Saturday, July 24, 2010

Update: Back to Homestay

Hey Everyone,

We’re headed back to homestay until August 5th at which point we will be back in Tubaniso and will finally find out what our site assignment is! We’re VERY excited about that.  Also, Jim and I both have cellphones now and can receive calls for free. So let us know if you’d like to connect next time we are in town.

~Joye (and Jim)

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Pictures: Peace Corps Training

As requested, here are a few pictures of our first few weeks in Mali. Sorry it took us so long to post. We’ll try to post pictures more frequently. Let us know if there is anything specific you are hoping to see!

 

Training 004

A view of the Niger river from right behind Tubaniso.

 

Training 010

Jim peaks out from the nyegen aka the classic bathroom here in Mali.

 

Training 011

Our “hut” at Tubaniso. After homestay, we were SO excited to get back here for a few days :)

 

Training 014

This is one of the hangers at Tubaniso where we have had cultural/safety/medical training.

 

Training 022 Jim working on his community gardening skills during homestay as part of technical training.

 

Training 025 Joye outside of her homestay house with the neighborhood children.

 

Training 039 

We climbed up some of the cool rock formations and got a great view of the landscape on Joye’s 23rd birthday.

Update: Homestay

Some definitions:
Tubaniso: The Peace Corps Training facility which we've compared to summer camp. Here we have electricity, running water, a cafeteria, internet, etc. We return here every few weeks to have training sessions with all the other volunteers.

Homestay: Each PCT (Peace Corps Trainee) is placed in a village where they spend around 6 weeks total living as part of a family in a local village. We go to homestay for three 2 week periods throughout training. About 4-8 volunteers are in each village. We all attend language, technical, and cross cultural classes for 8 hours every day at the local school. At homestay we live without electricity. All water comes from a pump and must be carried, filtered, and bleached before drinking. (I dont think I fully grasped how much I would have to plan ahead to make sure I had enough water for those really hot days!) Also, no AC or electric fans. And we eat a lot of to, the most common food here: think of bitter dry mashed potatoes with slimy green okra sauce. mmmmmmh. :P

Site: The place we will be living for 2 years. We STILL dont know this yet but will be finding out in 2 weeks!

Joye's first impressions of homestay:

As one of the current PCVs put it, Homestay is a very "real" experience. Some highlights,

Language: We only had 1 language lesson before we went to homestay. So the first day or two were a bit rough. Turns out its hard to explain to your family even little things like "Im not too hungry because my stomach hurts" when all you can say is hello, goodbye, and how is your family. go figure. However, its pretty amazing how much we've picked up in just 2 weeks. I can communicate most of my daily activities in 3 tenses, bargain at the market, ask for directions, and chat about peoples family members. Its definitely still frustrating to have the language skills of a 5 year old sometimes, but we're excited that this "total immersion" thing seems to work pretty well :)

Malian Names: Since our American names are too difficult for Malians to pronounce. Each family has given us new Malian names. I am Aissata (or Sata in short) Samake and Jim is Numujo Traoré. Which makes me Madame Troaré. Malian women do not change their last name when they get married. They keep their maiden name but use their husbands name after Madame. A little confusing.

Living Conditions: The first few days at homestay were admittedly tough. It was a LOT of change combined with a LOT of heat. I live in a 1 room mudbrick house with a tin roof. My bathroom is a walled 5' x 10' area with a hole in the ground on one end and a cement area on the other side where I crouch to take bucket baths. The food has taken a bit of getting used to. Since human feces is used for fertilizer, we arent alound to eat any vegatables without soaking them in chlorinated water for 30 minutes and peeling them. Fruits are generally easier because you can peel bananas and oranges, but you can only get fruit in bigger villages and cities. I've been living in a town of about 600 people, so were lucky if we can get oranges even 1 day of the week. So that means we've been eating A LOT of carbs. But honestly its amazing how quickly you adjust to your surroundings. Within a few days, I had a system down for taking bucket showers, timing when I would get water, airing out my house so it wouldnt be too hot to sleep in at night, and stocking up on fruit by biking into neighboring villages (oh yeah, they gave us all mountain bikes!). It was also really nice to have the support system of other volunteers in our villages as we could share ideas and vent about our frustrations. It also helps that Malians are amazingly hospitable and friendly people. Guests are treated with the utmost respect and care and our host families are constantly going out of their way to make sure we are comfortable. It cracks me up when I wake up on the "cool" ~75 degree mornings and my host family offers to boil water so I can take a warm bucket bath since I must be freezing.

