Safe and Sound again!.... more or less

I am back at homestay once again! I bet a bunch of you thought I was dead, huh? Or at least lost somewhere in the Malian wilderness… And you wouldn’t be too far off.

Well, here we are in the last stretch of training. It has been a crazy couple of weeks since I last wrote, so this is going to be a long one. After training day at Tubani So, I actually stayed behind an extra day with some other volunteers who will be in the Kayes region with me and we hung out in Bamako. I actually got a pizza (!) and ice cream, which was amazing. And the next day we headed out, boarded an antiquey Greyhound-like bus, and headed to Kita. The scenery was actually really beautiful, all green hills and little villages along the way. I am also pretty lucky in that the trip is only 3-4 hours long, so we got to the city mid-day and not too tired. Also lucky for us is the fact that there is a stage house in Kita, owned by Peace Corps and run by volunteers. Its honestly like a little piece of America, and I love it to death already. There is an actual bathroom with flush toilet and a shower, a tv with a VCR and an some kind of old-school game console, a kitchen with a fridge and stove, and some other general amenities that we take for granted in the US. Its official purpose is to be used as a stopping place for volunteers when they are traveling between site and other places, as well somewhere the Kita volunteers can stay when they come in every once in a while to pick up mail and money. I think its going to be used a lot by us, because everyone was really relieved to be able to cook some familiar food and watch some familiar American movies (I totally sang along to Beauty and the Beast) and we are just going to need a break, both mentally and physically, from our villages once in a while. Well, after getting to know the current Kita volunteers and hanging out at the house, we all left the next day for our villages. There is a large dirt road connecting the larger villages to each other; my village happens to be the furthest. However, we did not know that my village WAS on the road, and myself and a current volunteer biked about 5 miles to get there. And I lied before… I’m not that close to a large city; actually, I’m in Guinea. Noooo, but really, I am- I’m only 25k away from the border, and so might be heading over there to escape as much as heading into town. I am actually pretty amused, although there is the problem that there is no cellphone reception where I am, and pretty much in the whole area south of Kita. So, I am rather unable to contact my other volunteers at all. A little worrisome, but I’ll figure it out.

Well, got into village and was welcomed handsomely (even got a chicken for dinner) and was led to my OWN little concession, consisting of 3 little mud and thatch huts and a nyegen (bathroom), all surrounded by a little wood-stick wall. And its all brand new, just for me. They are really happy to have me, which makes me very happy, and a lot more motivated. I’m also extremely happy that the other volunteer was with me, because my Bambara is clearly not far enough along to make myself understood, and so needed a lot of help translating stuff. Sadly, she left the next day, so I was turned over to my new host-family’s care. Now this is where the language immersion comes in, because my new family speaks NO French, so the conversations mostly consisted of them speaking to me, and me going, “Yes. No. I don’t understand. Repeat again?” We can only hope that I will eventually pick up the language.

I was in village for 3 days, which I mostly spent at the village clinic hanging out with the doctor and other health workers. My counterpart never came back while I was there (still training in Kita) which was very sad, but I really enjoyed getting to know my colleagues. The clinic is brand new, so its pretty well stocked and is actually run fairly efficiently, which sounds mean but can be a huge problem here in Mali. The doctor and head of staff is rather young, too, only 30 and the rest of the staff (except for my counterpart) are men, so it should be interesting working with all men on a regular basis. I did get to see a few interesting incidents; unfortunately, the message that I am a health EDUCATOR and NOT a doctor was not passed along, because they were asking me to vaccinate children and deliver babies while I was there. Definitely not happening. Eventually we got that all cleared up and I plan on trying to stay away from certain activities in the future. But I am really excited again to become fluent in Bambara and do all kinds of awesome health activities for the next two years.

