Swear-In

Swear in was a great way to finish three very tough months. It was held at the president of Mali’s house and we all got to dress up in beautiful Malian fabric.  I wore perfectly tailored blue basin dress. It felt great to dress up again. Here's a picture with all of us and ATT. It's the one Peace Corps used on their website to announce us as new volunteers. I have no idea what I was looking at... 

The night before we all got to go out downtown Bamako and celebrate.  We ate at a Chinese place that served shawarmas then went straight to the club. At the fist club our stage name was announced. My superlative was 'most likely to be mistaken as Jackie O' so when they said we were “The Kennedys” I was pretty excited. It was a crazy coincidence because they had given us our names before the superlatives were announced but in the speech they did call me and my friend Meredith out as being Jackie and Marilyn at the talent show.

 

The best part of swear in for me was knowing that the next day I was finally heading to site. I couldn't wait to get to my new house and get settled.  We had so much back and forth with training and I was ready to call one spot home. 

I can't believe this was 7 months ago!! I promise to do a better job updating my blog!! 

Site Visit

Site announcements were another nerve wrecking time. Finally after 6 weeks of training we were going to be told where we would call home for the next two years. There was a huge daunting map of Mali in the front of the training center and as our names were announced a post it was placed on our location. We had nothing to go on except that when we first got to the training center we had interviews with our Malian Peace Corps bosses asking us questions like would you like to live close to someone else, do you like to bike, and are amenities important to us? I really had no idea what I wanted so just said I’m an active, social person who wouldn't mind living close to another volunteer and that I wanted to by the water. My name was announced to be in the Segou region where a bunch of my friends were also going. I was ecstatic. When they announced my friend Miriam’s name to be Segoukaw as well I actually screamed a little. We took a group photo then I sat down and opened my pink folder. The name of my village is Dioro and I had a site mate Melissa. The other volunteer listed was Matt, he lived 15k away. Soon after I learned that Laura was really close as well. There were a total of four volunteers who all had Dioro as their market town. I was really excited to meet Melissa and was thrilled when Claudine, my Peace Corps Supervisor, gave me her number. My new site mate ended my nervousness by telling me my host family was awesome and that everyone in town couldn't wait to meet me.

Two days after our sites were announced our homologues came to Tubaniso. This was other unnerving moment. We broke up into regions and everyone chatted asking around to find who they belonged to. I was one of the last to meet my homologue. My homologues name is Samalia and I didn’t know it at the time but has turned out to be one of the best. He is the dugutigis grandson and will probably one day be the leader of Dioro. He is a very motivated man who really wants to help his community. I am really lucky to have a motivated village supervisor. We had a few days of training together then left for site. This was other stressful endeavor. The bus station was really crowded with people, stuff to buy, and garbage. My homologue was very nice and did everything he could to make us feel comfortable while we waited to get on the bus. I remember looking a cute little newborn baby and he asked if I wanted to hold it. I of course said yes and instantly became calm and happy as I watched this tiny little baby smile in his sleep. I knew I was going to be fine.

The bus ride to Dioro was uneventful except for the stops to get food. I was still learning the money but with Samalia’s help I got what I needed and we continues on. Once we hit Segou, Melissa, my sitemate joined us for the rest of the trip. It was easy to spot her at the bus stop and she was very welcoming and really sweet. I could tell we were going to get along just fine. When we got to Dioro Samalia helped me carry my bags to Melissa’s house. I stayed with her because they were still working on my house. We had a fun week together. She introduced me to all the important people in village and made sure I was never thirsty or hungry. 

St Patricks Day was during my site visit and one of the first things I asked Melissa was if we could celebrate with other volunteers. We had gotten everything accomplished in Dioro so it wasn't a big deal to make a pit stop on the way back to Segou. I had a great time meeting everyone and being American for one day. 

The week ended with an amazing Welcome to Segou party with all the other current Segoukaw volunteers. We went swimming, went on a boat ride, and ate a nice restaurant where I got delicious cordon blue and red wine. We then went to a bar with a live Malian band, drank a few more beers and danced ourselves to exhaustion.  

We headed back to Tubaniso on Saturday and all had two more weeks left of training before being sworn in. I didn’t want to go back. I was ready to start living in my new village and hated that I wouldn’t see the current volunteers again for another 15 days. I knew, though, I needed to finish my language classes and the time would come soon enough that I'd return to Dioro as an official Peace Corps Volunteer. 

