Update: Settling-In

Moving-In : We’re finally settled in! About 2 weeks ago, we spent a few days in our “regional capital” where we were able to buy a table, bed, mattress, gas stove and other large supplies that don’t fit on the back of a bike. Then, a Peace Corps vehicle loaded all of our stuff on top and drove us straight to our house to officially “install” us. This was the only time Peace Corps will ever carry things directly to our site so it was a real blessing to be able to buy big furniture and not have to arrange for a donkey cart to carry it 5K down a dirt road later.

Peace Corps Staff dropped us off, had a quick meeting with our the mayor, prefect, village chief and homologues reiterating why we are here and then drove away…leaving us in the middle of this tiny village with no electricity and no translator and a quick “See you in 3 months at In-Service Training in Bamako!” And that was about the time when all of the busyness of the last 2 months of training came to this screeching halt and we realized that this was going to be our lives for the next 2 years! Exciting, intimidating, a bit overwhelming!

Cooking in Mali : So we have spent the last 2 weeks pretty much setting up shop here and settling in. One exciting thing is that we have been learning how to cook for ourselves in a developing country with limited resources. Its strange to experience what it is like to not have food available whenever we want it. It really makes me appreciate and marvel at American grocery stores where you can buy anything whether its in or out of season! Here in Mali, we have a market that comes to our town on Wednesdays, sometimes with veggies, sometimes without, and another market about 12 K away on Sundays. Some days the local “butigis” sell bread, sometimes they run out and you simply have to go with plan B. So we have been trying to find a balance of securing enough food to last us for 3-4 days but not rot/go bad since we have no refrigerator (and its been getting up to 85-90 everyday in Rainy Season). Now, please don’t worry about us getting fed! In Mali, you can literally show up at anyone’s house at meal time and it is expected that you will be eating there, in fact, here its an honor for a family to get to host us since we are the village guests! So we usually eat 1 meal/day with either our host family or Joye’s homologue and cook breakfast and dinner ourselves. It has simply given us a small window (small because, even on our meager Peace Corps budget we have much more money than the average Malian) into what it is like to live somewhere where food is scare and you constantly need to be planning ahead for meals. Despite the challenges, we have managed to make American Spaghetti, homemade French fries, vegetable stew, omelettes, and quesadillas! **Note: I may have mentioned this before, but cheese isn’t made here because of the lack of refrigeration. However, there is one type of imported French processed Cheese called “Laughing Cow” which doesn't require refrigeration and can be purchased in bigger towns. So we used this, Jim made flour tortillas, end result = the most amazing quesadillas ever!

A New Arrival: Our host family in village is a young couple only a few years older than us. When we came for site visit, a month ago, we realized that our host “mother” was very pregnant (In Mali, you never talk about pregnancy, its a superstition of sorts), and last Saturday, she gave birth to her first child, a beautiful baby girl! Then, a week later we were able to attend the baptism/naming ceremony.

Starting Work: This first month is about language and making connections. We spend a good part of each day, walking around the village, greeting people, learning names, chatting, and finding out who’s who in the community. This means identifying individuals that seem motivated and are well respected by their peers, so that later when we need their help, they will be willing to give it. We also are spending the next few months listening, discussing, and building people’s trust in us before we launch any big projects. Then, after relationships and language are established, we need to do a baseline survey, to discover what the community thinks its problems are and which ones it is motivated to change. Peace Corps is all about creating “sustainable” projects and therefore strongly encourages volunteers to start working on projects that already have community support, or they will not be sustainable after the volunteers leave. However, we do have a few small projects in mind for the coming months. For example, we are starting a small garden soon where we will be able to showcase some strategies for growing more nutritious food and can use it as a starting point for talking about general nutrition. Also, Joye is hoping to secure permission soon to start painting a world map mural near the school to promote geographic literacy. This will allow us to feel productive but not get in over our head in a big project when our language skills are still not where they need to be.

Lastly, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Joyes brother Dave. His Bday is the same as Mali who will be turning 50 on September 22!

There is so much more we could write about, but we're trying to keep these blogs short and sweet! So please let us know if you have specific questions! We love you all and hope you’re doing well!

~Joye