Hey Everyone,

Just wanted to get a quick note out and let you all know that I’m home safe and sound. Travel was about as easy as I could have asked for. No delays, no cancellations, no missed connections, no lost bags, etc. My flight itinerary was Bamako-Paris-Atlanta-Lexington. I was a little pushed for time getting to my last flight having to go through customs in Atlanta but thanks so gentle encouragement to others my path to customs was cleared and with the aid of modern technology (moving sidewalk, trams, shuttles) I made it to my gate with about 5 minutes to spare, which conveniently enough, was just enough time to make my first American food purchase. It was totally cliché, but I bought a drink at Starbucks…and it was delicious.

My neighbor on the last flight didn’t say much until we started to descend into Lexington where my face apparently said it all. He didn’t ask if it was home he just asked how long it’d been since I’d been home. Apparently I’d be a terrible poker player because he could read so easily how utterly happy I was to be home. I’ve been a mix of emotions since I left Sebanso and I fully expect that to continue over the next few weeks/months but for those few moments I knew exactly what I felt.

Lexington is in my opinion one of the most beautiful cities in the world thanks to our green rolling hills and horse farms, and man did it feel good to see those again. The drive home was quick given the airport isn’t far and despite yet another cliché it really didn’t feel like I’d left. I could see some visual evidence that I’d been gone of course. My dog Cora is getting a little grey around her muzzle, my niece (who wasn’t even born when I left) is walking around the house, we have a new addition to the house as our family dog Zoe now resides in the house after Lucky passed away a few months ago, and my parent’s house which hasn’t moved has a new address thanks to some road construction. Other things fortunately haven’t changed at all, my room was as welcoming and comfortable as I could have asked for, my mom’s food is still delicious, and my horse PJ is just as fat as ever. It’s good to be home.

All I really asked for as far as meals go these next few days are vegetables, fruit, more veggies, some good meat, milk, and more veggies. I’ve not requested rice and don’t suspect I will for a few days. I only have about a week home before I fly down to Tampa to live with Becky while Phil is traveling on business. I’m really looking forward to catching up with my sister and decompressing on a beach from my African adventure.

I hope all is well with everyone. These next few months are going to be a mental, emotional and physical battle as I readjust to living in America but I’m excited for this next phase and so grateful for all the support I had in Mali. Couldn’t have done it without you all,

Much love,

Cait

Hey Everyone,

It’s that time. My last day is finally here. I’ve just checked my bags and got my boarding passes from the Air France office so I’m ready to go tonight. Peace Corps is taking me to the airport around 8pm and my flight leaves just before 11pm in theory. My nerves always get a little jittery when I’m flying but today I don’t feel it much. I guess a part of me is no longer stressed at the prospect of travel...I became very accustomed to delays, cancellations, missing connecting transport, breakdowns, etc all in another language. Plus, I’m fairly confident I won’t have to sleep in the side of the road or ride on a plane with no windows, seats, or roof…

I’m so tired of goodbyes and am very much looking forward to some much anticipated greetings!! I’ve tried to enjoy my last few days in Mali and not dwell on the goodbyes. To do this well, I ate well. And often. And a lot. I decided to go out with a bang and so this week has been really fun.

I took the Peace Corps shuttle down on Sunday and stayed at the volunteer house in Bamako most of the week with the exception of one night when I splurged to stay at a quaint hotel downtown. Date nights are hard to come by but Justin and I did it well this week. We had cocktails at happy hour and an appetizer then a delicious meal plus dessert…I haven’t had that much good food in a long time. Plus the ambiance was really nice.

The Bamako National Park was opened last year for the 50th anniversary of their Independence Day and Justin and I went back in January and decided to go again because it was so nice. We even went to the “expat grocery store” and bought cheese, salami, bread and wine for a picnic in the park. It felt so normal. It’s funny to see Malian couples being affectionate too. In Bamako things are different. In Sebanso (most any village) I spent two years and still don’t know who is married to whom because there are rarely moments of affection shared. In the park it almost felt a little scandalous seeing so many couples holding hands or out on dates.

Last night I went to Indian food with Justin and a few friends and after properly foundering on a delicious dinner I decided I had room for ice cream so went to my favorite ice cream shop (there are now 2 ice cream shops…talk about sustainable development!).

The work aspect of this past week was fairly stressful but totally manageable and each day was productive but never overwhelming. I was cleared medically, tested Advanced-Middle in my final language Exam, had an exit interview with my boss and the country director of Mali, turned in all my Peace Corps books and bike and medical equipment…man did I acquire a lot of stuff over two years. It was frustrating working around so many people’s schedules but it feels pretty great having everything done.

I’m getting excited now with the flight just a few hours away…it finally seems real that I’m actually going. I said goodbye to Justin this morning, he took a Peace Corps shuttle up to his place in Bandiagara. It was a really hard goodbye but we have a couple of busy weeks ahead of us and I suspect they will pass quickly for us both. I guess I’ll close for now. It’s been a fabulous 27 months. I hope you’ve enjoyed the letters home and tomorrow afternoon, I’ll finally be home.

Much love,

Cait

Hey Everyone,

I just moved out of Sebanso yesterday and it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. However, the next several weeks are going to be really busy and will help to distract me. I’m already a little intimidated at the thought of readjusting to life in America, but I’m excited to be home and back to some of the amenities I’ve gone without.

My last two weeks were as perfect as I could have asked for. Bah and I have been planning a goodbye party in my village that we had on Saturday night and it went off without a hitch. I invited some volunteers in my area and their homologues so I had four American friends that could come. My host family made an abundance of Zame (kind of like fried rice), woso (sweet potato fries), beans (I am a Coulibaly after all and we are the bean eaters), and we killed my goat. It was delicious and I nearly foundered. Afterwards we went to the common area where the chief of the village set up his TV to run off a generator and watch movies with the whole village. All the men made tea all night but the kids were enamored with the TV as it really was a rare occasion for them.

