The World on a Wall

A fellow PCV has moved into a village relatively close to mine and invited me to help paint a world map at one of the local schools. I was thrilled to help, because I plan to do one in my village and possibly the surrounding villages I visit. It was my first time to the village and I am glad I decided to take a van rather than ride my bike. I left early evening after returning from a bike ride to another village and was sore. My seat is no longer comfortable after the first hour of riding and it does not help that the dirt road is bumpy.
Paula, another PCV, and I started with gridding the wall at the school and drawing the outlines of the countries. I worked on most of the countries North of the Equator, although it was very detailed work it was a lot of fun. I brought my ipod and mini speakers, which have been the two best things I brought to Mali. Laundry day which usually happens every tuesday is the day I blast my music in our family's concession. You should know I cannot do chores without listening to music.

It was great painting, singing, dancing, and laughing as students and adults came to watch us work on the map. Between the two of us working on different sections of the globe at a time the work went by rather quickly. It was only difficult at times finding countries to paint, because they are so small that on the world map plates the letters printed are too small to read.
One of the days we went to visit the maternity ward where Paula's next door neighbor works. While I was sitting outside, Paula witnessed an entire birth and came out of one room with a baby wrapped in a pagne to lay on a bed in another room directly across from me. The expression on her face said it all, she saw a woman just give birth.
Another day we attended a denkundi "naming ceremony" for a child born the previous week. They shave the child's head (?not entirely sure shy, probably have been told why before, but forgot), religious leaders meet in the morning with men of the family read from the koran and choose the child's name. I was so surprised when I arrived because I knew several people at the party, almost all being Jelibas (men and women that know the history of Mali and family names, they sing praising you and then ask for money). It was great I felt immediately more comfortable and relaxed with people from my village in attendance, one woman is my host mother's good friend and I see her on a regular basis when I go into market. So she made sure I got water and was fed well. After lunch we agreed to return in the evening to dance after working on the map at the school.

but it got real windy

Well the sky turned grey, large dark clouds were approaching quickly with the winds. No dancing, but we got to see a show of lightning and thunder. I love thunderstorms!!! Bring on the rainy season round 2.

I left early monday morning and we got news via text message that Osama Bin Laden had been killed and as Americans we should lay low. I did not get to stay to finish the map by labeling the countries, but I did not want to miss market day plus I told my host family I would be back Sunday or Monday. Plus I did not want to miss my favorite ce koroba's weekly visit.

sweetest old man in Mali
his smile is contagious
and his laugh is outrageous
host granddad

Letters from Ameriki

I have been collaborating with a French Teacher in the U.S.A. to exchange letters written in French between Malian students and high school french classes. I organized the letters alphabetically by first name, but due to many students with the same name it was hard to distinguish what letter went to whom. Also there were more American students that wrote letters so several Malians received more than one letter. After the chaos of the school teachers reorganizing the letters for over an hour while the entire class enjoyed themselves in conversation, we began to pass out the letters. The students read their letters and then began sharing with the students next to them.

After everyone received their letter(s) they asked me questions in English. "How old are you?" I answered in English and then switched to Bambara. It was amazing every response I gave they found tremendously hilarious. When I told them I was 24 years old, most were shocked, the teacher told me they thought I was in my 30s. Well thanks for the compliment, I guess. I talked about my family and home. That all the letters they received were from students that attend my alma mater Redwood High School in Visalia, California. Then we talked about where California is located and one student so boldly asked "What do I have to do to marry an American?"; good question, but I feel my answer was biased. My point was that a husband and wife should share responsibilities involved with living together or raising a family.

We moved on to talk about my hobbies when suddenly due to more extreme winds, one of the metal window shutters fell off its hinges and it began to pour down rain so hard you could no longer hear anyone speak in the room. At that point we just hung out and listened to the rain while the students either sat inside hanging out with friends, wandered outside to watch the rain, or ran outside to play in the rain. Believe me I was very tempted to start jumping up and down in some of those puddles, but I refrained for several reasons. My tutor took this as an opportunity to show me a video of his grandfather's funeral and the great number of people in attendance. He said his Grandfather died at the age of 130, "a ka koro!!" "he was very old!" In the video there was a crowd of people circling around a body wrapped in a white cloth with only one hand exposed across the chest. He said everybody wanted to touch him, everyone wanted to touch him. He reminded me of this fact several times through out the 5 minute video on his cell phone that they wanted to touch him, because he lived such a long life.

washing the sandals

watching the rain or staring at me

After an hour or so of waiting for the rain to let up, kids slowly began to take off for home. And since there was nothing more for me to do I also walked on home enjoying the cool air brought on by the heavy wind and rains.

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.