So for all of you planners in my family, aka everyone, here's a list of ideas for Christmas presents. I really am not expecting anything. It's just that some have asked for one and I keep forgetting also if you want it to be here by Christmas it should be sent now-ish. Love you all!
Crystal Light and other powder beverages
Clif Bars Clif Bars Clif Bars
Just add water and/or milk and/or oil foods
Earrings
Nice black pens
Books (Fitzgerald, Hemingway, funny books, classics)
TV on DVD (the office, arrested development, ect.)
Stationary
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Quick take the wheel!
Have you ever been asked to fly a plane? Imagine this scenario if you will. You have been playing the nintendo Top Gun game, the only one I remember having as a kid, and you've mastered all of the first level but the landing, the only part of the game I remember. You then, during a trip in a plane, are extremely curious to see how a plane looks like in real life. The pilot is excited to show a youngster such as yourself his "office", pre 9/11 of course, and chats with you about someday being a pilot. As you are only 12 years old anything is possible and you start to entertain the idea of someday being a pilot. Just as you are imagining your first day of flight training, the pilot starts the engine and takes off. You are surprised you aren't rushed back to your seat but decide not to ruin a good opportunity. The copilot gets up and says the view is better from his seat and he is going to get a drink so you rush over and enjoy the view. While day dreaming about a snow ball fight with the clouds you the pilot says to you, in all seriousness, "Can you take over? I might be awhile but you know how to land right?" And without waiting for a response disappears. Wait what? Me? But I can't get passed level one at home.... oh crap!!!
That basically has been my last 2 weeks. Oddly enough two of my friends have had similar experiences. The first 3 months at site we are suppose to be surveying the lay of the land. At most planning out projects to start after our January training. As a small enterprise development volunteer (affeciationally called a SEDie), the most "business" I am to do is a fesiblity study in my last month at site. My health volunteer friend last week was watching her homologue give a presentation on the importance of giving birth at the doctor's office rather than their house when all of a sudden the Malian got up and motioned for Emily to continue. Emily did her best but was completely lost on what to say and how to say it in Bambara. My other friend, Hunter, is working with the education system in Mali and has already been asked on the fly to teach 2 classes, one in ninth grade science and one in English. Not only has Hunter never taught before all in French, he also has never taught before in English. I'm happy to say he did superbly considering. After both of these stories I felt a little less bothered by being made to give a speech without notice durning my women's shea butter meeting. I did have a few things written down luckily and did better than I would have thought. I was suppose to address all of the women in the surrounding villages at the next meeting so I thought my homologue was better at preparing me than my friends' homologues. That was until today, Saturday, market day, my day "off", the day when no one works....... except for of course random meetings you are uninformed about. As Emily and I were getting ready to leave to do our weekly shopping my homologue informs me that 2 men have come from the capital and that I have to meet them. No big deal I'll just buy a few things, run back and shake some hands, have lunch and call it a day. Before even getting to the market we run into the "big wigs" and I have to go back for the meeting. Emily continued on with the thought that I would catch up with her in 30 minutes or so. We started talking about an organic certification process that will start in January and ended with the need to make this village the center for shea butter production for the surrounding villages. After a 2 hour long meeting in a mix of Bambara, French and a small amount of English I am asked to write up a business plan for the shea butter co-opportive including wages for the women making the butter and packaging designs for the shea butter in the next two weeks before our next meeting. Wait what? Where did the training wheels fly off to? I can barely speak to the women, much less help them decide how much to be paid! Needless to say I will not be going to the waterfalls next weekend. I hope my economics and business classes will come in handy now. I feel completely unprepared and unqualified for this, but as I hear from Mindy this is how the real business world works. It's a good thing I recently came to the conclusion I work best under pressure. The "fassen your seat belt" sign has been illuminated, please prepare yourself for landing.
That basically has been my last 2 weeks. Oddly enough two of my friends have had similar experiences. The first 3 months at site we are suppose to be surveying the lay of the land. At most planning out projects to start after our January training. As a small enterprise development volunteer (affeciationally called a SEDie), the most "business" I am to do is a fesiblity study in my last month at site. My health volunteer friend last week was watching her homologue give a presentation on the importance of giving birth at the doctor's office rather than their house when all of a sudden the Malian got up and motioned for Emily to continue. Emily did her best but was completely lost on what to say and how to say it in Bambara. My other friend, Hunter, is working with the education system in Mali and has already been asked on the fly to teach 2 classes, one in ninth grade science and one in English. Not only has Hunter never taught before all in French, he also has never taught before in English. I'm happy to say he did superbly considering. After both of these stories I felt a little less bothered by being made to give a speech without notice durning my women's shea butter meeting. I did have a few things written down luckily and did better than I would have thought. I was suppose to address all of the women in the surrounding villages at the next meeting so I thought my homologue was better at preparing me than my friends' homologues. That was until today, Saturday, market day, my day "off", the day when no one works....... except for of course random meetings you are uninformed about. As Emily and I were getting ready to leave to do our weekly shopping my homologue informs me that 2 men have come from the capital and that I have to meet them. No big deal I'll just buy a few things, run back and shake some hands, have lunch and call it a day. Before even getting to the market we run into the "big wigs" and I have to go back for the meeting. Emily continued on with the thought that I would catch up with her in 30 minutes or so. We started talking about an organic certification process that will start in January and ended with the need to make this village the center for shea butter production for the surrounding villages. After a 2 hour long meeting in a mix of Bambara, French and a small amount of English I am asked to write up a business plan for the shea butter co-opportive including wages for the women making the butter and packaging designs for the shea butter in the next two weeks before our next meeting. Wait what? Where did the training wheels fly off to? I can barely speak to the women, much less help them decide how much to be paid! Needless to say I will not be going to the waterfalls next weekend. I hope my economics and business classes will come in handy now. I feel completely unprepared and unqualified for this, but as I hear from Mindy this is how the real business world works. It's a good thing I recently came to the conclusion I work best under pressure. The "fassen your seat belt" sign has been illuminated, please prepare yourself for landing.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
When in Mali....
