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)

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)

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

While most Americans spent the 1st 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

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

“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)

Preparing, recording, and broadcasting our bi-weekly rural radio program is probably one of the more significant contributions of our Peace Corps service, though we have not talked about it much here since we started last March. That’s partially because we forget about it, as it does not take up huge amounts of time every week,  but also because we ourselves have trouble seeing its impact. However, every once in a while, a fan of the show will speak up, reminding us that we need to update all our readers on this great activity. The Background: Despite the fact that many of our other projects cost money and require immense effort, we often have to remind ourselves that our radio show project, started last March,  is probably the most sustainable thing we will do during our service. Twice a week, hundreds of listeners who we will never meet and many of whom are completely illiterate are tuning in to hear what the local Tubabs have to say about development. Because most of our listeners are so rurally located, many of them never attend NGO trainings on maternal & child health, gardening, deforestation, sanitation etc. Many of them are ignorant of small lifestyle changes that could significantly improve their well-being. Thus, the goal of our radio shows is to bring that knowledge to them and present it in an interesting way. The Format: Our radio shows are always dialogues.  Each show centers around one topic; for example, recently, Joye pretended she wanted to start her own garden while on the show and wanted to ask James’s advice. James then proceeded to explain all the points she needed to consider before choosing a garden plot. Joye asked a lot of questions, especially those covering common Malian misconceptions about gardening, and got all of her answers in full. But 30 minutes of nonstop Bambara can be exhausting, so we break up the show every 10 minutes with American songs straight from our Ipods. Often, we try to theme the music in our shows to explain a little about American culture or teach a little English. Topics we’ve covered recently on our radio shows include: tree planting, the benefits of the Moringa tree, Improved Shea butter methods, composting, organic pesticide and fertilizer recipes, starting a garden, building a vegetable nursery, the importance of fruits and veggies, baby weighing, the three Malian food groups, breastfeeding, hand washing with soap, treating your water, general sanitation practices, oral rehydration solution for diarrheal diseases, American holidays, American Seasons, germs,  the importance of education, the importance of learning other languages, and English lessons. The Response: Only a week ago, James was on his way to attend a meeting in Duguba when he was startled by a group of very enthusiastic Malians who were thrilled to meet one of the famous local ‘Tubabs’ who they had been listening to on the radio regularly. The four of them proudly recited phrases they had learned from the English lessons on Joye’s shows. They were also vibrantly excited about and complimentary of the gardening discussions on James’s show, since as it turned out, their association had just started a garden and they was soaking in every piece of gardening advice they could find. Still, the coolest detail they shared was that their village was 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Duguba and 35km from our home in a village James had never even heard of. Though that was one particularly rewarding encounter, we often hear villagers from all over the area more generally tell us that they listen to our shows and thoroughly enjoy them. Sometimes we’re asked to repeat recipes we’ve talked about on air or give advice about a situation. However, the biggest change we feel that we’ve made is simple awareness of many issues concerning agriculture, health, and education. We’re hoping that this understanding of the issues will lay the groundwork for another volunteer to come after us and continue to encourage people to change their behavior and hence improve their quality of life. - Joye (& James)

Imagine you’re a Peace Corps volunteer invited to a meeting about the village’s maternity (a three-room clinic for delivering babies). Despite the fact that it was built and fully equipped by an NGO only five years ago, the group tells you gravely that there are major problems that require urgent attention. The solar battery died so there is no light, there is only one bed so on busy nights babies are delivered on mats, and deliveries are dirtied by the fact that the nearest source of water is a pump five minutes away. After listing these problems, they then ask you to give money to their association to fulfill these needs. To give or not to give? I think the first instinct is to give. After all, these are some major problems: babies born on the floor, in the dark, and without water to clean the area. That kind of environment puts both the newborns and mothers at risk of complications that could result in death. You would have to be a pretty terrible person to have the means to prevent this suffering and yet ignore it. But if that’s true, then why hasn’t the association done anything about it themselves? After all, you point out, a suitable extra bed could be bought for $5, and villagers are replacing their solar batteries all the time. At this point, the association tells you they’re broke because no one pays for the birthing services, pre- or post-natal consultations, or for the medicine. As for the water, you suggest that soon-to-be fathers could simply cart in 100 liters of water with their donkey carts prior to the birth. To this, the association laughs at you. Don’t be ridiculous, they say. You, the reader, have probably figured out by now that this is a true story. In fact, it happened to us three days ago. But it is only one example of a time when we have left a meeting wondering: “What does it mean to help these people? What is development anyway?” Sometimes, we think that development is about fulfilling basic human needs or realizing basic human rights. In a moment of frustration last week, I had to remind myself that “human rights are things every people deserves, even if they’re a pain in the butt,” – things such as clean water, adequate food, or a clean birth. And if these things should truly be given unconditionally, then when in doubt, they should be handed-out. This is what the NGO had in mind when they built the maternity five years ago, and what many NGOs do everyday as they almost indiscriminately give villages cash in order to help their schools, health centers, or improve sanitation. It breaks the heart of almost every Peace Corps volunteer when they learn that this method has adverse and unintended consequences. First, it has created a mindset of dependency among the poor – they say, we can’t do it ourselves; we need the help. Worse yet, this can often develop into laziness over time – why do it ourselves if someone will come and do it for us? These lessons are then transferred into other aspects of life, discouraging innovation and entrepreneurship. Certain Malians realize that can make a living of “hanging around” NGOs, while others work hard to be self-sufficient only to be beat out by the former. In short, when executed poorly, hand-outs lower individual’s incentives to try hard and exacerbate the problem. Hence, why the maternity association had not done the work collecting the money, and why many villagers were ignoring paying their debts. Because they figured that when things got bad an NGO – the one who built the maternity or some other – would come around and fix it. I know this seems like a harsh analysis, but sadly, it is the truth for a lot of development work. It’s not that the villagers are immoral people, but it’s that their incentives to work for themselves have been replaced by hand-outs. This is where Peace Corps and a lot of other organizations come in with a different approach dubbed “sustainable development.” The goal here is to encourage behavior change and capacity building with villagers that will last long after the project is in place. In the spirit of this approach, I hope to work with the maternity association to help them collect payments and turn profit. Once they have a system in place, they will be able to manage their own problems themselves, without the help of outsiders. This is also why we do many educational trainings on topics like hand-washing with soap and nutrition – because no amount of donated food or soap will help if people do not understand how to utilize them properly. However, we are often tormented with how hard this concept is in reality. First of all, it often means holding back immediate assistance, even if it is desperately needed. It might be six months before that association buys another bed, and until then am I responsible for all the babies born on the floor? Moreover, we have found that sometimes villagers do not want to be “sustainable,” but either the matter is not important enough or they rather wait for another NGO to the fix the problem. For example, after we fixed the pumps in our village, we organized a committee to collect (very reasonable) monthly dues from every household so that next time the village can fix it themselves. This was an attempt to make our work sustainable, but yet we are finding that most villagers refuse to pay and many committee members don’t take their job seriously. At the present rate, it seems unlikely that the committee will function long enough to actually repair a broken pump. So next time the pumps break, and children are getting diarrhea from dirty well water, what will be the moral thing to do – to give or not to give? You have probably heard it said: “Give a man a fish and he can eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he can eat for a lifetime.” As it relates to development, the saying hints at the difference between hand-outs and sustainability. But as we are learning, painfully and slowly, it is not one or the other. Rather, it is a matter of which blend of these two philosophies is most appropriate in the present situation. Determining this level requires a judgment call, based on a knowledge of the people involved, the crises at hand, and predictions of the short- and long-term effects. It is a draining and difficult process, one we are far from mastering, and one we tried to keep centered on loving those who we serve. There is much more we wish to discuss on this subject, because we see so much misunderstanding about what development is or should be from both sides of the world. And yet, it is a goal we must continue to seek for the betterment of millions of people who do, in fact, live without our most basic human rights. Thank you for reading and commenting below. -James (& Joye)

For those who haven’t heard of Little Dresses for Africa, it is a Christian organization which distributes simple dresses to Africa, which are sown by Americans (in Bible Studies or Girls Scout Troops), using the linen from spare pillowcases. To date, they have received and given over a half million dresses in over 31 African countries! And since many women involved in this effort live near Joye’s hometown, we were asked to bring some dresses to Kongodugu. We were excited to give the dresses to the girls in our village, but we were also apprehensive about reinforcing the “hand-out” mentality that haunts many Peace Corps Volunteers. So, we had to think creatively. How can we give these dresses out in a way that not only demonstrates the love in which they were sewn, but also encourages sustainable development? We found the answer in Joye’s work as an education volunteer. Girls have it rough in the Malian education system. The boy to girl ratio is 1:1 in the 1st grade, mainly to what we attribute as “the daycare effect” (what good is a six-year-old out in the fields?), but by the 5th grade the ratio is 6:1! Why? Because as the girls become old enough to become useful, their parents yank ‘em out of class and strap on the apron (this is a metaphor, of course, Malians don’t cook with aprons). The girls themselves also get discouraged because they are dismissed by their teachers and are often teased by their not-in-school peers. So, after discussing the matter with the village school board, we decided to give a dress to every girl that enrolled in the primary school this year, 1st through 6th grades. It made the girls proud of their education thus far and demonstrated the importance of educating girls to our village. Each girl was especially excited since they received a new dress only a few days before the biggest Malian holiday. While many families won’t be able to afford new clothes this year due to the drought, these girls will proudly be wearing their beautiful dresses.      Most of the girls didn’t react when we handed them the dress; showing emotion during gift-giving is not really Malian custom. But we saw their excitement in other ways: the way they all wore their dresses the next day, the way they flaunted their dresses while at market, and the way they all ran home thrilled to show their parents. So on behalf of the schoolgirls of Kongodugu to the tailors behind Little Dresses for Africa : “I ni ce! I ni baraji!” which means "Thank you and bless you.” Thanks for reading! -James & Joye

After 36 hours in transit to Bamako and another 2 days to get back to our village, Jim and I were very ready to get back, rest, and catch up on what we’d missed. It didn’t take long to notice some differences in only a month. In fact, on our bike ride in, we noticed some temporary outdoor hangers set up adjacent to the elementary school. Well, long story short, we now have a middle school (grades 7-9) in our village! About a week after we left, and due to the persistent lobbying of our school board president, Kongodugu was approved by the regional government to open a middle school.  This is extremely meaningful to the people in Kongodugu.  Until now, families have had to make a difficult choice: to keep their teens around as valuable farm hands to help with the harvest and chores or to send them 15km away to school with enough money to appease the host family who would give them food and a place to sleep for the next 9 months. Now,  families can send these teens to school, but can also use their help in the fields 2-3 days/week. When we first arrived in Kongodugu, it was clear that the people of the village expected us to build them a middle school. It was the reason they had requested a volunteer and Malians are very accustomed to foreigners coming in, not asking a lot of questions, spending lots of money, and building shiny new buildings. When we asked who would pay the teachers to fill those classrooms, they responded with an “if we build it they will come” philosophy. “Just build us a school and then there’s no way the regional government can refuse to pay teachers to teach here.”  It was obvious that they hadn’t thought past the building yet. However, Peace Corps always stresses the importance of building sustainable communities, who can take care of their own schools, their own health care, their own water, etc. A building wouldn’t work without teachers or a supportive  community. Therefore, in the end, we decided that if we went ahead and built a school building, we would be reinforcing negative stereotypes that Malians could get anything they wanted without working for it, as long as they complained enough to the “tubabs” (foreigners). Instead, we tried to encourage the school board to meet, encourage the teachers to actually go to class, and improve the adult literacy clubs. Our hope was to increase general enthusiasm for education in the village and motivate them to start working toward getting a middle school on their own.   Now, over a year later, the village school board (with some help from Jim) has succeeded in convincing the regional government of the necessity of a middle school in our village. Within a week of the approval, the village got together and built 3 temporary outdoor hangers to be used as classrooms and found families to host and feed the new middle school teachers. One family even moved out of their home to give it to the new principal. Though they certainly have their faults and can be very unorganized and downright lazy when they don’t want to do something, we have gained a lot of respect for our villagers in the last few weeks. It has also been a great lesson for the villagers on the school board: they don’t need to sit and wait for tubabs to solve all of their problems. With hard work and perseverance, they can make huge improvements to the village on their own! The other fun part of all of this is that Joye and Jim are filling in for the English teacher (who never showed up) a few hours every week. Joye’s just started teaching English in the 8th and 9th grade and is enjoying polishing up on her rusty French. Jim, who had previously vowed NEVER to teach middle school, is now teaching in the 7th grade and finding that 13 year olds aren’t ALL bad.  So far, its fun to have a more structured activity built into our week, but we’ll let you know how it goes :) Thanks for reading! -Joye (& Jim)

When looking for a round-trip ticket from Mali to Michigan, we unabashedly took the cheapest option available, even if it had us scheduled on our return flight for a 16 hour layover is Lisbon, Portugal. Never a pair to miss an opportunity, we decided to leave the airport and tour the city, despite being exhausted, jet-lagged, and burdened by our luggage. It was worth it. Before leaving the US, we looked into one thing: how to get from the airport to the city. And it turns out that Lisbon has a great deal for long-layover tourists. For about $5 you can get access on public transport for 24 hours, which includes airport shuttles, buses, and trolley cars. Once we got downtown, it was just a matter of studying the various free tourist maps we had collected at the airport to know where to go next. As you can see, we consulted our maps quite a bit.   Lisbon has a few popular districts. From the Rossio plaza (where Joye is reading a map above), one can walk down a tiled shopping street (left) exit out near a cluster of government buildings (right), and enjoy a view of the river (where James is reading a map above). Being close to the Atlantic Ocean, Lisbon has a nautical feel to it, and was pleasantly smaller than other European capitals like Paris or Rome.   From here, we took a trolley car up one of the Lisbon’s seven hills to get a overview of its historic districts, complete with its winding roads and red-roofed houses. Believe it or not, this was Jim’s first time in a trolley car, so this was almost more exciting for him than anything else.   Then we took a half hour bus ride to the Belem district to catch some more tourist sites. But on the way, we both fell asleep, so that we arrived, our first task was to find a park, eat a PB&J lunch from the US, and take a nap. Afterward, we went to Lisbon’s famous monastery, famed to be the most beautiful building in the city. Inside the high-vaulted church was the tomb of the most famous Portuguese explorer. Can you guess who?   The monastery is only a hop, skip, and a jump away from two other destinations. First, the Monument to the Discoveries (left), a large monolith commemorating how awesome Portugal was at discovering new locations and losing most of them to other European countries. And finally, the Tower of Belem (right), which protected Lisbon at the mouth of its river, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean. Feet and backs aching, we then made our way back to the airport. Overall, we liked Lisbon and felt that we were able to see the exterior of nearly all of its tourist destinations in one day. Our regrets are that we had a very limited amount of Euros and time and so did not indulge in Portuguese cuisine or go into any museums. Also, due the times of our layover, we did not experience any nightlife, which is supposed to be pretty fun in that region. Alas, you can’t do everything, or maybe on the next lay-over. :) ANSWER: The explorer was Vasco da Gama. Some might say Christopher Columbus, but he was not actually Portuguese. He was financed by the Portuguese monarch but originated from the city-state of Genoa, now located in north-western Italy. Remember that for Jeopardy. :) Thanks for reading, -James (& Joye) Allen

