide upon projects and work to construct/implement them. My thought is that our first project at that point will be to begin treating the drinking wells with bleach, since both pumps are broken and the drinking water from the wells are not particularly clean.

Next year, I will look to begin the more challenging projects, including possibly repairing the two foot-pumps in village, constructing wells, constructing two nɛgɛns (latrines) and hand-washing stations for the primary school, or any other needs identified in-village. The final project selection will be left up to the village and their priorities.

My jatigi muso (host-mother) Mama. Just about every morning, she fries up some 'farani' (fried dough) or 'furu-furu' (small fried millet or rice dough balls) to sell within the village. Many of the village men, including myself, often gather around to chat and drink tea throughout the day.

A normal day for me right now involves waking up just before 6AM for some resistance training down at my ‘workout tree’ by the fish-pond with the resistance bands I brought with me (great, great purchase). The physical activity really helps to keep my mind straight while living in such a foreign environment. I then return to my concession around 7AM to make my breakfast of 3 hard-boiled ‘camifon’ (guinea fowl eggs) and either bread or oatmeal while listening to ‘The World Today’ and ‘Focus on Africa’ on the BBC. The BBC is a lifesaver, my one sure-fire daily connection to the outside world at-large.

Lamissa, my local language tutor who is also the village primary school’s headmaster, will then stop by around 8AM to aid me in my studies for a couple hours. Normally, I then ‘yala yala’, which in Bambara basically means wander the village to chat with people and drink tea (the favorite and delicious pastime in the Malian culture) until I return to my concession around 11AM for some downtime to read. My host family normally brings me my lunch of ‘to’ around 11:30AM, at which point I will eat while listening to the ‘Newshour’ program on BBC. At 1PM, I walk to my jatigi’s (host father’s) concession to return my lunch, then spend the rest of the afternoon on a ‘yala yala,’ sitting and chatting with locals throughout my village in order to both integrate and improve my language skills.

Some of the village men hard at work making 'fifalans' (straw fans) for sale and fishing nets for their use in a nearby river. The man on the left is making tea as we chat.

Around 5:30PM, I like to go for a run on the dirt roads through the millet fields. Upon my return, I fetch my bath and drinking water from the well, much to the amusement of the men not used to seeing men do such a thing. I then take a bucket bath, and head to my jatigi’s concession for dinner. Dinner normally is either ‘to’ or ‘bashi’ (another form of millet, a little courser than to) with either ‘gwa naw’ (green sauce made with okra), ‘tiga dege naw’ (peanut sauce), or some sort of ‘jege naw’ (made with small minnow-type fish or fish heads purchased at market).

After dinner, I will stay with my host family to chat and drink tea for a bit, then return to my concession to relax to music, write in my journal, and read before going to sleep around 8:30 or 9PM.

Six of Lassana's many kids. He has three wives in my village, and one in a neighboring village 27 kilometers away. The volunteer before me, Therese, used to hang out with the last two children, Jelica and Safiatou often, so they usually stop by my concession daily. The constant attention from kids has been my biggest adjustment thus far.

The adjustment thus far has gone smoothly, and I have gotten accustomed to the millet-rich diet here. I even find myself craving 'to!' My only issue is judging portion sizes becomes difficult while eating with several other people out of a communal bowl. I often eat too much or too little.

I plan on beginning my baseline survey work shortly after I return from Ségou, which involves walking from concession to concession with my homologue, Lassana, to ask each family about water and sanitation concerns in their family and the community at large. I also hope to facilitate the creation of a Water and Sanitation Committee, made up of both men and women, in my village to decide upon projects and work to construct/implement them.

My thought is that our first project at that point will be to begin treating the drinking wells with bleach, since both pumps are broken and the drinking water from the wells are not particularly clean. Next year, I will look to begin the more challenging projects, including possibly repairing the two foot-pumps in village, constructing wells, constructing two nɛgɛns (latrines) and hand-washing stations for the primary school, or any other needs identified in-village. The final project selection will be left up to the village and their priorities.

I have many pictures to share from the end of Ramadan and the Cinquantenaire/ 50th Anniversary of Mali’s Independence, which was September 22 that I will work to put up in separate blog posts.

Women in my jatigi's family making pasta for sale in a nearby village. Mama's daughter, Kaja, brought the two pasta hand-cranked machines in from her home in a nearby village.