Homestay

I was really nervous leading up to the days of homestay announcements. Everyone in my stage is really cool but I was hoping to be grouped with 7 other people that I had befriended in my first week in Mali. I was very happy when they announced my name to be with Michelle, my roommate in DC, Lauren, who I knew was as equally obsessed with cheese as me, Jasmine, a basketball player, Hannah, hilarious, Claire, my hut roomy, DeLissa, really sweet, and Andrew, my quite running partner. They told us we were all heading to Mountougoula but didn’t give us any of our family’s information so the worry hadn’t dissolved completely. I was also really annoyed because I was told I’d be studying Bambara instead of French.  The ride to homestay was our first exertion out of Tubaniso and was really intimidating. I got to see houses made of mud and straw, markets made of some fruits, veggies, and dried fish all covered in flies, and Malian roads made of dirt and a whole lot of trash. One of my first pictures…

  

  

As soon as we got to Mountougoula a bunch a kids grabbed our bags and we were shoved into a small mud built room with about 15 old men and one woman, who turned out to be my host sister. We were given to our new families and told our corresponding names. I was named Kanja Sacko. My father was one of the oldest guys in the room, Zumana Sacko, probably somewhere around 80. Our compound was small but nice and I was thrilled to meet my host brother who spoke a little English. There were tons of cute little kids in the compound but Tenen(Monday) was my favorite little girl. She had the toughest life in the compound; being the daughter of the unmarried house keeper meant she always ate last and was hardly ever clean. Her single mother worked all day everyday so she learned to hold her own at a very young age so much that even though she was the smallest child she controlled the group by smacking any boy with a stick if he was out of line. One of my favorite pics so far…

The day after moving into our new homes and meeting all the villagers we had our first full day of Bambara lessons. Homestay has been the most difficult part of Peace Corps and its all the local language’s fault. Eight full hours of training was overwhelmingly difficult and my day never ended there. I had to go back to my Bambara speaking family with an overloaded brain and try to communicate with my very limited vocabulary. My family served dinner around 7 every night and the food was really interesting. Breakfast was eggs and bread, lunch was rice and gross red fish sauce and dinner was usually macaroni and smashed tomatoes, barley any protein.  Even though I was completely exhausted I still managed to save an hour after dinner for games and dancing with the kids. Our compound didn’t have electricity so it was easy to turn in around 8:30. Here is a pic of some our nightly shenanigans…

   

Day to day life was really hard and really slow. We all had different mechanisms to make the time go by a little faster; cookies, running, soccer, and the neighboring town’s bar. Jerakarabugu was a half hour bike ride but worth the cold beer, grilled meat, and English time with friends. Sometimes we jump on a back of truck and headed to other neighboring town, B-Camp, where there was a restaurant and electricity. They also had an awesome toubab(white person) store with better cookies and ice cold diet coke. Doesn’t sound like a big deal but I was practically in tears after the DC discovery.

 

On the third week at homestay I came home to wonderful surprise….an adorable tiny little puppy!!! I named him Legend and we were instantly inseparable. Two reasons: One, he was the size of my hand and two, Malians aren’t really nice to dogs and there was no way I was going to let anything bad happen to the little guy. The first thing I did was give him a bath. I had no idea how big of a deal that was going to be and the villagers talked about it for days. That and the fact that I was walking him on a rope(leash), and took him to class with me. The villagers didn’t understand why I cared about him so much but you will…look down….

  

Homestay was not easy but I’m grateful for what I learned and the time I was able to spend with my host family <3

Swear-in at the Presidential Palace

http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.media.press.view&news_id=1762

Finally doing this...

I've been putting this off far too long. I have so much say but no idea where to start. So many incredible experiences already and I feel like whatever I write will not even come close to the constant state of sensory overload I've been in. I promise to do my best.