As we sat in the Newark airport surrounded by sandwich stands and corner stores filled with 50 types of potato chips, it was difficult to believe we were going back to Mali. Sure, we experienced some culture shock while visiting the States (i.e. Meijer has more food than my entire village), but generally we were surprised at how easy it was to dive back in and enjoy the culture we grew up in. Nevertheless, there is still a small part of us that struggles to reconcile how two such different worlds could exist simultaneously. It almost feels as if we are living double lives, except that in neither of them are we super-heroes. After only 24 hours in the US,  we started in on our busy homestay schedule consisting of Joye’s PCAT exam, trips to Kentucky and Massachusetts, time with immediate and extended family, and American experiences ranging from hiking around the Great Lakes to a wedding to a Detroit Red Wings hockey game. Though exhausting, we loved every minute of it and soaked up time with our family and friends. We realized again how much we love America, the people, the colors of the trees in the fall, the opportunities, and the cuisine :) But at the same time it helped rejuvenate us and made us appreciate how unique our opportunity is here in Mali. Very often Peace Corps volunteers can become frustrated and discouraged when villagers don’t mirror their enthusiasm for development work. Yet through our time home, we re-realized how much we are learning from every part of our service (including failures and successes). The insight we have gained here will certainly affect the choices we make and the way we go about ‘helping people help themselves’. So we are excited to make the most of the rest of our time here. Thanks to everyone who took time to see us, call us, etc. while we were in the US! We really appreciated it and miss you all very much :) Thanks for reading! -Joye (& James)

Leading up to our highly anticipated trip to America, we have had an incredibly challenging couple of weeks at site. We both got amoebic cysts, making us drowsy and occasionally nauseous. On top of this, James has bacterial dysentery two weeks ago and a nasty cold last week that kept in bed with a fever for four days. Also, one of our close friends in village also passed away unexpectedly to some possibly preventable illness (we were not told he was sick until after he died). He was young with a wife and children, and the haste with which he came and went was very unsettling for us. Lastly, since we were planning for Hunger Awareness Week – in which we only spent a dollar per day on food – we finished all of our American food reserves. This meant that even when we got sick and wanted to stop Hunger Awareness Week, we could not, so we ended up doing it anyways. It was rough. Thankfully, it all ended when a Peace Corps supervisor from Bamako came out to our site for a planned visitation. When she arrived, our bags were packed and the house in order, and we enjoyed vehicle transport from our village for the first time all the way to Bamako where we could enjoy air conditioning, electricity, and take our medications to rid us of the amoebic cysts. Normally, life in village is not so terrible, but the misfortune of the past few weeks has one perk -  we could not be more excited for our quick vacation home. It’s like when it downpours continuously for the last day of your backpacking trip. Sure, all week you occasionally thought about home, but that last day, you long for dry clothes, a warm bed, and a hot shower and think of nothing else. Hopefully we will be able to see a lot of our blog readers on this trip. However, we have a very busy schedule as is – Joye is taking the Pharmacy College Admissions Test and is in a wedding – so we do not meet up, please do not be too hard on us. We miss everyone and everything dearly and are thrilled to spend a few weeks taking in who and what we can. Thanks for keeping tabs on us once again! -James (& Joye)

As we learned in our pre-service training, its difficult to know where to start when you talk about Malian education. Its a huge complex subject, and I could fill pages and pages on my observations and opinions. But  since many of you have expressed interest in it, I’ll try to start with the main overlying structure and problems. Language and Literacy: First, Mali is a huge country, filled with many diverse ethnic groups and though French is the official business language, there are between 7 and 11 other national languages. Thus, it is common for a teacher to be placed in a village that speaks a minority language that he does not. Consequently, the students are taught in French or Bambara, 2 languages that none of them understand. Therefore, unlike the American system, Malians take many different paths to learn to read and write. If they would like to learn French, they attend a formal government school. Adult or young Bambara learners attend community literacy centers..  Those that drop out of formal school attend trade school literacy classes or begin learning Arabic at the madrasa (koranic school).  These various institutions have been set up over time to try to accommodate the diversity in languages and in lifestyle, thus trying to provide an option for everyone. However, despite the combined efforts, on the part of the Malian government, non profit organizations, and foreign aid, Mali still has one of the highest illiteracy rates in the world! According to the World Factbook, the literacy rate of Mali in 2009 was 46%. However, that varies greatly depending on rural and urban settings. In a recent survey of our village, James found that only 40% of adults had been through primary school or literacy class, and from experience, we know that maybe 1/2 of those people can read and write at a functional level. Access to Education: We currently live in the densely populated Sikasso region, so access to Education is not as difficult as it is in the far north of Mali, where formal schools are few and far between. Near us, most villages have a primary school (Grades 1-6), though many only have 3 classrooms, meaning they can only take new students every other year.  However, after 6 grade, finding a school becomes more difficult. The nearest middle school is often 10-15  km away and the nearest high school  is even further away at 15-50km.  Therefore, families usually send their children to live with a relative or friend in a town where schooling is available. However, this means the family must pay for food and living expenses as well as transport to and from that town. Often, the family decides that high expenses are not worth the seemingly irrelevant education the child receives, especially when they are at an age where they can be a valuable worker around the house. Nevertheless, the formal schools are being built by the national government and NGOs and access is constantly improving. Quality of Education: Once a village has a school, the question is: can it handle a school? In the US, we are incredibly involved in our schools. The school board and PTO monitor the curriculum and state of the buildings, etc. Parents are constantly volunteering as chaperones, lunch ladies, team banquet organizers. They sign permission slips and look over their children’s homework, and habitually ask “Hey, what did you learn in school today?” and actually expect an answer!  However, all of that came about organically, because in America, we started to promote the idea that children are the future and they are worth the investment.  Now, Westerners have built schools all over Mali believing that education is the key to development (and I agree). However, part of my job as a volunteer is to convince Malians that taking care of that school is worth their time and that its their own responsibility to care about the quality of their school. Every village is different, but in general, repeatedly low test scores and the difficulties with multiple national languages has created a huge lack of morale within the Malian education community, leading to discouraged and lazy teachers.  However, when poor test scores come back or the village sees that the teachers are not spending time in their classrooms, they often don’t understand that its their job to fix it. There is usually no parent-teacher organization and a school board that only meets a few times a  year.   These are only some of the factors that make education work so difficult and frustrating in Mali. Some days, it seem s to be a vicious cycle that can’t be remedied. However, on those days, I have to remind myself that I can’t expect things to change overnight. I can change things little by little by encouraging the school board to meet, talking with my neighbors about registering their kids in school, and providing feedback to the teachers to help them improve. I also work to promote the idea of girl’s education through “Take Our Daughters To Work Day” Camps and awareness activities with the teachers. Certainly, these efforts are only a drop in the bucket, but I do believe that improving the education of the next generation of Malians is the surest way to encourage slow but steady development for this country.

With every Malian family working hard in their fields this month, we had plenty of time for pictures. Here’s a few more from August. A big rain storm demolished our newly built mud stove. Sniffle sniffle. But when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. So we took off the broken shards of concrete and made a footpath to our nyegen (the bathroom) since it is annoyingly muddy after rain.   Here are a few pictures of us wearing our matching end-of-Ramadan outfits, which we wore to greet our villagers on their holiday. We also managed to snap some pictures of our work partners and their families. First, members of our host family cooking up some peanut butter sauce.   Second, James and his work partner Rubé out at his sorghum field (left). And Joye’s work partner Dorro drinking tea with friends on his new land (right). And a family portrait with Dorro, his two wives, and their six children. Finally, in honor of Joye’s arduous work in study for her Pharmacy College Admissions Test (PCAT), here’s a picture of her preparing. She will take the test on the second day of our visit to America, which is in less than three weeks! Wish her luck! - James (& Joye)

At the beginning of August, we enjoyed some time in Mali’s capital. (Top left) Joye with President A.T.T.’s house in the background on the hill. (Top right) Jim stands in front of a model-size mud mosque in Bamako’s Botanical Gardens. (Left) We splurged on one of the nicest restaurants in Bamako, found in the Botanical Gardens, Steak with green beans and salmon. Yum!         Below: Now that the rains have gotten underway, most villagers are busy in the fields. So we’ve spent a lot of time enjoying the new greenery, fresh air and the somewhat cooler temperatures.       Above: In the last few weeks, we’ve continued our workshop series in Duguba and taught 33 women and men about the nutritional benefits of Moringa as well as how to plant and care for the tree.   Finally, these were just a few moments that made us smile. On the left, a boy wearing a tie but no pants, and on the right, Winnie the Pooh. Thanks for reading! -Joye

One of the five pillars of the Islamic faith is an annual period of fasting during the month of Ramadan. In fact, the literal translation of Ramadan from Bambara to English is “fasting month.” From sunrise to sunset, adult Muslims will neither eat or drink anything, unless they are pregnant, breastfeeding, or very ill. However, due to discrepancies between the Islamic calendar and the standard 12-month one, the month of Ramadan varies, usually starting a few weeks earlier every year. This year it just so happened to align very closely with the month of August. In Kongodugu, this was a challenge for many families since August is already a tough month. This was especially true this year because of a persistent drought in June and July, which forced many to re-plant their cotton, corn, sorghum, and millet later in the rainy season. Hence, there was much work to be done farming stunted crops, yet many families were quickly running low on last year’s harvest. Fasting exacerbates the first problem (it’s harder to farm when you are hungry and thirsty), but adapts well with the latter (eating less food). Thus, in our villages, many families appointed a select few to fast, while the rest stayed busy in the fields. As volunteers, this made for an interesting dynamic. Most of the time we could not find villagers to work with, since they were in the fields, and when we did they were usually fasting and therefore too tired to do anything. So we kept ourselves busy with our garden, radio shows, some short presentations, and laying the groundwork for larger work once the harvest is over. Though there have been moments of torturous boredom as well! At the end of Ramadan is a three-day period of feasting known here as (literally  translated) “little prayer.” Families stop their farm work in order to rest, drink tea, and eat good food. Market days prior to this holiday are like American shopping malls before Christmas, crammed with people trying to get the best bargain on new clothes, sandals, and toys. We were amazed how our Kongodugu market tripled in size, and were ourselves caught up in the excitement during a visit to a large market some twenty kilometers away. But for us, the best part of the end of Ramadan was comparing it to our experience last year, when the holiday fell during our first week in Kongodugu. Back then, it was painful; we spent all day greeting people we did not know in a language we did not speak. We felt like intruders eating their nice food and were upset that they separated us for the entire day – James to sit with the men, and Joye to cook with the women. This year was very different. We spent most the first day with our host family, moving back and forth between the men and the women as we pleased. Moreover, we brought them plenty of fresh vegetables from a distant market to liven up their meal and even shared tea that we bought in Morocco during our vacation last May. Then the next day we walked through the village and greeted at least twenty households and hundreds of people, many of whom were are friends. And while we were tired afterward, it was exhaustion that was accompanied by accomplishment, not defeat, confusion or resentment. So, though our development efforts have been slow this month, the past few days have been a reminder of how far we have come and how integrated we now are, which in turn gives us hope that our second year in Kongodugu (& Duguba) will be even better than the first. Thanks for reading and look forward to pictures soon! -James (& Joye) Allen

Since we are heading home to Michigan for a few weeks in October, I recently suggested to Joye that it would be a good idea to make a list of all the foods we plan to have in America…just to make sure we don’t forget anything. This is what she came up with in 5 minutes. Tim Horton’s toasted blueberry bagel with cream cheese Slurpee(s) Taco Bell ( Hard Taco & Crunch wrap supreme) Arby’s curly fries All-American breakfast w/sunny-side up eggs Cap’n crunch and cold milk A glass of pink lemonade with ice cubes A medium-well steak and broccoli Real Michigan Fish Mom A’s Nachos A BLT, pickle, and chips Apple pie Celery/Carrots with Spinach dip Chicken tenders and Honey Mustard Dr. Pepper Cider and Donuts Grapes, Raspberries, and Strawberries Quality Dairy/MSU Ice Cream An American salad with Caesar dressing A GOOD burger A hot and ready pizza…or better yet, a Hawaiian pizza! Applebee’s Chicken fajita roll-up Garden Salsa Sunchips Barbecue Pork Chinese Food (Egg roll, Egg drop soup, sweet & sour chicken, fried rice) Doritos A Turkey (and/or any deli meat) Sandwich Anything involving Cheese ------------------------------------ Anyways, we just thought you all would enjoy reading about the food that we are fantasizing about while we are here in Mali :) We can’t wait to see many of you very soon and perhaps share some of these delicacies with you! -James (& Joye)

Two trees that every Mali volunteer is familiar with, and most Americans probably are not, are shea and moringa. And since we have spent the last couple weeks teaching Malians about the many benefits of these two amazing trees, we thought that we should educate our wonderful readers as well. Shea is native and exclusive to West Africa, but is most commonly found in Mali. Every rainy season, it produces a green pulpy fruit about the size of a large black cherry. The fruit itself does not taste very good, but it has been traditionally collected by women for its nut (the pit), which can be pressed into oil useful for household cooking. However, an emerging international market for shea oil (used for soaps, lotions, and medicines) has transformed this practice into a potential income-generating activity for rural women, IF they can adopt improved processing techniques. For this reason, we (ourselves and two other volunteers) held a meeting in Duguba - where James works - open to all women interested in learning the new techniques. The main point: Don’t let the fruit rot in a hole before smoking them dry; a nut that is charred or already germinating produces a stinky and bitter oil. Instead, boil the nuts clean and then drying them in the sun. The result is purer oil that not only tastes and smells better, but also is also more sanitary. Twenty-two women came to our meeting – a great turnout for the farming season – and the information was also repeated on our weekly radio show. The moringa tree, on the other hand, originates from India but is widely promoted in development for its tolerance for arid conditions and high nutritional value. A hundred grams of its leaves has more Vitamin C than 7 oranges, more Vitamin A than 4 carrots, more Potassium than 4 bananas, and more Calcium and Protein than 4 glasses of milk! Also, it’s seeds and pods are strong in fiber and can help with intestinal troubles, including bacterial infections and worms. Moreover, its deep taproot and little use of lateral roots means it can be planted in farmer’s fields without interfering with the topsoil needed for crops. And did I mention that it’s practically impossible to kill; a transplant that was ravaged by animals and withered to nothing just recently sprouted new shoots! We like to call moringa the “miracle tree.” In order to encourage the planting and utilization of the moringa tree, for the past three weeks we have led lessons with a community group in Kongodugu (where Joye works). Before we shared the benefits of moringa, it was necessary to convince the group that malnutrition was a problem in their village and explain what proper nutrition looks like. So our first week we emphasized the importance of regularly consuming the three Malian food groups: energy foods (calories/carbs), construction foods (proteins/calcium), and protection foods (vitamins/minerals). This was completely new information for our villagers; mothers were shocked as we explained that their children’s bloated bellies were a “construction food” deficiency, NOT a sign that they were full and healthy. We continued the second week by charting availability of the three food groups on a yearly calendar in order to show which food groups were most lacking in the Malian diet (construction and protection), and illustrate how trees can provide a year-round food source. Finally, we introduced the moringa tree - both a construction and protection food – described its benefits, and demonstrated how to plant and cultivate it in our own demonstration garden. The class was excited to go home with a branch of fresh leaves and three seeds to plant themselves. It seems so funny to us that just a year ago we had not heard of either the shea or moringa trees, and now they are essential to our work here in Mali. Hopefully, this post has given you a greater appreciation for these two obscure trees as well. As Malians say: “Tulo be taa kalanso don o don,” which can be most literally translated as “the ears go to school everyday.” Thanks for reading! -James (& Joye)