So on my fourth day I boarded the little bachee that is public transport between villages here, to head back to Kita. Have I explained public transport yet? Basically, a bachee is an old, old, old minivan that is kinda falling apart, has some seats stuck in the back and painted green. Really, its hard to give you an idea of the antiquity of these things, but they are old, and they are crazy. For the most part, however, they work. I say for the most part because they do tend to break down a lot, which is what happened to me on my way back. I was hoping to meet up with other volunteers living farther down the road and closer to Kita, but I guess there are more bachees coming and going then I thought, and I made the journey by myself. Halfway through, my little transport broke down and we had to stop for a little while while they took out the engine or some similar part and put it back in again. Well, it took a while (nearly 5 hours) but I made it to Kita safe and sound, only to realize my bike had broken when it was tied to the top of the bus, and I needed to find someone to repair it. Which I found someone to do, eventually… Well, long story short I finally made it back to the Kita stage house, to the great relief of my fellow volunteers, who really did think I was dead.

After another day or so at the stage house, where I watched numerous movies and even got to eat a Malian version of tortillas, us trainees, along with a few other volunteers, headed back into Bamako (where I had more ice cream) and back to Tubani So. And back to homestay, where we will be for the next few weeks, trying to complete language training and retain our sanity (I still have, approximately, 85% of mine). And so ends the little adventure that was site visit, and a taste of the next two years. Be warned that I will be able to check email and such every few days until mid-September, and after that it’ll be every few weeks… so if you would like letters instead, send me your mailing address! I think I’m going to have lots of free time.

The next step begins...

Here we are again, and I am slowly making progress. The group is back at Camp PC once more, and starting the next step of this crazy process, better known here as visiting our permanent sites. We found out last week where we will all be going and what (sort of) we will be doing for the next two years, and now we go off our separate ways to actually see our new homes. I will be going to the westernmost region in Mali, the Kayes region, to a small village south of Kita. I doubt the village is on any maps, being as it has only 2000 inhabitants, but I am close enough to a large city that I hope not to get cabin fever too badly. When I stop to think about it I find it crazy that I will be living in a tiny village after living in huge cities all my life, but hey, this is what I signed up for. As a health volunteer, I am partnered with one of the local midwives (often there are no actual doctors in rural Mali, but midwives take care of the process of pregnancy, birth, etc.) working in the local clinic. Technically, I am not a trained health professional, so I will not be doing all the stuff you think of when you think of medical personnel. Instead, my purpose there for the next two years will be more informational, i.e. pushing good habits and changing the way some things are done. A lot of my job will involve working with pregnant women and babies, which I am thrilled about. Being as how Mali has an extremely high child mortality rate (1 in 10 infant mortality, roughly one third of children do not make it to their 5th birthday) the Peace Corps health sector focuses a great deal on fighting these statistics. More immediately, I will be helping my local clinic with pre-natal consultations, baby weighings (i.e. making sure that children are not severely malnourished, a big problem here), pushing vaccinations and good cooking and hygiene habits with mothers. However, a lot of my work will probably not start for a while seeing as how I am still working on the language skills. That, and babies tend to cry when they first see me.

I will be the first PC volunteer this village has ever had, so it should be a bit of a shock for everyone involved when the toubab (that is Bambara for foreigner) shows up in town wanting to learn the language and make friends. I’m also unsure of what my housing situation is like, so I’m not sure if I will be living with another family like my current situation or living in my own housing next to a family that will be taking care of me from afar. I am kinda hoping for the former, because however much I do love my homestay family right now, I am definitely someone who needs more private space. So we will see how that works out after this week. Another good thing about my site is the number of other volunteers in my group that will be within 50km of me, all of whom I like and would love to know better. I doubt I will be getting out that much in the first few months, just because we are supposed to be working on integrating and learning the language and figuring out what are the biggest needs in our community, but it is nice to know that they are there if I need someone.

Otherwise, I am doing really well so far. No major sicknesses, which is a slight miracle, and no mental breakdowns. At the very least, I am not ready to throw in the towel just yet J I can also not believe that it has already been one month since I arrived in Philadelphia, and in a little less than five weeks we will (hopefully) be Peace Corps volunteers, and not just trainees.