My older daughter M is in the Peace Corps in Mali. She has been in Sikasso and Bamako, where she has Internet access. She has written:
I don't like going to Bamako, but there are some things you can get there that you can't get here in Sikasso. T has to go for her mid-service medical review (which involves samples from not one but three stools, I can hardly wait until it is my turn!), and I agreed to go with her to Bamako if she came with me to Sikasso first. She found a tailor here that is better than the one we use in Niena, though not as reliable. I decided to have the fancier fabric I got for one of R's outfits done here, and I found a nice blue and black material for the "western" style photo you sent, so we'll see how he does with Tubab designs as well. I was also hoping to talk to M, but I spent yesterday on the computer during his office hours, and today he might be in Bamako. I wanted to see if I could get him to help me translate some soccer vocabulary from English to French and Bambara. I'm not sure if there are proper soccer vocabulary words in Bambara, they probably just use the French since they didn't have soccer before the Tubabs came, but I was hoping to confirm that before my team meets for the first time.
School started yesterday, Monday. I'd been asking when the first day was going to be for months and couldn't get a straight answer, it turns out that was because the parents didn't know. It gets announced on the radio for the whole country. I was asking my host sister B if she was excited to go back to school to start learning again. She told me she was excited to go back, but that she wouldn't be learning, she would be farming. I thought she was joking, but no, my homologue confirmed, the first couple of days they bring dabas (hand held hoes) and brooms (bundles of straw without handles) to school to reclaim the school grounds from the elements which have had free reign all rainy season/summer. Once the school itself has been reclaimed, they'll probably do some work in the teacher's fields, weeding or harvesting, depending on what needs doing when, and then they can start lessons. Assuming no one needs a new chicken coop or work done on a compound wall. It is not exactly back to school as I remember it.
When M came this last week to visit we started to discuss the waste management situation in village. My homologue didn't seem to think there was a problem, but I'm going to talk with someone from Wat San when I'm in Bamako, hopefully, to figure out how I can approach breeching the topic again.
T and I played around with garage band on the Mac in the stage house today, and I don't think we'll have any problems recording our radio show. The problem is more finding a time when there is no one else in the common area so we don't get embarrassed speaking in front of other volunteers. The first script we've prepared is basically just "What is Peace Corps?" Then we'll play some music. The second one will probably be nutrition or hand washing. Riveting topics, I know.
The four major cash crops they are growing in my village are millet, corn, rice, and cotton. There's also peanuts. There's more tomatoes available again. Also fruit is starting to come back, so there are oranges, bananas, watermelon and papaya in Niena, if not actually in village. Here in Sikasso there is everything. T and I bought potatoes, eggs (not available in village because of a combination of guinea fowl and chicken diseases that have swept our area), and green beans for dinner tonight. Last night caterpillars were an option at the street food vendor we went to, but I passed in favor of spaghetti and beans.
September 22nd was Malian Independence Day from France. Since we're the commune capitol for Commune Wateni, we had the big party in the area. There was a bike race and a karate demonstration, with people from Niena. My host brother D took second in the bike race, thanks to a crash that happened somewhere along the course that took out the top two riders. There were a couple really little kids who entered, for some unknown reason. They didn't do all the laps, but one of them got the same prize as the adults.
Burned corn is the big snack right now. I didn't love it the first handful of times, but now I think it is great. It is exactly what it sounds like. They just drop an ear of corn onto the same charcoal they use for heating up tea or cooking the family meals. Now that the corn is ripening in the fields you can just send out a kid to pick a couple ears and bring it back if you are hungry. Some of the kids don't always know which fields they should take from though, so I've seen a kid get beaten for taking from the wrong stalks. It is nice to have a readily available snack food in village again.
I've been at site awhile, so it is hard to focus on just one event. I've had visitors, there have been social and national celebrations. It has been both rainy and extremely hot.
We went to Comme Chez Soi, the nicest place I've been in Bamako so far. I'd take you guys there, but I hear the Radisson is actually the nicest place in town period, so we'll just stick to their restaurant while we're in the city. After the happy hour, we went to a bar where drinks were served out of one of the vans/bush taxis that are omnipresent here. It was cute, and also obviously run by a foreigner as it had colorful prints of Malians on the wall, the tables were made from drums or wheels, and there were masks used as light fixtures, and it had some of the cleanest western bathrooms I've seen in this country (with toilet paper! and mosquito netting on the window! and soap at the sinks!) It was nice being here for my friend A's birthday, even though his big party is actually next week which I'll be missing. Everyone I went out with last night was 23-25. On average, I didn't feel too old though.
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