Update: Welcome to Edinburgh

Hello Everyone,

We've decided to continue our blog to share about our experience in Edinburgh this summer. Joye is just starting a 6 week pharmacy rotation with the National Health Services and James is tagging along, doing research and working on writing and publishing manuscripts while we are here.

Today was our first day! We arrived at 8 am to cloudy, drizzling weather, exhausted and ready for bed. However, we knew we had to stay up to get over jet lag. So after a quick nap, we went out and explored our new city! The sun came out and it really was the perfect weather. We walked past the Edinburgh Castle, saw the cafe where Harry Potter was written, and walked to Hollyrood Park where we hiked up a rock outcropping and had a beautiful view of the city. On our way back, we strolled down the Royal Mile and ended up enjoying a free concert in St. Giles Cathedral.

Update: Back and Forth, Twice.

In the past two months, we have driven from Kentucky to Michigan and back, twice, and all for very different reasons. Searching for an apartment, writing a thesis, moving, and vacationing have kept us too busy to write a blog… until now.

KENTUCKY: We mentioned in our last post that we spent a few weeks in Kentucky in May, house-sitting for some friends while finding an apartment of our own. What we did not mention was that I also had the privilege of going to Washington DC to speak at a Peace Corps sponsored kick-off event for a global partnership between USAID and Peace Corps focused on food security. Speaking on a panel to a crowd of a few hundred Peace Corps employees and other public officials, I shared some highlights of the food security work we were doing in Mali, including our task force. In addition to reconnecting with my former supervisors from Peace Corps Mali, I also met many international development professionals, including Peace Corps Director Aaron Williams (left in first picture) , who surprised me by telling me that he used to be a Peace Corps recruiter at Alma College, our undergraduate alma mater.

MICHIGAN: We then drove north, and I then spent the next two weeks subletting a room near Michigan State in order to work on my Master’s thesis. Naively, I’d hoped to finish it, but I didn’t even write a word. Instead, I spent the time meeting with professors, reading dozens of academic papers, and changing my thesis topic every other day. It was miserable, but my last day there we came up with an idea that is new, relevant, and feasible. Maybe another day, I’ll write a blog about what my thesis is about… but I’ll skip it for now.

KENTUCKY: On our next trip south involved a rental truck full with everything we owned, which was only a small storage unit worth of cardboard boxes. We moved into our apartment and discovered quickly that about half of these boxes were college textbooks, and that it did not include any furniture. So while Joye prepared for pharmacy school and I wrote my thesis, we also procured a mattress (our first with box springs), couch, television, and dining table (no chairs yet). While all this was accomplished during a heat wave, at least we got to enjoy the beautiful lawn outside our apartment window and a little creek nearby.

MICHIGAN: To beat the heat, we then travelled to northern Michigan to spend the 4th of July in my hometown of Harbor Springs, a coastal community on the shore of Lake Michigan with a population that quintuples every Independence Day with a crowd wearing khaki shorts and polo shirts. When we weren’t relaxing at the beach, we helped my folks clean out the house as they too are moving. As it was probably the last time we will visit Harbor Springs for a while, it was nostalgic week, but one that was filled with plenty of new memories.

KENTUCKY: And finally, we returned to our apartment in Kentucky today - already it feels like home. The next chapter of our life is set to begin. I will be officially starting work at the University of Kentucky next Monday as a research economist, and Joye begins classes next month. Soon we will start speaking with a drawl. While this will be very different than how we were living only a few months ago, it is a welcome change, and after so much travelling we are excited for some routine – though who knows how long that will last.

I hope this catches us up. Thanks for reading.

-James (& Joye)

Update: So What Now?

Last we heard from our intrepid Peace Corps Volunteers, they had just completed their service and were awfully sad about leaving Mali in such an unexpected and unfortunate way. If this were a blog solely about our Peace Corps service, then this would have been the logical, albeit tragic, ending. But even though we have left Africa, life is still proving to be an adventure.

Joye and I have been back in the States for almost a month now, after making a detour on our route home in Istanbul, Turkey (a travel blog on that later). We arrived on a low profile – no Facebook status updates – because we wanted to surprise my brother Ric for his graduation from Alma College. We had told him that we would travel Turkey for a while, and then maybe return to Africa, so he was pleasantly surprised to see us at a reception at President Abernathy’s house. And since Alma College is also our alma mater, we were able to meet and greet with many friends and professors, many of whom followed this blog. Most asked us an obvious question: so what now?

