World Map Project—to the extreme!!

Hey, y’all!! I would like to fill you all in on the story behind the wonderful pictures on Facebook of the joint combination, multi-village world map extravaganza and ‘International Fair’ to take place in my local commune. A fellow volunteer, Elyse Callahan (from Iowa), who lives in a nearby village and I have gathered the 5th and 6th grade class members in our own villages and a third one in close proximity to paint world maps in three classrooms. We were so excited to have volunteers come out and have the students come and do the majority of painting with us! They all look wonderful!! However, there are always questions that arise when painting a one-dimensional (and though colorful) culturally lacking interpretation of the world. For example, upon completing a map in another volunteer’s site, a man passed by and pointed out what was assumed to be a mistake, "that paint blotch in the Pacific Ocean needs to be covered in ocean blue." No, then we would lose the 50th state of Hawaii, sir! His response, "No way, how can people live with all that water? Where do they build their houses?" And, btw, the color of your skin immediately determines what languages should be spoken to you and what country you are most certainly from! So, to tackle some of these tricky cultural taboos we decided to arrange at the beginning of the school year a 3-day, traveling World Fair! To be held October 10-12 in all three of the villages in which we have painted the world maps to truly bring them to life! We hope to showcase different peoples, languages and foods along with geographical and basic information of life on different continents.

The PCPP (the Peace Corps Partnership Program) connects Peace Corp volunteers directly to donors stateside to help fund project ideas that fulfill the program's requirements of community involvement for development. The proposal budget we have devised covers the materials for our project, and mainly the International Fair (displaying basic geographical information, as well as; the sites, sounds and, hopefully, tastes of several different countries to the youth in our local primary schools). We are planning the event for the beginning of school classes this October. We both would love to provide samples of food from a few different countries. We would like to purchase staple foods that are found here, but work with the woman to prepare them differently as you might find them arranged in another country. If there are any questions, please feel free to contact me and check out the link to the Peace Corps site where you can read about my projects and others' being done around the world! The PCPP project number is 688-362--all donations will be very appreciated and all donors will be updated with photos and project follow-up as it progresses. Thanks!!

Hunger Awareness Week!

Last week, I decided to participate in this awareness campaign and only ate what I could buy for $1 each day. It is quite appropriate that this blog entry would come after my latest one devoted to the tasty treats I make on a regular basis to supplement my general lack of any sort of reasonably nutritional diet. This past week was a true test of my endurance. The unbearably heat and humidity of the rainy season compounded by my general lack of energy and motivation gave me little reason to get off the floor . Each morning, I made myself the rice milk beverage that many have for their first meal of the day. However, upon waking every day I would be faced by such a strong feeling of hunger that I would hardly be motivated to get out of bed knowing that I would have to boil the water and cook the rice before I would have anything to eat. One morning I attempted to turn my focus on other tasks that needed to be accomplished while waiting for the rice to cook, but that just meant burning half of it and just eating cooked rice for breakfast.

I did take away a deeper appreciation for things over the duration of the week. Primarily, I found myself truly feeling more grateful for the little bit of subsistence farming that I have been doing. In my concession, I am growing tomatoes, basil and an orange flesh sweet potato and out back I have a small bit of land dedicated to wax beans. (The pictures added here includes: the tomato plant with lovely ripe fruits, my first harvested tomato and some picked beans from the field).

Of course, I spent a lot of time thinking about the snacks that I generally eat throughout the day from the wonderful packages I receive that keep me going. It was also a challenge because I normally supplement my diet with locally produced goods that were too great of an expense to buy for my $1 a day budget. I would regularly pick up eggs, loaves of fresh bread and fried batter all produced/sold by my neighbors. It got me thinking of how really special even those small items are to me. I had watched children light up over a fried egg sandwich or a small dough ball for small change and I can now better grasp their definition of a splurge in comparison to a standard purchase of my own.

This reminds me of how grateful I am for what is known to be my meager stipend while serving here as a volunteer and how much it actually allows me to live a very comfortable life amongst the hardworking farmers and herders in village. While hunger is a state I only spent a week experiencing it gave light to realities of the issues of availability, accessibility and utilization that people out in villages with small markets generally face. For example, when tomatoes go out of season many women buying goods for the week ahead may not even notice. While availability is an issue, accessibility and utilization are the greater issues. Even when one can find the tomatoes, by and large, they are too much of an expense. Out of my daily budget of $1, 10% of it would go towards 1/2 tomatoes in my daily intake, which is a considerably large portion of a truly small amount. While it would provide a bit of nutrients of the servings I should be getting of fruits and vegetables, it most definitely did not keep me full or energized to perform many laborious tasks. Many Malians on a regular basis go without utilizing such delicious items because they are so costly. They are also a delicate plant that needs to be cared for during growth and a heavy amount of water is needed for feeding. This is just a bit of the larger picture of the issues of food insecurity and how hunger is enlarged in a rural, poor climate setting.

