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)

Guest Post: A Parent’s Perspective

Since we’re sure you all are tired of hearing only from us all the time, we asked Joye’s family to write down their observations about Mali. Here are Joye’s Dad’s comments…

 

Because there is so much I could talk about, I have tried to highlight a few unique things that made a big impression on me during our three week Mali vacation.

Malian Transportation

The bus trip from Bamako to Koutiala on day #3 of our visit was something else. Two seats on the right, two on the left, with a narrow aisle down the middle. Except, this narrow aisle had about 10 jugs upside down for seats to accommodate additional passengers. Nobody yell fire, please. Because it’s “cold season” nobody would roll the window down and it got very hot. But that’s okay because the bus did stop for one 5-minute stretch and potty break about 4 hours into the 7-hour trip. I was afraid to drink anything for fear my tiny bladder would cause a major scene. I sat with Jim, David and Carrie (another PCV) in the back row. There was one Malian guy ahead of me who had his black leather jacket on for the entire trip, dripping in sweat. Jim and Joye do this trip all the time, and in hot season! It was good to experience it (just) once!

Cars, especially taxi cabs, own the road in Mali. If you’re a chicken, dog, pig, goat, sheep, cow, donkey cart, bicycler, moto-biker, moto-taxi, or even a pedestrian, then get out of the way, ‘cause I’m not going to slow down! I may honk to warn you of your impending doom, but my foot’s not leaving the accelerator. Busses trump cars, and large trucks beat busses. Women with babies strapped to their backs were driving motos day and night, dodging in and out of traffic at speeds of probably 30+ mph. Thankfully, we observed no incidents. I noticed that every taxi we rode in had a cracked front windshield except, as David pointed out, the very last ride to the airport! I wasn’t surprised!

Moto-taxis (left) don’t carry the same street clout that a taxi cab does. (Right) Boy on the way to market with chicken to sell

Baobab Tree

Some Baobob trees were lean and gangly, some huge and intimidating, some were happy and some were spooky, but all of them could have played a role in The Wizard of Oz! I have never seen a tree like the Baobab and was fascinated with them the entire trip. Like snowflakes and fingerprints, they are everywhere, come in all shapes and sizes, but there are no two alike. We even sampled the fruit it produces which was entirely new to my taste buds. My favorite photos from the trip include Baobabs. Two are below:

(Left) Baobabs at Sunset on Christmas (Right)Mom, Joye, Jim, and David pose next to an average size Baobab. Some trunks can get much larger!

Malian Dress

Someone’s going to make a lot of money when they figure out how to market Malian clothing into the United States. One of our favorite things to do was pick out fabric at village markets, find a trustworthy tailor, and have the tailor make a variety of shirts, pants, and other articles. I wear the shirts to work now in the States! For the buyer of a shirt you can’t beat the $5 price – for the seller one shirt may provide the profit you need to put food on your table that evening.

(right) Jim’s work partner, Rube Dao, tailored this “Christmas shirt.”

Temperature Swings

One of my first journal entries was “Today’s Weather: mostly sunny, 89-91 degrees, breezy in morning. 60 tonight.” The daily entry for the rest of the trip might as well have been “Weather: see yesterday!” For the locals, the 30-degree day/night temperature drop requires, of course, parkas if they weren’t already wearing them throughout the day. (It is winter, you know.) I kidded Numujo and Ashata (a.k.a., Jim and Joye) that even they have grown thin-skinned and wondered out loud if they will ever move north of Kentucky when they return to the States. Even Cindy, David, and I were there long enough that we started feeling the cold in the morning towards the end of our stay.

