Swear in Night

Swear In

Sokolo

I have now been a PCV for just over a month. I'm currently spending a few days in the region capital of Segou, Segou. Here I have been eating all the food it is impossible to find at site, swimming at the two pools in the ritzy hotels, flirting with two volunteers from Belgium and watching movies. It has been a nice break, although things at site have been quite nice.
Within Sokolo I have found the bare minimum of the things I need to have a happy two years. I can play soccer with the locals around my age. We play on the dirt courtyard of the school. There is a large well on the right side of the field which makes for an interesting obstacle for the mid fielders. Everyone plays in "yorow" or jellies and the organization reminds me a lot of a team of 7 year olds in the states, moving around the field in a large pack, heads down with no real concept of where the field ends or begins aside for the school buildings that border a large section. Some of the kids have amazing touches. We actually have a few shops that sell cold sodas. I found a few friends to spend the evenings with, listening to Malian music and drinking the overly sweet tea they are all so fond of. Also, I recently got electricity in my mud hut. I get one light and an outlet from 7 pm until around midnight. It has helped immensely to keep the roaches at bay in the lighted room, although as soon so the lights cut out you can here them slowly emerging out of the roof. I have also planted a small garden, tomatoes, melons, peppers, and I purchased basil, eggplant, carrots, salad and a few other varieties of tomato seeds this week in Segou. I'm fertilizing with my own urine, which I have been collecting a large plastic jug. Apparently it is a very cheap (obviously, although my urine my be a little more expensive since I drink so many Fantas) and effective nitrogen fertilizer, diluted to 1 part pee pee to 3 parts water. I've prepared a few of the natural pesticides, which don't seem to be as effective as I hoped although the garlic and hot pepper one does have a nice smell. Other than that I have been "yala yala" -ing, or walking around, within the village trying to work on my Bambara and meeting all the people I might be working with in the future. The Bambara is coming pretty well. For instance, I successfully talked my way out of paying an exorbitant fee for running stop sign on my new bike. Oh yes my bike. I recently received my new Trek from the Peace Corp, just in from the States. It's shinny and bright red, which of course receives a ton of attention around town.
All in all things are very good. I'm happy most of the time and have been able to read more books than I ever thought I would want to. I'm off to site tomorrow until Halloween when I'll go to San and then to Bamako to watch the election. Miss everyone at home almost as much as I miss good food, you cannot conceive of how many different ways they find to eat rice, rice powder, nearly powdered rice, rice, rice porridge yum yum. Feel free to call anytime as I'm living under the cell phone tower, 2234780057.

Home Stay is Finished

My time in Tamala has come to end after just over two months. I spend a week back here at Tubaniso before swearing in as an official Peace Corp Volunteer on Friday at the American Embassy in Bamako. The embassy itself is an ostentatious eye sore on the outskirts of Bamako. It is large, marble and easily visible from miles off. They have a phenomenal football/soccer field where X-Pats meet numerous times a week for a wide array of American athletic activities. My home stay pals and I made the 30 km jump up to the Embassy last Sunday for the flag football verses the marines, only to discover that was the first Sunday the football had ever been canceled. This actually in some ways ended up being a blessing in disguise, as we were able to enjoy a leisurely breakfast, weren't stuck carrying sweaty clothes all over Bamako for a day, and could immediately begin the most important task of the day: going to the tailor to have our suits made for swear. The four Tamala boys, John, Joel, Lucas and myself, all made the decision to skip the typical traditional Malian garb, normally purchased by future PCV for the swear in ceremony, and were measured for matching three piece suits that without any question will make us look like the best men of some prestigious X-pat. Modeled after a picture our one female Tamala volunteer, Monica, had in an US Weekly of Brangelina, standing next to Jolie in nothing less than Versace or Prada, Pitt looks dashing and sophisticated. While we were told that we were engaging the services of the the most accomplished Malian tailor in Bamako, I have a sneaky suspicion that more than likely we will end up looking more like David Byrne in Stop Making Sense. Soon the jury will be in the as we travel to Bamako today to pick up the suits. All in all, they are running us around $70 or 35,000 CFA. I'll pick it up today after a supply chain session on chicken production in Mali.