Sunday was my last church service and I bought some candy for the kids to give when they leave for Sunday school. It was a pretty uneventful evening which was nice to get back to the norm after the craziness of the day before. We were originally supposed to have my last animal raising cooperative meeting Sunday night, but much needed rain was in the horizon so we postponed it to Monday night which was again postponed to Tuesday, also due to the rain. It hadn’t rained since I got back so we were in desperate need of rain…and we weren’t disappointed. It rained all day Monday.

The week before I helped went with Bah and his family to weed the peanut fields. It was the first time I’ve ever been invited to work with them…Bah said he gave me my field to practice then when I proved competent he moved me to the “real” fields. I was quite proud of myself and villagers passing yelled out “Mali muso!!” which was really exciting in their recognition of my being a Malian woman.

Packing up my house turned into a several day event…I’d get sad and have to take a break. My last full day, Tuesday was mostly spent packing but the holy month of fasting, Ramadan, ended on Monday so Bah’s best friend Kardi had a small feast to celebrate on Tuesday afternoon. We only have a handful of Muslim families in my village (unlike the rest of the very Muslim country) but it’s nice to celebrate both Muslim and Christian holidays. The cooperative meeting finally took place Tuesday night and I said a few words to thank them for their hard work and prepared them for my replacement volunteer coming in December. I was proud of my composure up to this point but Wednesday was an entirely different story.

I got up early and took some pictures of my family that I can send to another volunteer to give to Bah once I get home. I had to finish packing and cleaning my hut, made much more complicated as I was constantly interrupted with people stopping by to say goodbye. Crying is culturally very inappropriate and I really tried my best not too, but the kids finally wore me down and then I was a mess the rest of the day. My host dad gave me beautiful Bogolon (mud died cloth) fabric and many others gave me peanuts or chickens, all of which are pretty standard gifts. Bah’s wife too woke up early and made me some bean cakes which I love and then cooked a chicken for lunch. After the final goodbye, I met a friend on the road who had a car and was on his way to San so he gave me ride which made logistics much easier than waiting for a bus to come by.

Everything seemed pretty daunting these past few weeks, it was my last everything. My last day at market, my last day in the fields, my last bike ride, etc, but when my actual last day finally came it was heartbreaking. It’s difficult knowing that I could never adequately tell my family how much they mean to me and knowing how long, if ever, it will be before I get to see them again. The kids were especially hard to say goodbye to. I can hug them without it being inappropriate which was nice. I know I followed all of Malian protocol in my goodbyes, but it was a little empty for me because it felt like a poor goodbye in American standards thus the kids were really important to me.

Now in San, I’m daunted at the task of packing. I acquired a lot of stuff over the two years and sorting through everyone is a multiple day event. I have to close my bank account today and want to make some muffins to give my San friends around town. Additionally I want to finish my paperwork before I get down to Bamako so I can make those last few days as stress free as I can manage. I leave a week from tomorrow and it doesn’t feel possible that I can get everything done before I go, but I suppose most everything I have to do is pretty routine and I’m just another volunteer to COS.

I hope everyone is well; I’ll try and get another update out just before I go, but I hope everyone has a good Labor Day weekend. Looking forward to seeing you all soon.

Love,

Cait

Hey Everyone!

I had to make a quick trip to San to buy some gifts for village. I’m getting my host family some fabric (a pretty standard though nice gift given Malian emphasis on clothes) and am hosting a small goodbye party at my homologue's house. We’re having rice and beans and drinking tea on the night of the 27th. My last name is Coulibaly and we’re known as the bean eaters, so it’s only fitting that we have beans during my last few days. I also bought a goat at market…but I felt just awful…It was like sentencing him to death; which I suppose I did.

I’m still very much dreading my last day of goodbyes. The 31st will be one of the hardest days of my life. It’s even more daunting knowing the communication struggles that exist here but I hope to do my best to stay in touch (challenges include, illiteracy, no address, expensive phone credit, etc). I’ve already had a lot of goodbyes from my American friends but those too I still have more to make.

Otherwise, all is well here. I’m very content in my last few days. I’ve been busy farming my peanut field…I’m still incredibly slow, but the village is impressed with my ability so that was at least encouraging. My body disagreed with it though and I’m still sore and the blisters on my hands haven’t turned to callus yet so they just hurt all the time. People do now take my hands and make fun that my white person hands have turned into Malian hands accustomed to a hard life of working in the fields…a vast improvement from the jest that my white person hands are so soft and can’t do Malian work.

I brought my laptop to site this past stint and have been working with Bah’s oldest daughter, Madeline, on typing. Of course the French keyboard is different than the English keyboard but she is at least getting familiar with the general concept. I’m really proud of her. She just passed her exams so she can continue on to 12th grade; no small feat given the fail rate is well over 50%.

The new baby in the family is super cute. He still doesn’t have a name as the waiting period to announce the name isn’t over yet, but I’ve been asked for some ideas so we’ll see if they take any. One of my highlights of the past 2 weeks was when Kardi, who has always been timid and often cried at my approach, finally ran up to greet me in the morning and held my hand as I tried to go about my morning chores…which actually was really annoying after the “cuteness” wore off as it’s really hard to pull water from a well when you have a child clinging to your arm.

I guess I have no more updates to catch you all up on. I’m excited to get back to site and enjoy my last week and half. The prospect of going home is actually upon me now and that too is driving force to keeping my spirits up during the sad goodbyes. I hope all is well back home and I can’t wait to see everyone when I get home in 3 weeks!

Love,

Cait

Hey Everyone,

I just biked into San for perhaps the last time ever!!! Hard to believe it but the next and last time I come to San will be on public transport because I’ll have my suitcase and water filter and more luggage that won’t fit on the back of my bike. It was a cool and non windy morning so about as much as I could ask for as far as ideal Mali bike riding weather goes.

It is supposedly rainy season though it’s got off to a very rough start. It should be raining just about every day but it rained twice in the past 3 weeks…my village is nervous to say the least. Last year was a great harvest so to have a drought this year won’t be too detrimental to the village but the danger lies in having another bad harvest next year in which case food becomes scarce and money that is already hard to come by becomes nearly impossible to acquire as food prices soar. I’m hopeful August will bring more rain and ease the palpable tension in Sebanso.