My host family: I have a host father and mother who are about 60 years old. Then my host sister and brother are around 30 years old. They have 5 children ages 1 to 14. I absolutely love my host "nieces and nephews." Its really nice to have kids around because they really help with the language. Also, around the 3rd day, I realized that I knew the Bambara word for "chicken" and "dance." So naturally, I taught them the chicken dance. That was a big hit. Now they want me to do it with them every night. They look completely ridiculous and every time they get to the part where you shake your backside I die laughing wondering what their conservative parents must think of what I've taught their children.

Overall, it has been a challenging 2 weeks, we've oscillated between extreme enthusiasm and intense homesickness, but as we get used to life here, we're starting to find a happy medium between the two. Sorry for the long posts! Its hard to fit in 2 weeks worth of info into a few paragraphs! So let us know if you have any questions!

-Joye

Reflection: Homestay, Sweet Homestay

Jim's Impressions of Homestay:

In order to prepare us for service at our host site, Peace Corps Mali incorporates homestays as part of its training. Homestays are where trainees are assigned to a real-life Malian household in a real-life Malian village, and we live there while attending daily training sessions for both language and technical skills. Our first homestay training chunk lasted two weeks, and during that time, I bathed, ate, and slept in the Traoré household of my village along with seven other environment volunteers; I could classify it as two of the most challenging weeks of my life.

When I arrived, nervously anticipating where I may end up, everything detail around me was overwhelming foreign. Jagged dirt paths ran between mud brick compounds, and I had to play hopscotch to move forward while avoiding the trash, stagnant water, and shouting children. The eight of us were brought before the village chief, who graciously welcomed us before introducing us to our host fathers. After a quick greeting, each father was tasked with bestowing a new Malian name upon us. I was visibly stunned when my host father met my eyes and said coolly, “Numujo Traoré.” It took me two days to get the pronunciation right [Nou-mou-djo Trow-or-é]. Then, they made us dance.

But life in the Traoré compound was instantly less stressful. The family was noticeably excited to be hosting an American guest, but they didn’t overcrowd, and they weren’t pushy. Luckily, my host father spoke French and so we could communicate – first, about where my mosquito net should go, and eventually, about where I would be going for classes. But despite this blessing, my first night was tormenting. The heat and humidity forced me to wave a fan all night, so that I would snooze for seconds before my fan fell and hit me in the face. I wanted to go home.

That was my lowest point, and it was all uphill from there. Once we got started on our garden and learning Bambara (Mali’s most common language), I was too busy to sulk and too tired to not sleep. To communicate, I relied on charades, and as my language improved, I gained the ability to greet my family, take leave, and even express simple commands. It was just enough to give me entrance into after-dusk conversations, huddled around a kerosene lantern, laughing hysterically about how the Traoré’s “joking cousins” – another family name with whom the Traorés jest regularly - liked to eat beans. And yes, it’s funny because beans make you fart.

However, as word spread that Noumoudjo existed and was learning Bambara, life outside of the Traoré compound became more demanding. I became (and still am) a spectacle to behold. This was not the fault of any Malians, but simply the nature of trying to immerse yourself in a culture to which you are an obvious foreigner. Kids call your name from miles around, adults correct your pronunciation for every word, and it seems nearly impossible to be alone. Combined with a new diet of rice and sauce, the unending noise of animals, and the 4:30am call to mosque, this attention can be exhausting.

Another constant source of frustration and discouragement was my separation from Joye, who has a homestay in a nearby village with three other education trainees. I went to go visit her after only a few days, and did so by hitching a ride on a bright green taxi-bus and asking townspeople where she was. Only that, she had a new Malian name too, so all I could ask was “N muso be min?” literally meaning “My wife is where?” It was pathetic, but I found her, and she was happy I did. After we made that first connection, we were able to meet periodically. This was much easier once Peace Corps delivered our mountain bikes. After that, we met each other half way for an chilled Fanta, and I even got to spend the night one Saturday. Then, for her birthday, we spent Sunday exploring the rock outcroppings on the outskirts of my village and enjoying fresh oranges under the shade of a tree.