Rainy season can be a hard time for many Peace Corps volunteers. Since everyone in village is busy working in their fields, there is no time for projects, formations, or even regularly scheduled meetings. We kept the first half of our rainy season occupied with the following: Tree Nursery Training: Probably the most exciting that happened in the past month is that James and his Malian counterpart went to a Peace Corps training at Tubaniso (summer camp) on how to start and manage a tree nursery. Not only can a tree nursery be a great small business, but more importantly, it encourages tree planting, a priority for Mali’s environment volunteers. Depending on the species, trees can provide shade, animal fodder, soil conservation, field protection, firewood, construction wood, raw materials for processing and – most importantly – food, especially during months where food is hard to come by. Therefore, to counter deforestation (cutting down too many trees), we urge villagers to plant and cultivate valuable trees, most of which can come from a well-managed tree nursery. A good nursery prevents the young saplings from being stunted by disease and also can graft young trees to expedite and maximize their fruit-giving potential. Not only did he learn way to much about trees, but it was also a great time to catch up with other volunteers who are working on similar projects.  Presentations & Formations: As we mentioned, it is really hard to meet with groups during rainy season since everyone is working in their fields. But even so, we have managed to lead a few informational sessions with various women and discussion groups. In Duguba, we met with twelve women to teach them how to make mango jam and mosquito repellant. And just last week in Kongodugu, we spent two hours stressing how all people need to eat from Mali’s 3 food groups: energy foods (calories), construction foods (proteins), and protection foods (vitamins), and not just one or the other. We explained to parents that their children’s bloated stomachs are not proof that they are full, but is rather a symptom of protein deficiency (kwashiorkor), which is tough but important lesson to learn. We have also been keeping up with our radio show, now going 26 shows strong!   Gardening & Farming: With the rains comes more work in the garden. Not only have our veggies been growing quickly, but so have the weeds! However, right now (post-hot season) it is very difficult to find vegetables in market, so we are more grateful than ever for having the garden as a dietary supplement. Furthermore, after a particular boring day, Joye succumbed to the old wisdom of: “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” She went out and planted cotton with our neighbor for an entire day, from 10am to 5pm! We now tell our villagers that Joye farms while James cooks the meals; the men always laugh nervously.    Graduate School: Despite being in Africa, we have also been pursuing  post-undergraduate opportunities. As many readers know, James is currently writing his Master’s thesis in village in order to earn a degree in agricultural economics from Michigan State. This month, he began writing his proposal and began playing with the data collected from a survey he conducted in April with 50 households. Meanwhile, Joye has been applying to pharmacy schools and dutifully studying for the pharmacy college admission test (PCAT, the MCAT for pharmacists). For her, this has meant reading for an hour or more daily an Anatomy & Physiology textbook, which by the way, was a pleasure getting to our site. :) Reading Russian Literature: Lastly, Joye just started “The Brothers Karamazov” and James “Anna Karenina,” so that should keep us busy for a few weeks at least. Thanks for reading! – James (& Joye)

Malians are ALWAYS laughing, and most of the time, they’re laughing at us. So last week, when my neighbor Fatimata stopped by, I did not take offense when she  yelled “Ashata, Why don’t you come help me plant my fields?” with a faked indignant look and then burst into peels of mocking laughter. They love teasing us about not being able to do what they consider to be the simplest of tasks. Normally, I would brush it off and make a joke back, but that day was different and something inside me (pride, boredom, stupidity...) thought… how dare you? “I’m busy today, but can I come tomorrow,” I replied. “Oh sure, always tomorrow,” she laughed. “No, seriously, what time will you leave?” I retorted. “In the morning.” she answered in a tone that said, ‘why would you ask such a silly question?’ Yelling a quick blessing she walked away shaking her head and chuckling at those funny tubabs. So, needless to say, I got a pretty big kick out of the look on her face when, on the following morning, I showed up to her  house in work clothes, carrying my garden hoe and a day’s supply of water, and said “Are you ready?” After repeated objections  of “Ashata, you can’t be serious,” I finally convinced the women in the house that I WAS in fact serious and around 10AM we set out on foot for their fields, a mile from the village. They strapped their babies to their backs, put large pots full of “toh” for lunchtime on their heads and after all that had the nerve to say, “Ashata, you can’t carry that garden hoe for a mile, give it to me, I’ll carry it for you!” We arrived and as the sun was getting high in the sky, we got to work immediately. We have had serious droughts lately, so much of the seed that was planted did not come up and Fatimata’s husband assigned us to replant a few hectares of cotton. This basically meant, bending over, chopping up the hard dry soil, dropping in 2-3 seeds and covering it up and moving on to do it again 2 feet down the row. Not so hard right? It took about 15  minutes of this work to wipe the ‘I told you so’ smile I’d been wearing all morning off my face. Really, what was I thinking? Its not that planting cotton required great muscular exertion, but as you plant in rows, you move in a crouched, bent position that makes your back and legs ache. I honestly don’t remember being that sore since doing speed workouts for cross country. I was also amazed at the coordination of these women who, even when I got the hang of it, were planting at twice the speed of myself. We planted until 12:45 and with sweat poring down my face, and my shirt soaked through, we took a break for lunch.  As I sat down hungrily to eat my toh and sauce, I realized that despite the exhausting morning and the further embarrassment I had caused myself  by actually being pretty lacking in my cotton planting skills, I had had some great conversations with the women I was working with. They wanted to know if  Numudjo (James) had worked in my father’s fields before we got married, which led to discussions on arranged marriages, polygamy, and eventually children and nutrition. It had been especially rewarding because there had not been men present, which gave the women an opportunity to really open up to me. The conversations continued over lunch when I discovered that Fatimata had lived in the Ivory Coast until she was 12 and she completely surprised me with detailed knowledge of how ‘tubabs’ live (Sure, educated Malians know a lot about the outside world. But educated Malians,especially women, are few and far between in my rural village). She began sharing about the white people in the Ivory Coast. “They always bought the melons I was selling.  We would just sit around and watch them sometimes and they were so funny. They LOVED carrots, green peppers, cabbage, potatoes, eggs, macaroni…and the mom would actually split up their food first and then give them each their own little portion on a plate. (Malians eat everything from one bowl) Then, they dug this hole in the ground, filled it with water, and put their kids in it.” Choking a bit on my toh, “um…excuse me? what?” “You know, they dug a hole. Then they put cement in it. They put water in the hole and then they put their kids in it.” “I’m confused and slightly worried about where this is going, are you talking about a well?” “No, they would play in the hole and swim in it.” “OHHHHHH……a pool.” I realized with relief. “They would have competitions for whose child could get from one end to the other the fastest,” she continued miming with her hands, “and they would only wear these little tiny pieces of cloth to cover here and here. Then, one day, I used their bathroom. It had this big device that you were supposed to pee or poop into and then if you pressed something, it would just take it all away! And high on the wall their was a pump and if you turned these things it could be hot or cold or whatever you wanted. It was so cool! You got so clean and it was awesome!” We rested until 2pm and then, the temperature still around 90F, we went back out and planted for another couple hours. At about 5, one of the women saw that, due to exhaustion, I was having trouble still planting in a straight line and suggested we rest and go back. Its Shea nut harvesting season, so each woman filled a large bowl with Shea nuts and placing it on her head, and tying a baby to her back, we walked back to village. However, the mood on the return trip was completely different from that morning. Instead of the proud “how dare you question my abilities?"’ attitude I came with, I had been humbled by the fact that these women do this backbreaking work every day for months during rainy season. They wake up at 5 to make breakfast, wash and dress their children, clean their concession, draw water, wash dishes, and make lunch before heading out to the fields. They work until late afternoon, only to come home and repeat their chores in preparation for dinner before they can have any time for themselves. Though I only spent part of one day doing their work, I gained a new kind of respect for them that you can only have through experience. Since it took my about 3 days get over the soreness in my legs and back, I think I learned my lesson and will never again so lightly volunteer to work in the fields. Still, it was a wonderful experience to have and I know that I’ll never forget the conversations I had that day. ~ Joye

Dear family & friends,

One year ago, in the evening of July 3rd, Joye and I landed in Mali. That's right, we've been in Mali for 12 whole months! And though the country probably doesn't look or feel much different (given its the same time of year), our perspective certainly has. However, instead of taking this event as an opportunity to reflect on the last year of experiences, I would rather take the time to thank you for your continued love and support. Whether a care package, email, facebook wall post, or blog comment, many of you have kept our spirits high with your encouragement and continuous updates of life back home. We also want to thank all of you for reading our blog, whether regularly or occasionally, and we hope that you have enjoyed following our adventures.

Here are some other fun facts about our blog, thanks to the "Stats" tab (as of 6/2/11):

Number of post (including this): 76

Total number of pageviews: 9052

Top 3 most viewed posts: "Packing List for Mali," "Malian Food," and "Malian Fashion."

Countries where viewed (from most to least): USA, Mali, France, Germany, Canada, Brazil, Russia, UK, Israel, China

We are also happy our viewership has been fairly steady since we came to Mali a year ago, so again, thank you!

However, we would always like to know how to keep your attention. And now that we've been here for so long, it has become difficult to remember what Americans might interesting. So, if you have a second, please put a blog post topic suggestion in our comments session. Anything from aspects of Malian culture to certain perspectives we may have on social issues. All is welcome.

Lastly, for our readers who originate from the USA (who are the majority thus far), Happy Independence Day!

-James (& Joye)

When you see the word “culture”, the first things that probably comes to your mind are food, clothing, language,  family structure, etc. However, the longer we live here the more we realize just how important some of the smaller nuances are to integrating as a respected member of  the Malian community. And one of those nuances (which is a greatly overdue blog post) is the culture of Blessings. What do I mean by Blessings? Well, in Mali, every time you speak to someone almost about anything you end the conversation with a blessing which correlates to the content of your conversation. The blessing goes like this: “May God ________________?” And the blank could literally be anything: bless your family, give you health, make your harvest plentiful, find a solution, help us to get along better. Then the receiver responds with “Amina” or Amen, let it be so. Since the Bambara word for “God” is “Ala",  blessings are said by everyone, no matter the religion. Muslims say them referring to Allah, Christians say them referring to the Christian God, and animists say them….though Im not sure who they are referring to. Still, the idea is that after listening to someone’s problems, you always have something to offer them in return: a blessing. There are classic blessings for every occasion: Baptism: May God bless this child. May God give him a long life. May she have a peaceful life. May God keep him/her healthy. May God make sure he’s not a bean-eater. Funeral: May he be with God soon. May her resting place be cool. Wedding: May they spend a long time together. May they live together well. May they become as one. May God give them tons and tons of children. Sickness: May God lesson your pain. May God heal your sickness completely. Daily: May God give you a peaceful day. May God watch over us through the night. May God bring us the morning. We’ve really grown to love this idea. Because in the states, how often are you listening to a friend or family member vent about a situation which is simply difficult and unfair, but totally out of your control to help? You may strongly empathize with the person, but its so hard to find words. For example, an acquaintance might say to you “Man, I’ve been sick for a week, my job has gotten stressful, and to top it all off, my car broke down!” “Wow, that's terrible,” you reply “Hope you get better, and it all works out ,” and if you’re religious, “I’ll pray for you.” But the wonderful thing about blessings is that they are prayer on the spot. “May God reduce your workload, restore your health, and get your car in running condition quickly!” “Amen,” they’d reply knowing that you cared and they had been heard. This doesn’t get you out of helping when you can, but no matter what your resources are, you always can give people blessings. But if you read through the Bible, old and new testament, you’ll find that this practice is not exclusively a Malian tradition. Jews and early Christians practiced the bestowal of verbal blessings. “May God bless you and keep you. May His face shine upon you. May he grant you peace.” Yet, likely due to the secularization of American culture, its no longer in popular use, even among theists. I understand that atheists, agnostics, or simply those of a different religion, would probably not understand or feel comfortable participating.  Still I know that when I return to America, blessings will be one of the first things that I miss in everyday conversation.  Because even if the person on the receiving end of the blessing doesn’t share my beliefs, the bestowal of a blessing now seems so much more meaningful to me than my former “Hope you feel better.” Perhaps we will be able to continue the practice in the states, maybe at least among family or between the two of us. However, we will never forget the wonderful feeling that arises in us when a stooped elderly Malian women stops us in  our village with the most genuine of smiles and decides to pour blessings on us—sometimes for a full two minutes. Its those moments that make you question “how could I ever be frustrated or have an angry thought about this country when there such amazingly sweet people here?” So in closing, I’ll leave you all with a few blessings. May God give you a peaceful summer. May He give you time to enjoy his beautiful creation. May He bring you good weather, working air-conditioners, and relaxation. May God give you time to enjoy a barbecue, or many barbecues, and to savor an ice cream cone on a hot day. May He bless your workplace, your health, and your family. and since its 4th of July soon, God Bless America! Amina.   ~Joye (and James)

As we have mentioned in previous posts, Rainy Season is upon us. And with the rain comes LOTS of bugs as well as a huge increase in mosquitoes and therefore malaria. Thus, we have recently been working to prevent malaria transmission in our village. Firstly, since we fixed the pumps, we have been working with the Water and Sanitation Committee to dig a drainage pit at each pump. This is important because once the pumps are fixed, the area around it becomes extremely muddy because women will gather to wash clothes and dishes and will dump their water in the same place. As James recently described it to a villager, it becomes the ‘mosquito maternity’. So although we have been educating people about the dangers of standing water in our community, it is an important part of the pump repair project that we include covered drainage pits to reduce it.  This piece to the project has taken much longer than we hoped due both to the procrastinating “we’ll do it tomorrow” Malian work ethic combined with the speedy arrival of planting season. However, we are finally completing them as I write this post :) So hopefully we can have them covered before the next big rain. The other activity that has taken up a good deal of time is teaching various community groups how to make a mosquito repellent cream from the leaves of the local Neem tree.  Though everyone knows they should sleep under a mosquito net, most Malians don't go to bed til 10 or 11 pm. Instead, they sit and chat with their family and neighbors for hours while the mosquitoes are out. So if people can start using mosquito repellent it could make a huge difference. And the recipe is simple: First, boil a few handfuls of leaves in 1 L of water. Next, cut up a bar of soap. Remove the leaves and add the soap. Stir until the soap is liquid.  Remove from fire. Add 8 balls of shea butter and stir until it cools and thickens to a cream. All done!  In the past few weeks, we have taught a local literacy group in Kongodugu and a Women’s association in Duguba how to make the cream. Everyone we’ve trained has gotten very excited about the repellent because the ingredients are cheap and readily available, and they can make a small profit. This is also an exciting activity for us because it not only will prevent malaria in our village but since it will become a small source of income, the vendors have a vested interest in spreading the message about malaria prevention.  Some of the women have started selling it in our village market and its grown in popularity at a surprising rate. We constantly have people stopping by asking if we’re selling it and we are happy to direct them to their own neighbors who are now making weekly batches. Lastly, we have been reinforcing all of the malaria prevention methods (reducing standing water, making mosquito repellent, sleeping under a mosquito net) on the Numujo and Ashata radio show :) Its a great way to start addressing the superstitions/misinformation people have about malaria (i.e. it comes from mangos, eggs, or food with too much oil) in a nonthreatening way. Thanks for reading! ~Joye

