It has been a while...

since my last post I do not know where to start. So for the most part I will just summarize.

My chicken 'Wilma Traore' died dramatically. I was away for a few days and the day I returned she surprised me. She had laid another egg while I was gone, but did it a top the well so it broke as it rolled down to the ground. I went to the market to buy wood, a saw, and nails to build her a chicken coop dreamhouse. In the afternoon of that same day she was acting weird and looking strange, around 2p.m. she was hopping around crazily as if she was choking and as she was in the midst of her last breath several people around yelled to grab a knife and cut her throat before she died. I was in a state of shock, but soon realized they wanted to eat her. Someone took off running to call Laso, our next door neighbor so he could slit poor Wilma's throat, but he did not arrive in time. I let him take her anyway and several of the men ended up eating her, my host brother said it would be bad to eat her meat because she was sick and her blood was not released before she died. People gave me blessings when they heard about my loss. Sad day.

I had not cooked a Mali meal in a while and realized I never recorded the recipe for 'zame' one of my fav mali meals in my notebook. So on market day I went out to buy as many veggies I could score, tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, sweet potatoes, cabbage, garlic, carrots & hot peppers(from the garden), something that looked like squash but wasn't, and meat, dried fish, rice, tomato paste, peanut oil, maggi cubes, etc. The next day we got together and cooked! It is always a good time cooking with the family. Everytime they laugh, because I cry when I cut onions. "What are you cooking today?"....'Zame'.... "Very good, bring me some when it is ready."...'No worries, will do'... I have to say this time the zame was much better then the time I made it before, it must of been the carrots. If anyone is interested in the whole recipe let me know and i'll post it along with the pictures.

I have been commuting to another village about 22km from my town and it is going good. The dugutigi (village chief) is a sweet old man that wants me to find him a pair of prescription glasses. He tried mine and said it is better a little bit, but not good enough. Last time I was there after the women's meeting and lunch I was taking a siesta under the gua of the chief's house. A few of the boys where playing with two baby parrots they said they found in the bush, apparently their parents died and they fell from the nest. I told them I used to hold big birds that eat small animals and birds when I was in America to show to students. I do not know how to say 'birds of prey' or 'raptors' in bambara.

I went into Bamako to submit my application and go to an interview at the Ghana embassy for a visa. At the same time I was in town for that the next day was the soccer game, Mali vs. Zimbabwe. So I couldn't miss that opportunity to go, also nearly everyone from my homestay Niamina was there. Mali won, 1-0.

Sikasso Kow's regional in-service training took place at the end of March in Sikasso-ville. It went well and it was nice to see a lot of people I had not seen since December. We even took a trip out to a few volunteers sites for a PACA (Participatory Analysis C) session. The community creates a list of all the good things they have in their village, create a community map outside using sticks, stones, ashes, leaves, etc. mark the places where people go to the bathroom and where people throw their trash. End result is they realize they have a very dirty village and it is bad for everyone's health. Last we gather together in a classroom and split the men and women, each make lists of what is most important and then it is narrowed down to the top 5 and we began to vote. Access to clean water and health where at the very top of the list. It was a very productive day, I hope the village actually implements some of the ideas it had for change i.e. building latrines and a trash pick-up.