It seems to be either one thing or another that happens here in Mali to make things not go quite the way you want them to go. Traveling or studying or even just talking to people on the phone from Ameriki. Take talking on the phone for example, at the training site I had all the time and power and phone credit I could use, but spotty reception. At my homestay I had perfect reception but no power. Last week I had everything but time. Just when I thought I had it all figured out for my site, I was going to buy extra phone credit and be frugal with my battery, my phone fell out of my pocket in the taxi on the way home. Well crap. I can't just stop by the nearest Target and pick one up either. Of course this is all must have happened because I made such a big deal about Meghan finally getting skype. As of now I have no phone until further notice. Sorry if you have tried to call and assumed the worst, i.e. maybe that I was eaten by a hippo. Fun fact, Mali actually means hippopotomus in Bambara, although I have yet to see one.
Now for some updates about my exciting life in Mali. Tuesday was a holiday to celebrate the end of a month long fast known as Ramadad for Muslims. It seems to be a combination of Halloween, the kids dress nicely and walk around to their neighbors who give them candy, and Thanksgiving, they eat all day long to celebrate the end of the fast. Since the holiday was on Tuesday I thought I would definately get some work done by Friday but alas there are no dice. Wednesday everyone seemed to be in a food comma, as they should be. Thursday the Mayor went to the capital, as I found out he does about 4 times a week, and of course Fridays are always half days because it is the day that most people go to Mosque. Saturday is the market day and Sunday..... well it's Sunday! Why work when you can start fresh on Monday. I gave up on finding a tutor, honestly I didn't work hard on finding one, but I have set up my own study schedule that seems to be working out for me. I also had a productive talk with my homologue and I now know where we are going to start with the women's group. My family is warming up to me. I showed off my skills tonight by "raising the tea", the literal translation for making the extremely strong, extremely sugary loose leaf green tea. The kids loved it. I also found out that Dio is the Florida of Mali. Not in the sense that it has a great view of the ocean and terrible hurricanes, but in the sense that there is a large population of "retired" people here. Retirement here is a little bit different than the 401k plans in the states. The kids in Dio go to school until they are about 13 and then after that they spend half of the year living in the capital and going to school and half of the year kicking it with the grandparents. Of course that is until they get married and then they move to Bamako and come back only for holidays. This is all great except all of the friends I have made in the last 3 weeks are going to be leaving soon. This leaves me with the grandparents, still really cool but sleep a lot, and the kids, still really cool but don't talk a lot. I'll have to change my game plan up a little. Basically I will have to talk to myself in my sleep..... wait no.
Other than the day to day life, I am helping to plan a bike trip to educate people on the importance of small enterprise development. Most of the work has already been done by an amazing PCV who has been in Mali for a year named Holly. We're also planning a trip to the wonderful waterfalls east of the capital. I promise to bring my camera this time. I can't believe it's already October!!! I hope you all are getting excited about the up coming election. We're going to have a big party here and stay up until the results are out, about 4 am Mali time. Please send me some updates. I would love to hear what you guys are up to too. I showed my family pictures that I brought and they say you are all "Tres jolie!" I must say I agree. Miss you all!
Now for some updates about my exciting life in Mali. Tuesday was a holiday to celebrate the end of a month long fast known as Ramadad for Muslims. It seems to be a combination of Halloween, the kids dress nicely and walk around to their neighbors who give them candy, and Thanksgiving, they eat all day long to celebrate the end of the fast. Since the holiday was on Tuesday I thought I would definately get some work done by Friday but alas there are no dice. Wednesday everyone seemed to be in a food comma, as they should be. Thursday the Mayor went to the capital, as I found out he does about 4 times a week, and of course Fridays are always half days because it is the day that most people go to Mosque. Saturday is the market day and Sunday..... well it's Sunday! Why work when you can start fresh on Monday. I gave up on finding a tutor, honestly I didn't work hard on finding one, but I have set up my own study schedule that seems to be working out for me. I also had a productive talk with my homologue and I now know where we are going to start with the women's group. My family is warming up to me. I showed off my skills tonight by "raising the tea", the literal translation for making the extremely strong, extremely sugary loose leaf green tea. The kids loved it. I also found out that Dio is the Florida of Mali. Not in the sense that it has a great view of the ocean and terrible hurricanes, but in the sense that there is a large population of "retired" people here. Retirement here is a little bit different than the 401k plans in the states. The kids in Dio go to school until they are about 13 and then after that they spend half of the year living in the capital and going to school and half of the year kicking it with the grandparents. Of course that is until they get married and then they move to Bamako and come back only for holidays. This is all great except all of the friends I have made in the last 3 weeks are going to be leaving soon. This leaves me with the grandparents, still really cool but sleep a lot, and the kids, still really cool but don't talk a lot. I'll have to change my game plan up a little. Basically I will have to talk to myself in my sleep..... wait no.
Other than the day to day life, I am helping to plan a bike trip to educate people on the importance of small enterprise development. Most of the work has already been done by an amazing PCV who has been in Mali for a year named Holly. We're also planning a trip to the wonderful waterfalls east of the capital. I promise to bring my camera this time. I can't believe it's already October!!! I hope you all are getting excited about the up coming election. We're going to have a big party here and stay up until the results are out, about 4 am Mali time. Please send me some updates. I would love to hear what you guys are up to too. I showed my family pictures that I brought and they say you are all "Tres jolie!" I must say I agree. Miss you all!
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