Happy Graduation!

Unlike many volunteers who were evacuated with us, we were already developing a plan for after Peace Corps; after all, we only had a few more months to serve. Avid readers may recall that Joye had interviewed with three pharmacy schools during our brief visit last October. After getting accepted at those schools and two more who interviewed her via Skype, she decided on the PharmD program at University of Kentucky in Lexington; a top-tier school with a dual-degree option for a Master’s in Public Health. The fact that we thought  my job prospects were best there also heavily influenced her decision.

After only a week of being back Stateside, we were bestowed with two major blessings. First, I was offered a job as a research economist for CEDIK (Community and Economic Development Initiative of Kentucky), housed in the University of Kentucky’s agricultural economics department, only a ten-minute walk from the pharmacy school. I been communicating with the department since Joye’s interview there and had applied to the position in early March, but the timing worked out perfectly. I plan on starting in July, hopefully after finishing 95% of my Master’s thesis at Michigan State University.

The second blessing was a house-sitting gig down in Lexington, arranged with the help of a fellow volunteer from Mali, which is giving us two weeks to set up shop. Since then, life has been a stressful and inconsistent whirlwind; we still seem to be living out of a suitcase. We stayed for a week with Joye’s family, then for another week with my family (who are moving themselves), before coming down to Lexington, Kentucky – bluegrass, bourbon, and horse capitol of the world. We have almost secured an apartment, almost secured Kentucky driver’s licenses, and have familiarized ourselves with the area. We even took the time to go see the 25th Anniversary production of “Les Miserables” in Cincinnati!

 

So now that we’re poised to become Kentuckians, are we definitively dismissing Mali? Absolutely not. We have called our work partners Dorro and Rube a few times since returning just to check up on things. Both Kongodugu and Dububa are safe and remain untouched by the horrific events in Mali’s north or in Bamako; one advantage to living in the middle of nowhere. Also, both of our projects are almost finished. Joye’s mud-brick school is near completion after the head mason was delayed with a bout of malaria, and Rube has overseen the distribution of over half of the trees and is waiting until June for the rest to mature. But they miss us, and we miss them, and we even miss their food, which is something I didn’t expect. Indeed, Mali has secured a place in our hearts, and we’ll see if our adventures ever bring us back there one day.

But for now, it’s on to Lexington. Thanks for reading.

-James (& Joye)

Pictures: Saying Goodbye

As I walked around our village a few weeks ago, I tried to explain to my Malian friends and neighbors that if the security situation in Mali worsened, Peace Corps could send us back to the States with very little notice. They all laughed and smiled and rapidly assured me that Mali had already returned to a state of peace. “Achata, stop worrying so much!”  Never being ones to turn down the opportunity for a free photo, many of our friends readily agreed to pose,  even though, they assured me, I could wait and take their picture another day when they were wearing better clothes. As it turned out, I found out a few hours later that I needed to pack my bags for consolidation in a  larger town, and a few hours after that that we were being evacuated from Mali. Therefore, I feel so blessed to have been given the opportunity to photograph my friends and document my last moments with these villagers.

 

 

(Above) Before we knew we were leaving, Joye distributed and some French visual aids made by high school students from Deerfield, IL and Jim harvested a couple thousand Moringa seeds for distribution to the village.

 

(Above Left) Soulemanye, our young village chief, and a main partner in all our work in Kongodugu. (Above Right) Most of Kongodugu practices Animism. Though we missed the ceremony the previous day where they had sacrificed chickens for the coming rainy season, villagers insisted I get a picture of the elders in their ceremonial outfits.

   

Luckily, all our favorite people were hanging out in the village center, which made taking their picture easy! (Above Left) Some village elders hang out at Brahama’s (the carpenter/literacy teacher) workshop (Above Right) Joye’s counterpart Dorro gets his motorcycle fixed by Shila, the head of the maternity committee  (Bottom Left) Jamshe, who helped Joye with health lessons at the literacy center, poses next to a butcher stand.

(Above Left) Our host mothers dig in to a classic meal of corn toh and red fish sauce (Above Right) Joye stands with her counterpart Dorro and the school project head mason Karim in front of the newly built school. As you can see, the cement was still drying! (Lower Left) Joye holds her best friend Nana’s newborn daughter Rebecca (Lower Right) Joye standing behind the almost finished school. When we left, they had only the cement floor to lay, and by now, its complete!