Accra, Ghana; Global Shea Conference 2011
As soon as we got off the plane you felt the humidity, it was uncomfortable, but bearable. I definitely prefer the dry heat in Mali although it is hotter at least it doesn't feel gross (for lack of a better word). In Mali when you are outside your sweat doesn't stick, because it is dry heat and it most likely evaporates before you notice you are sweating. When its humid... it is gross heat.
Four members of PC Mali staff and three volunteers including myself came to Ghana for the Shea conference. The day we arrived, we went to the West African Trade Hub office to organize, meet staff and other volunteers from neighboring countries attending, and to get some things done before the first day of the pre-conference schedule, 'training for shea businesses'. I stayed late at the office with Togo PCVs and a Guinea PCV stapling and folding agendas, stuffing folders and bags, but it was worth it. We were given a wonderful dinner of pizza with lots of cheese.
The next day we all met at the La Palm Hotel (location of the conference) bright and early, everyone wearing there business casual clothes and shoes. It was honestly my first time ever wearing the shoes I brought thinking I would wear them in country, but never had an opportunity so this was the one. They gave me bad blisters so I went back to wearing my rainbows. Here is a list of the sessions I had the chance to attend; 'Natural Formulation, Perfumery & Processing for Quality'; 'Overview of Natural Cosmetics'; 'Quality @ Quantity @ Price'; 'Natural perfumery & fragrancing for products'; 'Shea Processing'; 'Shea cosmetics continued'.
Wednesday April 6, was the start of the Shea 2011: Sustainable Solutions Conference
The keynote address was given by the Vice President John Mahama, of Ghana, also the U.S. Ambassador Donald Teitelbaum was in attendence among other VIPs. Protocol was observed and everything got started. I went to every presentation in the main hall; 'Climate Finance in Shea Landscapes of West Africa'; 'Shea Today 2011'; 'Overview of Demand for CBEs'; 'Linking Sheanut Quality & Traceability'; 'Sustainable and Efficient Shea Production'; 'Low Quality Costs!'; 'Certifying Supply Chains'; 'Social Business in Shea'; 'Sourcing Sustainable Butter'; 'Fair Trade Shea'; 'Marketing FT Butter in the US'; 'Handcrafting in the Village'; 'Beyond SOS: the potential of overlooked shea bioactives'; 'Enriching Parklands'; 'Bee Pollination of Shea trees'; 'Opportunities and Challenges facing NWPFs'; 'Mali's National Strategies & Building for the future of Shea'; and lastly I got to play time-keeper during the Business2Business (networking) sessions that lasted 15 minutes, so on the loud speaker I announced 5 & 1 minute warnings before announcing the beginning of the next session. It was fun, a few other volunteers then started to announce the warnings in French after me.
Accra, Ghana was great. I cannot wait for the chance to see other parts of the country. I loved the signs, in English but interestingly written and a good portion of them religious. One sign read "Soul Clinic" another "Everyone Except God" (I think they meant Accept). We went to Global Mamas a well-known fair-trade store to do a little bit of shopping. On our free day a group of volunteers and I went to the National Museum and the Mall! Oh my gosh there was an actual mall, there was a theatre, arcade, and foodcourt. I experienced culture shock for sure. I bought some cute sandals, a piece of kente cloth (traditional hand sewn cloth in Ghana) I could only afford a small piece because it is super expensive. That is how Ghanians can tell if  someone is wealthy I assume.
The local food was good, the best was the sweet roll bread. It was like a hawaiian sweet roll, soo good. The choice of beer was different from Mali as well, the cheap beer in Ghana was Club or Star the equivalent of Flag or Castel in Mali. They also have smirnoff in Ghana so that was a welcome change. I could write more about Ghana, but that could be too much to read so I'll stop here.

My Hen Wilma Traore Laid an Egg

I bought a chicken about two weeks ago, because in my town eggs are more expensive compared to other towns, because all the eggs sold are brought in from other towns. I wanted to have local eggs and encourage others to do the same. Unfortunately my new hen has only laid one egg. There are a lot of other chickens in my concession that roam around looking for food, I feed mine three times a day, but she's battling with the others to get the food and I do not think it is enough. Very soon I am going to build a chicken coop dreamhouse, 2nd floor for roosting, sleeping, and egg laying; bottom floor caged off for a private dining room so she doesn't have to compete with the ladies to get her fair share.

Wilma Traore (not her best angle)

