Love At First Site

The next part of my adventure began with a field trip to a local village where we conducted a PACA, or a Participatory Approach for Community Action, assessment. The assessment was taught to us in a three hour long class at the training center. I had my doubts as to its effectiveness. The program, simplified, of course, goes like this: 1st we break the members of a village into three groups: men, women, and youth. Then, each group makes a community map, daily/yearly calendar, and a list of current resources. Next, a "wish list" is made and narrowed down to six choices, which are then voted on. After the number one choice is decided on, a "problem tree" is created which calculates the challenges there are to achieving the choice, and how those challenges can be overcome. This part is where I was skeptical. I was afraid that people wouldn’t vote honestly in the group-- peer pressure, etc. I was also afraid that people would feel strongly about multiple choices and that something important to a large section of group might be ignored causing frustration and a possibly a lack of further participation. When we got to this point I had our facilitator ask the women if they were surprised by the result, which was to get supplies for the health clinic. As it turned out, they were pretty equally divided between getting the supplies and getting more equipment for their community garden. So, from there out we discussed the top two choices, which I felt really good about. After all of the information was gathered, we compared the different group’s information. The difference was palpable, especially between the men and the women. By the end we had given the community direction, and I feel that we left them with the confidence that their dreams are achievable. Not only that their dreams are achievable, but that they can achieve them all on their own with resources within their community. It would take me hours to get into the full details of the assessment, but trust me when I say it was amazing. My whole body was buzzing from the experience. I worked with the women’s group and their strength gives me the courage to keep moving forward. They knew to vote for the right things, not the frills that would make their lives easier, but for the necessities like education and health. Ok, so as it turns out my body was buzzing because I was in the throws of a fever, helk, but it was still, hands down, the best thing I’ve done here so far.

Next it was time for site visit. Unfortunately I had some kind of virus, complete with fever, laryngitis, and intestinal issues, so I didn’t leave with the group. I spent two days sleeping; one of which was at our medical unit in Bamako. I was really nervous about going to site because I now had to take my first trip on public transport ALONE! Not only is the bus station insane, but I don’t speak the language. Busses often break down, which mine did with a flat tire, and, really, anything is possible from demands for bribes to having to pushing the bus! I packed my first aid knife in my passport holder and hoped for the best (and lets face it, I have a better chance of stabbing myself.) The bus ride was 7 ½ hours because the bus stops every 5 minutes to pick up people who they stuff in the middle isle of the bus to make extra money. Meanwhile, people are shoving things for purchase through the bus windows. It’s a bit overwhelming, but quite delightful once you adjust. We were in the middle of the dessert, sun shining, when all of a sudden this line of black started chasing us. It looked like a tornado. It wasn’t a tornado, but it WAS a really huge sandstorm!! The entire bus filled with sand, and I had to cover my face with my pillow just to keep from breathing the sand in. It was so bad that couldn’t even see the person next to me. The bus decided just to stop in the middle of the road and I was so scared that some idiot was going to hit us. Then, just like that, it started raining. We were then all covered in a layer of sand which was quickly turning to mud. The bus resumed driving in the downpour. DRIVING???!!! The wind was so strong that I thought for sure that we would be picked up. Keep in mind that the roads here are made as wide as we would use for one car in the US. Every time we passed an oil tanker, before the rain, I had a mini panic attack--add the rain, the white knuckled bus driver, and the Taylor fixed windshield wipers, and I was in full-fledged panic mode. I went to my happy place. When the sun finally came out and I discovered that I still had all of my limbs, I started hysterically laughing which I’m pretty sure is responsible for the fact that no one messed with me—clearly they had a maniac on their hands. We made it to site shortly after the last stop-- a prayer break at the mosque, of course. The truth is that everyone on the bus was really nice to me and they even watched out for me when I got off to use the ladies nyegen.

I was then picked up by the PC and taken to my new house. It has two 10x10 rooms with two little windows. It also has electricity!!! And the best part…I have a brand new nyegen! The city itself is on the bigger side, so I have access to fresh fruits and veggies, baked bread, and the internet! I have a well (with cockroaches) that I can pull water out of for bathing, and the pump for drinking water is a 10-minute walk. I want to buy a donkey…we’ll see. My homologue is AMAZING (there’s a pic of us on here) and so is the NGO I am working for. I also have a host mom and she is great too. She’s a DIVA and she manages a local radio station. I will be doing public announcements for her once my Bambara is better. Overall a great trip!