Relaxation with Joye was probably my most effective method of dealing with culture shock, which came in many shapes and sizes. First, even though I was mentally prepared for it, I still wince at how dirty Malian children can get, though I am impressed by how cleanliness is very important for adults (though soap is rarely part of the equation). I also have had to adjust to Malian family structure and gender roles, which means allowing the Traoré women to do all of the household chores – though I insisted on doing my own laundry. Moreover, I have had to get used to seeing breasts regularly, and holding conversations with women who breastfeed their newborns.

Celebrating small victories also helps me to cope with culture shock. Mastering a Malian card game with the children, sharing about how as a Christian I still believe in one God as well, and creating the household’s family tree give me hope that integration is truly possible. There are also humorous situations that lighten the mood. Imitating a zombie and getting the Bambaran word for a cow plow, dancing to Michael Jackson’s Thriller, and starting a running joke in my family about how a pregnant resident is really growing a fruit tree in her belly have helped me to recognize how much Malians like to laugh. And as these relationships continue to grow over our next month or so of training, I am confident that it will get easier and easier to call this place home, instead of a simply homestay.

Thank you for your comments and prayers.

-James

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Update: A little like Summer Camp...

So Jim and I have been here at Tubaniso (PC Training Center) for a few days . We’ve been going to sessions every day from 8am to 6pm, eating in the Peace Corps dining hall, and living in a cement “hut” surrounded by other huts where other PCTs live. (Peace Corps Trainees) So in that sense, at the moment it kind of feels more like summer camp than Mali. We leave tomorrow for our training homestays where we will be going back and forth from for the next 9 weeks. This means that we won’t have internet access until July 21st. We’re learning a lot in training-way too much to fit in 1 blog post, so here’s a quick list of some highlights that we have learned about Mali/Malian Culture.
• We will be eating out of communal bowls with our hands.
• We cant shake hands or eat with our left hand because it’s the “dirty” one
• They have popcorn here! (well, at least at the training center, so Joye will live! Yay!)
• Women should never initiate a handshake and eye contact with your elders is considered disrespectful.
• Malians are extremely hospitable.
• Malians think Americans are dirty because we only shower once a day and we use toilet paper instead of just washing ourselves every time we go to the bathroom
• Malians don’t wash their hands with soap
• There are a lot of languages here but we have been learning the most common, which is Bambara : Basic Greetings, Farewells, # 1-10, etc
Its certainly been an adjustment to get used to the heat, food, time change, especially with the malaria medication etc to get used to, but were excited to really dive in these next few weeks. Hopefully we’ll finally have some interesting anecdotes to share with you when we return.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Pictures: Pre-Peace Corps Pics

Hello again,

Now I know everyone wants to see pictures of us in Mali, but to be honest, we have been too busy to take them yet. Plus, the Internet is incredibly slow, so it takes a long time to upload any photos. So, to satisfy your appetite for now, the following are some pictures of us in the couple of weeks leading up to our Peace Corps service.

Here are the two of us moving out of our apartment. It was a long and tiring day. This picture was taken after about half of our stuff was already out the door!


A Before and After shot of Joye's new Peace Corps haircut! The lighting is pretty bad on the second picture, so be sure to check out other pictures that "put her hair in a better light." :) Personally, I think it's really cute.



Joye and her brother Scott in front of Independence Hall in Philly. Scott came down from New York for the day to hang out and graciously buy us a wonderful dinner.


Joye and I pushing our way through the crowd to stand in front of the Liberty Bell. While touristy, seeing the historic sites in Philly was a great send off to the Peace Corps.


We hope to post some Mali pictures soon, but with us leaving in a couple days for our homestay training, it might not honestly happen for a couple of weeks. But never fear: the pictures will come!

Also, thank you for all of your comments. It's gratifying for us to know that people are actually reading. :) Have a good night.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Update: We Have Arrived!

After over a day of relatively stress-free traveling, Joye and I have arrived in Mali! Of course, even though it was stress-free, we were still exhausted upon arrival. Here in Mali, it was 11:30pm, but due to a lazy baggage claim and the distance to the Peace Corps training site, we did not get to sleep until 2:30am! In between we also ate a light snack and received an orientation on how to use the hole-in-the-ground toilets called a “nyegen”, which I still can not pronounce. Joye and I were also greeted by a bunch of creepy-crawlies in our floor, but we have since swept it out. We may have freaked out more if we were not so tired, so we went to sleep as soon as we could!

