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.

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!

Totto we:re not in Keleya anymore!

Hey folks! I'm now an official volunteer here in Mali. I got to set up my house and by some furniture or at least a bed. Day to day I don't really do too much yet as I am still learning the language. I go running every morning and then "study" aka lay a book in my lap while the kids play market with their favorite toy, the white girl. Then I work up the courage to talk to the mayor's office staff, three guys that assume I speak French better than Bambara... if they only knew... After that I make an awkward departure to go to my homologue's house to have lunch which is a 2 hour process. In order to feel like I'm not just eating a running, I sit around to chat but soon they realize I only know what they're saying about 60% of the time (and that works everytime) and I realize they really just want to watch TV and could care less if I stayed an extra 30 minutes after eating. I walk home and use the excuse of a nap to have a few hours to myself. After I feel guilty for being such a hermit I "wake up" refreshed and ready to intregrate! On my 3rd walk through the village of the day I greet my neighbors who are now use to me and all know my name. If you thought I was bad a names in the states (which I am, the starbucks customers I won over with my extremely amazing personality and good looks, not my memory of their names, but Mrs. Venti 8 pumps mocha, breve, 210 degree extra whip lady loved me) I'm even worse when the names are Niare, Djara, Shekabubakar, and Zumana. They also have nicknames for everyone which makes it easier/more confusing. After my stroll through town I either "gossip" with the girls (mostly just joking about who is who's "che"/man) or play soccer with the little boys. Unfortunetly it's near impossible to play soccer in a wrap around skirt and flipflops, but damn if it isn't hilarious. My homologue feeds me lunch and dinner, but her house is on the other side of town and Malians don't eat dinner until after sunset. This is fine except my homologue is actually part coworker, part stern grandmother and insists that I can't walk home after dark. We now have a system that she packs me a little dinner to go and I take it home to eat next to my family. This was a little weird at first, but now we both use it (that's what she...). I have to plan my eating percisely so that I am still eating when they are so I can politely decline the Malian need to forcefully invite people to eat with them. We end up drinking tea, talking politics and exchange views on globalization and who should be responsible for global warming..... and by that I mean we just drink tea and I look up at the stars. I make a goal to socialize until at least 9 before going to bed. Last night I was near my goal when my host dad noticed I was zoning out and asked why I wasn't chatting. My host mom then took the opportunity to complete shift so that it was clear I had her full attention. The conversation was menial but the gesture and the routine it has set up was priceless. My accomplishments so far are small and often hard to measure. I'm proud to say that I read 2 books in the last 2 weeks, I know all of my family and homologue's family names, I run every morning and I feel comfortable buying things in the market (so crowded that mom would last about .5 seconds). Small victories, but I have to get know the community before I can ask deeper questions like, "How do you think we could provide a sustainable form of income to boost the Malian economy?" or " Don't you think it would be better for women to go to school for more than 3 years before getting married even if they don't have to work outside of the family?" All in all I think I have a pretty sweet gig here. I miss you all, I will let you know when I get the ruby red slippers to work!

Picture-tastic

Here are some more pictures , much requested from the padres.
I can still get my dance on in Africa.



Here's my small class of 3 for Bambara and our amazing karamogo(teacher), Moussa.



Me and my "husbands" to deter male suitors.


One of my good friends after we both swore in as new Peace Corps volunteers.


I go out to my new house tomorrow so I won't have the internet for at least 2 weeks. Call me if you can't live without me. Miss you all!

Pictures!!! Eat your heart out.

Ok friends this is what you all have been waiting for... me to stop talking!!! Here are some pictures that I got from my friends. I will post more from my new camera that was sent to me soon.

Oh yeah I carried this all the way across the village.

If I can't laugh at myself.... others will definitely take the lead.

When the going gets tough.....
Our formal classroom!
If you were ever wondering where shea butter comes from, this is me mixing it up with one of the Peace Corps directors.My host dad, BabaMy little sister and host mom, Balikesa and Jennajay.

Answer: definately yes.

