Tuesday, February 22, 2011

More Mali Mews

Hippos spotted: 0 People bitten in half or third: 0 Pairs of pants soiled: 0

Okay so I got back from 12 days at my homestay site and I must say it was posh or at least pretty nice.  It was an interesting experience getting out of the car and immediately being surrounded by like 50 Malian children who just sit and stare at you.  They had a ceremony for us with some dancing, music, and some extremely jury rigged wiring so some of the instruments could be heard over the loadspeaker they have borrowed from the Mosque.

I have language classes eight hours a day or so, and my teachers are very cool.  My class has started teaching them how people talk in Appalachia which is incredibly entertaining to do, and to hear them do.  We just say to chop every word in half, and then speak rapidly.

My host family is also very nice, although I can't yet understand much of what they say.  I have a host brother of sorts who is extremely smart, and can speak French, and a little English, so I can at least sort of talk to him when my Bombara (the language I am learning) skills fail me.  My Malian name is Dramane Samake.

My average day consists of waking up at 5:30 AM with the call to prayer from the Mosque, then falling back to sleep until 6:30 or so at which point I do some sort of work out.  Then i bathe.  This involves filling a bucket of water, walking into the pit toilet area and pouring the water of myself with some soap and stuff.  Then eat breakfast which typically consists of sweetened rice gruel, french fries, and bread with peanut butter.  Then it's class time.  My classroom in under a mango tree.  The mangos will be ripe in a few weeks.  Some goats, or chickens, or mangy beaten dogs usually wander through class, and once we had a donkey who escaped his tether come charging through yelling very loudly, and there are usually a number of children who just show up and stare at us, or go through our lesson with us.  Lunch time is from noon to 2:30, and usually consists of rice with okra or goat sauce.  Most everything is eaten from one bowl with your hands, and by hands I mean right hand.  There are no left handed people in Mali because being left handed is socially unacceptable.  The men and women eat separately.  Then I have some tea.  Tea is a big deal in Mali.  It is a very strong Chinese tea with lots and lots and lots of sugar, and is sipped from shot glasses.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Festival

Number of hippos seen: 0 Number of people in bitten in half: 0 Pairs of pants soiled: 0


So, yesterday we had a cultural festival where a bunch of native Malians came and held a small market.  They sold clothes, and cloth and there was a tailor there to make suits and things.  They also had some delicious snacky foods.  There was also a local Malian band playing and we all danced.

I've been learning Bombara, which is the most prominent local language here, and today I was placed in a host village where I will continue learning Bombara and begin technical training.  I will be with a host family by myself, but there will be 6 or 7 others in my village with me and the next training village is only 2km away.  I was not given a minority language because I did not score high enough on my French evaluation.  I've been getting quite a few shots, but lucky for me none of the medications have been giving me too much trouble.

The environment trainees got to tour the garden here at Tubaniso, and learned the native trees around where we are now.  I've forgotten most of them, but I can recognize a few which is better than before.

Everyone is very nice here, and though we are usually pretty busy, there is still a fair amount of freetime to play soccer or some other activity.

I had my first experience washing my clothes by hand today.  That was interesting, I think most of my clothes are clean.  Bam!

Friday, February 4, 2011

Today was neat!

A ni su. (ah knee soo) which means good night in Bambara literally translated as "you (plural) and night." I learned some basic phrases in Bambara today after having an extensive lesson about diarrhea.  I can ask names, and greet people.  After classes I played a game of soccer with some people, then dinner, then I learned how to take tea in the local tradition.  It is a very strong green tea from China and they add a lot of sugar.  We drink from what are essentially shot glasses after a very long ceremony of making the tea and pouring it.  I talked to one of our local language trainers for several hours after tea.  His name is pronounced Seesay, but I'm not totally sure of the spelling.  Maybe Cice.  Anyways, he is basically fluent in English, but I taught him some english sayings. Such as the word "pun" and "cold turkey" as he was talking about quitting smoking.  Then he said that he liked rock and roll, so I asked him what his favorite band is and he said Metallica.  I thought that was really neat for obvious reasons.  He also likes Scorpions, Def Leppard, and Deep Purple.  Then we listened to some music he has loaded on his phone, and talked about it (mostly in very halting French), but I was proud of how well I did.  He showed me some Malian music too.  I told him I could play one of the Metallica songs he had me listen to on the guitar and he was very impressed.  He thought is was really really cool.  He asked me about guitar solos and I said they are tres difficile.  It was my coolest experience thus far.  I walked back to the huts with him and we talked about snakes in French.  He is afraid of them. 
Also, I got my cell phone today.  Within a minute of getting it I managed to lock it because the menus were in French, and it took me a long time to figure out how to unlock it.  Then I figured out how to change the menus to English, but I still don't know how to make calls even to other Mali cell phones.  It says I have credits, but it doesn't seem to work very well.  Okay, my day rocked, but it is late and I am tres fatigue.  Bonnuit.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

I done made it.

Number of hippos spotted: 0 Number of people bitten in half: 0 Pairs of pants soiled: 0

I made it to Mali, Africa yesterday evening after traveling for about 48 hours.  I am quite excited.  It seemed sort of like watching a movie as I was driving in.  There were people on scooters zooming (or scooting) all over the road, and everyone either drives a diesel Mercedes or Toyota.  Some of the taxis are large vans with no windows or doors.  At least, I think they are taxis.  I'm sure I'll learn as I go on.  Everyone I've talked to is very nice, at least if I can talk to them.  My french is definitely mediocre at best.

Today we had a few "first day of school" type lessons, so was sort of slow at points.  I am completely excited still and everything is so new and exciting.  I walked down the Niger river today which is only about a quarter mile away.  Since it is the dry season most of the area is sort of dead, but down by the river there is some green grass.  We met a fisherman down there who we could not speak to at all as he did not speak french.  He did try to teach us "hello" or something in his native language.  We failed, but it was not due to lack of trying.

Our toilets are pit toilets, and we do have toilet paper though the local preferred way of "clean up" is using a tea pot to rinse and your hand to remove "debris."  I heavily debated just jumping right into it this morning, but alas I stayed with the toilet paper.  Honestly, the hand/water method might end up being more pleasant because the toilet paper isn't exactly Charmin.  One of the volunteers here in country, John, was very excited to explain to use how great it is to use the hand/water method.  But he was also described as "gone native."  Many volunteers use toilet paper the whole time.  We'll just have to see about that.

Anyways, skies are blue and the weather is warm.  I sweat a lot, but I am enjoying the company immensely.  Everyone is totally awesome, and I am making friends fast because most everyone is easy to get along with.  We played "catch phrase" tonight after dinner with a ton of people.  I had my french interview test today to test my french language level.  It was tough, but I managed to communicate...sort of.  And that is my first ever blog post.  More to come...maybe.  If the bush doesn't get me first...which it will because no one can escape the bush...ever, nearly 100% of the time.