C’est la vie and the French cliché becomes the motto for my last month in Mali. Yes folks, its been two years already! I did not know what I thought this part of my service-this part of my life was going to be like and now that its here…I am sort of at a loss of words. I just got back from our close of service conference in Mopti, three days of reflection of two years of service. It was pretty surreal and I still can not believe I have a month left here.
I realize also that I have not blogged as much as I had wanted—I guess that’s another effect of reflection, saying your what ifs and I should haves. This is just to let folks know that I will be back in California by August 25th. The plan is to just be back and be with the family and live those California dreams that have alluded me these past years.
I’ll keep folks posted. Peace
Sunday, July 13, 2008
c'est la vie
C’est la vie and the French cliché becomes the motto for my last month in Mali. Yes folks, its been two years already! I did not know what I thought this part of my service-this part of my life was going to be like and now that its here…I am sort of at a loss of words. I just got back from our close of service conference in Mopti, three days of reflection of two years of service. It was pretty surreal and I still can not believe I have a month left here.
I realize also that I have not blogged as much as I had wanted—I guess that’s another effect of reflection, saying your what ifs and I should haves. This is just to let folks know that I will be back in California by August 25th. The plan is to just be back and be with the family and live those California dreams that have alluded me these past years.
I’ll keep folks posted. Peace
I realize also that I have not blogged as much as I had wanted—I guess that’s another effect of reflection, saying your what ifs and I should haves. This is just to let folks know that I will be back in California by August 25th. The plan is to just be back and be with the family and live those California dreams that have alluded me these past years.
I’ll keep folks posted. Peace
Monday, March 24, 2008
Gifts
Gift giving—a love language my good friend Jess told me way back during our collage days. She said that people are accustomed to receiving and giving love in different ways—each person having their own type of love language: gift giving, quality time, acts of service, words of encouragement, physical touch. I think I am finding out that Mali’s love language is acts of service.
Acts of service in the hospitality and humble beauty of the people I have been lucky enough to be around. Malians do not have much. Many of the people I am surrounded by do not live extravagantly by any means but they are comfortable. And yet there is always the act of going out of there way to make a guest feel welcome and comfortable. You are giving a seat right away, a cup of water to drink, complements on your dress and how happy they are to see you. It’s a great welcoming.
I was feeling a little off a couple of weeks ago and could not pin it down to any particular reason or event. Maybe it’s the end of service blues –but I feel I hardly qualify for that since we have about 6 months left. I will consider myself close to the end of my service once we are in June. Its March now—there is still a long way to go. Anyway back to feeling “off.” Things at my service and the women’s cooperative are going well. Nothing particularly exciting at the office but my homologue and I did agree that we will start jogging in the evenings. He just had his blood presser checked and did not get very good news. So we are going to start evening jogs from his house to his corn fields. I am looking forward to it since Katie and I have put our running on hold due to the heat. The evenings will be cool and I think it will be a good and healthy challenge for my homologue to get fit.
I spent time at Madame Diawara’s last night to celebrate the prophet Mohammed’s birthday. She is the president of the women’s cooperative I’ve been working with. I have been meaning to spend some time with Madame Diawara in the last couple of months. After getting all caught up with putting the design on and then heading to Kita for a tech exchange training, I only get to see her at the Cooperative and not have any down time so last night was a nice get together. While sitting on her porch and contributing to dinner by being assigned the cutting of the onions and tomatoes, I forgot how “normal” her life is. Normal? What do I mean by that? Well its just that I am looking at this Malian lady preparing dinner, watching her four year old monster of a son, stopping to breast feed her newborn and still making space to watch the rest of her favorite Brazilian soap opera. This is just like anything I would see in America—just that its in Mali. I think I have the tendency to forget that I cannot contextualize things in an American frame. This is life in Mali for this particular family and at this given time, I have been given the opportunity to be part of it—to observe. The dinner is one of the best meals yet-grilled fish in a salad of boiled potatoes, carrots, peas and lettuce. How did I get this lucky. We sit and while watching her menace of a son overfill a cup full of water, spilling it in giant plops then spinning around slashing the rest of the water on his mattress and front door, we talk about disciplining children, the effectiveness of spanking and how difficult it is to raise children in any culture. Yes just normal and I was not only happily full at the end of the evening but was also lucky enough to have quality time with a woman I have so much respect for.