Mali One

Back From Segou

So, I went to my future home for two years. It was pretty nice, although it's essentially in the middle of nowhere and a little hot. The edge of the Sahara is close to Sokolo. Luckily an extensive canal system keeps a plethora of water on tap for extensive rice cultivation. The previous PCV I'm replacing is a hilarious character and provided me with ample initiation into my life there. His chicken project is still in the works and I assume I'll do some continuation with that in first months, and hopefully there will be some eggs to be had.

My living situation is interesting to say the least. I have my own house with three rooms in a concession with a family. My direct neighbor is a deaf man who is entertaining most of the times, although he has a habit of bringing me very sweet, hot tea after I've brushed my teeth and usually after I'm asleep. Sticking the hot stick cup under my mosquito net and beckoning to me in what I think no one would call an inside voice. I think I'll have to work to establish some boundaries that were never really established in the previous PCVs service. Also my roof has a tendency to leak when it rains. All in the site is exciting, if not a little daunting (although probably any rural village in Africa would be a little daunting). It was made abundantly clear to me that my Bambara has as a good ways to come before I'll understand most of my daily interactions, but it has only been around a month.

I was able to spend a few days in Segou, our regional capital which is really nice accommodating city. Here, we met the current PCVs who all are a pleasure to hang out with, although they had some interesting stories to tell about the real PC life here in Mali. We all stayed at the Hotel Djoliba, a really nice hotel on the PC dime. We got our first pizzas, pools, ice cream, and hamburgers in Mali. Segou is about 6-9 hours from Sokolo and I assume I'll be heading down there once a month or so to use some of the Hotel vouchers we recieve every quarter. I head back to Tamala in a few days for our last stint at home stay. After 20 days there, assuming we progress enough in Bambara, we will swear in as actual Peace Corp Volunteer and leave behind our current lowly trainee status. I probably won't post much until I swear in, but all is good and I have lost 12 pounds.

Sokolo Bound

So my site assignment is to the village of Sokolo in the Segou region of central Mali. The area is characterized by an intensive canal system and a lot of rice farming. I'm replacing a current volunteer there, who worked to start a egg project with a local women's group. I don't really know much more about it. We go to site visit August 7th and stay for a week so I will know a lot more soon. I didn't get pictures up mainly because I couldn't figure it out. We come back to Tubaniso in a week so hopefully I can get some one to help me then. I return to Tamala today to continue our language and tech classes. Best wishes to everyone.

Bakary at Homestay

The internet is finally back up at Tubaniso. The server was fried by a lighting strike two days before we returned. Then it was unbearably slow for the first 8 or so hours as every volunteer rushed into the hanger with their laptop. We have been back at Tubaniso since Sunday and have once again been subjected to long days of sitting on our rumps.

The homestay has been a relatively painless experience so far. I live in a compound which is a large courtyard area surrounded by around ten low, adobe rooms where everyone sleeps. The courtyard area is left for livestock predominately. Cows, goats, chicken and sheep can be heard at all hours of the night. My host father is Issa Coulabaly. My new name is Bakary Coulabaly. Issa has around 7 children with his sole wife Fatamata. Issa's two brothers also live in our compound, resulting in a total of around 20 children who all find me verying interesting. We have Bambara language classes twice a day, unless we travel down to Kobe for our environmental sector tech class. The Bambara is coming dooni donni as they say and I get along really well with everyone in my family. The food has a times been difficult to adjust to, although usually it consists of solely carbs mainly macarooni and the only really trying meal was a healthy portion of tripe. My intentines have managed to hold pretty strong, which probably has a direct relationship with why I feel my homestay has been painless. There are 4 other trainees living in Tamala with me, Jon, Lucas, Monica and Joel and so far we all are getting along wonderfully. Some have not been so lucky at times on digestive front. Our language trainer is a true pleasure and is pushing us along at a quick clip.

Tonight I promise to put up some pictures so that you can get a little taste of Tamala. The hanger is pretty busy right now making the internet slow. I miss eveyone at home although Africa has not been as uncomfortable as I was expecting. The people here are very warm and inviting and the landscape is often breath taking. Anyone in my village will patientely talk with me as I test out my toddler-like vocab after class. I've been drinking a ton of the tea they make here, which is both really strong and really sweet. Sending all my love back states side. Also I have a cell phone. Anyone can call if they feel obliged. The number is some country code followed by 478-0057. Pictures coming this evening.