Medical

Okay, so I was the bonehead who rolled his ankle during our descent from the Dogon Cliffs, which, on the positive side, makes me partially qualified to rate the medical competency of this country. My left ankle swelled significantly in the next 30 minutes and, as we settled in for lunch, the village medicine man was summoned to manipulate my foot and ensure nothing was broken. In retrospect, he did a pretty good job even though the special leaf ointment he put on my ankle really didn’t do much. He did validate his authenticity by showing us his license (like I had any clue what the piece of paper he held up meant). Five days later in the capitol of Bamako, I visited a French clinic “Polyclinique – Pasteur” to have a more educated doctor’s opinion, and despite an ugly black and blue foot by then, he said I was fit for flying. Other than the swelling, the pain was never that bad.

Final Ponderings and Pictures

• Almost every day I’d see women spit, a rare site in America.
• The Malian rice and sauce is delicious and nutritious if you can find and afford it (unfortunately, it appears many cannot).
• I spotted one Malian child wearing a Michigan State University sweatshirt. It is noteworthy that nowhere on this trip did I see a U of M anything. Go Green!
• Malians like loud music, even when it doesn’t make sense such as on a long bus ride when you’d rather nap!
• A lengthy trip to Africa is a good place to grow a beard if you have never done so.

Although I struggled more than anybody trying to learn the Bambara language, this was an amazing experience. I am so grateful to have a son-in-law who not only put up with his in-laws for three entire weeks, but wined and dined them with incredible hospitality. Parting was still not easy, but we look forward to their return to the States in six months. We are excited about Jim completing his Master’s thesis, and seeing Joye’s new elementary school building project come to fruition.

Eating Malian Style (with our hands)

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

Travel: Food Security in Benin

While most Americans spent the 1^st week of December picking out a Christmas tree, James spent his at a conference in Benin, kicking-off West African Food Security Partnership. Long story short: Peace Corps is partnering with USAID (the US development agency) to bring together food security programs in the ten West African countries where Peace Corps is active. Since Peace Corps staff was brought in from all of these countries, it was a great opportunity to collaborate on strategies and resources-used to improve food security in our respective countries.     

But since hearing about Benin itself is probably more interesting to our blog readers, I’ll start there. Though they kept us busy, I found some time to explore Benin with the help of some volunteers from Peace Corps Benin. While our countries are in the same region, we were surprised to learn that our experiences are very different. First of all, southern Benin is tropical, more developed, and has greater access to diverse foods (including cheese!). Also, volunteers ride motorcycles, must live in concrete houses, and dance to salsa at night clubs. Yet ironically, they complain about these things while Mali volunteers – including myself – complain about dryness, bus transport, mudbrick houses, and Malian music! Oh humanity, thou art always discontented. But on the downside, volunteers said that city folk are more aggressive, and proximity to Nigeria means some sketchy neighborhoods. I also saw first-hand why Benin is known for Voodoo, which is not hidden like in other African countries; in a house we visited, a Voodoo fetish hangs next to a picture of Jesus. But of course, in my short time I only saw a fraction of the country.

But I did not feel jipped – far from it. This was because I was very happy staying within the conference venue, the Songhaï Center and NOT just because I had a hotel room 3x the size of my mud-hut! This inspiring center (run by Father Godfrey, pictured below) is essentially a sustainable and organic farming community that strives to be a model for rural development in Africa. Just a walk through their garden gave me so many ideas for my work in Mali! And since we were staying on this working farm, we ate extremely well with meat, vegetables, and fruit juices that came directly from the grounds. We had quail eggs, turkey, and freshly squeezed pineapple juice – such a treat!

 

But fun aside, I honestly spent about twelve hours a day working on the Food Security conference. Being from Mali, I helped present (along with Mali’s food security program director Karim Sissoko, pictured with me below) some of our best practices and lessons learned from our current food security program. As one of two volunteers attending, I presented on strategies to get volunteers involved. Lastly, as an aspiring agricultural economist, I collaborated with a team to develop a plan for the program’s monitoring and evaluation. At the conference closing, we all received a certificate for our hard work from the  PC Benin Country Director and US Ambassador to Benin, which I thought was a nice touch. 