The plan was to go home but as I was riding out to the dirt road I saw all these people just walking around in the streets. Night time in the city is pretty busy for the most part but last night there was extra hustle. Women were walking in bunches, their heads wrapped and prayer beads in hand coming from or going to mosque for the late night prayer marathon. I took a quick turn and decided to ride over to Koro’s house. Koro, another member of the women’s cooperative is married to a distant relative of the ruler of Sikasso, in addition to a nice family history, she also gets to live in the family’s old house which is this deep red mud building with little hallways, staircases and a mosque—which was the meeting point for last night’s prayer session.
Its dark for most of the ride besides the motos that decide to come out of nowhere and thank goodness I had my headlamp. I am hitting speed down a little hill when I wonder if I am even going the right way—then I see the lights and of course the prayer call over the microphone. There are people gathered in a half circle with men in the front and women in the outer circle. I get a little closer to see the front is occupied with silver bearded men dressed in white Muslim attire. Behind them are the small garabu boys—looking obediently at their small chalkboard of koranic writing. I park my bike in the back, greet the family staring (wide-eyed) at me and call Koro. We meet in the back and as any great hostess, she offers her seat which I do not take and instead sit beside a woman and her little daughters on a mat. Beside Koro’s occasional check-ups, I spend the next two hours just sitting and listening to everything going on around me. There is a main speaker telling stories through the microphone, the group of older men leading people in prayer and kids running around. I find myself lost in the drone of the prayers, the clinging of coins and the humming of motos. I look up and see that the whole area is not only lit up by the fluorescent light but by a beautiful bright round moon. I am happy that I decided to take a detour and explore the night. I am happy that I was given a chance to receive a wonderful act of love from the Mali where I found myself under a bright beautiful moon.
Acts of service in the hospitality and humble beauty of the people I have been lucky enough to be around. Malians do not have much. Many of the people I am surrounded by do not live extravagantly by any means but they are comfortable. And yet there is always the act of going out of there way to make a guest feel welcome and comfortable. You are giving a seat right away, a cup of water to drink, complements on your dress and how happy they are to see you. It’s a great welcoming.
I was feeling a little off a couple of weeks ago and could not pin it down to any particular reason or event. Maybe it’s the end of service blues –but I feel I hardly qualify for that since we have about 6 months left. I will consider myself close to the end of my service once we are in June. Its March now—there is still a long way to go. Anyway back to feeling “off.” Things at my service and the women’s cooperative are going well. Nothing particularly exciting at the office but my homologue and I did agree that we will start jogging in the evenings. He just had his blood presser checked and did not get very good news. So we are going to start evening jogs from his house to his corn fields. I am looking forward to it since Katie and I have put our running on hold due to the heat. The evenings will be cool and I think it will be a good and healthy challenge for my homologue to get fit.
I spent time at Madame Diawara’s last night to celebrate the prophet Mohammed’s birthday. She is the president of the women’s cooperative I’ve been working with. I have been meaning to spend some time with Madame Diawara in the last couple of months. After getting all caught up with putting the design on and then heading to Kita for a tech exchange training, I only get to see her at the Cooperative and not have any down time so last night was a nice get together. While sitting on her porch and contributing to dinner by being assigned the cutting of the onions and tomatoes, I forgot how “normal” her life is. Normal? What do I mean by that? Well its just that I am looking at this Malian lady preparing dinner, watching her four year old monster of a son, stopping to breast feed her newborn and still making space to watch the rest of her favorite Brazilian soap opera. This is just like anything I would see in America—just that its in Mali. I think I have the tendency to forget that I cannot contextualize things in an American frame. This is life in Mali for this particular family and at this given time, I have been given the opportunity to be part of it—to observe. The dinner is one of the best meals yet-grilled fish in a salad of boiled potatoes, carrots, peas and lettuce. How did I get this lucky. We sit and while watching her menace of a son overfill a cup full of water, spilling it in giant plops then spinning around slashing the rest of the water on his mattress and front door, we talk about disciplining children, the effectiveness of spanking and how difficult it is to raise children in any culture. Yes just normal and I was not only happily full at the end of the evening but was also lucky enough to have quality time with a woman I have so much respect for.