A recent re-reading of a well-known scripture passage had me thinking: As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” … Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. Jesus looked around the said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” (Mark 10:17, 21-23) One might imagine that a reading of this passage might have me in high spirits. After all, did I not leave 95% of my earthly possessions in America to come to Mali and give help to the poor? Did I not do what the rich young man failed to do by coming to the West African Savannah? Has not my actions helped me to acquire more treasure in heaven? In my naivety and arrogance, I am embarrassed to say that some of these thoughts crossed my mind as I skimmed the passage over. However, something in my reasoning was amiss, so I read it again. What stood out to me was Jesus’ compassionate accusation: “One thing you lack.” Jesus states that the one thing standing between the young man and the life eternal is not something he has (ie. wealth), but rather something he does not have. What could he have lacked? Generosity, I concluded. He’s a money-hording scrooge, and what he lacks is a generous heart. I liked this answer because it was not something I lack… since I’m so generously helping the poor in Africa. But still, something was amiss. The passage sets up the rich young man to be an individual of high moral character. Though not quoted above, in the passage he claims to have kept all of the Jewish commandments, including those (one can assume) on being charitable. So, if he doesn’t lack generosity, what is it? To my dismay, the answer is something that I still lack as well. And in fact, my time here in Mali has only highlighted how severely I lack it. It is freedom from materialism. I know this now that I look around my mud hut that I am surprisingly possessive of. It’s my two room hut, filled with my tools, my clothes and my stuff. When Malians ask me to give them things (which is usually intended as a compliment), I am immediately defensive and dismissive. So what if I have some extra vegetable seeds? Maybe I’ll need them next season? Go find your own. Or, how dare you walk into my garden without my permission? You see the fence? This is my land, so get off! And yet, all of these feelings are toward things that we very much intend on abandoning in just over a year to come back home. In fact, we talked about it the other day, and Joye and I can only imagine bringing about some electronics and souvenirs. Moreover, our goal here should not be to see how much stuff we can acquire, but rather, how many people we are able to serve. So, why then am I so protective and possessive? Well, part of it can be justified. Creating a mindset that villagers can be dependent on foreign hand-outs is not the right thing to do. Just as many Americans grow up thinking it’s okay to make fun of short people (“midgets”), many Malians have the sad worldview that tells them that foreigners exist to be rich and give stuff. Under this perspective, it is perfectly acceptable to beg for your starving family while spending all of rainy season drinking tea. Being that our work as Peace Corps volunteers is about “helping people help themselves,” there is a fine line between generosity and reckless charity. Again, the rich young man’s problem was not stinginess, but becoming emotionally attached to material goods. Honestly, more than anything, I think it’s hardwired into me. Materialism and a sense of property are cornerstones of American culture. However, it’s difficult to see it as a problem unless you’re on top. For example, how can I be materialistic when my neighbors are the one flaunting the sports car, Jacuzzi, and get-a-way cabin on Lake (Native American name)? But here in Mali, I am on top, which is why I am noticing just how materialistic I truly am. Additionally, Mali has a culture in which nearly everything is shared. The contrast between our mindset and theirs is apparent on a daily basis. When Jesus says that it’s hard for the rich to enter the kingdom of God, it is not because the rich are necessarily stingy people. Rather, it’s because our love of material goods and ideals about property ownership conflict greatly with the spiritual and communal life that God has intended for humanity. Just as it is silly for me to defensively “own” stuff that I plan on abandoning in just over a year, I think Jesus would say it is silly to invest so much effort and concern in the material world that we, as Christians, plan on abandoning when it’s time to go home to God. So in reality, this passage puts me in a state of repentance, not pride. Hopefully, it is a flaw that I can work on in my remaining time here in Mali and again back in the States – that is, learning how to see the material goods around me as gifts from God to be shared with others, instead of possessions that I am entitled to. It was Jesus’ challenge to the rich young man, and it continues to be his challenge to me. - James (& Joye) Allen P.S. I simply want to emphasize that while the subject of this blog post is religious in nature, these views only reflect those of the author, and not Peace Corps as an organization. As a Peace Corps volunteer, I am not permitted to proselytize my faith to others, but as a U.S. citizen, I am permitted to practice my religion publicly. Thus, this post is simply an exercise of my freedom of speech and religion following an afternoon of humble reflection. Thank you.

With nothing falling from the sky from September to April, the red clay earth is parched, dried and cracked. Almost all vegetation has vanished, picked clean by scrawny goats and donkeys looking for nourishment.  It is not the endless sea of Arabian dunes that you see in movies, just barren, flat, dusty, unforgiving terrain with occasional trees offering the only escape from the heat. The temperature in hot season reaches around 110 F each day, though completely dry heat, and falls to 85-90 at night. Wells are beginning to dry up and we experience for the first time that with extreme dryness, our lips, feet, and hands were drying and cracking as well.  With the lack of water, people stopped gardening since January, so now, aside from mangoes, the only fresh produce is brought in from the big cities, meaning it is pretty scarce. And with the supplies from last years disappointing harvest beginning to dwindle, people start looking anxiously toward the skies. Without rain, the ground is too hard to plow, the emaciated livestock can not hang on, and life here can’t continue. And it’s this desperation which means that people will try everything and anything to make sure the rain comes. The animists sacrifice chickens and beat drums for rain. The mosque is suddenly full of pious worshippers praying 5 times a day for rain. The Christians hold special services and ask for God’s mercy in bringing rain. Both animists and Muslims have even asked the “tubabs” to go to church and pray to bring them rain. And as the days go by without it, people get increasingly anxious. Everyday, the grueling heat increases. One day, it seems that the temperature could not get more unbearable. Sweat pores down our faces and soaks through our clothes as we sit in the still shade and chat with villagers. “Its hot,” we state matter-of-factly. “That means the rain will come soon,” they reply in a similar tone.  But we look at the cloudless blue sky and roll our eyes. We do our best to work through the afternoon, but its difficult when the stifling heat each night means we haven't been sleeping much. Then without warning, a warm, humid breeze rises up like a blowdryer and a wide dark cloud appears low on the horizon. Within minutes the wind is howling, battering the houses with a tsunami of dust and sand swept up from the grassless fields. The temperature drops 30 degrees within the next 15 minutes as the black stormcloud gets closer and closer. With blinding waves of sand whipping at their faces, people scramble to bring in their laundry, tie up their animals, and gather their families. Everything must be secured when rain and wind come in this magnitude. It can destroy anything left outside the protection of mudbrick walls. Running inside, people wrench their tin windows closed to keep out the flood of sand and lock themselves inside their still-boiling mud hut. And then it comes, a howling torrent of cold rain which thunderously pounds on the tin roofs making it impossible to have a conversation with the person next to you without screaming, but immediately cooling down everything it touches. As we check our roof for leaks and then finally sit down, our hearts are still pounding from the frantic pre-rain preparations.  The rain rages, the first time for only a few minutes, but as rainy season progresses, the storms can last for hours. But soon after that comes an amazing feeling. As cool air seeps in the cracks of our windows, we feel combined relief from the stagnant heat and knowledge that sleep tonight will be restful.  These are sweet, beautiful moments. And the feeling never gets old. As the terrifying storm front passes, it drags behind it a steady stream of rain without the wind. Then, as you stand at the door of your house and watch it flood the clay soil, you can’t help but breath in deep that life-giving smell and smile, knowing that life can continue and flourish in an otherwise uninhabitable place because of this incredible phenomenon.   ~Joye (and Jim)

Every volunteer varies in how much food they cook. Some eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner with a host family, but Joye and I choose to cook breakfast and dinner for ourselves. Not only have we had bad luck with our host families (one abandoned us, and the other passed away), but we also enjoy a diversity in our diet that is only possible when we are in charge. However, when you only have a propane stove and a small selection of seasonal vegetables at your disposal, after a while it can be difficult to come up with new concoctions. Therefore, using some leftover mud bricks that were laying around, we decided to build a new method of cooking at our site. Lo and behold, the mud oven. Here’s how to do it: Step 1: Gather the necessary materials – mud bricks, sand, and… actually, that’s it. Step 2: Put on nasty unflattering clothes and prepare to get dirty for about two weeks. Step 3: Add water to the ol’ dirt pit out back to make some well-fashioned mud mortar. Step 4: Build a flat, square base out of bricks about a meter and half across. Step 5: Make a rectangular wall around the edges of the base, up to about four bricks high.   Step 6: Once your wall is dry and solid, fill in the base with sand and gravel, and top with mud. Step 7: Create a mold for your oven by piling a mound of sand on the base about 1 meter wide. Step 8: Wrap the mound in paper to help it keep its shape for the remainder of the project. Step 9: Make more mud, but this time, add half dirt an half sand to the mixture to make it like pseudo-cement. Step 10: Cover the mold in a layer of your pseudo-cement a couple inches thick by working your way up from the bottom. Step 11: Let the pseudo-cement dry for a few hours, before cutting a wide door in the oven. Step 12: A few days later, add another thick layer (a few inches) of pseudo-cement. Step 13: When the structure is dry, pull out all of the sand from inside through the door. Step 14: Build a fire inside to heat up your oven. The thick mud walls and sandy base will trap the heat, so that after a few hours, it should be hot enough to pull the fire out and bake. Step 15: As an extra precaution, pay some people to come put a layer of cement over the whole thing; this will prevent the rains from destroying all of your hard work. :) Just as building a mud oven is a process, so is learning how to cook with it. To heat it up to sufficiently hot levels, it is necessary to keep a fire going inside the oven for at least three hours! Then, you need to make sure that your dish is covered tightly, or your peanut butter cookies might end up tasting like bitter campfire smoke (sniffle, sniffle). However, we have had success already. For my birthday, Joye baked a delicious oatmeal apple crisp for dessert. Then, a few days later, we killed, plucked, cleaned, and baked a chicken with artichokes and tomatoes to create a sumptuous dinner, as pictured above. And for the record, yes, that was the first time we’ve killed, plucked, and cleaned a chicken. :) Moral of the story: Appreciate your gas-powered oven. - James (& Joye)

As we explained when we arrived in Mali last July, getting projects off the ground takes a lot of time, volunteers need to get to know their village, make connections, assess needs, get to a point in their language where they can function relatively well, and get the timing right so that villagers have the time to work with them (aka not farming season). However, when people do have time for you, a lot ends up happening at once! Therefore, near the end of May, James and I were busy with another project finally coming to fruition: A 3 day  “Take Our Daughters to Work Day” girls empowerment camp. In Mali, girls have to overcome a series of challenges if they want to succeed in becoming literate or having a career or their own. Many families refuse to enroll their girls in school at all since they are needed around the house. Once in school, they often fall behind as they don’t raise their hands or speak in class. Finally, its very common to be given in an arranged marriage around the age of 14 or 15. Once married, the girl will likely become pregnant quickly and will have a hard time convincing her husband to let her continue her education.  Joye is technically an Education volunteer and since Peace Corps encourages projects that focus on promoting girls education, she and the 10 other volunteers within our region were able to obtain funds to hold a camp which gathered 22 6th and 7th grade girls in a large city to expose them to opportunities for females in the workplace.   The camp was led by 11 current PCVs who acted as chaperons, daily planners, speakers, and mentors for the girls. Each day was planned with activities meant to expose the girls to new career ideas and introduce them to successful working women. On Day 1, we took a tour of a large hospital and talked to many nurses and midwives about the steps they took to start a medical career. Activities on hand-washing, germs, and nutrition were also incorporated with icebreakers to encourage the girls to open up to each other and the volunteers. On Day 2, the girls visited the Mayor and Prefect’s offices, where representatives spoke about the importance of women’s education and empowerment. They also toured the artisan center and the technical school and were given the opportunity to engage with members of both to discuss what they could do to overcome obstacles that prevented women from continuing their studies or having a successful career. Throughout the camp, activities were incorporated as the girls talked about role models and set goals for their future career plans.  One encouraging moment was the goal setting activity. For many of the girls, this was the first time someone had asked them what THEY wanted to do with their life and we spent over 30 minutes just trying to explain the assignment to write a paragraph about “Where do you see yourself in 10 years?”. However, as the girls started brainstorming, and one by one presented their dreams to the group followed by loud applause, they started getting extremely excited for each other and it was great to see the positive influence from their peers   Based on these discussions, the volunteers assigned the girls job shadowing placements which fit their aspirations. On Day 3, pairs of girls spent the day shadowing female mentors at places such as the bank, the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, a library, a microfinance institution, restaurants, food transformation centers and various artisans throughout Koutiala.  The girls especially loved this day they spent with their mentors doing hands on activities and really seeing what the day to day tasks are in a field that interested them. Finally, the camp ended with a celebratory “fete” where we invited the mentors and participants to a night of dinner, music, and a slideshow. Notably, the Mayor also came to the party in order to thank Peace Corps for their hard work and speak to the girls about continuing their education. Though it had its hiccups and frustrations while planning the logistics, the event itself was a success. For many of the girls, this was their first time in Koutiala (or for some, their 1st time outside their village) and throughout the 3 day camp, the changes in the girls behavior, confidence, and energy were signs that the event was accomplishing its goals. During the first day, many of the girls were extremely quiet and shy, afraid to express themselves in front of the volunteers or their peers. However, the icebreaker games and self-esteem activities such as public speaking practice and dance choreography broke the tension and the girls started opening up to each other and the volunteers. By the end of the camp, it seemed like a completely different group of girls. On the last night, the girls were up late chatting, giggling, and exchanging contact information and will hopefully keep in touch as they continue their education.   Once we got back to village, the girls gave presentations to their classes about their camp. Jim proudly listened as one of the girls he brought from a neighboring village told her class, “People say that girls can’t build houses or become technicians, but we went and we saw girls that do those jobs! The women there told us to work hard and be courageous and we could do whatever job we wanted.”  So yes, these girls will still have a lot of challenges ahead of them if they wish to continue past middle school, but hopefully the camp succeeded in opening their eyes to the possibilities for their future and encouraging them that with hard work and perseverance, they can achieve something remarkable.  

After one of the best vacations of our lives, James and I were a bit worried about the emotional toll our readjustment back to site would take on us. It was going to be sad, not exactly difficult, just sad going back to bucket baths, a limited diet, and inexplicable heat. However, we were lucky that we had so much work waiting for us in our village that we were thrown right back into the swing of things. With our pump proposal approved while we were gone, we got to village only to turn around 2 days later and come back to the big city with our village counterparts for pump replacement parts. We arranged for the transportation back to site and within the next 6 days, (thanks to our pump repairman’s speed!) we had 4 working pumps in the village! It was so exciting to walk around and see people gathered around the pumps for the first time in over 8 years. We hope this project will have a widespread effect on the health of our village, reducing diarrheal diseases (which are one of the main causes of death for children under 5 here).   So now our job is to make this temporary fix into a sustainable solution. Before we left we had taken the initial steps in setting up a Water and Sanitation committee. So this past week, we gathered the committee for basic sanitation and pump maintenance. There role in the village will be as follows : 1) To educate the rest of the village on basic sanitation and pump care practices 2) To enforce rules that will allow the pumps to last longer without breaking 3.) to establish a monthly dues collection mechanism so the village will have money to fix the pumps when they break in the future. Our initial trainings with the committee seemed successful as the village established that each household would pay 50 cents/month. So we will continue to meet with them monthly until we leave to ensure that the money is being collected and the pumps are being cared for.   The last thing we did was Pump Awareness presentations for the 5th and 6th grade. Since many parents send their kids for water, we thought it was important to educate the kids in the village about pump usage, the dangers of standing water (aka a breeding ground for mosquitoes and thus malaria), etc. We charged them with being the enforcers of these rules for all the younger kids and so far we seen a noteable change in the way that kids have been behaving around the pumps. So the most important part of the project—making sure its sustainable—is yet to be done, but it feels good to finally have the main labor intensive tasks of a larger project completed! The unending thanks and happy faces of women in our village have been so encouraging. Its made the adjustment back to Mali so much smoother and hopefully will be a source of encouragement as our villagers get very busy working in their fields for Rainy Season (as soon as June roles around, villagers are often too busy to work with volunteers on a project). In other news, we recently bought tickets back to America at the end of September as Joye will be in her cousin’s wedding :) We’re already getting excited and its 4 months away! ~Joye (and James)