However, when we woke up yesterday morning, everything became beautiful. The weather was not hotter or more humid than it would have been in Michigan either, which was pleasant. After breakfast, we had a session on what training will be about as well as a briefing on safety and security policies. We also briefly met the staff that will be taking us through training and learned that we will be here in the Peace Corps training site for 4 days before going to homestay training villages for 4-5 weeks. We’ll be stopping back here occasionally, at which point we will have to post our blog. Today, we also had two 2-hour training sessions about community acceptance and diarrhea (Mr. D as he is known around here) in order to prepare us for our homestay training. While we are all a little nervous to be thrown into Malian culture, I know we will be prepared for it.

Despite all of the business, yesterday we did have the chance to celebrate the 4th of July. In the afternoon, we went to the American Club in downtown Bamako, where the US Embassy was hosting a party of sorts. While 1-year volunteers love the American Club because of the burgers, our favorite part of the club was definitely the pool, which we pruned up in for a couple of hours. As we swam about, we thought about how strange it was to be relaxing only a day after arriving in country, but after our flight, we needed it.

I’ll leave you with an image that has been in mind since we flew into Bamako. Looking out the window of the plane, I noticed that the scattered lights of the city slums matched the starry night sky so well that I could almost imagine the airplane flying through space. That first night was full of the unknown, and it was alarming and a bit scary. But already, two days later, we have become more comfortable with this place and our fellow trainees. We hope that this feeling will follow us to our homestays, which will be the true test of comfort with these entirely new surroundings.

Sorry there are no pictures yet, but we promise to post them once the Internet improves.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Update: Staging in Philly

Before Peace Corps sends its recruits out into the field, it first brings a country’s new volunteers together for a one-day orientation called Staging. During this time, each applicant registers, learns general information about the mission and core expectations of Peace Corps service, and gets to know some of their fellow volunteers for the first time. It marks a recruit’s transition from a Peace Corps applicant to a Peace Corps trainee, which is an encouraging accomplishment. For all of those heading to Mali this year, 81 in all, we were to meet in Philadelphia, PA.

Joye and I traveled in Philly one day early so that we could visit Joye’s brother Scott, who drove down from New York City. Together, we ate a highly overrated Philly cheesesteak, saw the touristy sights (Independence Hall, Congress Hall, and Liberty Bell), and talked a lot about HBO’s John Adams series. Scott also treated us to a lovely dinner in one of the historical district’s trendy restaurants before going home.

The next morning Joye and I slept in before reporting for staging at noon. Most people arrived that morning, looking weary and stressed, and we were very glad we had come a day early to give us some much needed relaxation. We also relaxed more that evening when we used our Peace Corps allowance to splurge on an exquisite American meal. In Philly’s historic City Tavern, we were able to sample beers originally crafted by our forefathers: Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, and Hamilton (Jefferson’s was the best!), and treat ourselves to fresh salmon and braised rabbit. An a cappella men’s choir – a barbershop octet – eating nearby completed the romantic aura. It was our last American meal and an unforgettable one!

Joye and I found staging to be a rushed, but practical, experience. Overall, the point was to refresh us on some important Peace Corps policies and to inspire us to work as a family to overcome the future hardships we will face. We learned no specifics about Mali, but spent an entire afternoon discussing general safety information and what anxieties and aspirations we had as individuals, and how, not surprisingly, all of us volunteers shared many of the same ones. There were also a couple of icebreakers, but the group was so big that I can only honestly remember a handful of names. We also discovered that while the average age of Peace Corps volunteers is 27, our group’s is much younger – most are fresh out of college. However, everyone we met seemed friendly in manner and eager to serve.

Another purpose of staging was also to get us together for our departure. This morning we all went to get vaccinated for yellow fever, and now we are waiting in New York’s JFK airport for our ride to Mali. Everyone is exhausted, and I am sure that many are nervous and missing home. We are too, but we are incredibly thankful that we have each other to lean on – a constant in all of the cultural craziness that about to occur. We’ll let you know how our travels go soon. Please pray that they will be largely uneventful. :)

Guest: Peace Corps Book List

First and foremost, thank you to everyone who participated in our Peace Corps book list on Facebook! Having looked through the list carefully, we have been impressed by both the quantity and quality of responses. We hope that you will take some time to read over others’ recommendations to add to your own summer reading list.