The plan was to go home but as I was riding out to the dirt road I saw all these people just walking around in the streets. Night time in the city is pretty busy for the most part but last night there was extra hustle. Women were walking in bunches, their heads wrapped and prayer beads in hand coming from or going to mosque for the late night prayer marathon. I took a quick turn and decided to ride over to Koro’s house. Koro, another member of the women’s cooperative is married to a distant relative of the ruler of Sikasso, in addition to a nice family history, she also gets to live in the family’s old house which is this deep red mud building with little hallways, staircases and a mosque—which was the meeting point for last night’s prayer session.
Its dark for most of the ride besides the motos that decide to come out of nowhere and thank goodness I had my headlamp. I am hitting speed down a little hill when I wonder if I am even going the right way—then I see the lights and of course the prayer call over the microphone. There are people gathered in a half circle with men in the front and women in the outer circle. I get a little closer to see the front is occupied with silver bearded men dressed in white Muslim attire. Behind them are the small garabu boys—looking obediently at their small chalkboard of koranic writing. I park my bike in the back, greet the family staring (wide-eyed) at me and call Koro. We meet in the back and as any great hostess, she offers her seat which I do not take and instead sit beside a woman and her little daughters on a mat. Beside Koro’s occasional check-ups, I spend the next two hours just sitting and listening to everything going on around me. There is a main speaker telling stories through the microphone, the group of older men leading people in prayer and kids running around. I find myself lost in the drone of the prayers, the clinging of coins and the humming of motos. I look up and see that the whole area is not only lit up by the fluorescent light but by a beautiful bright round moon. I am happy that I decided to take a detour and explore the night. I am happy that I was given a chance to receive a wonderful act of love from the Mali where I found myself under a bright beautiful moon.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
year in review
Yes its 2008. I am feeling good about it, I've always liked even numbered years better anyway.
Well 2008 calls for an update of photos taken throughout the past couple of months. Here's to another year full of peace and good times.
Thanksgiving 2007:Sikasso, Mali
Mary Virginia, our baking queen
yes, the food was that good
Sikassokaw with Brahma
World AIDS Day 2007: Sikasso, Mali
HIV/AIDS information fair and basketball tournament
Peace Corps vs SOS SIDA members
Hanging out with Camara
The teams ready to play some ball
Turning 24 in Mali, one of my best birthdays to date
Myself with the new pup
Toh--the best birthday cake ever!.JPG)
With Diane, my counterpart.JPG)
A group pic with the birthday crew.JPG)
Myself with Katie, my sitemate.JPG)
Well 2008 calls for an update of photos taken throughout the past couple of months. Here's to another year full of peace and good times.
Thanksgiving 2007:Sikasso, Mali
Mary Virginia, our baking queen
yes, the food was that good Sikassokaw with Brahma
World AIDS Day 2007: Sikasso, Mali
HIV/AIDS information fair and basketball tournament
Peace Corps vs SOS SIDA members
Hanging out with Camara
The teams ready to play some ball
Turning 24 in Mali, one of my best birthdays to date
Myself with the new pup
Toh--the best birthday cake ever!
.JPG)
With Diane, my counterpart
.JPG)
A group pic with the birthday crew
.JPG)
Myself with Katie, my sitemate
.JPG)
Monday, December 3, 2007
Project Funding Opportunity
Hey Friends,
Its Trinh here writing to give you an opportunity to support the work I am doing here in Mali . Read ahead!
For the past six months or so, I have been meeting informally and formally with a local women’s artisan cooperative in Sikasso. The women dye fabric, paint traditional mud cloth paintings and knit children’s clothing. After talking to the women about their products, evaluating the capacity of their skills and the overall productiveness of their cooperative, it was determined that the women need training in better business practices and tools to expand their product supply.