Along the way, I was also privileged to able to meet Peace Corps country directors and programming staff from Senegal, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Cape Verde (to name a few), all of whom had a wealth of knowledge and experience, but very different backgrounds and stories. My conversations with them were thought-provoking and inspirational, particularly as I consider my own future, and I hope to continue working with the Partnership from my post here in Mali. As I do, I will be sure to keep you updated with our activities, many of which are already underway.

Thanks for reading! -James

Travel: Festival of Masks

Recently, we heard there was going to be  a “Festival of Masks and Marionettes” in a village about 50 km from our home. So naturally, Jim and I decided to bike there and check it out.  Though it was an exhausting bike ride, we really enjoyed seeing people from 20 surrounding villages gather, don traditional costumes, and dance to music from traditional flutes, guitars, and drums. This was the first annual festival in the region as Mali begins to try to organize cultural events which can attract tourists.

 

The best part about our trip  was we were able to visit some close Malian friends who used to live in Kongodugu but moved to to the village where the festival took place last March. They were amazing hosts, giving us one of their 3 bedrooms,  cooking amazing food for us (including chicken sandwiches for breakfast! Jackpot!). We had so much fun catching up with them and it was wonderful to have a relaxing home to come to after watching the festivities. However, as the festival drew to a close, it was a little bittersweet as it also was one of the first experiences we have had saying ‘goodbye’ possibly for good to a group of Malian friends. We were happy to document the memory with a picture! 

Some miscellaneous travel pictures: (Below Left) Classic malian overloading of wheelbarrows (Below Right) Jim on his bike in a nearby village.

 

Hope you enjoy the pictures!

 

~Joye and James

Culture: Milk

“You’ll really learn to appreciate the simple things in life'” were words we heard over and over as we packed our things to move to Mali.  We have certainly learned to appreciate so much during our past 17 months, but one of those ‘simple things’ we’ve particularly come to appreciate is the luxury of cold milk –readily available and disease free. Ah, America.

In Mali on the other hand, any time you want to buy milk, you need to go on a mini-adventure. Milk is sold almost exclusively by the Fula or Fulani people, nomadic cow herders who live with their lives’ possessions on their backs and move along hundreds of miles of grazing paths from Northern to Southern Mali.  They never stay in one place for long since their cows constantly require new sources of food from the dry, dusty land. The fulane are truly an interesting people. With distinct traditional makeup, jewelry, and style of dress, it is easy to identify individuals who below to their ethnic group. However, the big ‘give-away’ is that the women usually have two calabashes balanced on their heads, one of fresh milk, one of soured milk –all for sale.

Therfore, buying milk offers the following challenges:

1. You often must seek out these nomadic milk merchants yourself if you want to purchase milk. Its only in regional capitals that you can find stores that sell milk.

2. Fresh milk (literally straight from the cow) is only available from 8:30-10am in the morning, if 10 am passes and you havn’t boiled it yet, it turns sour. Malians still cook with sour milk (somewhat like yogurt), but we’re not big fans.

3. All milk must be boiled before consuming to kill any tuberculosis that could be living inside.

4. Even after boiling, we have no refrigerator to put the milk in, so it must be consumed warm and within 3 hours of boiling or it will spoil.

5. You can only buy milk 5 months of the year. Since rainy season only supplies cows with ample feed for 4-5 months, they only produce large amounts of milk for 4-5 months. Once cows get a few months into dry season, they start losing weight due to the scarcity of food and often have to be herded for miles before they can even find a watering hole. Therefore, since the cows barely have enough milk for their young, it is practically impossible to find milk from Dec – May.

Since obtaining fresh milk in Mali is such hard work, we often don't bother. Even when we do want it for dinner, we often forget about it until 11am when its no longer available! However, luckily, powdered milk is readily available so we can use that for a lot of recipes.  Anyways, the moral of the story is, when you savor your next glass of cold pasteurized 2% milk, remember how blessed you are to have something so seemingly simple constantly available to you :)

Thanks for reading,

~Joye (and James)