Two days ago, we made chicken tacos. For eight Peace Corps trainees still learning to speak Bambara, it was a colossal challenge, but we did it in four hours. First, we went to the market and bargained for the ingredients. Next, we beheaded, plucked, and broiled a rooster. Following, we kneaded and fried flour and water into tortillas. We pulled bugs from and subsequently cooked an enormous quantity of beans. And we chopped up various vegetables, some from our own garden plot, and seasoned these to make our own salsa. The result was undeniably the freshest culinary masterpiece my testy tongue has had the privilege of tasting. And coincidently, it was a nearly perfect analogy of the second part of our homestay experiences.
The Tortilla – Language: A tortilla is rarely flavorful, but it is required to hold all of the taco’s ingredients together. So it is with learning Bambara. As the initial excitement of learning an exotic language wore off, Bambara classes became increasingly tedious. However, during training, it is probably the most important skill we can learn. This is because none of our other knowledge will be useful if we are unable to communicate. While at first, the new verb tenses and vocabulary fuddled together our mind, by the end of this homestay stint the gears were clicking and our next challenge is primarily vocabulary, not structure. In fact, according to our verbal language testers, my Bambara is already better than my French, which is some feat considering that I spent six months studying French at Michigan State, but only one month with Bambara here in Mali. Soon, we will write a post exclusively about this language.
The Chicken - Technical Sessions: The delectable chicken is the flavor, and quite literally the meat, of a chicken taco, and the sessions in which we taught new technical skills provided this base to our upcoming service. But like the scant meat found on our poor rooster, there have not been too many technical sessions since language has been our primary objective. For Joye, who is in the education sector, some highlights have been a session in Bamako on tangible USAID projects in Mali as well as another about how to paint a surprisingly detailed world map mural. In the environment sector, I thoroughly enjoyed our sessions on the Moringa tree – the greatest plant God ever graced the world with – and the benefits it can provide to malnourished Malian families. In fact, the day before we made the chicken tacos, we presented to a group of women about the Moringa tree (in Bambara!), which was a tremendously rewarding experience.
The Beans – Culture: Beans are the obvious choice to represent our continual education of Malian culture because Malians would have nothing to chat about, if not for bean jokes. Claiming that someone eats beans is not only hilarious for children, but for adults as well, and has been a great and easy way to integrate with our homestay families. Furthermore, beans play a difficult role in a chicken taco; not enough and there is no stuffing, but too much your taco is oversized and bland. Similarly, we have found that our homestay experience has become easier as we learn to balance how much of Malian culture we can take at a time. Additionally, we have learned more effective ways at managing our intake of culture. For example, I have now learned how to say “Don’t say that!” after ten children chanted “Tubabu, Tubabu!” as I attempted to blend in and walk solemnly in a funeral procession. Joye experienced this too after she got her braided by her neighbor and found that Malian braids do not flatter white women. Our host families have also learned when to give us personal time, which has made this homestay session easier as well.
The Salsa – Fun: A taco’s salsa is its zest and spice, and certainly, moments that we set aside this homestay to have fun were able to sustain us through some of its duller times. For instance, Joye and I went on a relaxing bike ride around my host village, where we saw a canal, miles of vast rice fields, and a mango grove. Afterward, she spent the night at my concession, and my host family had a riot chatting with us in Bambara and French. The following morning, we went to Bamako along with our Peace Corps training team to visit the Malian history museum and enjoy some time at a hang-out with more Westernized food. We have also had an increasing amount of fun with our homestay families, which we know will only make it more difficult to leave their homes in a few weeks.
Thank you for your readership, support and prayers. Please feel free to give us feedback or ask any specific questions about our experience in the comments section.
Writing again soon, Jim
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