The Mango Rains

One pair of glasses broke, lost my prescription sunglasses in Segou during the Music Festival, and I have been using my old glasses from home for the past few months. Until today, I received my new glasses provided by Peace Corps. They're nice considering I picked them out from black & white photos. I didn't get my first choice, which was a pair of purple frames, but maybe thats a good thing.
I have been to two more villages to meet with women's associations that work with shea and I am getting very excited. All the women I have met have been so welcoming and now I have like 5 host families. I visit each town about once a week, unless I have to pass through one village to get to another. The farthest village, so far at least, is about 33km away, but my work counterpart says I still need to visit another a little bit farther away. Hopefully I will get there sometime next week. I always travel with an entourage the first time to make proper introductions with the president of the association and to know the way to get to these villages.
One village has so many roads and paths last time I went I was lost in the "bushes" for like 30 minutes. I took one path and it became too rocky, I knew it wasn't the right path, took another it became too narrow for me to ride my bike, took another and the path ended, took another and I was in someone's front yard, took another, and I was on the outer edge of a crop field, path ended again. I eventually found my way another way than the first and second time that I traveled to this village, but the trip was good, and it gave me a good story to tell once I arrived. I spent most of the day at the shea grinding machine and at my host families for lunch they served me to (malian dish made with powdered millet) with ocra and fish sauce. In the afternoon we sat under a large mango tree near the shea machine, ka ton sigi ke, to have a meeting. All the women of the group meet once a month to pay their dues, which is 100 cfa (20 cents) a month, to put into an account. They were collecting fees from women that had not finished paying for months in 2010, so they could catch up on their records which the president keeps in a small notebook. Everyone speaks in Menianka (?spelling) another language than Bambara, the one I am studying. It is kind of a bummer, but occassionally the women translate for me and speak to me in Bambara, but some will speak to me in Menianka knowing full well I don't understand so I just speak to them in English and they eventually switch to Bambara.
Well after spending the full day in village I took off back to my town to make it back before sunset. On the way I got great news, I am going to Ghana in April for a Global Shea Conference! Cannot wait to see all that can be done with shea and how I can get these women associatons to benefit from my attendance. Plus Accra, Ghana! Also it rained, ok sprinkled on the bike ride back and it was wonderful. It smelled like fresh soil and made me think of my mom. The time we were in a van taxi in Mexico on a dirt road and she said she liked the smell or taste of dirt. Love you mom.

Mogo den!

I love this saying "Mogo den". It translates as children of people and the context of when they say it and how is so much like if someone in America said "some people's children" while shaking their heads in a disapproving manner. They are usually scolding a child or they are talking about what somebody did and then they say 'Mogo den' and I have to chuckle to myself, because it makes so much sense finally I'm understanding what people are saying without trying so hard to translate word by word. Do not get me wrong the language is still hard and I'm occassionally reminded of my deficiences during a lanuguage lesson or on an off day. My most recent lesson was translating a small paragraph written in English by my tutor. I read it and thought this is going to be easy. I messed up on the title of the text! and nearly every sentence had an error except for the three last sentences. Again I learned you cannot compare Bambara to English and you cannot translate word for word, and there are words in Bambara that have different meanings depending on the context, etc. I felt a little deflated after that lesson, but the learning carries on.

After I got back from the Festival sur le Niger in Segou, my host mother and homologue informed me we were going to visit a village the following week to meet with a women's association I will be working with, I have been waiting months for an opportunity to get to this village so I can start travelling there on my own. This meeting also meant I would miss out on an annual softball tournament with Peace Corps volunteers in Senegal, but there is always next year.
So wednesday morning I followed my host mom and work counterpart to the village, me on bike and them on a small moto. We were following a guy going to another village that was in the same direction, he was also on bike, well my host mom decided to pass us on her moto and she went left at a crossroad. He tried to yell at them to stop, but they didn't hear. Turns out the path they took to the left goes to the village, but is longer, and the narrower path to the right is shorter. He's going left, because the other village is also in that direction so I figure I'll find my way to the village on my own on the shorter path and most likely my host mom and work counterpart will arrive before me, because  they're on a moto. I'm riding my bike for about 30 minutes passing mud houses in the bush and taking paths at crossroads in hopes I'm on the right path. I come across some women working in a field and they point me in the right direcion, until I arrive in a small village and the next person I ask escorts me directly to the village chief. Well I arrived way before my host mom and work counterpart, later as I'm sitting with women at the shea grinding machine I notice I have seven missed calls. Well they got a little lost and got a flat tire. All in all the meeting was successfull and I will be back this upcoming Saturday to spend the day with them while they work and attend a meeting in the afternoon.
There always seems to be something going on in my dugu kono (in village). I went to another marriage party to partake in some dancing, and this time I took some videos! It was fun I went on my own and after when I got back home my homologue came over and told me there was a meeting taking place right now that she was late to and I should go with. So I went and it was a meeting with every important person in town and a few other towns nearby. Apparently the town-hall meeting takes place every year, so I'll have to wait a whole year to arrive on time for the next one.

Tree of Africa

Festival sur le Niger

afternoon speaker tests

The Segou Music Festival was amazing! Family and Friends come and visit me in Mali next February for Segou's 8th Music Festival. Leaving for village in 30 minutes need to get ready.