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.