It’s been a nice few weeks at site despite the lack of rain. Bah’s oldest daughter, Madeline and I chat and make sweet potato fries most afternoons to sell and then we get to eat the delicious left over woso (Bambara for sweet potato). I’ve had a good amount of time to read as well and chat with friends who have returned from Bamako for rainy season, but don’t have any work to do in the fields because the lack of rain has made the ground rock hard. When people are in the fields, the kids are left to fend for themselves in village so I’ve spent a good deal of time playing with them as well. They’re always a source of entertainment. There are, however, still a few who cry at the site of me…though I probably propagate that fear when I chase them away from the well when I go to pull water…

I visited my friend, Lindsey at her village and spent the past weekend there. It was really nice to have some girl time as two of my best girlfriends have already COS’d and returned to America. Her younger sister in Iowa had a high school play that we watched on Lyndsey's computer at night and I’m so impressed with the talent of those kids. It was a musical and some of those voices belong on Broadway. It was also startling to see high school students and realize that it’s been 6+ years since I was in their shoes…and I thought I was so grown up then.

I’ll be in San for a few days with perhaps a day trip down to Segou for some more shopping but things are really winding down here and mostly just getting things ready to come home. I’m moving out on August 31st and spending a few days in San before I go to Bamako for my medical exam and Close of Service interviews/last minute paperwork. It’s smooth sailing until then, just enjoying my last few weeks. Hope everyone is well and I miss you all terribly.

Much Love,

Cait

Hey Everyone,

It hasn’t been long since my last update, but I expect to be at site for a few weeks before I get back to internet. This will be my last long stint at site with a trip out in early-mid August and then moving out at the end of August. Today marks my two year anniversary in country and my third July away from home…

Today is also a big day as my first niece turns 1 and I found out that baby Z, due in November, will be a boy and whose birth I’ll be home for!

I just returned from a trip, perhaps my last, from visiting up north. I left last Sunday with my friend Lindsey whose sisters were in town visiting from home. She rented a car to take us up and very appropriately, we broke down just an hour outside of Bandiagara. We made it though and in relatively good time despite the hiccup. There was a small party for the fourth with some quality pool time at one of the nicer hotels but sad to say no fireworks. The weather was nice however. Rainy season is just getting underway at my site, and Bandiagara is about 2-3 weeks behind so the weather was cooler without the rain.

I got some shopping done in Bandiagara, but towards the end of the week, I wanted to visit Mopti, the regional capital which I’ve never been to before despite all my time in the region. Justin and I took an early car out and got to Mopti before it got too hot and spent the day shopping, hanging out at the pool and enjoying the AC at a local hotel. I’ve been trying to get the last of my souvenirs and gift shopping done this month and succeeded with the majority of it. We went to walk by the huge mud mosque in Mopti and stumbled across a very new museum of the mud buildings in Mali. I’ve now been to the two mud mosques I am allowed to visit as the others reside in the north of the country, Timbuktu and Gao, where it has been deemed unsafe to travel. Thus Djene and Mopti will have to suffice. The mosque in Djene is the only one recorded as a World Heritage Site, but the Mopti mosque was still quite impressive.

Mopti is located as the meeting point of the two major rivers in Mali, the Bani and Niger, thus a major fishing town. This is also a large port in accessing the salt mines in Timbuktu and Gao so everywhere we looked there were enormous mounds of salt. It was a cool market but a little overwhelming being treated as a tourist. We would be hassled until we started speaking Bambara or Donoso (Justin’s language) then prices were dropped nearly in half of what they were originally asking and even lower once we bargained. I felt a little vindicated being able to chat with the locals and being treated more fairly, but it was annoying none the less. We ended a wonderful day at a delicious restaurant overlooking the river…a river whose bank was several feet deep in trash, but we live in Mali and were just delighted to see water.

Not too much else to report on my end. I’m looking forward to a few weeks at site. Much of my days will be spent in the fields though I suspect my lack of farming skills will serve only for entertainment then I’ll be sent to rest under the trees. It’s probably for the best; I’m really slow and can’t plant a straight row of millet to save my life. Already the ground is greener and things are sprouting and I’m pretty excited that I’ll be leaving Mali at its prettiest time of year. 9 months a year it’s brown and barren but for a few blessed weeks it’s green and alive and beautiful.

Hope all is well back home and looking forward to being there in eight short weeks.

Love,

Cait

Hey everyone,

It’s official that my Close of Service (COS) date is set for September 9, 2011. I don’t have my flight information yet, but it’s very likely that I’ll be home a few days after that date. I can’t believe that the time is already here to start planning my life back home, but with less than two months left at Sebanso, I have to start mentally and emotionally preparing myself.

The COS conference was brief, but fun to see everyone again…well, what’s left of us anyways. Of the original 66 starting in Philadelphia we ended with 36 at the conference. The days consisted of lots of logistics and paperwork, but also resume building and interviewing tips as well as some networking opportunities with Returned volunteers (RPCV’s) stateside. And perhaps more importantly, the conference was held in a AC hotel and Peace Corps paid for our rooms for 4 nights and all our meals…I didn’t each rice or millet once that whole week!!

Next week is not only Independence Day in the States but also marks my 2 year anniversary in Peace Corps. I left home early on July 7, 2009 and arrived in Mali on July 10, 2009. This July 10th, will be extra special as it marks an anniversary for me, but also my first niece’s first birthday. Time can be ruthless sometimes in how quickly is slips by, so I’m trying to make an extra effort to take in as much as I can each day.

I was only at site for a week before coming into San on my way up to Bandiagara for the 4th of July. One of my girlfriends in San is taking her sisters, visiting from the States, up north to go on a Dogon hike. Dogon country is beautiful year round, but especially in rainy season when there is actually some green instead of the desert and rocks. I feel lucky to have seen that part of the country as often as I have, it’s one of the biggest tourist destinations in Mali and I have friends who speak the local dialects so it makes the whole experience more enjoyable.