I have a site mate. His name is Chris Harmer and he’s a 59-year-old returned volunteer. Yay! After site we headed to our regional capital to meet with the rest of the people from our region for some much-needed r&r. It was amazing. We got to swim in a pool and have pizza. We also took a trip on the Niger to a beautiful hotel where we got to sit on the patio and watch the sun set. It was so great. The regional capital has anything I can’t get at my site and high speed wireless internet. So exciting. It’s about 2 ½ hours away from my site and I get 2 vouchers a month to stay in the hotel dorms there. I am so happy!

Now we’re at the training center and we will be going back to our home stay village on Thursday for our last 10 days of language classes. After that we come back to the training center for our final exam. Wish me luck! I have to get a minimum of "intermediate mid" on my language test and I am so scared.

I have received three packages! Another package from the always amazing Aunt Cathy filled with all kinds of great snacks and necessities including tissues, how does she know? Also one from my friends DeAnna and Michelle with more amazing items and snacks, and most recently a package with my new water bottle and more fabulous goodies from Ron’s mom! Thank you all so much!!! It makes my day/month/year, really!!!!!

Love to all and I hope all is well with you.

I’ve come to snuff the rooster.

I love Mali. The roosters here know who is boss-- ME! Most of you are aware of how roosters have tormented me over the years. Well, for whatever reason, the roosters here in Mali have a healthy fear of me. One wave of my handheld fan and even the largest rooster quivers. In fact, I picked a rooster up the other day. If I do nothing else here I will feel accomplished.

A lot has happened in two weeks! I weighed in at 129 lbs. this morning. That’s a 13 lb loss in one month. Meanwhile, I eat nothing but rice, macaroni, oil, yams, bread and peanut butter. I weighed myself in the morning, before breakfast, but I’m averaging about 132lbs. From what I understand this will change as my body adjusts, so I’m living it up while I can.

Back at the homestay things have been rather eventful. The other day we were in class when all of a sudden we heard this bird freaking out in the tree above us. A snake had wrapped itself around the bird’s neck and was suffocating it! It was insanity. The snake was just waiting patiently for an unsuspecting bird to land in the tree and then BLAMO. After much discussion it was decided to “take care of” the snake, as is custom in Mali because they are considered to be evil. Our teacher shot the snake out of the tree with a slingshot.

I have made 2 cultural faux pas so far. First, I have been sweeping my room at night. I take three baths a day, and I thought that I would sweep before my last bath so that I could get sweaty and dirty, and then wash it off. Well, as it turns out, Malians do not sweep after sunset because they believe that it sends their good fortune out the door. Who knew? Then, I had been given a bag of sugar so I put it in my trunk for safekeeping. Well, there’s no such thing as safekeeping in Mali and ants attacked both my sugar and me one night. I put the ant filled sugar bag into another bag and then threw it out. I then had to spend an hour chasing and squashing hundreds of ants by headlamp. Anyway, someone saw me do this in the pitch dark and went to my mom the next morning saying, “Rokia, do you have so much sugar that you can just throw it away?” They told her that their third cousin’s brother had seen me do this the night before. Apparently, which makes sense in hindsight, you do NOT throw out any food items in Mali. They have ways of removing such problems from the sugar. Who knew?

We got to go to an expatriate swimming pool the other day!!! It was amazing. I had a salad and ate it with the same, if not more, enthusiasm as those who had cheeseburgers. It was a great day. It’s funny how, now, having amenities is culture shock. I was definitely overwhelmed.

Most importantly, I found out where I am going to be spending the next two years of my life! I will be working with a NGO on producing quality onions and then helping them to find a large buyer. I’ll give you more information as I read through all of the paperwork. If you want to know my exact location just send me an email and I’ll let you know. I will be visiting my site for five days next week with my counterpart agency and I am very excited about that.

That’s all for now. Thank you so much to Aunt Cathy for my package of delicious soaps and nailbrush! Also a special thanks to Ron for everything he did for me before I came and for what he continues to do for me while I’m here! I’ve been a sad panda for the last two weeks without any snacks (hence the 13lb weight loss) and I just got a package from Ron with snacks, and reading material, and noise canceling headphones to help with the sound of the bats! You’re the best! I use my headlamp, backpack, and steripen all the time. Seriously, you’re a lifesaver. Xo

Hope all is well on the home front.