For those of our readers who did not actively follow our lives prior to this blog - but continue to do so because of the high standard of quality writing J - it will enhancing you reading of this post to know Joye’s history regarding the French language. After watching their daughter excel at French in high school, Joye’s parents fueled her enthusiasm by vacationing to Paris and hosting an English-studying French student named Marion for three consecutive summers. This encouragement led Joye to major in French on the collegiate level, which included studying abroad for a semester in Nantes, a port city in Northwest France. Up until our trip, I (James) had yet to visit Nantes (pronounced “Naunt”) or meet Marion, though both make up a huge part of who Joye is. So, what I wanted out of the last part of this trip was to better understand Joye, but in addition, I also got what became my favorite part of our “Best.Trip.Ever.” “Nantes is not touristy,” Joye warned one hundred times prior to the end of our cross-country train ride. Its value, according to her, was primary nostalgic. However, thankfully, she was being over-cautious; there was a lot to see in Nantes: it’s newly restored Gothic cathedral, the former castle of the Duke and Duchess of Brittany, the river, its quaint shopping district, a number of beautiful gardens, and the Machine d’Iles - a street theatre company famous for its creating real-life machines based on the imagination of Jules Vernes (who came from and lived in Nantes). However, the nostalgic moments were nice too: visiting the offices of Joye’s study abroad programs, eating at three course dinner at her favorite restaurant, just after eating a cheap lunch at Quick, a French equivalent of Burger King, which she ate alarmingly often. The brightest highlight, though, was going to dinner with her former host family in Nantes, who treated us to a spectacular four-course meal, complete with caviar, goat cheese, fresh yogurt, and good French wine. Despite being entirely in French, our conversation was a lively discussion of our work in Mali; Joye led the way, while I was grateful that I managed to keep up.       After Nantes, came Rennes (pronounced “Ren”), another important city in France’s Brittany region, where we had to privilege to see Marion and stay in her family’s beautiful home for four nights. There, we were treated to a non-stop cornucopia of French home-cooking, including quiche, beef roast, galettes, crepes, chicken, rabbit paté, and a combination of bread, sausage, and goat cheese, all of which exemplified the French preference for simple, high-quality ingredients. Moreover, each meal came with wine, cider, etc which Marion’s father served generously and frequently. It was a taste of France that we could not afford elsewhere, and so it was greatly savored and appreciated. Furthermore, the Bertho family willingly drove us around to all the touristy sites, including the awe-inspiring cathedral/mountain/island of Mont Saint Michael (if it doesn’t ring a bell, Google it), the humbling WWII beaches of Normandy, the pirate-haven of Saint Malo, and the lovely seaside town of Dinard. Our final day I spent the morning playing their piano (while everyone was out, of course), and in the afternoon, we toured the cobblestone streets and wooden townhouses of Rennes’s historic district. As a result of our host family’s first-class hospitality, our stay in Rennes achieved the perfect blend of excitement and relaxation so often sought for in a vacation, yet so rarely achieved. Donc, á la famille du Bertho, merci beaucoup pour votre hospitalité ! Then, finally, our trip ended in Paris, which we only intended to spend a few hours in, but instead had to stay overnight, since our airlines Royal Air Maroc mercilessly cancel our flight a week before. But when life gives you lemons, and you happen to be in Paris, make lemonade. So we took the time to visit some site we had not seen before, including the Museum of Orsay (think Van Gogh and Monet), the bone dump called Parisian catacombs, and the other beautiful bone dump called the Father Lachaise Cemetery. We also went and saw Thor, which despite its ridiculous plot, contained all of the phantasmagoric spectacles we had hoped to see in our first 3D movie in nine months.      Five hours before our flight, we found ourselves promenading along the River Seine eating darn-good falafel from the Jewish Quarter, when I received a startling text message: “Your flight is cancelled. Register at the airport in 45 minutes.” We were a half hour from our luggage at the hotel, and 45 minutes from the airport. Running, we made it in an hour, which while exhausting, ended up being a perk; we made the new flight, were unable to think about the sad reality of leaving, and (after some complaining) got passes to their VIP room, where we took all of the goodies we could grab. It was an eventful end to an already unforgettable vacation. Thanks for reading! – James (& Joye)

“Mountains, I want to see mountains, Gandalf.” – Bilbo Baggins, The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring In the months (yes, months) leading up to our trip, Joye and I must have repeated this quote from our favorite movie trilogy at least one hundred times. With the exception of Dogon country, Mali is flat, and we often find ourselves craving elevation. So we had long been anticipating our first trip to the snow-capped peaks of the French Alps. We started this part of the trip is style: first-class high-speed train tickets from Paris to Annecy, a pristine village perched on the end of a crystal-clear lake approaching the great mountain range. We intentionally planned for a seven hour lay-over here, so we had time to explore (which was also made possible by our light packs). During our day there, we promenaded along the village’s canals, took a boat ride to see the mountains better, and slept in a grassy park under a tree. It also happened to be Annecy’s market day, which was so different from Mali in terms of the selection of foods available (strawberries instead of mangos, sausage instead of goat meat, cheese instead of nothing), but so similar in that it was a warm community event. We bought some regional specialties - seasoned sausage and goat cheese – and a basket of strawberries.   Our day ended with a winding train ride up into the mountains and into the Alpine village of Chamonix, famous for its view of Mont Blanc, the highest peak in the region. Our studio apartment came with a complimentary bottle of wine at a local Irish pub, so we promptly headed out and ordered nachos, real burger and fries, and a pot pie. This was only the start of wonderfully familiar meals to come. Because of our budget, after the restaurant that night, we pretty much only bought groceries. But since our studio came with a mostly-equipped kitchen, this allowed to eat many “delicacies” that are not available in Mali, such as ham sandwiches, cereal with milk, and canned ravioli. However, our last night we splurged and requested an order of tartiflette from a nearby bakery to eat in the studio. Supposedly, tartiflette is only butter, cream, ham, potatoes, and Reblochon cheese, but it was more than that; it was life-changing. Joye has day-dreamed about it every day since.   But when the French Alps are right outside your door, you think about more than just food. As expected, we spent much of our time having adventures. Our first morning we spent exploring what it feels like to sleep-in (since it’s to hot to do so in Mali), and then wandered around the boutiques and rues of Chamonix – a quiet, restful day. However, for the following day, Easter, we had more ambitious plans: to ascend the highest cable car in the world to the Aiguille du Midi, a rock pinnacle turned observation station for the most beautiful section of the French Alps. Despite a little cloud cover, the view from up-top was spectacular, as well as the biting cold and the fresh frosty mountain air. Joye even found a patch of untouched white powder to make a snow-angel. Then, to round out a very spiritual day, we caught the evening mass at small church, which, while in French, was very peaceful.   After a day of high altitudes, the next day was planned to keep our feet on the ground, hiking. We basically just found a few trails and started, quickly finding ourselves climbing through a thick wood on a warm spring day. At many times we were reminded of Michigan – the home-country – but at others we found ourselves staring across a steep valley which seemed more reminiscent of the Rockies. We stopped for a picnic lunch at a boarded-up chatlet, and headed back down into Chamonix. We arrived just-in-time for a rain storm, which led us to finding some hot chocolate while doing a load of laundry.  We then savored our studio     apartment, our bedroom loft with its skylight, and the selection of British television channels for one final night before packing up and going to bed.   The French Alps were absolutely incredible, but a full day of travel across the country of France starting the subsequent morning brought us into a new location, and the last and final part of this blog series. To be continued… - James (& Joye)

After 10 months in Mali, we knew that any travel outside of this country would involve some sort of reverse culture shock. Its amazing that when you talk to any PC Mali volunteer, they will tell you that relative to Mali, other West African countries i.e. Senegal, Ghana, etc “feel like America.” Therefore, rather than going straight to France and being blown away by the differences, we decided to readjust in stages, starting with Morocco.  And we were so happy we did, not only did this mean that we were not in Marrakech for the bombing that happened a week later, but that we were able to ease back into life with paved roads, French speakers, good tea, amazing food, toilets, hot showers, air conditioning, etc. Our plane landed in Casablanca  at 6:30 am and  we had plans to meet a friend from Joye’s semester abroad in France in the afternoon. We spent the day touring the Hassan II Mosque which is the 3rd largest in the world and one of the few mosques which non-muslims can enter. It was HUGE and very ornately decorated. The other interesting thing about it is that there is a verse in the Koran about God’s throne being over the sea, so the mosque is built partially over the ocean. Jim and I enjoyed a picnic outside the mosque and reveled in the views and smells of the ocean which we had not seen in quite some time. That afternoon, we met up with our friend, caught a train down to Marrakech, and upon exiting the train station, caught site of the first McDonalds we’d seen in 10 months, which inevitably led to a feast on double cheeseburgers, fries, and McFlurries. I think we were both amazed that after so long in Africa, these things still tasted exactly the same to us, just all the more awesome for not having had them in so long. Here we were thinking the world, or at least our tastebuds, had changed drastically in our time abroad ;) We spent the next few days in and around Marrakech, near the Atlas Mountains in western Morocco. The city of Marrakech is best known for its thriving markets so we spent hours wandering through the “souks” and admiring the beautiful pottery, colorful rugs, intricately designed clothing, glass lamps, handmade jewelry, etc. It was a blessing in disguise I think to have so little room in our packs! We also toured many famous ancient palaces, with the most beautiful tile designs and interesting architecture. Finally, we loved Moroccan food! Moroccans are most famous for their “Tajine” which is meat, vegetables, and famous Moroccan spices cooked in a uniquely shaped clay pot over a fire. Awesome. On top of that we feasted on couscous, strawberries, apricots, peaches, and actual orange oranges (the ones in Mali are green).  As the trip kept getting better and better, we kept stopping, glancing at each other, and saying “Best. Trip. Ever.” After 2 nights in Marrakech, we took a guided day trip to the beautiful Ourika Vally in the High Atlas Mountains. Our group started by visiting a traditional Berber home where we ate a wonderful breakfast of homemade bread, olive oil, honey, and Moroccan mint tea. We continued toward the mountains stopping for a 20 minute camel ride up a scenic trail. And for those who are eager to ride a camel of there own, 20 minutes was enough! Very fun experience, but very uncomfortable! Leaving the camels behind, we drove on into the valley and then completed a 2-3 hour hike to a beautiful ice-cold waterfall carrying all the melted snow down the valley. We were blessed with beautiful sunny 80 F weather, incredible after leaving 110 F Mali in April. We finished off a wonderful day by driving to a restaurant with a terrace that looked over the whole valley and getting served a 3 course traditional Moroccan meal. When arrived back in Marrakech in the evening, Joye and her friend took advantage of the spa that was located in our hotel, while Jim graciously bought fresh fruit and prepared them a wonderful fruit salad for dinner.   We spent one more day in Marrakech, enjoying the huge Jamel El-Fna square which is filled with food stalls, orange juice stands, snake charmers, street performers, etc. Jim got a traditional Moroccan shave (including a face massage!) to remove his beard which he had kept to made him more intimidating to pushy vendors. Moroccan vendors are notorious for being pushy and hassling tourists. However, we learned a few arabic greetings, dressed in a culturally appropriate way, and made it clear that we were living in Mali and we had no problems with vendors. So while Morocco is incredibly different from Mali, we think that our Peace Corps experience helped us during our travels. We ended the trip by splurging on a meal at one of the most famous restaurants in town, stuffing ourselves once again with delicious food in order to make up for 10 months of a limited Malian diet.  After a wonderful meal, we returned to hotel and packed up our bags to head to France on the following day.

We’ll post more about France coming soon…. ~Joye (and James)

Hello friends,

Just a quick update to let everyone know that we returned from our trip safely and had an absolutely wonderful time. There were so many times when one of us would turn to the other and exclaim "Best. Trip. Ever." The vacation has provided us with many extraordinary memories for years to come: the colorful markets of Morocco, the powdery snow of the French Alps, the incredible coast of the Brittany region, and the gastronomic greatness of French home-cooking.

Of course, every trip has its hiccups. The past few weeks were full of news, which forced us to be extra vigilant while traveling. But heaviest of all was a phone call we recieved (while touring a fine arts museum) reporting that Kongodugu's village chief, who was also our host-father, had died of sudden illness. We regret that we never took his photo, which we may been able to give to his 2-year-old son, since we overestimated the predictability of African life... or maybe just life in general. This sad news came just after we learned that our airlines, Royal Air Maroc, rescheduled our return flight by 24 hours. And then, they rescheduled it a second time, only two hours before the flight while we were enjoying a promande through Paris. Fortunately, Joye ran track and James is in shape; otherwise we may have missed a set of Food Security meetings in Bamako. But alls well that ends well, and despite the return of Mali's oppessing heat, here we are, safe and sound, ready and anxious to return to site.

We are excited to share our travels with you over the course of the next few posts. And, of course, just to show off, we will include lots of pictures. :)

Have a great weekend. -James (& Joye)

This past week has been exhausting. It feels as if we accomplished as much work as we had in the past six months, which means our productivity increased at more than an exponential rate. Together, we recorded another six half-hour radio shows, bringing the total up to fourteen, in which we talked about clean water, malaria, girls education, mud stoves, mango drying, and tree planting, all in Bambara. We also kept working with local leaders to develop a project proposal for fixing the broken water pumps in our village. Additionally, Joye collected firewood with a bunch of women from our local church (notice in the picture above the woman is cutting down trees with a baby on her back!), and co-wrote a proposal for a “Take-Your-Daughter-To-Work” Day project for all volunteers in our sub-region. Also, she helped the 6th grade to write letters to American penpals, delivered 150 literacy books to village literacy centers, planted nutritious moringa trees with a community school, and still managed to cook delicious dinners every night.                        James, for his part, led a formation on dry-season tree planting in nearby village, mediated a discussion between rival jatropha biofuel producers, encouraged a women’s group to experiment with food drying in Duguba, and trained local enumerators to conduct a survey in our village for his Master’s thesis. And on top of all that, we had to prepare for the reason we were so rushed in the first place: we are going on a much anticipated vacation. This trip and the awesomeness that is mangoes were the only things that kept us sane. And now, for the next three weeks, we will be in Morocco and France, eating fresh fruit, catching cooler temperatures, and enjoying travel by train, not bus. We’ll be sure to update you on our adventures when we return. Until then… ~James and Joye

Hello everyone. We thought we’d write a quick update before returning back to site today, after we’ve been away from site for twelve days. However, these twelve days have not been spent travelling or relaxing, but rather keeping busy with Peace Corps work in Sikasso (our regional capital) and Bamako (Mali’s capital). The first six days or so we spent getting to and working in Sikasso for a regional in-service training. Peace Corps provided lodging, food, and transportation for our counter-parts and ourselves to participate in a series of workshops on food security, community needs assessments (see “PACA & Community Priorities”), and home-made income-generating activities (ie. soap, improved porridge, & mosquito repellant). We also heard from a number of 2nd year Peace Corps volunteers about what they were able to accomplish, and how they went about doing it. This was probably the most valuable for us as we are beginning to do some funded work as well. Afterward, the last six days were spent in Bamako, where James was set to give a presentation on the Food Security Community Needs Assessment (FS-CAT, see “Promoting Food Security”). Even though we had to wait a few days for the timeslot to arrive, we kept busy. Joye worked on a funding proposal for the pump repair project to take place in our village and also laid some ground-work for a “Take your daughter to work” day event. James translated his Master’s thesis survey into Bambara and prepared for his presentation. Then, a day before, we travelled to Peace Corps summer camp (Tubaniso) to meet the new volunteers and talk with the married couples about their experiences thus far. When the presentation finally came, it went over very well, and right afterward, we left for site. The reason we are so anxious to return to site is because we will be leaving it again in a week, but this time not for work in Bamako, but rather for vacation. Another reason we went to Bamako was to make some final preparations for our 2.5 week trip to Morocco and France, which is set to begin in about 10 days. So, look forward to hearing about that on a later post! Hope all is well State-side. Thanks for reading. -James (& Joye)

  One of my goals in coming to Mali was to develop a more “real” understanding of food insecurity, a subject that I have studied extensively in the classroom both in my undergraduate and graduate programs. Certainly it is one thing to know that the three pillars of food security are availability, accessibility, and utilization, and quite another to wonder where you’ll find your weekly supply of vegetables or why Malians think that a full belly is a nourished one. Building on this improved understanding of food insecurity is a strong desire to do something about it, and so much of my time in Mali thus far has been focused on promoting food security. However, for whatever reason, I have not mentioned much of this work on the blog, so without further ado… Masters Thesis – Though it’s been a while since I mentioned it, some may recall that I am a Masters International PCV. This program enables people to start their graduate degree for one year in the States and then complete their program in the Peace Corps by writing their thesis (or equivalent) while serving. As a current Masters student in agricultural economics from Michigan State University, I have had the opportunity to tap into research already being done by my professors in Mali. Currently, one project is looking at the relationship between cotton and cereal production, an important topic in a country whose second top export is cotton. To build off of its quantitative findings, I will conducting a similar survey in my own village (Kongodugu) and following it up with focus group discussions with farmers in Bambara. This work will hopefully help to inform Malian policymakers with how to best address current problems with food insecurity and instability in the cotton industry. Food Security Task Force – Peace Corps itself also has a Food Security program, which is supported by a training budget and a small staff. To help improve the program, a volunteer-led task force has been established to meet periodically and provide feedback. In December, the task force held its leadership election, and I was fortunate enough to snag the top spot, a position lovingly labeled “Food Security Czar.” Since then I have met twice with the task force and, after much deliberation, we have pushed forward various previous to Peace Corps staff including how to equip volunteers with practical resources to help them train their villages on food security related activities. FS-CAT – Moreover, I just recently completed the Food Security Community Assessment Tool, which will be given to the newest round of PCVs. The tool will help volunteers assess available resources in their village and help them determine which particular aspects of food security are their village’s strengths or weaknesses. The FS-CAT will also help link volunteers to some of the practical resources the task force is pushing forward. I will be presenting the FS-CAT to the PCVs next week in Bamako, so hopefully it goes over well. Village Work – Lastly, in all the work that we do in our village, we keep food security in mind. This is not difficult since, as we learned from our PACA meetings, Malian’s daily and seasonal calendars are based around farming and eating food. Thus, a huge variety of projects and activities can be food security focused. Topics like gardening and composting can improve food production while others, such as nutritional foods and hand-washing with soap, can improve food consumption. We have also talked about it specifically on our radio show. So even though none of this work sounds particularly exciting, it occupies too much of my time to simply not be mentioned in this blog. Hopefully, I will try to be more vigilant about updating y’all on continuing this food security work in the future. :) Thanks for reading. -James