It never fails during rainy season that when I want to leave to bike into San, the night before downpours. With rainy season just starting the rain is completely unpredictable but I can pretty much guarantee that if I want to bike, it will rain…I can single handedly end droughts facing my community. That said, this morning I was delayed in leaving then battled a VERY muddy 6 kilometers to get to the road. Men farming in their fields literally stopped their cows plowing to watch me struggle…I never cease to be a source of entertainment for Malians.

I’m looking forward to my last few weeks at site and feel good about the amount of time I have left to say all my goodbyes and have some closure. I know it will pass quickly but I’m looking forward to the next stage of my life back home and that too is making the transition more bearable. The goodbyes will be painful, but I think that just means I developed some amazing relationships and it should hurt to close that part of my life. Fortunately, I get to put off the inevitable for a few more weeks.

Hope everyone has a fabulous Independence Day and I wish a very Happy Birthday to Allison (and a Happy Anniversary to Molly and Chad!)

Love,

Cait

Hey everyone,

The past two weeks have been peaceful and a nice break from the fast pace of the past several months. Upon arriving home, I went with my host mom to a women’s meeting where a local relay (men and women who work at the local hospital and travel to villages giving trainings and vaccinations) led a training on Family Planning. This is a huge issue in most African villages in that there is no birth spacing and little concern of those consequences. The general rule is that you have another child when the youngest can kick a soccer ball but it’s not followed all that well. Adults generally receive the meats and proteins while kids live on cereals such as rice, millet and corn and when children aren’t properly spaced, the already high malnutrition rate is put in a precariously dangerous level.

The students in the 9th grade took their exams this past week. It’s a huge test permitting those who pass to continue on in their education and if they fail, comes the end of the line in the school system. My host sister took her exams and I’m hopeful she did well, but the failing rate in bruce villages is astronomically high, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed for the results coming out next month.

An entertaining anecdote of my last few weeks came about when I was playing Frisbee with some kids. I should preface this story in saying that they’ve never played with a Frisbee before, and they were awful. Seriously, at the end of the day, we only had one completed pass. In order to even reach this level of skill, the Frisbee flew into half the houses in the village and landed on top of a hangar. I was playing with 2 boys and 2 girls and as soon as they saw the Frisbee land on the hangar, they split. The boys immediately started trying, unsuccessfully, to climb the tree posts supporting the hangar while the girls studied the situation and found a long stick that they used to knock the Frisbee off. They were playing with it for several minutes before the boys even realized what had happened.

Rainy season apparently decided to start last night, which made my bike ride into San this morning less than pleasant. But the cool temperature has been a pleasant reprieve and worth the muddy miserable bike ride.

Not too much else to report. Today is a fishing festival in San that I came in for. There is a sacred tree and a magic well that San is notorious for and the festival incorporates them too. I’m headed down to Bamako next week for my STAGE’s Close of Service conference. We get pick our dates to return home and start a tremendous amount of paperwork needed to leave the country in good standing. Additionally we will attend sessions on resume building, interviewing, and transitioning back to our American lives. I’m excited to see some friends I haven’t seen in over a year and really excited to stay in a hotel, with AC and good food! On the sad note, my two best girlfriends both left Mali on June 10 and I’m so sad that they won’t be at the conference to celebrate with me.

I hope all is well back home. I heard it’s a hot summer in KY and I’m truly sympathetic and am not sad that I’ll be returning home in the fall, it’s my favorite season. Wishing you all well,

Love,

Cait

Hey everyone,

I’ve made it safely home from Ghana about midnight last night after leaving at noon on Friday from Accra. Needless to say getting home was an adventure. Nothing unexpected when dealing with West African public transport…not a pleasant experience but one hell of a story.

I guess I should begin at the very beginning of our West African road trip. I left from San and met Justin taking the night bus to Bamako on the night of 11th. I got on the bus around midnight and made great time…until we broke down about 3 hours outside of Bamako. After repeated failed attempts to revive the bus, a rescue bus was finally sent down and we made it to Bamako just before lunch. It was a busy day running errands and buying our tickets to Accra for Saturday morning but all went smoothly and come 7am we were at the bus station anxious to get the trip under way. I won’t bore you with the details of most of the trip because it was pretty standard- hot, sweaty, frequent stops, long border crossings, etc- but things did get interesting when the bus stopped just outside the capital of Burkina Faso and we had to camp on the side of the road for the night to sleep. The trip progressed without too much trouble and it was fascinating to see the distinct difference crossing into Ghana. What was once mud huts with thatched roofs was suddenly cement huts with tin roofs. The hours passed and just outside Accra, we stopped indefinitely. Roadblock. A jack-knifed semi was stuck in an open sewer and it was clear that we wouldn’t be making it to Accra that night. We decided to hail a cab to go the rest of the way, it was a pricy trip but we were exhausted and wanted a bed and shower desperately.

That first day, the four of us, Rose, Dan, Justin and I, simply wandered around Accra and tried to take it all in. So developed… They have legitimately good street food so we had lunch, then found a smoothie place!!! It was truly delicious. We passed a real gas station that had a store and snacks in it, and grocery stores and a mall and the list goes on and on. We picked up Rose’s brother the next day then headed out to the beach. We found the bus station and climbing onto our bus, we entered paradise. It was air conditioned with huge spacious seats…real first class treatment. It was the best four hour trip of my life and was so sad to see it end.

Almost exclusively we just arrived at a destination and hoped to find a place to stay and it worked out with reliable ease. The Hide Out was our first destination and we ended up staying there for several days. It was right on the beach and quite difficult to get too thus not busy with tourists and peaceful. We basically just say by the beach, ate really well, and slept, and read, for a few days. We stayed in the dorm room and it was incredibly cheap so we could splurge a little on food. We walked along the beach and visited the neighboring fishing villages. We watched the casting of the nets and bringing them in which was incredibly difficult and labor intensive work. One day we hiked to the nearest beach town and enjoyed the most beautiful view when we reached the top of the hill. The sun was setting over the village and the huge waves crashed against the rock.

