Next
I have been on a bit of a vacation from my site for the last two weeks. The group that I came to Mali with got back together again for a technical training session in Bamako for the first week. I must admit that I was a little reluctant to leave my site and spend two weeks with a bunch of Americans, but now that it is done, I had a fantastic time. It was great to check in with everyone and find out how they were adjusting to village life, compare project ideas, and eat lots of good food at the training center (my poor body doesn't know what is going on - it had three months of millet and then all of a sudden I'm giving it salad, beer and chocolate ice cream). I spent the second week at a volunteer's site doing some hands-on work in the field. The main project was an animal fodder tree planting project (we planted over 4000 trees in a day), but we also learned how to make soap and pommade, dye fabric, and graft trees. My birthday was the last day in village and my teammate were nice enough to "bake" me a cake made out of condensed milk and cocoa powder. I’d be lying if I said it was good, and in fact bets were being placed as the night wore on to see who would finish the whole thing. There were no takers. After leaving the training, my group got several hotel rooms in Segou (very nice town, by the way, for anyone interested in coming to Mali) and I didn’t leave my room for two days because I couldn’t tear myself away from the music video channel. It was fantastic. My field-based training has certainly given me all sorts of project ideas for my village, now I just need to figure out a timeline and how I am going to find funding. I will definitely keep you posted as my ideas begin to crystallize into some sort of definite plan.
As much as I am looking forward to heading back to site, it is always a big shift from village life, to Peace Corps community life, and back again. I reach a saturation point for being around other Americans, but at the same time, the longer I am away, the harder it is for me to jump back into my Mandoli routine. I am scared that I have forgotten my village language, and that I am going to have to relearn it all again. And three weeks of eating foods that I haven’t had in months doesn’t do much to strengthen my resolve. But I have no plans to leave my village for the next month, so I’m sure it won’t take long before I’m all about millet again (if nothing else, it keeps me very regular, so I have that to look forward to). I have one trip planned for the end of August to the Traditional Medicine Center in Bandiagara to investigate the details of creating a medicinal garden in my village. So that’s about it for now. I guess I will chat with you in a month.
