Enjoying the last few days at our training center here at Tubaniso before officially swearing in as a Peace Corps Volunteer on Friday! I cannot believe it has already been 2 months (some days it seems as though I’ve been here 5 years, but others it seems like yesterday when I was hugging everyone goodbye). I passed my Intermediate-Mid level of Bambara – an incredibly frustrating and wonderful language all in one – and am really proud of myself :) although I do still feel incredibly inadequate when thinking about beginning the community needs assessments and SWOT analyses I will be expected to do in the next 3 months! I hope more of my French comes back to me to facilitate that process…I’ll keep you updated. My language teacher was totally to thank as she is one of the most patient and understanding people I have ever met – Thanks Faty!!
I feel as though I am finally starting to get acclimated to life here, although its still hard every single day. I’ve been sick a number of times from the food here (I accidentally had some unpasteurized milk the other day and am feeling the effects of that currently), it was in a drink they call Moni or Seri (depending on the time of day) and they drink it more during Ramadan to break fast before going to the mosque to pray – Faty says if they eat too much before going to mosque its hard for them to do the actual act of prayer and if they drink too much water you can hear it sloshing in their stomachs haha. The food has not gotten any easier to deal with and although I am sooo excited to begin cooking for myself in 2 short weeks, I am also very nervous about my nutritional intake in the next 2 years. I have a market in my town every week on Wednesdays (where men and women come and sell piles of their goods – hot peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, mangoes, meat etc.) but since I have no way to refrigerate anything I will only have fresh things for a few days, and then it will be back to bread, rice, eggs and beans (uhg). I have NEVER in my life eaten the amount of white carbs and oil in such extreme succession or quantity as I have here in the last 2 months – its sickening really – and I totally feel the effects of this kind of diet (although surprisingly I’ve lost weight, but thats likely due to sickness!).
It’s amazing how much you begin to rely on the people around you in such a short amount of time when life is tough. I have made a really fantastic group of friends here and genuinely look forward to all the things we are going to experience together here. I’ve made good friends from Portland, Texas, New York, Washington D.C., Florida, MICHIGAN haha etc etc. The group of girls I have become closest to here all have a little life experience under their belts, as I do, and we have naturally gravitated towards each other and I feel really lucky to have them as my support system here. As a whole group we are planning a trip to Dogon Country for Christmas time and then another quick trip to Senegal for the West African Softball Tournament (WASTe) in February – hopefully it overlaps with my birthday!
With the swear-in ceremony coming up this weekend, we are all really thinking about the realities that will come with getting installed at site, both good and scary! Its nice though because swear-in will be at the American Embassy here in Mali and we will get sworn in by the Ambassador and then head to the American Club for some grub and celebration afterwards. The current PCV’s in country will also all be around Bamako that evening and we all get to go out and spend some time getting to know them and each other better – which will be really nice since we don’t have a lot of free time here.
So on to my concerns and excitement for site…I am so looking forward to settling in, getting to know my community better, and to quit living out of my suitcase! I am also really excited about the idea of practicing the skills I spent the last 2 years before joining the Peace Corps attaining – Community Organizing and relationship/trust building!! My largest concerns are -as I stated before- language and the ability to actually express myself and not go crazy! I’m also really worried about the transportation in Mali as both of my trips to and from site visit were really not fun and it just makes me nervous. I am hopeful that my housing will get all figured out as I am currently set up with one cement block room on my counterparts’ concession – neither of which are concurrent with Peace Corps standards. My village is supposed to be building me my own -2 room- home on my own concession (which will be so nice for privacy) which they will start building once rainy season is over. I think once I really get settled and get a routine – as long as I don’t go stir crazy (and am getting regular lovin’ from home in the form of letters and goodies – hint hint ;) I think I will figure it all out here.
Okay this ones a long one and my computer is running out of juice! I will update again once I can :) Miss the states and all my people in it so much…just so you know!