We decided to take a trip to town known for its live music and drumming, but as our luck would have it, there was no drumming to be had once we’d made the trip. Apparently there was a month long cultural ban on the drumming at the risk of having your soul stolen and attracting the evil spirits with the music so needless to say, we were forced to find our own source of entertainment and thus more beach time was enjoyed.

Cape Coast was our next stop and it was far and away my favorite part of the trip. The day we got there was early afternoon and after checking into the hotel we went to the castle and learned about the slave trade off the Ghanaian Coast. The castle we went too in particular was built in 1665 by the British and the largest on the “Gold Coast” as it was called. The tour we went on led us through the dungeons where the slaves were held before being shipped out. It is impossible to explain the feeling of those dungeons, to know how many thousands of people died there…you could almost feel the walls watching you and knowing all they’ve seen. Many of the cells were pitch black and with an average holding time of 3 months, thus understandable why so many slaves were blind when they were finally loaded onto the boats. Nearly 200 men per cell with nowhere for the feces, urine, vomit, dead bodies to go…I can’t imagine the horrors. The women’s dungeons were similar in most all aspects except they had a viewing room where specific women were selected and raped then returned. If a woman became pregnant she was hidden away until the baby was born then returned to the dungeons and the baby’s were raised elsewhere due to their European blood. Nearly a third of all prisoners died before they even boarded the ships, aka “floating coffins” and at least that many more once loaded. It was an incredibly moving experience and I will be haunted by the feeling of those dungeons indefinitely.

The next morning we went a few hours out of town to the Kakun National Park and rainforest. There are only 3 canopy walks in all of Africa with the longest and oldest being in Ghana. There are unique breeds of elephants and antelope and monkeys living in the forest not to mention thousands of insects and reptiles and butterflies. The walk was mildly terrifying, the canopy walks swaying under your feet with nothing but air under your feet but it was unbelievably beautiful.

Our last day in Accra we had to spend our remaining money so we wouldn’t have to lose more money in changing it back to CFA…thus we went to market and went shopping for souvenirs and ate really well. It was a perfect way to end the trip. And then our odyssey home began. There is no direct transport to Bamako like we had to Accra so our first leg of the trip was a cab to the bus station (1) then when we were supposed to leave at 3pm but ended up leaving around 10pm (2). This bus took us to Tamale. We took a gutted out van (3) which broke down just outside our destination so we hailed a cab (4) who took us to another place to pick up another cab (5) which took us to the Ghanaian border. We walked the border crossing and had all our passports stamped. On the Burkina Faso side, we took a cab to the Capital (6), dropped off at the taxi station and took another cab (7) until it broke down and we switched to another cab (8) to take us the rest of the way to the bus station. We had to spend the night at the bus station until morning when we took a bus (9) to a town near the border; a cab (10) transferred us to another bus station on the other side of town where we got on the bus (11) to take us to Mali. I got off the bus in Bla and caught my final bus (12) home to San last night while the other 3 went to Bamako for a meeting they had today. I arrived around midnight and after a LONG shower I set up my tent and slept like the dead. It was a quintessential reminder that I left vacation to come home to reality. None the less, an awesome trip.

I’m back in San now and am saying goodbye to Holly as she COS’s in about 10 days before I head back out to site. The COS (Close of Service) conference begins June 22, so expect another update around then. Until that day comes, hope everyone is doing well and the spring weather is less fierce than it has been.

Much love,

Cait

Hey Everyone,

It’s been a busy time in site and unfortunately, a sad time. It is a source of much discomfort when children die in my village that there is no service or even a memorial, just a very brief greeting of the family and blessing for a peaceful resting place. After several of these experiences, it certainly hasn’t become any easier. Last week was no different. A little boy was playing with his friends and fell into a well. It was market day thus most of the village was out of town and by the time the kids found someone to help, it was too late. It was a complete accident, but it didn’t make the death of a child any easier. So, immediately upon returning I had to go about the unpleasant task of greeting the family. Then the next day, we had to go to a neighboring village and greet the family mourning another death. This was more of a celebration as the woman, affectionately known as musokoroba , aka, the really old woman, was 101 years old. Living to that age is quite a feat in any country let alone in Mali. I can’t image what she had seen and lived through in a hundred plus years in the African bush. Hundreds of people gathered and celebrated her life and death by dancing and singing, feasting and drinking tea.

Wherever there is death, there is also life, and amidst these times of mourning a good friend had a baby girl. She is the wife of the local veterinarian and this is baby number 7 for her. Bah and I went to their house in a village about 10 kilometers away to spend the afternoon and celebrate the naming of the baby. In Muslim villages babies are born but a few weeks later there is a naming ceremony where the name is announced and a party is held. We had to make a fairly abrupt departure when Bah saw an approaching storm in the distance. The clouds formed almost before our very eyes and despite biking as fast as we could, we were headed straight into the heart of it. Of course rainy season hasn’t yet begun so these storms during hot season aren’t the kind with lightening, thunder, and rain. They consist of extremely powerful winds whipping up rocks and dirt completely inhibiting our visibility, not to mention the level of difficulty in trying to bike head first into the winds. We took solace at someone’s house on the way home and waited out the worst of the storm before venturing out again and arriving home just before dark. I love that we could stop at a random house on the ride home seeking shelter and be welcomed and sheltered.

Waking up last Monday I turned on BBC to hear that Osama Bin Laden had been killed in an American military action. It’s been an interesting few days hearing the developments in the states as well as in my region of Africa. I was in limbo for a few days waiting to hear if my trip to Ghana would be affected due to events surrounding his death, but alas, we are granted safe travels through Burkina Faso to Ghana starting this Saturday! I’m so excited to get this trip underway. Mom even sent goodies for the nearly 40 hour road trip we have ahead of us. I fear it might be too good to be true, but rumor has it the bus we take once in Burkina has air conditioning!!! I’ve grown somewhat accustomed to the misery of public transport (crowded, hot, sweaty, often smelly, broken down, etc) and thus this rumor is just a dream, but oh how sweet it could be if dreams can come true.