 

~Joye and James

Update: Close of Service

Today was officially our last day as Peace Corps Volunteers. We’ve spent the past 5 days of going to medical and administrative sessions, preparing mentally and emotionally for re-entry to the US, and hanging out with fellow volunteers who have become close friends. Its been a stressful week, with lots of goodbyes, paperwork, and planning, but Peace Corps has also put us up in one of the fanciest hotels in Ghana to make the roller-coaster easier to ride.   (A lot of us are hoping that it will lesson the culture shock going back to the US).  It is a little like graduation all over again, giving hugs to people you’ve spent the last 2 years with and hoping your paths will cross again. Of course, we’re luckier than most volunteers, since we get go back with our best friend.  Many people are going back to the states, some are transferring to other countries, and some are taking this opportunity to travel around for a bit.  However, despite our various plans, it was great to have a few days to hang out together and get some closure before parting ways.

 

(below) For some stress relief, we went to see the Italian circus (in Ghana?) with 100 other PCVs. It was Joye’s first circus and we had SO much fun!

(above) Last night, we had a closing soiree with a traditional Ghanaian band/dance company

 

~Joye and James

Update: Evacuation

Dear Family and Friends,

Sad update: earlier this week Peace Corps made the decision to evacuate its volunteers from Mali, putting an early end to all of our two-year services.  Though we have been safe, the recent military coup, instability caused by economic sanctions from neighboring countries, and fighting of MLNA and AQIM in the north has convinced Peace Corps administration that it is unwise to continue operations in such an unstable environment. To give you an idea of the gravity 0f this situation, this is the first time in its 41 years of operation that volunteers have ever been evacuated from Mali!

Therefore, with 1 day to say goodbye to our village, we packed up our possessions and were flown to another country today for a 4 day transition conference. It has been an exhausting and very emotional last few days. However, once we gather our thoughts we will write a more thorough explanation/reflection of the unfortunate events of this past week. Please keep Mali in your prayers. We hope that this wonderful peaceful country can soon return to a stable state which would allow aid organizations to continue to operate here.

(NOTE: Please do not send any more packages to our address here as we will not be able to receive them)

~Joye and James

Update: The Coup & the Poo

So Mali’s had a coup d’etat.

Now I’m guessing that almost all readers of this post are checking our blog to make sure we’re safe and okay. Rest assured, we are. Peace Corps is monitoring the situation carefully and has been is regular contact with us since last Wednesday. Honestly, our main concern at this point is not for our safety, but for the completion of our project work. I am only one day at the bank away from finishing up work on my tree-planting project, but the banks have been closed since last Thursday! We are also very concerned for the future of Mali’s democracy, given that it was a model in the West African region, but has now become a joke. If you would like to read more on the situation, check out articles from the NY Times, Washington Post, AP, Reuters, and BBC, that latter of which has a correspondent in Bamako.

But way out in Kongodugu, we only found out about the coup through a series of text messages from Peace Corps and the US Embassy. “PCVs, please avoid Bamako tonight due to demonstrations.” “Disturbance in Bamako; US Citizens advised to stay indoors.” “PCVs, a coup d’etat has occurred, who’d a thunk?” “Curfew established; US Citizens advised to stay indoors.” And the like. For those in Bamako, my understanding is that the situation is still tense, but out in village, most Malians reacted to news of the coup with a very “c’est comme ca” (it is was it is) attitude. Even in Duguba, people do not see Bamako as affecting their daily lives; therefore, they don’t clearly see - for better or worse - how this ‘military disturbance’ should affect them either.

The whole episode reminds us of an incident that happened in the Allen household last week. For the sake of analogy, Joye will be mutiny leader Amadou Sonogo, I will be Mali’s democratically elected president ATT (nice arrangement, huh?), and my awesome cell phone will represent Mali’s democratic government. On Saturday night, just after dark, Joye took control of my cell phone – which has a flashlight – in an effort to protect herself from scorpions while going to the nyegen. Regular readers may remember that a nyegen is an outdoor, hole-in-the-ground bathroom. Clearly she believed that she could use my cell phone more effectively than I could. However, a minute after her coup d’phone, I heard her cry: “Crap! Crap! Crap!”