The training I am organizing with the women’s cooperative is a step towards breaking out of the Malian artisan mode. The idea for the business and creativity development training came when visiting various artisan workshops and boutiques and seeing the same elephant sculptures, same beaded jewelry and the same wood carved mother carrying her baby. There was not much product diversification or quality control. The interviews I had with the women’s cooperative and other artisans confirm that yes they have the potential to expand their markets what they lack is the technical capacity or the market information to be competitive.
The goals of this training include encouraging the women to take creative risks using locally made textiles and materials and to provide the women training on marketing, accounting and savings to improve and sustain their business. The training is a month long. The first weeks will include a hands-on workshop where the women will work in groups and focus on using locally made textiles to develop a cultural representative product line of home décor items. Following the workshop, the Cooperative will test their new products at a national artisan festival in February. The training ends with a debrief and training on savings and accounting.
SO…I am writing to ask for your support in funding this training.
The total project costs: 632.00 US dollars. This goes to paying for the fabric, cloth dye, trainer per diem and entrance to the artisan fair. My hopes for this project are not grand, it is small steps first. I think this training will be an opportunity for the women to flex their creative talent, be exposed to potential new markets and ultimately gain income to improve the quality of their lives.
You can go to this link to read more about the project (check out other PC projects as well!) and donate what you can.
LINK: https://www.peacecorps.gov/resources/donors/contribute/projdetail.cfm?projdesc=688-226&ion=africa
OR GO to:
www.peacecorps.gov
Click on Donate to Volunteer Projects
Click Africa programs
Scroll to Mali, T.Tran
Feel free to pass on this email to any friends or family members interested in funding a project like this. Thanks in advance and please let me know if you have any ideas or resources for this project (any designers out there). All advice and recommendations are welcome!
Take care
Trinh
Its Trinh here writing to give you an opportunity to support the work I am doing here in Mali . Read ahead!
For the past six months or so, I have been meeting informally and formally with a local women’s artisan cooperative in Sikasso. The women dye fabric, paint traditional mud cloth paintings and knit children’s clothing. After talking to the women about their products, evaluating the capacity of their skills and the overall productiveness of their cooperative, it was determined that the women need training in better business practices and tools to expand their product supply.
The training I am organizing with the women’s cooperative is a step towards breaking out of the Malian artisan mode. The idea for the business and creativity development training came when visiting various artisan workshops and boutiques and seeing the same elephant sculptures, same beaded jewelry and the same wood carved mother carrying her baby. There was not much product diversification or quality control. The interviews I had with the women’s cooperative and other artisans confirm that yes they have the potential to expand their markets what they lack is the technical capacity or the market information to be competitive.
The goals of this training include encouraging the women to take creative risks using locally made textiles and materials and to provide the women training on marketing, accounting and savings to improve and sustain their business. The training is a month long. The first weeks will include a hands-on workshop where the women will work in groups and focus on using locally made textiles to develop a cultural representative product line of home décor items. Following the workshop, the Cooperative will test their new products at a national artisan festival in February. The training ends with a debrief and training on savings and accounting.
SO…I am writing to ask for your support in funding this training.
The total project costs: 632.00 US dollars. This goes to paying for the fabric, cloth dye, trainer per diem and entrance to the artisan fair. My hopes for this project are not grand, it is small steps first. I think this training will be an opportunity for the women to flex their creative talent, be exposed to potential new markets and ultimately gain income to improve the quality of their lives.
You can go to this link to read more about the project (check out other PC projects as well!) and donate what you can.
LINK: https://www.peacecorps.gov/resources/donors/contribute/projdetail.cfm?projdesc=688-226&ion=africa
OR GO to:
www.peacecorps.gov
Click on Donate to Volunteer Projects
Click Africa programs
Scroll to Mali, T.Tran
Feel free to pass on this email to any friends or family members interested in funding a project like this. Thanks in advance and please let me know if you have any ideas or resources for this project (any designers out there). All advice and recommendations are welcome!
Take care
Trinh
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