I celebrated my 24th birthday in village. It was pretty uneventful seeing as most Malians don’t know their birth dates thus don’t celebrate. My family did make me beans because they know that Americans like to eat well on special occasions and beans are a fancy meal here in Mali. I also went to my market town the day before and bought some little cakes (fried dough) to eat for dessert. I know I’ll never have a birthday like it again so despite the lonely day, it was memorable.

I’ve become more nostalgic of Kentucky since being here and missed the Derby as well as Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event this year. They are two of my favorite things about Kentucky so it’s has been a difficult week to be away from home. Hopefully next year I’ll be in the states so I can attend or at least see them both. So, I’ve missed Rolex, my 24th birthday, the Kentucky Derby, and mother’s day all in this past week. I came into San today to celebrate my birthday with one of my best friends, Holly, and then tomorrow night I’m going to Bamako to meet up with my other best friends, Justin, Rose, and Dan. It’ll be a great way to decompress after a tough week. This trip to Ghana is coming at the perfect time and I’m so looking forward to it.

I hope all is well at home. When I get the chance to write again it will be June, and I’ll be down to three months in country. Where did the time go. Happy Mothers Day. Happy 24th Allyn.

Much love,

Cait

Hey Everyone,

I just got back from a trip to Dogon country to see a traditional mask dance in Justin’s village, Sokolo. Last year a village elder died in his village, but there was no time for the proper mourning ceremony before rainy season began so they postponed it for a year. Justin’s village and the Dogon area in general have a very unique culture and I felt so lucky to be able to see such an intimate ceremony. Because this was somewhat sacred, my photo opportunities were extremely limited but it was something I don’t think I’ll ever forget.

There are between 8-10 different kinds of masks and Justin gave me a brief history of the kinds and their significance. It was so awesome! My favorite mask was one who walks on stilts but Justin’s favorite wears horns on his mask and is really aggressive. Many of the masks are very confrontational and women and children especially are targets to have their souls stolen or at the very least hit with a rock. Most masks represent something like a tree or a hunter and women and children generally work in the forest cutting trees for firewood thus angering the masks. So when the masks would run through village the women often run to the nearest house and hide behind trees or climb to the roof of their houses. It was hilarious to watch, but I had to be escorted by several men to protect me. One mask would only come out at night and she was the mother of all the masks and was invisible to people, but she would make a really creepy sound like she was swinging a rope around really fast. It was disturbing and sleeping on the roof was little comfort.

I also had to watch a sacrifice ceremony which was interesting until they moved the cow to be killed then I had to leave. I saw the knife they were going to use is was rusty and dull at best. Justin watched and even he had to admit it was good I left the area because it got pretty gory.

Then after watching masks terrorize the village, butcher a cow and greet literally hundreds of people, the chief of the village’s wife died…needless to say, I got my full of cultural exposure in my 36 hours in Sokolo.

In addition to an awesome cultural experience my transport luck was fantastic (perhaps making up for my last several very unpleasant transport endeavors) making the trip all the better! And for my few days at site between the training in Segou and the mask festival was Easter in my village! It was a few days of delicious eating! We killed a pig and a goat and it was a delightful feast. The ceremony was long, but I could understand a little more this year than the last so I got a little more out of it. At the same time, it was my second thus my last Easter here which had a sad note to it as well. All it all it’s been a fantastic week and I’m looking forward to getting back to site for a while before heading to Ghana!

Love always,

Cait

Hey everyone,

I’m on my return trip to from a regional training in Segou. It was for all the volunteers in the Segou region thus including San. It was different experience this year for me personally being a second year volunteer. The training is designed for the new volunteers to ask questions and learn from experiences by the second year volunteers and their homologues. It was actually kind of fun to share some of my successes and all my failures and it’s by far one of the best ways to help the new volunteers.

I’m headed home to Sebanso on Friday to get ready for Easter this Sunday. We’re killing a pig which I’m excited for seeing as I missed this past Christmas thus haven’t really celebrated a Christian holiday since last Easter with my village. I’ll only be home for just over a week before heading to Teryiabougu with the volunteers in San. We’re just staying for two nights as we’re all living a restricted “income” we can’t stay any longer, but I think it will be a nice reprieve for everyone.

Since I last wrote I’ve had an eventful few weeks. Early April all Peace Corps Mali volunteers were invited to the swearing in ceremony of the newest STAGE of volunteers at the President of Mali’s (Amadou Toumani Toure aka ATT) house. Several friends and I decided to go and I’m so happy we did. The ceremony was held at the conference room of the palace and all of the important dignitaries and Presidential Attendants were there in addition to all the Peace Corps staff and a much of the US embassy staff including the ambassador. The ceremony was lovely, and brace yourself, prompt and concise! Everyone was dressed to the nines and I think we were all a little star struck when ATT gave his speech. We had a quick reception following the ceremony with yummy delicious food and then made our way home. The Palace is located at the top of a hill and it gave a beautiful view of the city but it was deceitful in that we forgot momentarily we were in one of the poorest countries in the world. The Palace and the grounds were truly beautiful and I think I’d feel that way even if I’d seen grass and flowers daily as opposed to 7 months ago.

While in Bamako I got all my paperwork for my visas finished and Rose and Dan (both of whom live in or near the city) are in charge of dropping them off and picking them up. I might have to go make a quick day trip down to Bamako again because the Ghanian embassy has started random interviews with visa requests but hopefully I won’t have to go until the actual departure date.

I suppose that’s about all I have to report on my end. I left for Segou from my site with my homologue thus for the first time I had brought my laptop to site. Last Saturday night I decided my family knew me well enough that I could bring it out without causing too much of an ordeal and we watched Aladdin together. It was in English of course but they LOVED it! It was really fun too and a great cultural exchange. I was able to share a very small part of my childhood by explaining that American children often enjoy watching these cartoon movies. I guess I’ll close for now.

I wanted to wish a very Happy Birthday to my dad and a huge congrats on the passing of yet another April 15th. I love you all so much,

Cait

Hey Everyone,

I’ve just started a two month trek of traveling both within Mali and surrounding countries. I finished my last big project for my animal raising association this past stint at site and am now looking forward to getting in some quality time with my Malian and American friends.