I'm in Africa. That may seem like an obvious, almost needless, statement but today may be the first time I had enough time to actually realize it. We have been so busy and so overwhelmed with information and new exciting things that I have not had anytime to think of the reality that this is going to be my life for the next two years. This all hit me on the top of a mountain over looking a scene I swear I've seen in The Lion King. We went on a field trip to learn how shea butter is made and how we can help Malians be more productive and receive a larger profit for one of their biggest natural resources. I now feel pretty solid on how I'm actually going to be doing some important work for the next few years. Then we went to a waterfall and a cave, at which point I just had to tell myself, this is what my life is now, mixing shea mush and climbing mountains in Africa. I feel pretty freaking lucky.

Everything thus far I would have to chalk up to luck actually, that and my inability to be really bothered by anything, but mostly luck. Even in my training group there have been some much worse situations that could have just as easily happened to me, in which even my rainbows and butterflies would have been smashed. This last week I spent time in my site and honestly I thought it was going to be much worse, and after hearing other trainees' stories it could have. I have a great homologue (french for counterpart), I had amazing food, a bed and I didn't get sick or bored at all. My village is smallish: I have cell phone reception, easy water to get, a main road (key for reliable transportation) and a large market. My house has 2 cement rooms and a tin roof in a concession with 2 other families. I'm also really close to 3 great other volunteers and semi close to 6 more. I'm in the middle of the country so I can really go anywhere and am surprisingly close to the capital. Also, more importantly, I'm not a PCV in Georgia right now.

For the next 19 days I'm going to be doing nothing but training in my homestay (the picture at the top is from our training village) on our last long stretch before we are sworn in as actual volunteers. In less than a month from now I will be living on my own and starting my real job. This next few weeks, though, are going to be a bit challenging. I imagine I will get very frustrated with almost everything by the end, but that will be a perfect set up for our giant party after swear in.

Some not so noteworthy points (Lindsay feel free to tune out now), I'm still happy, healthy and safe. I do get your comments and love all of them so keep them coming. I'm not sure how to respond to them except to write another blog, but thank you all. I will be without internet for the next 19 ish days, but I do have my phone and reception so feel free to call me. Also next time I am planning on having TONS of pictures from my friends that took pictures on our trip and other such activities. I haven't receive mail yet, but others have so it will get here and I promise to let you know when I get it. I hope you are all reading the news, and Tim if my absentee ballot doesn't show up in time, I have dibs on Mom's vote this year. Have a great few weeks guys.

While you're up...

As I am about to visit my site, with only my Malian counterpart and minimal language skills, I would like to reveil some typical American things I have been able to do. As I said before I do watch TV with my family almost every night. All you that thought I would not drink for 2 years (myself included), you will be slightly dissapointed to know that we as a group (almost all 75 of us) have already gone to a bar at least 3 times. By bar I mean someone's house where they sell Castle beer which is comprable to Rainer. I also have more soda here than I did in the States (sorry mom and meghan there is no diet soda here). On one of our field trips to the capital we got hamburgers for lunch. It was waaaay too much food, but that is the American way is it not? Back at the training center I have already found out whom I can ask to get me things when I'm feeling a little lazy which is...... almost all of the time. To counteract that I make sure to get people water or more food or clean up plates every time I get up.

I am being rushed to get off to go meet my Malian co worker so I will just do a little list to help out Lindsay and those of you that want to send me things.

Things I'm glad I brought
Crank lantern: not batteries baby!
Quick dry towel: it is the rainy season
Laptop/ipod/solio: sanity
Yoga ish pants: soccer, under skirts, all around good times
Face sunblock: All the protection without all the breakouts!
Babywipes: so I can be clean at least before bed
Makeup/ mirror: to remember I can still look good even in Africa.

Things I could use more of (wink wink):
Hand sanitizer
Hotsauce and chips (Hey Laura while you're at the store....)
headbands
cheap cute shirts
DVD's (mostly just mine that I left)
Earrings
Cliffbars/ snacks
Cards
Camera
More face sunscreen
babywipes, shampoo
razers
ipod speakers

I can live without most of these, but I would love any of them. That's all for now! I am starting to miss most of you.