Finally! I have some free time and decent internet to post to my blog. Oh mali – what an experience it’s been so far. We’re in the midst of training and living in our homestay communities. there are so many donkeys, and chickens, and sheep, and goats, and ducks, and guinea fowl, and bats and bugs, and lizards, and toads, and birds, and kids, and farmers, and dancers and singers, and soccer players, and gorgeous sunrises over the niger river, and sunsets as i'm standing outside bucket bathing listening to the call to prayer for the mosque nearby my house.
this experience is everything i wanted it to be and more and it has only just begun.
we found out our permanent site placements today and on monday i get to go visit. tomorrow i'll meet my counterpart from the community where i will be living and we're traveling there together for a week then returning to the capital region. i'm so excited because i will be within bike riding distance to the senegal border. my community only has 500 people, and they've requested help with vegetable gardening, tree nurseries, mango processing, rice farming, and fish farming. all of these things make me so happy. i'll have more to report once i actually have been there and seen what's really going on. apparently there's a lot of gold mining nearby my village, so maybe there will be some worker safety in my future still :)
i spend evenings after long days of language class hanging out with the family, i have two moms and there are 5 kids in our family. we dance, sing, laugh, they mainly laugh at me and point alot, and they teach me all their languages. there are four spoken in my house - french, bambara, and malinke (two dialects). in the mornings another trainee and i go running before the sun rises and there are always burning piles of trash as i jog through town to get to the surrounding agricultural fields along the canal. there are dark images moving slowly through the streets as i'm jogging and it's hard to make out if it's a woman hunched over sweeping, a man in his robe heading to the mosque, or if it's a donkey laying in the middle of the road. it's always so surreal with the low light quality and smoke and dust. i think sometimes and wonder, oh, is that a woman sweeping? oh wait, no, it's a donkey, hey donkey.
i ran over a rooster the other day on my way to class. it made me think about that damn skunk I ran over in Fort Collins a couple years back. ha. the rooster was pissed too. turns out animals don't like it when you run over them with your bike. it really just pisses them off. that rooster had it coming though, crowing at 3am everyday.
i can't believe it's already time for christmas. it doesn't feel like christmas here at all. imagine that. no sweet baby jesus anywhere. it was mohammed's birthday on monday though and they sang happy birthday to him all night over the loud speaker. well i'm not really sure if it was the happy birthday song, but i'm gonna go ahead and pretend like it was. some of the guys in our group were saying it sounded like amateur night over the loudspeaker from the mosque near their house and that the imam was hacking up a lung. they had me crying laughing talking about it. hilarious. we make light of situations to keep ourselves entertained. no disrespect, just being silly. we have quite the group. 40 of us total split between 6 villages. we ride bikes and run to see eachother all the time to share stories. There are lots stories of poop talk and vomiting in awkward places. my classmate vomited out the window of the bus last week. he had a wall of malian children standing and watching the entire time...poor guy. oh and yes, we poop in holes in the ground, also known as the nyegen. my aim is getting better thank god. and i steer clear of the nyegen at night as the roaches come out and they are ENORMOUS. reminds me of memphis.
this experience is everything i wanted it to be and more and it has only just begun.
we found out our permanent site placements today and on monday i get to go visit. tomorrow i'll meet my counterpart from the community where i will be living and we're traveling there together for a week then returning to the capital region. i'm so excited because i will be within bike riding distance to the senegal border. my community only has 500 people, and they've requested help with vegetable gardening, tree nurseries, mango processing, rice farming, and fish farming. all of these things make me so happy. i'll have more to report once i actually have been there and seen what's really going on. apparently there's a lot of gold mining nearby my village, so maybe there will be some worker safety in my future still :)
i spend evenings after long days of language class hanging out with the family, i have two moms and there are 5 kids in our family. we dance, sing, laugh, they mainly laugh at me and point alot, and they teach me all their languages. there are four spoken in my house - french, bambara, and malinke (two dialects). in the mornings another trainee and i go running before the sun rises and there are always burning piles of trash as i jog through town to get to the surrounding agricultural fields along the canal. there are dark images moving slowly through the streets as i'm jogging and it's hard to make out if it's a woman hunched over sweeping, a man in his robe heading to the mosque, or if it's a donkey laying in the middle of the road. it's always so surreal with the low light quality and smoke and dust. i think sometimes and wonder, oh, is that a woman sweeping? oh wait, no, it's a donkey, hey donkey.
i ran over a rooster the other day on my way to class. it made me think about that damn skunk I ran over in Fort Collins a couple years back. ha. the rooster was pissed too. turns out animals don't like it when you run over them with your bike. it really just pisses them off. that rooster had it coming though, crowing at 3am everyday.
i can't believe it's already time for christmas. it doesn't feel like christmas here at all. imagine that. no sweet baby jesus anywhere. it was mohammed's birthday on monday though and they sang happy birthday to him all night over the loud speaker. well i'm not really sure if it was the happy birthday song, but i'm gonna go ahead and pretend like it was. some of the guys in our group were saying it sounded like amateur night over the loudspeaker from the mosque near their house and that the imam was hacking up a lung. they had me crying laughing talking about it. hilarious. we make light of situations to keep ourselves entertained. no disrespect, just being silly. we have quite the group. 40 of us total split between 6 villages. we ride bikes and run to see eachother all the time to share stories. There are lots stories of poop talk and vomiting in awkward places. my classmate vomited out the window of the bus last week. he had a wall of malian children standing and watching the entire time...poor guy. oh and yes, we poop in holes in the ground, also known as the nyegen. my aim is getting better thank god. and i steer clear of the nyegen at night as the roaches come out and they are ENORMOUS. reminds me of memphis.
overall, i'm having a wonderful time and find the malian people to be so full of life and full of joy and absolutely beautiful! i'm so impressed with their linguistic abilities and realize i have a lot to learn. i'm trying to take it day by day, dondi, dondi. i want to know it all now, but i can't.
big hugs to you my friends and family. i love you so much. hopefully we can chat soon. i send you messages nightly via the moon.
oh and i have a new name. my malian name, goundo keita.
k'an ben kofe
big hugs to you my friends and family. i love you so much. hopefully we can chat soon. i send you messages nightly via the moon.
oh and i have a new name. my malian name, goundo keita.
k'an ben kofe
Awesome post, Bevin! Thanks for the little slice of your life there. Gardening, farming and mango processing sound really interesting. I bet you will find opportunities to use your safety and health training - ergonomics at least!
ReplyDeleteYour talk of Christmas and Mohammad's birthday made me think of this song you might like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhIUoikOSQg It is Peter Mayer singing The Birthday Party. Are you familiar with him? I hope your internet is good enough that you can see the video.
Poop holes with giant cockroaches. Ugh. Lucky you. :P At least it isn't all like that! :)
Have a wonderful Christmas!
Shanna
you are having such a wonderful experience. i can tell you are embracing every moment. i am so proud of you---but feel very sorry for the rooster. why you gotta be runnin over animals all the time?? slow down girl!
ReplyDeletehehehe. i miss you so much and love you.
keep soakin it up. cant wait to skype on saturday!!!!
Terrific post! Thanks for the update. We miss you here stateside! Have a great Christmas!
ReplyDelete