We had training in my village with my Cooperative on animal fattening practices as well as proper medical treatments and food selections and breeding. About 20 men were present and one woman (which I was so happy to see!). The trainer was the head veterinarian for the Circle of San and he came out to Sebanso for two days for the training. It had its hiccups that frustrated myself but apparently didn’t faze anyone else like starting 2 hours late because the building we were to use hadn’t been cleaned out…mud buildings tend to get extra dusty so you can imagine what a mess it was! All in all though, I was pleased with everything and thought the members got a lot out of it.

As I said, this begins two months of travel. I came in on Friday and watched the final four on Saturday night via internet at the San house (it’s been a delightful addition to the house!) and watched the painfully close loss of UK to UCONN but am excited we made it as far as we did. A week from today I’m heading down to Bamako to attend the Swearing in of the newest stage. This will be my last chance to see another swear in before I close my service (COS) in early September. As this is the 40th consecutive year of Peace Corps in Mali (quite the feat for a West African country) the swearing in ceremony will take place at the President of Mali’s (Amadou Toumani Toure) house (the Malian “White House”) in lieu of the US Embassy where it normally takes place.

While down for the ceremony, I’ll be visiting the Ghanaian embassy and the Burkina Faso embassy and getting my visas for the trip I’m taking to Ghana in May. I’m going with three of my best friends and the four of us are going overland from Mali through Burkina Faso to Ghana. It’s going to be a long hot ride, but I want the bragging rights to say that I did it. We’ll be spending about 2 weeks traveling in Ghana and maybe stopping for a day or two in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, on the way back. In early May prior to the Ghana trip the volunteers in San are going to Teryiabougu. We went last year and have started an annual trip to the “paradise in the dessert” as we have affectionately named it…aka two days in a clean pool with a river view, trees, flowers, and yummy food. Then follows my birthday and the Kentucky Derby…like I said, this is the beginning of a very busy two months.

We’ve finished the chicken coop at site and spend most days trying to get through hot season. It’s been hovering around 110 degrees Fahrenheit and the nights have still been cooling down to low 80’s. With a lot of luck, maybe the next two months of hot season will maintain this weather pattern because compared to last year, this is incredibly pleasant. Time continues to pass at an alarming rate and I expect it will not slow down the closer I get to September so I’m just trying to enjoy each day as best as I can. There’s so much to look forward to in the next few months in Mali and while I’m anxious to return home, I feel like I need these next few months to see all of the country I want to see and have say my goodbyes.

I hope all is well with everyone. I miss home so much and find so much comfort from your thoughts and letters and packages. Thanks so much for everything,

Love,

Cait

Hey everyone,

It’s been a while but all is well here in Mali. After taking the GRE (and losing simultaneously any intelligence ego I might have once had) I headed back home to Sebanso for a few weeks. I did manage to see a few friends during my brief stay in Bamako which was nice as those visits never come often enough.

My three weeks at site have been great and relatively productive too! I have an ever present knowledge that my days are limited at site and I’ve become emotional more than once knowing that I’ll have to leave my family here in just a few months. I still can’t get over that I am truly part of the family. I feel so lucky because many other volunteers never feel that in their villages. I feel at home and am truly happy there.

My homologue is starting to raise chickens so we’re building a chicken coop which got under way this past week. It was fun to watch but very dirty work, I helped make a brick or two and ended up filthy and exhausted, it is really tough. The Cooperative also asked for help in having a training done in village on animal fattening practices. So, after several weeks, we finally got in contact with the veterinarian in San who will be coming out to Sebanso at the end of the month to give a three day formation. A day focused on cows, a day on sheep and a day for pigs and chickens and any other livestock.

The last weekend in February I went to my friend Lindsey’s village, Seriabougu, and we painted a world map at her school. It turned out really well and was a great time to get some girl time. I forget when I’m at site alone and not speaking English how good it feels to just hang out with Americans. Also, it’s awesome to be able to see my friends in their villages interacting with their villagers. We all have such different experiences; it was cool to be a part of hers even if just for the weekend.

Gardening season is well under way and I love so much walking past gardens and just admiring the beautiful green in an ocean of brown. The village as a whole works a great deal in onions and I think that will be a potential area of work for the volunteer to replace me in organizing the village in their selling/distribution of the onions. I’ve been busy watering my papaya trees but they should be ready quite soon! I’m looking forward to tasting the final product.

There is a wedding at the end of the month that I’m looking forward to. All my friends who have been away studying in Bamako or Segou are coming back for the festivities. I love weddings because it means rice instead of toh and usually they kill a least a goat or two! And of course, lots of tea. Unfortunately, hot season came with vengeance this past week. I’ve had to sleep outside for a few weeks now, but it was with a sheet or blanket and all of a sudden, I go to sleep drenched in sweat and wake up the same way…

It’s already March and it’s quite likely one of my best girlfriends here will be ending her service in June which is unbelievably soon, especially when most all of May will be spent travelling. Early May is my birthday and all the volunteers in San are going to Teriyabougu to enjoy the pool for a couple of days. Then in mid May I’m going to Ghana with some friends for about two weeks to travel and lay by the beach. May is the zenith of hot season so it will be a huge relief to be able to go swimming in open bodies of water without fear of getting water born diseases.

I just got back from a trip up to Dogon country for a break from site and to visit a friend. Nothing big was planned for the trip which was actually kind of a relief as my past several trips out of site have been busy with trips to Bamako, GRE exams, festivals, etc. Now, with it being gardening season, I’m enjoying the fine dining of Mali with veggies that available for a limited time only (carrots, lettuce, eggplant, etc), and lucky for me, Justin loves to cook and is good at it. Hungry season will be here before I know it, so these past few days of gluttony were delightful!