As Jim mentioned in a previous post, we recently held two 2-day PACA meetings  in Kongodugu and Duguba in order to help the village choose development priorities, aka reasonable goals and projects that could be completed in the next few years. James’s meeting consisted of many educated “functionaires” very accustomed to shiny NGO meetings. This meant that these well-educated Malians who were already leaders in this larger town had a LOT of ideas about how to improve the town and the challenge was to reconcile the differences and help different groups of people agree to work together.   Participants split into groups based on gender and age and developed a daily calendar, seasonal work schedule, community map, and priorities which fit their group. Food Security was one of the main topics of discussion and everyone agreed that it was something they wanted to work toward in Duguba. Then, the Malian Peace Corps trainer brought everyone together and helped them to combine and  rank their collective priorities, and start thinking about an action plan for making improvements to the community, all this while keeping the crowds attention and energy up with stories and jokes that only a Malian could pull off. After extensive discussion and voting, Duguba decided that food transformation, microfinance, education, and gardening would be its top priorities. Therefore, in the past two weeks Jim has started talking to the women’s association about solar drying fruits and vegetables and hopes to organize a training in the near future.   Doing PACA in Kongodugu was a horse of a different color. We started by drawing a community map. However, since only about 10 % of the people at the meeting were literate this could have been a very intimidating exercise for them. Instead, the Peace Corps trainer adopted the training to their needs. We gathered leaves, ash, and rocks, and made a map of our village by drawing every landmark in the dirt and labeling them with little pieces of paper.  I helped people write their names down and place their houses on the map. We used the map as a springboard into topics such as why open defecation is bad, how drinking water gets contaminated, washing hands with soap, etc.   On day two in Kongodugu, we split into groups of men, women, and youth to discuss village priorities for development. It was amazing to see the women get involved. Three of the 15 women had started literacy classes only last year, so they helped their group slowly make a list of changes they wanted to see take place. Still, it was easy to see that the women and the youth were thrilled to have a voice in village life, a place traditionally reserved for older men.  Each group presented their list and after much discussion and voting led by the Peace Corps trainer, we decided that fixing the old broken water pumps, farming equipment, improving women’s handicrafts (shea butter, cloth dying), and education would be our focus. The success of these meetings has led to a whirlwind of activity in the last few weeks as people are finally excited and motivated to get started on some of these priorities.  Therefore, last week, we found a blacksmith who knows how to fix pumps, obtained a diagnosis of the problems, got a quote on purchasing new parts, and met with the village chief to explain what needs to happen if the village wants to move forward.  The big challenge now is to see if the village can raise the relatively expensive sum of money to serve as Peace Corps’ required community contribution. If so, we plan on submitting a grant proposal to Peace Corps and following through on the project.     ~Joye (and James)

“An lamenbagaw mandi, Aw ni su. Aw ka kene? Somogow don?” So begins every program of the Achata & Numujo radio show here in rural Mali. Now into our second week, Joye and I have successfully aired four half-hour radio shows. Every Thursday night, Joye (Achata) leads the discussion on health and education, and every Sunday night, I (Numujo) lead the discussion on environmental protection. For example, last week Joye taught me about germs and hand-washing with soap, while I taught her about how to start a successful compost pile. Moreover, during the show, we play some American tunes and talk in a way that promotes the values of equality and affection in a marriage. Thus far, the reviews have been extremely positive. Throughout the radio’s broadcasting area, we are constantly stopped and complemented on our Bambara, and it is not uncommon to hear people repeat memorized segments of the show that they found particular humorous. While a lot of work to record two half-hour shows in Bambara every week, this encouragement has convinced us that this will be meaningful and promising work going forward, which is a tremendous blessing. We have also been keeping busy in these last few weeks planning and completing our village’s PACA (Participatory Analysis for Community Assessment) meeting. In short, PACA brings together a diverse set of community members to discuss village strengths and then what villagers themselves can do to help improve their situation. In a culture where only old men make community decisions by appealing to NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) for money, this is a very different way of community organizing. In PACA, old men, old women, and youth are all represented, which often means that a different set of village development priorities emerges. For example, old men never are sent to go fetch water, so why would working pumps be a priority for them? To organize the meeting, we had to invite key community leaders, who in turn invited larger groups of people. For myself, who works in Duguba (15kms away), this was particularly difficult since it involved multiple trips back and forth. We also to provide snacks to participants since the meeting went from 8am to 1pm, which was another fiasco, particularly in Duguba where they are used to NGOs providing large meals after every formation. Lastly, we had to organize with a Peace Corps trainer to come in to lead the meeting, which was challenging, but worth it, since as a Malian he was able to say things we could not because of both language and cultural barriers (ie. So if you don’t wash your hands after the bathroom, and then you eat lunch, what are you really eating? Poop!). At the end of both meetings, the villagers collectively selected and ranked a set of development priorities which we will now work with them on to complete. For Duguba, the 1st priorities was food transformation activities, and for Kongodugu (where we live), it was fixing the broken down pumps in town. These are great footholds for where to guide our work. Furthermore, this month saw the continuation of a few things we have already reported on. I continue to help the tailors in Duguba organize their cooperative and set reasonable goals for buying new machinery, and Joye continues to teach weekly health lessons to a community school. She has already successfully taught them how to build a hand-washing station and make a cheap oral rehydration drink that will help their families fight against the number one killer of small children here – diarrhea. Lastly, to end on a positive note, this month we made a couple improvements to our living situation. Since hot season is quickly approaching, we bought a small wooden bed that we have started using to sleep outside underneath our thatch hangar, which has significantly improved the quality of our sleep. Also, we were graciously given a banana tree, which we planted near our house and surrounded by mud bricks to protect from the donkeys. With a lot of water, and a little luck, we should have bananas in about six months! Still waiting on a compound wall and a roof for our magazine, but we are hopeful that they will come soon. Thank you for reading and your continual thoughts and prayers! Have a great day! -James (& Joye)

As a predominantly Muslim country, Malian clothing is often considered very conservative by western standards. However, relative to many other Islamic countries, the mode of dress here is very loud and expressive.  Markets are filled with brightly colored cloth and people take great pride in their clothing and appearance, so much so that if you tell someone you would like to take their picture, they often will ask to change clothes first!  Ready made outfits are generally not sold and people buy fabric instead to take to their local tailor. So the first challenge in creating a Malian outfit is finding the right design, amount, and quality of fabric. First, there are 3 qualities/types of fabric : fancy, vacksy, and bazin. (in increasing order by price). So its important to know what you want beforehand so you can bargain with the vendor.  Bazin is often worn by the “big-shots” from Bamako but only for very important holidays for rural villagers. Most rural villagers settle on making a nice outfit made   out of a brightly colored vacksy, and those who are low on cash settle for fancy. To the left, our 2 favorite  Woso (fried sweet potato) ladies model Bazin and Vacksy outfits :) Next, once you’ve settled on what you would like made with the fabric, you bring it to your tailor and explain. Do you want embroidery? a zipper in the back? a lining? Thats all going to cost extra. You chat and bargain over the price and once you’ve come to an agreement, you get measured and you’ll have a finished outfit within the next week.  But what do people order at the tailor? Women wear long wrap-skirts known in french as pagnes. This is basically a 2m x 1m piece of fabric tied around the waist. Only rarely and only in big cities have I seen Malian women in pants. In general, it’s simply not done here. Still, I get away with wearing pants in my village when I’m doing manuel labor or riding my bike because I’ve explained to my neighbors that I simply don’t know how to do those things in a skirt. The pagne is usually accompanied with a matching shirt made from the same material. Often shirts are long and loose, covering the shoulders.  However, the younger generation is starting to wear more western looking designs, like spaghetti straps, etc.  Women also wear bright colored head wraps, required if you are married. However, though I cover my head for very formal ceremonies, I’ve decided to pull the “tubabu” card in this area because its too hot to keep a head wrap on all the time!  There are a few rules that are too essential to leave out : Rule #1: Cover your knees. This is so important! If a woman takes off her shirt to breastfeed her child in public, people won’t even take notice. But if she shows her knees, everyone gets very uncomfortable. Rule #2: Tie your skirt on the left side of your body. Only prostitutes tie on the right side as a way of advertising. For men, the wardrobe is much more western. Men wear long cotton pants (never shorts except for playing soccer) and a collared shirt, often made of a Malian fabric. Formal wear for men is a long flowing Boubou (imagine a shirt that extends to your ankles)  and matching pants. Older men will often add a small prayer cap for extra style points. One thing that  many Americans don’t realize is that a huge amount of our second hand clothes get flown to developing countries and are sold in local markets. They’re known as the “dead tubab” clothes because before they knew better, people thought the clothes came from white people who had died. Who else would have so much to give away? Now, whenever a word is misspelled or a shirt is printed upside down, they send the leftovers to developing countries like Mali. We often laugh when we see arrogant teenagers striding around in an Avril Lavigne or Madonna tshirt. Our previous host mother constantly wore a shirt advertising Ice Cream Sundaes for a local shop— torture in a place where you can’t get Ice Cream! The other day we even rode our bikes past a man wearing a University of Michigan jacket. It is very common to see these “dead tubab” clothes being mixed and matched with traditional clothing.  Our favorite example of this is a tiny little 7 year old next door who wears this huge coat when the temperature dips below 70 degrees F :) Adorable.   ~Joye (and James)

Malian oral tradition tells of a wise king who ruled centuries ago during a time of widespread tribal conflict. Before his kingdom tore itself to pieces, the ruler had to think of way to stop the bloodshed while still allowing some outlet for ethnic tensions (a crucial element to peace-building that is often overlooked today). The king’s solution was an unusual one, but it seems to have worked. He declared that rival tribes become “joking cousins,” and that they had full permission to tease each other in a non-personal and non-threatening way. Today, the concept of “joking cousins” is still very much alive. In fact, this blog post is long overdue, as it is a Malian cultural oddity that we experience on a daily basis. However, we have prolonged posting about it because the idea of a “joking cousin” is extremely foreign to Americans, and thus, can be difficult to fully explain. The basic concept is this: every family name has a set of other family names (former rival tribes) which they are explicitly supposed to make fun of for no other reason than it’s funny. So, for cultural integration purposes, it is critical that each Peace Corps volunteer adopts a Malian family name and participates in the “joking cousins” game. Despite being married, Joye and I have different family names - both adopted our homestay families during training – which is okay here since women do not typically change their last name after marriage. Therefore, my last name, and not Joye’s last name, is Traore (Tra-or-ay), which has two major joking cousins: the Diarra (Jar-ra) and the Kone (Kon-ay). Therefore, whenever I meet either of these two, even for – or especially for – the first time, we will immediately start making fun of each other. It does not matter if the individual is a very respected elder, a merchant, or a young baby, there is full disclosure to tease, though certain insults are more common and appropriate than others. When we first arrived, we were surprised by how childish some of the insults were, but after a while, we too began to think they were funny. For example, bean jokes are the most popular, and yes, they are funny for the same reason they are funny in the States. Simply telling people that they eat beans or farm beans is considered a low blow, though sometimes the jokes can get creative, like “even people in America know that Diarras like beans.”  However, never tell someone that their mom eats beans; I learned the hard way that that crosses the line. :) Some other common insults simply cut down a person’s character, such as you’re bad, you’re mean, you’re stupid, you’re head is broken, and you’re the worst. And then you a few other classics, like you eat dog, you are a dog, you drink toilet water, and you speak donkey language. Lastly, it is not unusual to hear this little number - you’re my slave - though we haven’t quite found the nerve to try this one yet. Other insults are saved for particular family names, and unlike the generic jokes listed above, these are more the type that we Americans might consider racial slurs. Joye’s adopted family name is a priceless example of this: Samake (Sa-ma-kay), which literally means “elephant man.” Therefore, Joye is constantly teased for being a big fat elephant woman. Thankfully, she doesn’t take it personally. Other examples include the Keita (Kay-tah) family, which are teased for being peanut farmers - think Jimmy Carter - and the Fulani peoples, who are known as the cow herders and milk sellers. However, most unfortunate is the Coulibaly (Koo-li-bah-lee) family, who can be teased by anyone. In fact, just calling someone “a Coulibaly” is an insult or a comic way of meeting someone for the first time. Understanding and participating in “joking cousins” has done wonders for our cultural integration. It has helped us make instant friends with Traores and Samakes and sparked lively conversation with all of our rivals. Furthermore, it comes in handy when bargaining (“That’s too expensive you Coulibaly bean-eater!”), and is a great way to diffuse a tense situation into genuine laughter. There is nothing quite like in the States, but Mali couldn’t live without their “joking cousins.” -James (& Joye)

As Cold Season comes to a close, our garden is finally producing fruit! Yes, those tomatoes look a little green because, yes, we were a little eager to eat from our garden, but now our garden is full of ripe red tomatoes, carrots, hot peppers, and corn. It’s built up our credibility to the point where villagers have started seeking Jim out for more formal advice about their gardens. In the past 2 weeks, Jim held 2 separate trainings(one with men and one with women) teaching them about composting and soil improvement techniques. Villagers couldn’t believe it when he told them that the plastic bags they throw in their fields take a a few centuries to decompose!       (Below) Joye has been working more closely with the children in Kongodugu. Aside from her weekly health class with the community school, she has also invited 5th and 6th grade kids to come and study their lessons once a week at our home. A few weeks ago, the “study-hall” regulars asked if they could start learning English. So now, they have formed an informal English club and come on Saturday nights for introductory English lessons.           (Above) Joye also participates in Peace Corps’ World Wise Schools program, where she is linked with a class in the US and exchanges letters with them, sharing about life in Mali. This month, Joye worked with the village 6th graders to write letters (in French) to her partner class in the US. The partner class, a group of high school students studying French, will then write back.  The 6th graders in our village are SO excited about this!     February  also meant that the very first few mangos are starting to ripen. (Above) Joye found a 3 meter long stick and tried to knock one down.  (Unsuccessfully! I guess we’ll just have to be patient for a few more weeks) We also recently obtained a solar panel and battery, so this has allowed Jim to continue his work as part of Peace Corps’ Food Security Task force as well as begin to do research for his masters. He was able to meet with some of his professors this month as well since some came to Bamako for research! Look forward to an update on his Food Security work soon!       ~Joye and Jim

Though we complain frequently about the lack of structure to our jobs and the way that things move at a painfully slow pace here, we often forget how hard it is to imagine what goes on in our daily life for those of you in the States. We’ve procrastinated on writing a post like this because, due to the lack of structure of our job, our daily tasks can vary considerably. For example, Jim works in Duguba (15 k away) 3 days out of the week so his schedule is particularly dynamic. In Duguba, he’s busy attending meetings with local NGOs, the mayor, village associations, etc.  Twice a month, I accompany him to talk to the district education office.  Then Wednesday is Market Day here in Kongodugu so most of Wednesday is filled with once a week events like catching up with neighbors, doing laundry by hand, and buying everything we’ll need for the week. Friday is the holy day for Muslims and Sunday is our holy day, so even this misalignment can get in the way of getting work done efficiently. Therefore, its a bit difficult to sum it all up but I’ll do my best to cover the days when we stay in Kongodugu.   6AM in Hot Season/ 7AM in Cold Season: We wake up, make a quick western breakfast of peanut butter, bread, and tea or, if we’re lucky, some oatmeal we bought in town. During certain parts of the year we might even have scrambled chicken or guinea fowl eggs; however, since it hasn’t rained since September, we are currently in “egg problem time” as they say in Bambara because chickens or guinea fowl have stopped laying eggs and won’t start again for a few more months.