Joye had dropped my phone, its backing came off, and it bounced down the nyegen hole, landing in a pile of crap. Of course, all eyes turned to me to come up with a solution. Peering down into the hole with another flashlight (which I was holding), we noticed that the phone landed face down, the battery had flown out, and the SIM memory card – which holds all of the phone’s valuable information – was visible and unblemished. Let this SIM card represent the spirit of democracy, the sanctity of the Constitution, and rule by the people. It needed to be recovered.

We quickly rigged up a solution. Though it’s inconsistent to our analogy, Joye helped by digging through a trunk and finding a fridge magnet. I then fastened this to a long rope, which I skillfully lowered into the dank deep hole, Mission-Impossible style. Thanks to good aim and electron realignment, it soon clung to the back of the phone. I carefully pulled on the rope, and reluctantly, it rose out of the poop with a suction sound. All that was left was to bring in the lifeline to remove the cell phone from its malodorous environment.

This is the state of Mali’s democracy. It remains suspended between the open air, that is freedom, and a swamp of feces. Extraction from this sticky situation could mean the preservation of democracy with the upcoming presidential elections, which were set to occur at the end of the April. But one wrong tug of the rope, so precarious and fragile, could send the hope of elections and decentralization back into the fetid abyss, n’er to return. ATT, who has yet to react to the takeover, is certainly between a rock and a smelly place.

But as Joye and I watched the cell phone ascend in the thin beam of the other flashlight, we did not give up hope. We held our breath as it rose out of the nyegen hole, nervous to face the moment of truth and also because it reeked of putrid waste. Putting aside my fear of getting my hands dirty, I swiftly bent over the cell phone and successfully wheedled out the SIM memory card. We both laughed in the joy of success, before we both had to leave the revolting sight of decay and maggots.

Over the next few days, I did my best to clean off the cell phone. We rinsed it thoroughly, scrubbed the niches with Q-tips, soaked it in bleach water, and dried it in the sun. Surprisingly, it still worked, but sadly, it still stinks of poop. In the aftermath of whatever will occur here in Mali, this is an important lesson. Any solution will not rid us of the odor caused by this setback to democracy. Unless, of course, we buy a new and improved phone, which is what we did.

Let us hope that Mali can get its democracy back on course, for the sake of our projects, our villagers’ future, and the preservation of democracy in West Africa.

~James (and Joye)

Update: To Bamako & Back

“I have diarrhea right now! If we don’t stop immediately, I will defecate on your bus!”

It was ridiculous that it had come to this. But we had talked to the driver before, and only now that we were at our stop did he decide not to comply. I had already ordered him to pull over, shouting over the other passenger's heads, and when he refused I adopted a new strategy. It worked; he pulled over immediately, and the other passengers were so busy laughing that no one was bitter over the minor inconvenience. Soon we were off the bus, and I had another story to tell concerning the insanity of Malian transportation.

Whereas in 2011 Joye and I would travel to Bamako about once every three months, during this past February we went there and back three times. Since each one-way trip takes about 12 hours on the road, this means we spent 72 hours (or three days) in a Malian bus, which is considered by most Peace Corps Volunteers to be the worst part of Mali. They're hot, always late, always smell of a boy’s locker room, and moreover, the people who comprise the Mali’s transportation industry are unlike all other Malians in that they are not hospitable, accommodating, or well-intentioned.  However, the reasons for our traveling made the efforts worth our while. Here is a little of what we did in February:

Two of our trips to Bamako were the bookends to a fantastic visit from Joye’s siblings, Scott and Hope. During their brief 10-day stay, we visited Kongodugu (our site) and its weekly market and spent a few days relaxing at a quasi-resort outside of Bamako. We also attended the annual Segou Music Festival, which did not fail to impress with its numerous artisans, delicious Capitaine fish, and world-renown musicians - Salif Keita anyone? It was great to spend so much quality time with Scott and Hope, especially without the distractions of Internet and texting interfering with our conversation. To see if they agree, maybe we’ll post something from them soon about their impressions of Mali. Here are some pics:

Moreover, the month started with a Food Security Task Force meeting in Bamako, where about 30 volunteers gathered for a week to utilize and improve our food security program. About 12 of us started out the week by developing resources, such as a Bambara cookbook of nutritious recipes and a video showcasing a water-conserving tree-planting method. Joye worked on compiling a radio script manual that will largely draw from our own show, while I brainstormed and drafted planning materials for a West Africa Food Security Summit, which will hopefully happen between April 10-14. To me, all of these projects are very exciting! We also voted for new leadership for our Task Force, since many volunteers (including us) will be finished within the next six months.

