Sworn-In!

I am now officially a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Republic of Mali! Yesterday morning, at the American Embassy, myself and 80 fellow Peace Corps Trainees in my stage, including 18 trainees in Water and Sanitation, were officially sworn-in as Peace Corps Volunteers. We spent the night out in Bamako, before coming back to Tubaniso for one last night tonight. Tomorrow, we will be splitting off to our respective regional capitals. I will spend 3 nights in Ségou, after which I will be installed Wednesday in my village for my two-year post. Times, they are a changin'!

2010-2012 Peace Corps Mali Water and Sanitation Volunteers (Thanks, Lindsey for the Pic!).

Homestay: The Final Week

An old tree in my homestay village. It appears that some other type of vine/tree has overtaken it to give the tree this unique look.

Sunday, we left our homestay sites for the last time to head back to Tubaniso before swear-in on Friday at the US Ambassador’s residence, and all of the shenanigans that go along with it. Next Sunday, we will begin the trek to our permanent sites to begin integrating into our respective communities.

Homestay really flew by, and I became fairly close to my host family, considering the language barrier. It was sad to leave so soon, and I am planning on visiting them again when my Bambara improves. Below is a brief summary of the week that was…

My 'immediate' host family. Adema Doubia, my host-father, is back-right. 

Another one of my 'immediate' host family. In the back row are Adema's two wives,  Aminata Coulibaly and Miriam Samake.

I arrived back at my homestay village on Friday, August 20th. On Sunday, Isa, my host-uncle of around 21 years of age, took my Bambara-English-French study materials to make copies 10 km away at our market town. He is very motivated to learn English, and plans to go back to school in October, after the growing season.

Another picture with my host family. From left, Drissa, Solomen, Isa, Sitafa (or as I call him, 'Stephan'), myself, and Lameen.

My Site Visit to the Ségou Region as 'Maliki Jarra'

Scattered trees within the agricultural fields just outside of the village.

We have just returned from our initial visit to our respective sites for the next two years. I have been placed in a small village of around 1,400 people in the Region of Ségou, approximately 100 kilometers east of the city of Ségou, the regional capital. Due to my very persistent homologue, just after I finally got used to my Malian name in Homestay, I now have a new name… Maliki Jarra. This week certainly had it’s ups and downs, but I am excited about my new village.

The following is a brief rundown of the happenings at site…

The small mud-mosque located near the center of the village.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Myself, my fellow PCTs, and our homologues woke up at Tubaniso, ready to split off to our respective regions and sites. Hannah and I lucked out and got Peace Corps transport into Ségou, instead of having to negotiate Mali’s public transportation system the entire way. After a three-hour ride from Bamako, we arrived at the Peace Corps bureau in Ségou around 12:30pm, where I met Therese, the volunteer whom I am replacing. We then went to a local transportation stop, at which time my homologue, Lassana, left separately on his motorbike to spend a night with his third wife, who lives in a village approximately 30 kilometers from my site/his home.

A bush taxi headed for my market town 4 kilometers south of my village was waiting at the transportation stop when we arrived there around 1:00pm. A throng of people were already there ready to go, but the bush taxi waited for two more people to completely fill out the vehicle, and we left around 4:00pm after Therese pulled off some bargaining/haggling in Bambara.

The trip on the bush taxi was very, well, ‘cozy.’ There were five of us crammed into the last row of the taxi, and half-way through, one of them actually stood up, yelled at the driver to stop, and he went and sat on the roof instead. The bush taxi negotiated some very rough dirt roads, with large sporadic pools of water.

Site Announcement: Ségou Region

Our sites were announced today at Tubaniso. I am headed to a village of approximately 1,200-1,500 people; about twice the size of my homestay village. It is located in the region of Ségou, and is approximately 100 kilometers east of the city of Ségou. It is a Bamanakan village which predominantly practices Islam and speaks Bambara. The villagers are primarily farmers and fishermen. The village has four butigis (small food/supply stores), a primary school, two water pumps (one of which hasn’t worked in four years), and several improved large diameter wells. Similar to my homestay site, the houses are made of mud construction. I will have cell phone coverage in the village through Malitel.

I will be replacing the last of two consecutive volunteers placed in the village. It appears that they have implemented several current projects, which I will be continuing, including a fish farm, a community women’s garden, and community well construction. However, I look forward to evaluating the village’s needs in my first several months and implementing new projects to meet these needs throughout my term of service.

Tonight at dinner, I met my homologue, Lassana. Each volunteer is assigned a homologue, who is a well-regarded member of the village tasked with helping the volunteer implement their projects. The man is huge and looks like a football player from the states. He is maybe the only Malian I have met taller than me, and seems to be very outgoing and jovial. He only speaks Bambara, so communication is difficult at the moment.

Over the next couple of days, we will be in classes together here at Tubaniso. On Wednesday, August 11th, we will depart in the morning for my village in Ségou via my first foray on public transportation in Mali. Should be an interesting trip. I will stay at my site until Wednesday, August 18th, at which time I will head back to Tubaniso, debrief on Thursday, and head back to homestay on Friday, August 20th. I will try to post again at debrief.

Homestay, Part II

Today, we took a Peace Corps transport vehicle back to Tubaniso from our homestay village. The dirt road to our village from the national road is in utter disrepair, which even in dry days requires the most rugged of the land rover-type vehicles Peace Corps employees. Last night around 3AM, it began raining, and the rain continued, hard, until about 4PM. The driver had to navigate through several rivers and gullies the rain had caused, but we made it out, soaked gear strapped to the roof be damned.

We just completed our second stint at our homestay villages. Since we last left Tubaniso on Wednesday, July 21st, we have spent 18 days in our small village of 800 people in the Koulikoro Region of Mali. A lot has happened since my last post, so I will try to fill you all in on the details...

An adjacent concession in my homestay village, behind cornfields.

The 'kalanyoro' (school) in my homestay village. We spend most of our classes underneath the large tree in the center of the picture.

A view of the mud-construction gazebo in my concession.

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.