However, before we reveal which books we packed, the following are a list of reasons why we may have or may not have chosen a particular book.

1) Already Read – Many of your recommendations are already some of our favorite books, though you had no way of knowing that! This includes books such as The Kite Runner, The Life of Pi, Three Cups of Tea, Angels & Demons, The Inheritance Cycle, The Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby, and Shadow in the Wind. So, of course, we did not bring these.
2) Peace Corps Library – A couple weeks after we started our book list, we found that Peace Corps Mali has a fairly extensive library. From current volunteers’ blogs, we deduced that this collection contains many titles, including Water for Elephants, Poisonwood Bible, The Alchemist, Things Fall Apart, East of Eden, and other books that you have recommended. Thus, we did not bring these books, but we still hope to read them during our service.
3) Packing Space – Originally we intended to bring 15 books each, but weight and size limits forced to cut down. As a result, we are now bringing about 15 books altogether.
4) Availability – Due to above reason, we were also forced to look for light and small paperback books, but sadly, we could not find many recommendations that met these specifications.

Therefore, in addition to our Bibles, the following books will be accompanying us to Mali:

Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
The Brothers Karamazov – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Catch-22 – Joseph Heller
Ella Enchanted (in French) – Gail Carson Levine
Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card
The Good Earth – Pearl Buck
Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus – Orson Scott Card
The Reason for God – Timothy Keller
Redeeming Love – Francine Rivers
Reinventing the Bazaar – John McMillan
The Space Trilogy – C.S. Lewis
The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas

We really tried to strike a balance between classical literature, a little non-fiction, and just plain fun. But again, thank you to all who gave us a suggestion. It was wonderful to research everyone’s favorite books and it truly meant a lot.

Lastly, in order to track our progress on reading these and other books, we also intend to start a sidebar listing the books each of us have completed during training and service. Feel free to comment on the sidebar or on this blog post if you have any further recommendations.

Update: The Times, They are A-Changin

So the time to leave has finally come! As of Wednesday, June 30th, we’ll be leaving on our great adventure. I think Jim and I are both a bit in denial that this is all really happening. That we are not just on a mini vacation, that we are not just going to simply get back in the car and drive to Lansing to return to our normal day to day routine on Wednesday. But at the same time, with the amount of change we have gone through in the past 2 weeks, its hard for reality not to sink in at least partially.
Here’s a quick recap of all the changes we’ve been through these past two weeks.

1. Jim finished his summer classes and cleaned out his grad school desk
2. Joye left her job as a lab tech at MSU.
3. We packed all our stuff in boxes and moved out of our apartment
4. All of our earthly belongings that we are not taking with us are now in a storage facility. Everything else needs to fit in 2 suitcases /person and be less than 80 lbs. Still working on that.
5. We traveled to Jim’s hometown of Harbor Springs and bid farewell to friends.
6. We spent 4 great days with Jim’s family hiking around Pictured Rocks National Seashore and soaking in the beauty of Michigan’s Great Lakes, waterfalls, and sunsets.
7. We said goodbye to the Honda Accord that M&D Allen lent us for the year
8. We spent 4 days with the Kallgrens in Trenton: celebrated the 4th of July, had a BBQ with family & friends, and Joye cut off about 7 inches of hair and donated it (Talk about Change!)!
9. We finished off our time with a great trip to Cedar Point where we got to hang with Hope and sit next to Dave on his first big roller coaster (Millennium Force).

So now everyone keeps asking us, “Are you excited? Nervous?” Well, we are excited, nervous, anxious, nostalgic, hopeful, melancholy, enthusiastic and everything in between. Really, it’s exhausting! One thing that has really made it difficult to leave is the love and support we have received from our family, friends, and coworkers during our final days here in the States. It seems that we finally made relationships a huge priority (as it should have been all along!) and although we didn’t get to say goodbye to everyone, we have had such a blast this past month and we are certainly going to miss you. (Well , at least a FEW of you…  ).
Final Note: Since this is our main form of contact with everyone, we want to emphasize again that we LOVE comments. It assures us that people are actually reading and encourages us to update the blog more often! So please leave your comments, questions, etc!