Per the requests of some blogger friends, I decided to move my Mali sharing from travelpod.com to blogspot.com. I hope this is more user friendly.
See you on the blog
Monday, February 5, 2007
Sur le Niger and more
Aw ni che !
How are folks doing ? Well it sort of seems like I have been MIA for the last couple of months at least cyber wise sorry about that. The holidays included a nice trip with some good friends of mine for Christmas and an uneventful New years which I spent reading and hanging out with my host family. I celebrated Tabaski, a Muslim holiday which includes the slaughtering of goats and rams galore and lots of eating. I didnt take part in any of that but did make fried spring rolls (that are quickly becoming my culinary claim to fame here), salade and fried rice and sent plates out to close neighbors and friends. My homologue invited me to his house to celebrate with his family where I had the best fish in country and due to Malian hospitality rules, I ate way more than I could and left nice and plump. I also yala yala (walked around) with my homologue and his wife greeting I think everyone in the area a happy new year. We sat drinking tea, making bean eating jokes and scaring small children (really just my doing) way into the evening, Mali is awesome !
By the middle of January, I was heading back to Bamako for our PHASE 4 Training (IST). It was the first time all 65 of us have been together in three months so one can imagine the feeling of surprise and relief of seeing everyone again. I was a little overwelmed with the overload of over hyper, fast talking Americans but could not deny how comforting it was to be together again. Our boys did get thinner which they compromised by growing out lots of facial hair. I spent a couple of days in Bamako hunting out the two Vietnamese restaurants I heard rumors about and yes Trinh ate at both of them. I was in Banh Xeo and Mi Kho heaven.
Then off to Tubani So, our Peace Corps training center for two weeks. I got to room with Amber again that always makes me happy since we dont get to see each other much and well to get in that quality APIA time which folks know is necessary for my life here (which come to think about, I should share a bit more about…)
I was really impressed with our SED sector (small enterprise development sector) training. We had sessions on illiterate accounting, project planning and income generating activities like making coconut cookies, orange jam and soap making. Our homologues were also invited to come during the last two days of training which was awesome. I was feeling a little jaded at site before IST and could tell that Diané was running out of things to assign me so touching base again turned out to be pretty productive. We laid out an action plan and brain stormed some ideas for new things to do at site. I am going to start off with some accounting and budgeting formations between myself and people in our offices so fingers crossed for that. I just needed that extra push again.
After the two weeks of training, the Artisana and Tourism volunteers came down to Sikasso ville, my site to visit my services and check out an eco-tourism project being set up by my teammate. We had a great time having others here and getting to talk about different ideas was good for my volunteer self esteem. Diané was really happy the whole time getting to share our city with the other PCVs.
Fast forward to this past week, I spent in Segou ville about 5-6 hours from Sikasso for the annual music festival, Le Festival Sur le Niger. First I spent a couple of days with Tim and Michele which I am sad to say are getting a site change to another region. They came with fenw chaman (things galore) packed way high on the peace corps car. I caught a ride with them up to San to meet up with Ryan, Josh, Louis and Kayle.
The festival was awesome in all ways—music, food, site seeing and good times with my PC loves. There was something a little surreal about dancing on the beach of the Niger river, bearfoot, front center and lauging with friends late in to the morning with the most beautiful music as your soundtrack, I loved it.
And now I am back home and ready for the next couple of weeks of quality Sikasso time which includes a short stint at the local radio show (we have two volunteers with a weekly show now who are quite the Sikasso radio stars), hanging out with Neda my teammate and PC sister who is extending her service to Mopti in a couple of weeks, more pot luck dinners and hanging out with my lovely host family and Boo, of course.
How are folks doing ? Well it sort of seems like I have been MIA for the last couple of months at least cyber wise sorry about that. The holidays included a nice trip with some good friends of mine for Christmas and an uneventful New years which I spent reading and hanging out with my host family. I celebrated Tabaski, a Muslim holiday which includes the slaughtering of goats and rams galore and lots of eating. I didnt take part in any of that but did make fried spring rolls (that are quickly becoming my culinary claim to fame here), salade and fried rice and sent plates out to close neighbors and friends. My homologue invited me to his house to celebrate with his family where I had the best fish in country and due to Malian hospitality rules, I ate way more than I could and left nice and plump. I also yala yala (walked around) with my homologue and his wife greeting I think everyone in the area a happy new year. We sat drinking tea, making bean eating jokes and scaring small children (really just my doing) way into the evening, Mali is awesome !
By the middle of January, I was heading back to Bamako for our PHASE 4 Training (IST). It was the first time all 65 of us have been together in three months so one can imagine the feeling of surprise and relief of seeing everyone again. I was a little overwelmed with the overload of over hyper, fast talking Americans but could not deny how comforting it was to be together again. Our boys did get thinner which they compromised by growing out lots of facial hair. I spent a couple of days in Bamako hunting out the two Vietnamese restaurants I heard rumors about and yes Trinh ate at both of them. I was in Banh Xeo and Mi Kho heaven.
Then off to Tubani So, our Peace Corps training center for two weeks. I got to room with Amber again that always makes me happy since we dont get to see each other much and well to get in that quality APIA time which folks know is necessary for my life here (which come to think about, I should share a bit more about…)
I was really impressed with our SED sector (small enterprise development sector) training. We had sessions on illiterate accounting, project planning and income generating activities like making coconut cookies, orange jam and soap making. Our homologues were also invited to come during the last two days of training which was awesome. I was feeling a little jaded at site before IST and could tell that Diané was running out of things to assign me so touching base again turned out to be pretty productive. We laid out an action plan and brain stormed some ideas for new things to do at site. I am going to start off with some accounting and budgeting formations between myself and people in our offices so fingers crossed for that. I just needed that extra push again.
After the two weeks of training, the Artisana and Tourism volunteers came down to Sikasso ville, my site to visit my services and check out an eco-tourism project being set up by my teammate. We had a great time having others here and getting to talk about different ideas was good for my volunteer self esteem. Diané was really happy the whole time getting to share our city with the other PCVs.
Fast forward to this past week, I spent in Segou ville about 5-6 hours from Sikasso for the annual music festival, Le Festival Sur le Niger. First I spent a couple of days with Tim and Michele which I am sad to say are getting a site change to another region. They came with fenw chaman (things galore) packed way high on the peace corps car. I caught a ride with them up to San to meet up with Ryan, Josh, Louis and Kayle.
The festival was awesome in all ways—music, food, site seeing and good times with my PC loves. There was something a little surreal about dancing on the beach of the Niger river, bearfoot, front center and lauging with friends late in to the morning with the most beautiful music as your soundtrack, I loved it.
And now I am back home and ready for the next couple of weeks of quality Sikasso time which includes a short stint at the local radio show (we have two volunteers with a weekly show now who are quite the Sikasso radio stars), hanging out with Neda my teammate and PC sister who is extending her service to Mopti in a couple of weeks, more pot luck dinners and hanging out with my lovely host family and Boo, of course.
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