7/8AM the morning chores: We walk over to the pump, water our garden, carry back a few buckets of water to last us the rest of the day, and do our dishes from the night before by hand. We also take our first bucket bath of the day. For those unfamiliar with “bucket baths,” this simply means showering using a bucket of water and a small cup to pour water over your head. We then sweep our house. This is important because a.) the clay soil becomes a fine dust at this time of year and gets over everything b.) it keeps out the bugs and scorpions who might like to hide in corners. 9:30AM  After finishing our morning chores as quickly as possible, we are usually out and about greeting people in our village while it is still cool enough to keep a smile on your face for more than 20 minutes. Jim might head across town to get an update from the women’s association on their new garden or stop at the local carpenter’s house to see if he’s finished the bench we ordered. This is also a good time to work on maintaining the compost or garden. Joye might use this time to sit in on some classes at the school, to speak with members of the school board and discover why no one is showing up to meetings, or to meet with the village chief and get his approval for a training event she wants to hold in the next few months. 11AM It’s HOT! So this is the time of day when people stop working and find a nice shady spot to relax. We usually get out one of the hundreds of books Peace Corps gave us at this point and look through it for project ideas, vocabulary, directions about more technical aid.  We’ll write out lesson plans, meeting agendas, or simply brainstorm about how best to get people motivated to work with us. 12:30PM Lunchtime :) We now eat with the village chief's family 4 days out of the week, with Joye’s work partner's family 2 days/wk, and at market 1 day/week. There’s a whole other post about food so I won’t go into that here. Lunch is a big time for cultural exchange. We talk about American and Malian customs, explain that yes, peanuts and corn are found in America. But in America we cook our peanuts, and then eat them. No, people don’t know how to farm and don’t know where their peanuts come from. (That always inspires an “Eh Ala!")No, you can’t walk to America, you need to take a plane. Yes, its THAT far away. Why? Because there’s an ocean (In Bambara, a big salty water) in between us. Yes, planes can fly over water. No, I’m sorry, I can’t take your child with me to America when I go back. Etc. Etc. 1:30PM  Tea: Malians Love LOVE LOVE their tea. Every household has a tea set and makes tea a few times a day. We’ll elaborate on this in another post, but it suffices to say that tea is accompanied by more chatting and this is a huge part of Malian culture. They will be appalled if you want to get up and go work before 3PM. But to an extent, we can also use this time to observe people in their own homes and explain why we think its important for girls to attend school, or to wash your hands with soap after going to the bathroom, or to use a bathroom and not simply go in your field.  3PM : Meetings are often held in the afternoon. Joye might meet with the school board or sit in on the literacy center class and provide feedback. This week, Jim led an afternoon training on how to improve your soil for gardening.  But to be honest, plans for meetings, etc, often fall through because people don’t show up on time or at all (not many even have watches) and we may end up simply reading a classic novel. Mali has certainly taught us to be flexible and patient because no matter how hard you try to plan out your day, something always arises which completely alters your plan. For example, today, when we planned on meeting with the radio director about our show and going to the bank. Then, we found out that it was Mohammed’s birthday, so everyone takes the day off! 5PM We once again water the garden, maybe harvest some fresh veggies, and fill our 20 liter containers at the pump. We take our second bucket bath of the day. After bleaching our veggies, we start making dinner (simultaneously shattering stereotypes of men who don’t cook!), often American style spaghetti, stir-fry, or homemade soup. 6:30PM Dinner! Since Jim and I often go our separate ways for a good portion of the day, we spend this time recounting the day’s events and often reminiscing over America and its glorious gastronomic delicacies, filling in the blank “If I could have any food in the world right now, I’d have a _____” For those who are curious, yesterday it was a toasted blueberry bagel and cream cheese from Tim Horton's. The day before it was a spicy chicken sandwich from Wendy’s. 8PM: After dinner, Jim gets out his computer (in the house of course since we don’t like showing it off to villagers). He is currently a Masters International student at Michigan State so sometimes he does work related to his thesis. He is also the head of the Food Security Task Force so he also works on tools to help future volunteers like a baseline survey and training materials. Joye has started a “study hall” once a week, providing a quiet well-lit area for children to come and study their lessons since they often can not do this in their own home. She also has a small group of children who come to our home for weekly evening English lessons. On off days, we’ll work together on radio scripts. 10pm: Bedtime! We tuck in our mosquito net, an impregnable fortress against all weird Malian creepy-crawlies who want to come toward our reading light. We read a chapter or two, and fall asleep. (If its too hot, we douse our clothes with water and that helps cool you down enough to fall asleep.) All in a day’s work!  One last point I’d like to make is that every PCV’s job and experience is completely different. Some volunteers live in big cities while some in small towns. Some have a more structured 9-5 job and some volunteers’ work schedule is defined by village life. This blog post simply reflects our personal experience/assignment. Also, we’re still getting projects off the ground so the schedule will certainly change in the future. Let us know if you have questions! .~Joye (and Jim)

This past week we went to the riverside city of Segou for the Festival sur le (on the) Niger, West Africa’s premiere music festival, for what was one of our most fun cultural experiences since arriving in Mali. Aside from enjoying frequent picturesque views of the river, nearby gardens, and a statue of a hippo (did you think Joye would get that close to a real one?), we had great Malian music, art, dancing, and food all at our fingertips.   The festival was centered around music, which is Mali’s claim-to-fame on the continent. At any given time during the day there was at least two concerts on smaller stages, but every night, four renown artists were featured on the main stage, which actually floated on the Niger River (seen below). The concerts typically started at 9pm, ended at 1am, and halfway through people could be seen dancing in the water. Temporary bars and restaurants were also established behind the concert area so that we were able to sit down and enjoy the music from a distance. Overall, we were extremely impressed by how well put together it was! Malian art was also highlighted at the festival, the likes of which we had seen before, but never of such high-quality. One gentlemen (see left) had a gallery of colorful relief paintings depicting African life. Inside a workshop (see below), various Malian artisans created Bogolon art. First, the fabric was made from cotton spools using gigantic wooden looms. Next, fermented mud was strategically placed and then dried on the fabric to create colorful and aesthetic designs. Artisans also crowded the market areas selling region-based handicrafts, such as silver jewelry, pottery, camel-skin, wood carvings, and clothing. We spent hours wandering through the stands, enjoying the crowds and bargaining for a few special items.         Cultural demonstrations were also everywhere; it was so crazy seeing all of Mali in one place! Dancers from Dogon country (see left), wooden flute players from the Koulikoro Region (see below left), and Touareg dancers from the north (see below right) were only some of the groups featured. Nearby, we also found amazing street food – aimed to please tourists – such as avocado salad sandwiches, fried dough stuffed with eggs, and kettle corn. Mmmm… Lastly, the festival was also enhanced by the presence of other Peace Corps volunteers. Not only were we able to catch up with friends we hadn’t seen in months, but others let us crash on their apartment floor and gave us advice on tasty local eateries. For example, instead of paying $1.50 a scoop for European ice-cream, we found a house back behind a busy street that sold frozen yogurt for $0.30. A nice hotel owner also let us use his pool for free because we were associated with Peace Corps. We have been told numerous times that “Peace Corps is like a family,” and it was wonderful to experience that through the hospitality of Segou volunteers. Altogether, it made for an amazing trip! Next year, you should come too. :) - James (& Joye)

When starting a new job, the transition can be painful in one of two ways. Firstly, you can feel “thrown in” to your new position with hardly any training at all. Or secondly, the training can feel so paternalistic and bloated that you find yourself anxiously awaiting the day that you can finally get to work. Somehow, Peace Corps has enabled its volunteers to suffer through both experiences. Whereas the former was the cause of much stress during our homestays, the latter has proven to be just as challenging. Before beginning any project work, Peace Corps Mali requires two months of language training, one month of technical training, and three months of getting to know colleagues. During this six-month interval, our proudest accomplishments have been our garden and world map mural, which, while something, are not quite the sustainable development work we are ultimately aiming to do. However, after our December training, Peace Corps gave us the go-ahead on development projects. Therefore, this month has been an extremely exciting one in that we finally feel like we are starting to make an impact on our communities. While they are nothing spectacular, here is some of the development work we were proud to accomplish this month. 1)  Meetings with our assigned organizations: In an attempt to provide us a job description, Peace Corps assigned us both with community organizations back in September that supposedly requested our help. However, in our first three months, these groups only met once, which was enough to reveal how unorganized they were. This month, we both arranged for our groups to meet again. Joye pulled together Kongodugu’s school board, proposed a training on roles and responsibilities, oversaw the transfer of registration money from the teachers to the school board, and made suggested sanitation improvements for students. James assembled the tailor’s association of Duguba, convinced them that their monthly dues were an inadequate fundraising plan for a desired training center (it would take 163 years), and helped them to set a reasonable goal by prioritizing their wants. We also both got our associations to set a date for next month’s meeting – very important! 2) Got our very own radio show: In Mali as well as in other developing countries, radio is a great way to communicate to a wide audience about various important topics. Therefore, last month we went to Duguba’s radio director with the hope of maybe getting a half-hour broadcast every other week. To our surprise, he got back to us recently informing us that we will now have TWO half-hour radio shows EVERY week, both during primetime. While a bit daunting, we are also thrilled to soon have a weekly soapbox from which to discuss issues such as maternal health, sanitation,education, nutrition, gardening, and environmental protection to a large number of Malians. But don’t plan on listening in – the broadcasts will be in Bambara. 3) Held spontaneous formations: It all started when the four girls from the vocational training program, who meet next door, went potty behind our house. Joye immediately launched into a health lesson, and then, on seeing that their teacher was absent, began to teach them the Bambara alphabet using interactive games. Now, after talking with their teacher, Joye has been given a half-hour every Friday to teach personal health. James, on the other hand, has been able to share some knowledge about gardening with curious Malians who approach him during watering time. Whether its identifying unfamiliar vegetables (ie. carrots) or recommending techniques for soil fertilization, it has been rewarding to see the garden transform into a classroom of sorts. Also, thanks to ten stalks of corn at the back of garden grown during the dry non-farming season, it has convinced villagers that he (and Joye) are really good farmers. Hopefully, all of these small successes will grow into the sustainable and substantial development work that we hope to do. Stay tuned in the months ahead to see whether these beginnings, and other untold potential projects, evolve or dissolve. Thank you for reading! –James (and Joye)

At first I saw downcast eyes. curtseys. barely audible mumbled greetings. tired eyes. constantly cooking. constantly on call. a baby tied to her back. a few toddlers sitting at her feet. giving up her seat to the first man that walks in the room. fetching firewood. fetching water. sitting only long enough to breastfeed her child. serving tea to a chatting group of men sitting in the shade. Washing clothes by hand in the hot Malian sun. A bowl of produce balanced on her head. A baby on her back. Walking for miles to sell produce at market. Parents who thought that school ruined a girls chances for marriage. But I waited and looked closer. And then I saw…..bright eyes. a group of women chatting vivaciously as they pound millet. laughter. loud laughter. women in charge of their house. joking insults. complaints. gossip. opinions creep out of their hiding places. anger. love. energy. fatigue. curiosity. intelligence. jealousy. bitterness. hope. contentment. Strength. But when I ask why?  They look somewhat dumbfounded and say. Men and women. We aren’t the same. This was my general impression of Malian women over the first few months of life in village. However, I say that this is my impression because it truly is only as much as you can glean from observation. I am not treated as a Malian woman would be because at this point in their history, Malians have decided that for some reason American/Western women are different. They wear pants, speak when not spoken to, will look a man directly in the eye, eat with their male coworkers, and heaven forbid, even challenge their ideas in public. Therefore, though they are still not considered to be quite as important as a male, most Malians treat American women with much greater respect than they would a Malian woman. In Peace Corps we call this phenomenon “the third sex,” because American women are not treated the same as either men or women here,  but instead find themselves somewhere awkwardly in the middle. Because of the “third sex” factor, many PCVs don’t experience much of the gender inequalities; however, unlike many other PCVs I am married, and therefore I constantly have a point of reference. One of the first places it became obvious was our first Malian baptism. In Mali a party consists of the following: the men will sit, drink tea, and play cards in the shade, while the women cook huge amounts of special food (meat and vegetables) for the entire day in a separate location. Trying to be respectful of Malian culture, Jim went with the men and I went with the women. Half way through the morning, Jim came and found me, letting me know that the school director and teachers from the neighboring village were here and he wanted to introduce me to them since I am an Education volunteer. Eager to make some connections for work (and to get a break from chopping onions in the hot sun), I went over to the group of men and introduced myself. I had assumed that following such an introduction, I might be offered a chair and the opportunity to chat with them. Instead, the baby’s father – the party’s host - looked me in the eyes and said  “Ok, Aissata, you can go back to cooking now.”  After spending the entire morning cooking in the 100 degree heat, I was even more surprised when the women filled bowls of food and brought them only to the men. Making sure every man had eaten his full and had enough of the expensive items (meat and veggies). Two hours later, the women ate their leftovers. Now, in the States, I have never considered myself a feminist. In general in the US, it seems that all a woman has to do is yell “sexism” or “gender discrimination” and she has an army of people at her back ready to crusade for the cause. But arriving here, where all of the sudden, people started looking past me, excluding me, judging me based on my performance of classic feminine roles, it did not take long for this behavior to get under my skin.  For example, I am not an expert chef by any means, but in general I don’t mind cooking. I really could go without doing the dishes though. So in the States, I would generally cook while Jim did the dishes. However, here, when Jim does help me to cook or do dishes, people generally agree that it MUST be because I am an incompetent and/or lazy wife and can’t do those things myself. They stop by the house and, after shaking their heads disapprovingly, offer Jim the option of taking one of their daughters as a second wife since I’m obviously not able to fulfill my duties. In general, its something we have gotten used to. And it helps to have a wonderful husband who sticks up for you and women in general when these situations arise. For example, every market day, we go through the same conversations countless times after people order Jim to “Give me your wife” and he must explain that I am not an object to be given, but a person who can make my own choices.  Its a great opportunity really. To show people how a husband can love his wife even if she asks him to do laundry every now and then. How a woman can respect her husband and still have the power to make choices about herself and her family. How educating women doesn’t mean spoiling a marriage. We’re a living example of this to our village and we continually have to remind ourselves of that.  We also must continually assess the messages that we’re sending about gender based on our behavior. Its a fine line. For example, at first we were determined to show equality by Jim insisting I eat with the men and be respected as a man would be.  But I slowly realized that I was leaving behind the Malian woman, and separating myself from them when I really wanted to empower them. Now we’ve realized that if Jim eats with the women, it sends a more powerful message that they are just as important to us as the Malian men. Its a work in progress if nothing else. Some days you notice it much more than others. And we’re constantly learning from our mistakes.  But overall, its been a very eye-opening experience. ~Joye