Tubaniso
We got into Bamako at 9pm. It was dark so I couldn't see anything just remember getting smooshed into a hot bus and getting dropped off outside of customs. I got my luggage and was immediatly shoved onto another hot crowded bus. This time they gave me a gift, mosquito repellant, awesome. We arrived at Tubaniso, the PC training center, pretty late. I tried to sleep but there was no way my mind was going to shut off. I listened to my good friend, Ashleigh Still, for comfort until the sun came up and I could really see what I had gotten myself into. My first adventure was the neigen and I missed terribly. I remember hoping that peeing in a hole in the ground would be easier on a full night of sleep. (Not true) I got ready and went to the main hanger for the first day of training. I met some good people in Washington DC so sat by a few new friends and did my best to stay awake for the 8 hour training day. I felt so weird and heavy. I wanted a break from everything and prep for a good night sleep so I decided to go for a run. It was hard but felt amazing. From that moment I was known as the running girl. I didn't mind. Much better than girl who can't piss in a hole or complete simple sentences..
I was surprised by how friendly our Malian trainers were. They all were dressed to the nines, and we're happy to answer any and all questions. I had a lot of fun getting to know everyone and was really excited to learn a few of my new friends would be joining me at homestay.

I need to run now but will be on again soon to tell you all about homestay in Mountougoula. Big news...My family gave me a puppy!!!

What to Pack??

Packing for Mali has been the most stressful part of the Peace Corps experience so far. Like I mentioned earlier my list is ridiculously long. It's hard trying to be prepared to live in a place you've never been and bring enough stuff to get you through two years. I won't find out what region I'm working in until after I've completed training so I need to try to accommodate for all weather conditions. 

There are some very fun and exciting parts to this though! Everyday feels like Christmas. I'm constantly getting packages delivered to the house. I love opening up the boxes and discovering some new crazy item. I'm still expecting my hard drive and Bug Hut 2. Definitely going to set up the tent and play with it a bit before I go.

I have read several other blog packing lists and it helped so much. This is what I came up with:  

·         Oxy Clean sticks 3

·         Safety Pins

·         Travel sewing kit

·         Sheets and pillow case-very hot so must absorb moisture

·         Rechargeable Batteries-Nickle Metal Hydride

·         Adapter for French outlet

·         Crystal light packets-pure fitness brand grape or kiwi strawberry

·         Small battery Fan

·         Good pens

·         Flavored Tea

·         Small kids toys-dollar store

·         Exercise Band

·         Tooth brushes

·         Cookies for gifts

·         Power bars

·         Lavender dryer sheets

·         Taylor magazine for clothes

·         Fly swatter

·         Sauce packets-knorr

·         10 tuna packets

·         Can opener
·         Earplugs 3 sets 
·         Duck tape
·         Combo lock
·         Regular towel thin 2

·         Bike gloves

·         Mosquito tent REI stand alone-Bug Hut 2

·         Capri  pants active below knee

·         Speakers for Ipod

·         2 Fast drying towels

·         2 Nalgene water bottle and splash guard

·         Chacos sandals

·         Head lamp

·         External Hard Drive

·         Capri pants

·         USB drive

·         Scissors

·         Ziploc bags

·         loofah

·         One nice business outfit

·         Hair Straightener

·         Swimsuits

·         Backpack

·         Sundresses two

·         Pictures

·         Notebook

·         Makeup

·         Skincare 

·         Bandanna

·         Gym shorts

·         One Columbia fleece

·         2 Long sleeve shirts

·         Few clothes for traveling

·         Neck pillow

·         Eye shade

·         Sunglasses

·         Sneakers

·         Ipod and accessories

·         Watch

·         Laptop

·         Sleeping bag

·         Mirror

·         Fun jewelry

·         Gel bike seat

·         Waterproof Camera and back up cards

·         Bottle washer

·         Money belt

·         Small calendar

·         Baby powder

·         Leatherman Knife

·         2 pairs of skinny jeans

·         5 going out shirts

·         2 bottles body wash

·         Nail Stuff

·         Playing cards

The Trip Over

January 31, 2011

Leaving Minneapolis at 6:51 am

Arriving in Chicago at 8:16 am

Leaving Chicago at 9:05 am

Arriving in Washington, DC at 11:46 am

Staging

• 12:00 -2:00PM - Registration
• 2:00 - 4:25 PM - Who We Are & What’s Expected of You
• 4:25 - 4:45 PM - Break        
• 4:45 - 7:00 PM - What You Expect, What’s Next, & Closing

February 1, 2011

Staging

• 12:00 PM - Check out of hotel
• 2:00 PM - Medical center for final immunizations
• 7:00 PM - Bus trip to JFK
• 9:55 PM - Flight departs for Paris

February 2, 2011

Arriving in Paris at 11:15 AM

Leaving for Mali at 8:05 PM

Arriving in Mali at 8:50 PM