One final noteworthy travel story is that, after the Task Force meeting in Bamako, Joye and I biked back to our site Kongodugu from Koutiala, down a dirt road that cut through five other villages we had not visited before. In addition to seeing the new sights, we were fascinated to hear each subsequent village’s dialect of Mianka (a native language to our region) gradually evolve into Kongodugu’s form. But it was a tiring journey - over 80 kilometers (50 miles) in the hot Malian sun. It’s funny how some Malians are terribly impressed by this feat, which took us about eight hours with a lunch break, while other are surprised we could not do it in four or five. Either way, we’re proud of the accomplishment and enjoyed the adventure.

Thanks for reading!      – James (& Joye)

Update: Brick by Brick

The parts of our Peace Corps service that will have the most significant effects are the small changes we make in peoples minds concerning the way they conduct themselves in business, taking care of their children, etc. It’s the fact that my neighbor now adds peanut powder to her children’s breakfast porridge because she believes me that they their bloated bellies are a result of a lack of protein. That people seem to recognize that a husband and wife can treat each other with respect and be friends. That people in Yorosso think about planting trees as a necessity rather than a luxury. A lot of the little lessons and capacity building comes through our radio show, our periodic village wide awareness activities, and school-based trainings. And its through these activities, we have truly come to appreciate the role of a basic education in the ability of a community to develop. It may seem obvious, but often people do not realized that individuals are more organized, efficient, creative, and resourceful when they have basic literacy and mathematic skills.

 

Therefore, though Peace Corps generally discourages construction projects, we’ve decided to spend a large part of our last 6 months of service focusing on what our community identified as their first priority when requesting a volunteer, building 3 traditional mudbrick classrooms, with the tin roof, cement floors, metal doors, and windows being funded by Peace Corps. Though we have paid teachers for these classes, the courses are currently being taught outdoors due to a general lack of anywhere else to study. Our hope is that these classrooms, though far from ideal in US standards, will serve as a safe, distraction-free, center for study for the next 10-15 years and will improve the overall literacy level in our village. However, the most exciting part of this project is that we are not building the school, but the community is doing 99.99% of the work (See pictures below for the other .01%). As of mid-January, they  made 15,000 mudbricks and transported them to the building site by donkey cart. Then this week, 200 men showed up for the ground breaking ceremony and after they dug the foundation, the village chief laid the first mudbrick to kick off  building the classrooms.  They will be finished with the walls in the next two weeks. Then, hopefully the roofing and cement work can be done at the end of February/early March. We’re thrilled to see our village realize that through unified hard work and goal-setting, they can achieve great things without a huge investment from outside resources.

On another note, Jim has submitted a tree-planting project for approval soon.  (Above right) Jim and his workpartner who owns a tree nursury are coordinating a tree planting effort in March that will teach 25 associations a new method to allow trees to be planted in dry season which requires little watering. Around 2000 trees will be planted in our commune do to his hard word, so we certainly have a busy few months ahead of us!

~ Joye (and James)

Update: Happy Holidays from Mali!

Though last year we found ourselves somewhat homesick for America around this time, this year we were so busy that we hardly had time to think about it! Joye’s parents and younger brother came to visit for a few weeks and we had a blast showing them around our village and the rest of Mali. They’re still settling in back home but hopefully we’ll be able to post their impressions of Mali for everyone to read. Meanwhile, here’s some highlights and pictures of our trip from Bamako to Kongodugu (our village) to Dogon Country and Mopti:

 

When we arrived in village, the whole town had gathered at our doorstep to throw a huge welcome party- including dancing and balophones (Large Malian Xylophones made of wood).

The village also started to bring bricks for the new traditional mudbrick classrooms that will become one of our final projects in Mali.

 

Joye’s family learned to eat with their hands Malian Style. Afterwards, they were extra enthusiastic about helping us teach multiple hand washing awareness activities.

After spending Christmas in village, we headed north to Dogon Country. We all enjoyed dinner and guava juice at a restaurant gearing up for a 2 day hike up and down the cliffs.

 

 

We had an amazing hike, complete with adventurous rides  across sand dunes, great views from the cliff, and only 1 sprained ankle (get better soon, Dad!).

 

We ended the trip by spending the New Years in Mopti touring Bozo fishing villages and eating a wonderful meal at the Maison Rouge Hotel.

 

We wish all our readers a safe and blessed New Year and hope you’re looking forward to 2012 as much as we are!

-Joye and James