Shout-out to Ameriki dumuni (and the amazing people that send it to me!)

One of the hardest parts of living and adjusting to life in this country (for most volunteers I would say) has been the difference in what our diets consist of daily. So, as I celebrate with my fellow 'Team America' volunteers our one year mark of living here in Mali I would like to commemorate some of the fabulous meals I have made for myself or in the transit house here in Koutiala for a large group of starving volunteers. This is thanks to my wonderful family who makes sure I can still eat delicious food (in moderation) and the generally wide selection of fresh vegetation made available here by the lovely people of the Sikasso region. Needless, to say I am quite spoiled! (**Pictured above; Reese Pieces fudge brownie pizza--a gift to my fellow volunteers upon my return from my visit home**).

Here we combine the delicious vegetation that can normally be found in the Koutiala markets with the local dairy's cheese (and some Parmesan from home) to create our tasty version of the pizza. For most of us here, coming into Koutiala means not only ease of access to electricity, the internet and English-speaking friends; but, also means we can use a bonafide kitchen--complete with stove top, oven and a recent addition of a mini-fridge! We can get a bit crazy, but coming together as a small group and cooking is one of my favorite things to do when I come into the city.

Here is a sampling of what I make for myself at site. I do have a host family that is willing to share every meal with me, but when Malian women cook they are doing it to make sure their family is full until the next meal can be served so no one goes hungry. This means a usual lack in flavor and most importantly nutrition. Here I have taken tons of veggies, tuna and great seasonings with balsamic and oil to create my own lunch.

This is a definite shout-out to my fam at home for sending me the delicious chocolate-chips and bacon. I used some of those ingredients to make my own American-style breakfast at site—yummy!

My life abroad...KA-RAZY!

February was my birthday party (in village with PCV friends and local ones) and the present to myself was going to Dakar, Senegal to see the beach. As you can see from the first photo I had quite an experience--I first fell and scratched my knees on these weird cement blocks called the sidewalk (hadn't seen any of those in months lol!), had amoebas (severe illness with frequent diarrhea) and then dislocated my knee and was carried off the beach in the pictured stretcher. However, my knees have since recovered, I received medication and have since felt my regular self and my wonderful site mate Elyse helped to put my knee back in place :) Plus, I just made it a paid, extended vacation in the PC Senegal Med unit for an extra week and instead of having to take the 36 hr. overnight-on-the-side-of-the-border I received a lovely 1 hr. flight back to Bamako on Ethiopian airlines (with a lovely breakfast served before landing).

Before March ended we had a third training, however, this time it was in our regional capital of Sikasso. There were small project ideas discussed, meetings for our counterparts to learn more about PC's mission and we met partners within our region.

Started out April visiting my family in Pittsburgh and celebrated my sister receiving her degree in Hotel and Resort Management from Le Cordon Bleu (pictured above). Spent the month eating the best food with some of my favorite people! Too much food and people and not enough time :) But, I enjoyed it immensely! Especially, going back to Bethany College and WHS to speak with students about my time as a volunteer so far (picture taken by Mrs. Fauber below).

This is my site's women association's garden, where they are currently growing potatoes from France, onions and a miniature apple-like fruit. I included this photo, because the baby I find to be adorable and she allows me to hold her and put her to sleep (hard to find here lol!). However, all of the women joke that she is ugly and bad because she is not male--just goes to show how much women are undervalued here. As much as this is the women's garden and a place I believe they treasure as a place where they can come to meet of their own accord the children (especially the wee ones) are generally present, though they will try to help out in some way.

Here my work counterpart in the village is pictured drawing water with another member of the association out of one, of the two, wells that will dry up during the dry season. Thus, we have a water shortage issue that the women and the village as a whole would like to see addressed. I am currently researching different systems that we could construct to harvest rainwater that does fall regularly, from about July until October, and other common practices that we can implement in the garden to make efficient use of our water resources, such as mulching.

The women pictured here are carrying water to care for their own personal plots. They work as an association and are to collect a portion of the produce for sales, but they also will be able to use it as provisions for their own family's nutritional intake.

You have the tools to work in cultivating/gardening, so...you...work in the garden?