Every morning in January, the Harmattan trade winds blow savagely across West Africa, carrying with its strong gusts the sands of the Sahara Desert. And, as Fate would have it, we have to ride our bikes uphill against this cruel wind to go from Kongodugu (where we live) to Duguba (where I work). So despite the fact that the past few months of bike-riding have us in prime physical condition, the commute takes us an additional half hour, and we are exhausted when we arrive. We put forth all of our energy, yet the winds slow us down. Other forces, like the Harmattan winds, also slow our progress. Returning  to our village after Peace Corps’ December technical training and from our New Year’s vacation, we enthusiastically began planning development work and projects in our community. However, this month we learned some lessons about what hinders development work. Here are some highlights: 1) Development Work is Territorial: You might think that development work is the one line-of-work in the world where organizations care more about cooperation than competition, but you would sadly be wrong. Rather, we have found that they have a compulsive canine-like need to mark their ground. For example, Joye recently got village approval to paint a world map on a vacant wall next to the school, which every villager was enthusiastic about until the head of the organization that built this wall (part of a storeroom) for the women’s association saw it. The boss didn’t see it so much as an educational tool than an attempt by Peace Corps volunteers to claim the storeroom as their own project, and so conflict arose. This same individual then saw James snooping around the newly donated women's garden. Never mind that he was only greeting his fellow villagers and trying to give them tips to help them succeed (ie. you can’t transplant carrots). No, clearly he too was trying to claim the women’s garden for Peace Corps as well. And so, we are currently having difficulties working with the women’s association, which is as frustrating as it is tragic. 2) Calling Ahead is Optional: In Mali, time is measured by the heat of the sun, and hours are a foreign construct, so scheduling in advance isn’t exactly a formalized practice. This makes it difficult to hold regular meetings and sometimes makes you wonder why you might bother to try planning a day at all. One specific instance comes to mind from last week, when, after riding against the Harmatan winds to get to Duguba, I discovered that my Malian counterpart was out-of-town, thus cancelling all of my plans for the day there. I then went to chat with a potential work partner, only to find that he was unexpectedly out-of-town too. Of course, neither called to inform me of their absence. Then, on returning home, we learned that my Peace Corps supervisor had visited our site while we were gone. He too had never called me to inform me of his presence. That morning I failed to have three meetings simply because no one bothered to call first. However, I was thankfully able to contact my supervisor quickly and he returned in the early afternoon. But still, you get my point. 3) Village Politics Matter: When we first arrived in our village, we naively believed that everyone was everyone else’s friend. At least around us, it was all smiles, all the time. More recently we have learned that this is not the case: in fact, two people who we both see on a regular basis actually think the other person is annoying/crazy. For Joye, the education volunteer, the politics of the local school are greatly hindering her work. In short, the teachers and the villagers do not get along (each thinks the others are lazy bumpkins, which in all fairness, is true in both cases). This means that school-related issues are less about the children and more about personal pride. Also, it turns out the teachers don’t like each other too much either since they’re competing for the director’s position or a placement somewhere else. As a dismal result, we have recently been assigned another host family so that our former host father has greater leverage in the power struggle between him, the villagers, and the other teachers. He was surprised when we took it somewhat personally. Two reservations I had in writing this post was that it would 1) put Mali in a critical light, or 2) simply come off as complaining, but I hope to have done neither. When you live amongst African villagers, you increasingly see them less as the homogeneous group known as “the poor,” and more as a diverse set of personalities who happen to be living in similar conditions. And with this view, it is more easy to see how flawed human characteristics can interfere with well-intentioned work. These lessons are simply the reality we’re living in. To finish, I would like to point out that there is one benefit to biking against the Harmattan Winds. Though it may take longer to arrive at our destination, it builds up strong leg muscles in the process. And similarly, these challenges will build character within us as we strive to undertake meaningful development work in our villages. Some of these accomplishments can be seen in our recent Update Post, and hopefully others will present themselves in the months ahead. Thank you for reading.  -James (and Joye)

After 6 months here, Jim and I finally did something touristy :) We just got back from a quick trip to Dogon Country and then over to Mopti, the port city along the Niger and Bani rivers. To give you a bit of background, Dogon Country consists of a series of villages located along the base and plateau of cliffs which look out onto the savannah. Oral tradition says that the area was once occupied by the Tellem people (supposedly tiny and magical –  Malian leprechauns if you will), and their tiny houses can still be seen today. The Dogon people moved in a few centuries later and have been there ever since. The architecture, language, food, and culture is all very different from the south of Mali. Therefore, beautiful views of landscape combined with interesting culture = one of Mali’s tourist hotspots. We hired a Dogon guide who also happens to be the counterpart to a fellow PCV and headed off.  Our general schedule was to wake up at  6am, hike until noon, stop at a village for lunch, wander around the shops and winding little streets, before continuing on our way to the village where we would eat dinner and spend the night. Most Dogon villages have “campments”   which are basically hotels/hostels built of mud and wood where tourists and guides can camp out on the mud roof, eat traditional food, and listen to traditional music. Its simple accommodations (no hot showers or toilet paper) but sleeping under the stars and waking up to the sun hitting those cliffs was breathtaking.   After our hike, we headed over to Mopti for a night. This bustling city sits right where Niger and Bani Rivers converge so you can visit boat-building sheds, fishing villages, and the markets full of items being shipped to and from Timbuktu…literally. Malians will try to sell it to you as “The Venice of Mali,” because you can hire something pretty similar to a gondola and have a guide take you around the shores. We ate fresh fish at a restaurant overlooking the harbor, walked around the harbor, hired out a personal Malian gondola for 2 hours and explored the nearby fishing villages as the sun set, and finished with French-style pizza. So now its back to village we go. Lined up for the next month are community meetings in order to come to a final consensus/action plan on some of our projects. We also hope to start some smaller things like hand washing activities, a bimonthly radio show, and a tree nursery. It can be a little overwhelming at times because it seems that everywhere you look, people need help and there are possible projects there. But the hard part comes in finalizing what resources you have to get the more effective and sustainable projects completed.  So please continually keep us in your prayers. Have a wonderful January!   ~Joye (and Jim)

Now that 2011 is upon us, and the holidays are through, we wanted to quickly share with you how the Lord blessed us this Christmas and New Years.

As you may recall from our last post, we planned on spending Christmas at our site, which was a wonderful experience. To prepare for the festive holiday, we hung up solar-powered snowflake lights and drew a tree on our mud wall with chalk. Then on market day, which happened to be Christmas Eve, we bought one hundred oranges for the grand total of two U.S. dollars to give away as gifts. Later in the afternoon, we were just starting to feel melancholy when our village pastor sent us an unexpected present. Imagine if someone cut a square from the side of pig – this is what we found in the bag, with a layer of skin, fat, meat, and bone all included. Fortunately, Joye’s mother had recently sent us a portable charcoal grill, so in the classic American tradition, we had a delicious pork rib barbeque on Christmas Eve.

After dark, we heard the sound of a tire iron on pipe and knew it was time for church. The conditions of the Christmas Eve service were very much like that described in the hymns: chilly, still, and dark; only one flashlight lit the small chapel. The service lasted for two hours and was followed by dancing to the drums in celebration of Christ’s birth. We didn’t last until midnight (as some did), but we certainly put in our fair share. Now to those familiar with the American church-going customs, you may think this was it. In America, you go to church on Christmas Eve but spend the actual day with your family. This is not the case here. We were expected, and lovingly conceded, to go to two more services Christmas day – one in the morning and another in the late afternoon. Furthermore, in between, we went around and greeted our friends, handing out oranges to mark the occasion. Though our village in mostly Muslim, everyone was welcoming and willing to recognize our holiday – even the village imam (Muslim religious leader) accepted his oranges with a delighted grin on his face before bestowing us with a dozen blessings.

However, we also secured some time to ourselves. In the early morning, we enjoyed a sumptuous pancake and crepe breakfast (complete with Michigan maple syrup), and periodically decorated our tree with multi-colored sticky notes with sentimental messages. Finally, at night, under cover of darkness, we watched A Christmas Carol with a bowl of fresh popcorn. It was a delicate mix of interacting with our village while still taking time for ourselves.

For New Years though, we decided to take it all for ourselves. Since very few Malian men are willing to do any work during the holidays (other than drink tea), we thought it would be a perfect time to take a miniature vacation. We will write a whole post on our trip, but in short, we celebrated New Years with eight hours of bus travel, followed by some lovely French cuisine. Finally, below falling asleep anticlimactically at 11pm, we drank some nasty white wine and played Where’s Waldo. Then, on the first day of 2011, we started our hike in Mali’s most beautiful region. Now, having just returned, we are heading back to our village re-energized and ready to get to work. Hopefully, our villagers feel the same. ☺

Lastly, a BIG thank you to all those who sent us Christmas packages (some of which we just received today)! It is truly a blessing to know that we have so much support from family and friends around the world. We know how difficult it can be to put together and send a package, especially around the busy holiday season, so to those that did, a heart-felt thank you.

Happy New Year! -James & Joye

One challenge for all Peace Corps Volunteers is how to best spend the holiday season. It is easy to get nostalgic and homesick when Thanksgiving and Christmas come and go like any other day. Some volunteers travel home, but the rest of us make do and celebrate in other ways. While we can not substitute spending time with family and friends, we have had a surprisingly great time here in Mali, and we’d like to share a little of that with you.   First was Thanksgiving, which we spent with 80 other volunteers in the Malian city of Sikasso. The region is known for its agricultural diversity, so some volunteers organized a massive Turkey-day feast that included everything you could expect from the meal, including pumpkin and apple pie! With the exception of the turkey head I tried to eat, all of the food was delicious and spending the weekend with other volunteers made it very fun and memorable. Of course, something we do not get in Mali is snow, which is really hard when you come from Michigan. However, our village did recently collect and sell this year’s harvest of cotton, which was almost the same thing. :)  Also, since Mali is in the northern hemisphere, the weather has gotten noticeably cooler, meaning that Malians wear cotton hats and puffy jacket while Joye and I can finally get some sleep at night. So far, the “cold” has been the equivalent of Michigan weather in August and September, which in our eyes is ideal. It has helped us work harder, and would be perfect for friends and family who wanted to travel to Mali but avoid some of the intense heat (wink wink nudge nudge).                       Being in a different climate also means that sometimes we get stuff that Americans don’t, including this year’s harvest of watermelon… in December! Not only is good watermelon almost non-existent in Michigan this time of year, but Malian watermelon is seriously the sweetest and freshest watermelon we have ever tasted. The day that these succulent fruits appeared in our market was the highlight of our month; we downed two full watermelons and have had plenty more since. Another advantage to being somewhere else for the holidays is getting a unique perspective on Christmas. In Mali, there is no Black Friday, Santa Claus, or non-stop Xmas radio stations. Instead, in village, you are faced with surroundings much more similar to that in the Christmas story. People often travel by donkey. There is no room at the village inn since it’s only a one room mud hut. 10-year-old shepherd boys run their flock through your yard without cleaning up the droppings. In short, elements of story jump out at you in ways they never could because you can see (and smell) them right outside your house. So this year we celebrate Christmas in the following ways. At Tubaniso (Peace Corps summer camp) we held a candle-light pre-emptive Christmas Eve service with 12 other volunteers. I even bought a $1 coniferous tree for the occasion at an agricultural research center. Then, just last night we opened our wonderful Christmas packages, baked a pizza, and watched a movie. And for Christmas Day, we will be at our village, celebrating with our local church and taking time for silent reflection. Certainly it is different than Christmases past, and we don’t deny that it will be difficult, but it has the potential to be a very lovely day indeed. Merry Christmas and Happy New Years! -Jim (and Joye) Allen

Since another group of new volunteers will be coming in at the end of January, we thought it would be helpful to post a packing list for incoming volunteers. Packing List: Its so hard to provide a general list because as you’ll find out, the things you have access to will greatly vary based on your placement. The other reason its difficult is that for the 1st 9 weeks, you live and eat all your meals with a host family, so you might not use a lot of your supplies until after swearing-in. However, when you get to that point, you’ll be SO happy you brought them. Cooking Supplies: This is only if you plan to cook for yourself after swearing-in. Many volunteers eat all their meals with their host families. Can opener, cutting board, vegetable peeler, spatula, nicer medium sized knife, good saute pan. Everything else you can get here. Clothes: You’ll get a lot of clothes made here so don’t bring too many. Girls-everything must go below the knee. 2-3 pants, 2-3 skirts, 5 solid color cotton Target t-shirts, 2 dressier tops,  lots of underwear and bras, shower flip-flops, nicer sandals, a pair of hiking boots, raincoat for rainy season, 1 light jacket/sweatshirt for cold season, pajamas appropriate for sleeping in more public places, bathing suit, towel. Shirts, pants, and skirts should not be super tight-fitting. Guys – 2-3 pants, 2-3 collared shirts, and a week’s worth of t-shirts and boxers. This is mainly to get you through training. Afterward, you can get soccer jerseys and fabric pants for dirt cheap. As for shorts, men only wear them when playing sports, so go easy. Food: Granola bars, dried fruit, instant oatmeal, fruit snacks, and beef jerky will get you through the 9 weeks of training when you are adjusting to the food. We stuffed our bags with this stuff and it was SO worth it! Toiletries: A 3 month supply of toothpaste, shampoo, soap, deodorant, sunscreen,etc. These are NOT supplied by Peace Corps, but are somewhat obtainable in Bamako and other larger cities after the 9 weeks of training. Medicines: Peace Corps will give you a medical kit with tylenol, ibprofen, antacid, cough suppressant, antihistamine, bug repellant, mosquito net etc. on about day 2-3 after arriving in country. So bring enough for the first few days when things are still a bit overwhelming. Camping Supplies: headlamp, REI bughut, Stainless steel water bottle, pocketknife (leatherman), light sheet, padlock for trunk Electronics: Computer/Netbook, iPod, Portable &Rechargeable iPod Speakers, rechargeable batteries  (used batteries here end up on the ground), headphones, USB drive or external harddrive (for shared media), European plug adapter. Books: Every regional house has a decent library, but all titles can’t be guaranteed. If you really want to read it, bring it. Otherwise, just bring enough for the first 9-weeks and then borrow for the regional houses afterward. Note: Keep in mind that Amazon delivers to Mali (shipping for my last package was $15) and you can always request your family send you things later. Mail takes between 2-4 weeks. So if you get here and really regret not bringing something you can always have it sent. Peace Corps also provided things like buckets, brooms, lanterns, mat, mattress, bed, sheet,  and wool blanket for the first 9 weeks of training, so I would assume they are going to do this again for the next stage but things are constantly changing so I can’t guarantee it will be there. Foods Available in Mali:  This was one topic I couldn’t find ANY info on before I came. However, after being here for 5 months, its still hard to put together a list because things change so quickly and are so dependent on region. One week, your market may be full of guava and orange vendors and the next week you cant find anything but sweet potatoes. Nevertheless, I’ve put these into rough categories to help you get an idea. Very available: Onions, garlic, powdered milk, tomato paste, pasta, rice,  sugar, tea, instant coffee, dried fish, sweet potatoes, beans, okra/okra powder, millet, peanuts, corn, local leaves for sauces, hot pepper Somewhat available: Eggs, bread, tomatoes, flour, Coca-Cola, peanut butter, fresh milk, bananas, oil for frying Only in bigger cities:  butter, pasteurized milk, cans of tuna (all expensive), olive oil,basil, Nutella, popcorn, hot sauce, canned veggies,  potatoes, Pringles, Snickers, cold sodas, mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, vache-qui-rit “cheese” which requires no refrigeration Not available/Things we miss: Real cheese, Strawberries, Raspberries, Blueberries, Good apples, Chocolate chips, American bacon (though there are Christians that eat pork here and there), some spices (Oregano, Curry, Cinnamon, Paprika), Tortilla chips/most chips, American Junk food, granola bars, sliced bread, American condiments (Ranch, honey mustard, etc), Cereal & cold milk, a personal refrigerator Seasonal Fruits and Veggies are available depending on region (in Sikasso we get a lot more than other regions) : Lettuce, green peppers, squash, oranges, guava, watermelon, green beans, zucchini, eggplant, mangos, papaya, carrots, hibiscus, avocado. We hope this is helpful, let us know if you have any questions! ~Joye and James