Fair Warning

I figure that since I am in town and the internet is working, I might as well make up for those two months of inactivity by giving you two posts back to back. I also wanted everyone to know that the next update will most likely not be until the beginining of July, because that is when I will be in town next. For two weeks in July, everyone from my team will head back down to Bamako for further training in their field. I am really looking forward to this, because I have been trying for these first few months to assess the needs of the community so that I have a better focus for training. To that end I have been conducting a survey in Tomoso to find out the issues facing the village. It has served as a great language tool, and I'm learning so much about how my village operates. I will give you all of the exciting details of my survey when I return next month. For example, how many people sleep under each mosquito net in the house? or how many times a week do they drink milk? I know that you will be waiting eagerly, but you will just have to be patient.

Remember Me?

Hi Everyone! I'm sure you had given up all hope from ever hearing from me again, but a failed internet attempt (I think in large part due to the 100+° heat) kept me from updating you on my first month's progress. Rest assured that life in Mali is fantastic, and I will try to let you know as best as I can what I have been doing since the end of March. My installation day was amazing. Everyone from my village and the neighboring villages showed up to greet me, so as the Peace Corps vehicle crested the ridge, we came upon a sea of brightly dressed women and men eagerly awaiting my arrival. Apparently the village thought that I was due to arrive at 8, and the women started dancing to welcome me. Three hours later when I really did arrive, they were still dancing, and continued to do so for the rest of the afternoon. Those ladies have stamina. The whole day was a technicolor dream. I met with all of the men of the village and received formal greetings from all of the village elders. The village built me a beautiful little stone house, and one of the village blacksmiths carved me two statues for my doorway. They are of a man and a woman, and the woman is carved on a pale wood, so I like to think that he did that to look like me). The Peace Corps director that installed me said that is was one of the best installs that he has ever experienced. So I guess that they were happy to have me.

Now I have had some time to settle in and have begun that slow process of language acquisition and cultural adjustment. I spend a good deal of my mornings learning Tomoso (the dialect spoken in my village) with my homologue, and he is a great teacher. Although he is really strict, so I don't get to slack off too often, which is great for my language skills, but hard when I am feeling unmotivated. Everyone seems to think that I am picking up the language really well, even though I can't hold my own in a conversation with my 3 year old host brother yet. My homologue is at the Peace Corps house in Sevare participating in a language instructor program right now, so I'm sure that will go a long way to improving our classes. I have also spent a good deal of the last two months visiting as much of Mandoli and the surrounding villages as possible. That has been a lot of fun. I can't really say much, but everyone thinks it is very entertaining when I stop by. A typical conversation goes something like this : "Do you have a husband? " "No, I don't have a husband." "Do you have children?" "No I don't have children." Then there is a long pause while they look at me strangely, and then "Are there cows in America?" "Yes there are lots of cows in America." and everyone is happy again and they have gotten over the fact that I don't have a husband or children. The first area that I visited very generously gave me a gift of millet and a hen, and that clearly set a precident, because I am now the proud owner of 3 sacks of millet and 6 hens. I am keeping 3 hens (because I really want eggs) but the rest is being divided among my neigbors. I don't think in two years I could eat the amount of millet that they gave me. It is all really heartwarming and definitely helps to soften the frustrating times when I feel like I am defintely a stranger in a strange land - I just look at my chickens crapping all over my furniture and smile.