Wow! Anyone else surprised that it is November already? Well, as you can tell from the title, one of the hardest aspect of cultural integration that I have found to date is that I am a woman in a man's world doing some rigorous labor. Please, note however, that many times it is not the opposite sex completely left dumbfounded by this idea of me toiling over the dirt, but instead, my not-always-so-empowering fellow women cohorts that are completely astounded to see me starting my compost pile and digging out the beds in my garden space that are insulting, but sometimes do raise good questions (which requires me to take a breath and use it as a teaching moment). For me, this is difficult because unlike other women volunteers trying to make it in the male-dominant powerhouse of this region (and let's face it to much extent the world) I am almost nearly surrounded by the women at my site all day with hardly any males in my presence. So, unlike the difficulties of other PCVs trying to make themselves heard and respected in the view of their male counterparts I am spending most of my time trying to get the understanding and a level of approval from the women that I am attempting to integrate into their daily lives. Recently, upon encountering many of my fellow volunteers (mostly women in this part of my region) we were able to share some of stories and hardships over the past month and one case in particular stands out in my mind. In short, this PCVs story is that she is married and lives en brusse (out in the bush) with her husband. She desires to work and truly just be addressed in her field and to be acknowledged, as she is well-educated and has a level of fluency in French, which can be found spoken by nationals here. However, since her husband is generally found with her in village it is he who gets their attention and ear (EVEN though he hardly understands much of conversational French at all). Needless to say, she seems to spend much of her time trying work with her husband to blur the lines of gender norms for both the men and women. The women villagers seem to take her desire to work with the men to mean that she considers her status as above that of women nationals, and they have made sure to point out her true place is "over there" with the other women. Either way, we are both constantly hounded with questions always beginning the same way, "Can you...?". Can you shovel? Can you handle going over this road? Can you manage to continue greeting? Can you weed? Whatever it is I suppose it is just plain amazing that we, as the lazy white race perhaps, can (actually more like will) perform these tasks almost daily. Of course, usually once we do they laugh and then tell us to go sit down in the shade or when the unfortunate instance occurs that we cannot accomplish a basic chore (or perhaps just not as easily--since many times they have been doing it since they could walk, whereas we have never had to) then they claim we must be tired/just do not understand what we are supposed to do.

On a different note, I have found that working in my kitchen creates a great sense of personal accomplishment and independence that I crave daily in my life. Thus far, I have baked pizza, brownies, cookie cake, apple crisp and a sweet potato casserole all to share with my host family (btw: my homologue/host mom/jatigi is a Keita too! Bonus!) who have flipped over backwards and enjoy watching, and of course, the eating process as well. I have some fun pics up on FB where everyone was introduced to the Fruit Roll-Up candy Stickerz! (my sister had sent some in a package with a pic of her and mom with some on their faces) and had a blast one hot, lazy afternoon sticking them on each others' faces. I have been working on my garden plot and continually adding to my house. For instance, I have recently purchased a full tea set so that I can host guests and serve them rounds of tea (I have had several visitors already!). I have killed tons of crickets, ants and flies within my home; found one dead scorpion and have disected one with a shovel; and, spotted two rodents around the kitchen area.

Currently, my main goals have been interviewing/integrating/greeting the locals and trying to get a better grasp on the history and existing projects, as well as, work the community would invest in fully in the future. Again, after coming together and sharing our various village experiences I find though that drama seems to pop up occasionally it is just the norm. A short compilation of events, would include; drunk teachers, attempted rape of village chief's third wife, being almost forced to leave village and asking others what help they need, having two language tutors instead of just the one (who is not sure what of he is even doing, but again it seems like many don't), and the question being raised about getting a new jatigi (host fam). Crazy, random incidents just are every day events and I am just trying to reflect on them without losing my mind and control in the process.

Well, I guess I should be heading back to site and the reality of living in the beauty of the middle of nowhere! Please, feel free to leave comments, questions and spread the word to everyone of the link. I miss you all and would love to hear from each you!

I live with Namaka Keita...yeah, it's the house with the carousel and hot tub jacuzzi ;)

So, as you can tell internet service is a) not readily available and b) not truly reliable. In fact, I am relishing in the fact that at 6 in the afternoon I have been able to check gmail, facebook and write on my blog! I am not sure where to start to catch up! First of all, as is the truth with all my other host families in the past my homestay host family is truly wonderful!! My nine weeks living with them were truly an integral part of formation as a volunteer. Not only did they take me in as a member of their family practically from day one, but they completely spoiled me in everyway! It was so great that while every other fellow trainee would complain about living conditions, language barriers, food and general issues with their families I would almost always have to scrounge for any true problems. That is why my friends in homestay, fellow environment volunteers, would joke that I lived in a mansion with the carousel out front and the hot tub jacuzzi! They provided me with language support, cultural misunderstandings and just general involvement in their lives. I quickly became friends with the oldest son, Gawsu. We would go on bike rides to nearby villages, go out to the fields, play games and even went fishing. They quickly gave me a husband, Banjuku (age 3!) and he and Bangike latched on to me as well giving me more support! Women around my age would come and go every week working or staying with the family and they were great friends too! I shared gifts with them and I would get cookies, cheese (Laughing Cow) and fruit treats as well. We went to the market together, cooked together and went to the tailor to get outfits made for me. My host mom was a great support helping me throughout the time by being so comforting (actually gave a hug and a kiss on separate occasions!) and proud of my skills and lessons learned. As I have left homestay for good I will truly miss all of them and plan on visiting them often!

I will report on site soon. And, as I am swearing in this Friday, will not be contacting more than a couple of times for the next 3 months as I am to stay and integrate in the village only leaving twice for market/banking needs!

Until later--allah ka nogon nogoyake!