Much love,

Cait

Hey Everyone,

It’s been an eventful few weeks with lots of traveling! Once the 66 new volunteers arrived in Bamako on February 2, Justin and I left Bamako and headed out to Segou for the Festival on the Niger River. Segou is the 2nd largest city next to Bamako but much more manageable and overall more pleasant in my opinion (Less traffic, less air pollution, more organized, less stressful). Despite living in the region of Segou I’ve never really spent any time in the city itself, thus I was anxious to spend a few days seeing the sights. The music festival attracts many tourists and I’ve never been more appreciative of being able to speak Bambara. Everywhere we went people tried to rip us off until I spoke Bamabara with them and then they became much more willing to negotiate and offer fair prices. USAID was a primary sponsor of the festival and you could see the western influence in the layout and functionality of the event. There were vendors, museums, cultural events etc available to everyone in the city during the day but at night you had to have a wristband on to get into the main events. The stage was actually set up in the Niger River so people could sit along the bank and then in a makeshift stadium. Thousands of people turned up for the evening performances with the best of the best West African musicians performing. It was unbelievable to feel that kind of energy coursing through the crowds.

It was fun to be able to do some touristy things too. I went shopping at the vendor’s area and we went to a display at the museum featuring West African artists. Perhaps my favorite activity was going to the Bogolon Museum. Bogolon is the art form of mud dyed fabric which is practiced here in Mali. The origins of the fabric come from the hunters in Mali who needed the dyed woven fabric in the woods in order to blend in. The fabric originally is a creamy white thus had to be dyed to yellows/browns/reds to camouflage the hunters. The tour we went on was free but in Bambara so I had to translate for Justin what was said. We both made a small square of fabric with the help of our Bogolon guide, Bey. He showed us the most common symbols and explained their meanings and then left us to make our own personalized patch. It was really fun. While our works of art were drying, Bey took us on a start to finish tour on how to make and dye the fabric. I have a whole new appreciation for this kind of art.

One of the more amusing events was the boat racing day. Several canoe looking boats filled with paddlers raced around two buoys out a little ways in the river. While we were betting about who would win, the children who gathered to watch the race were guessing who would finish. We thought this was curious until the race began and in attempt to save some time, corners were cut too sharp and sent dozens of young men bobbing along in the Niger. Of the original 8 boats in one of the races only about 3 made it… “Rescue boats” were situated along the track to get the stranded paddlers.

We opted to return to San on Sunday to watch the Super Bowl game in the comfort of home via my computer. The game was delightfully clear but with the time change, I barely made it up to half time. Justin, a Packers fan, however stayed up for the whole game and caught me up on the details so I feel like I got to see it all.

On Tuesday morning we biked the 30 kilometers out to my village where we spent the day and night and next day. It was so nice to have a guest at my home. It’s always a little strange to me that I’ve lived in my home and with these people, but no one has really been to it and can see my life there. My Malian family was so excited for him to visit. They killed a chicken for us and made us beans (if you’ll remember, I’m a Coulibaly and we’re known for our bean eating tendencies) and spaghetti…all of which are very nice gifts for guests of the village. Justin in turn brought my family some cookies and dates and brought the chief of the village kola nuts. Kola nuts in my opinion are disgusting but men eat them for the pleasurable side effects… My chief mends broken bones and when we went to visit he was working on a boy’s knee that was massively swollen and distorted. Like I said, I’m so happy someone got to see my home and meet my family in Sebanso. It was quick trip but one of my favorites.

Currently, I’m in Bamako getting ready to take my GRE on Saturday morning. It was a taxing trip down. I really had my stress load put into perspective. My bus had nearly reached Bamako when we passed a very recent wreck. Volunteers tend to joke that transport is a death ride here because the poor quality of the cars, the roads (or lack thereof), no traffic lanes or really even laws (speed limits, etc), little training of the drivers…etc but to see the damage in person was like a nightmare. I’m glad I’m safe in the Peace Corps house, but I’ll be thinking about those families who lost loved ones today for a while and fear that I will be haunted by the images I saw.

On a happier note, I have a meeting set with my boss tomorrow to have a training done in my village for my animal raising cooperation. I’ve said it before it it’s still just as true, my village is very motivated. I told the men I’d help them if they told me what they wanted the training on and when. Seems pretty straightforward, but in most villages this could take months of bickering then finally nixing the whole thing out of frustration. My cooperation on the other hand, had their monthly meeting, voted, and wrote an official request for the type of training they wanted in the course of the week (pretty impressive since only a few of them can write). I love my village. I love that they want to learn. I love their desire to make their lives better themselves.

Depending on my state of mood post GRE I’ll write a quick synopsis, but if I don’t get the chance, I’m looking to get back to San on Sunday and then leave for site on Monday to spend a few weeks. We are starting to raise chickens and I’m going to help build the coop!

Much love,

Cait

Hey everyone,

I’ve adjusted quickly to being back in Mali which is a relief though I’m sad to say that hot season has already started to rear its ugly head. It’s 104 degrees today and hot season doesn’t even start until March…

My first week back at site brought with it wonderful news that my bag was finally located and sent to Bamako and my boss hand delivered it to me at my site when he came to visit. The site visit went so well. My homologue, Bah, was so excited about the work we’ve done and truly feels that we are making some progress, albeit slowly. It felt really good to be appreciated for not giving out money but sharing information and teaching. One of my biggest pet peeves as a development worker is that donor companies and unfortunately many volunteers use money as their primary means as development. I have managed to start my animal raising cooperation not using outside funds and it’s so rewarding. It means that the men really wanted to start the business and will work hard to keep it going once I leave. That is the dream of volunteers that their projects will last once they return home.

Peace Corps volunteers have the unique opportunity to really know their villages and their needs and I see now just how valuable that can be. An NGO from a Western country came to Segou to help a women’s group who was sewing everything (clothes, blankets, purses, etc) by hand in a mud hut to sell at market. This NGO with great intentions came and completely furnished a room with electricity and most modern connivances so the women now use electric machines. Sounds great right? Well, now they have to work longer hours to try to sell their products which are no longer affordable to their previous market because they have to pay all these electric and water bills. They are in worse financial shape than ever and will likely not be able to continue their business. All this resulted from an NGO wanting to do good, but not understanding just how basic the needs are. We can’t skip steps as tempting as it is.

The weeks passed quickly, as I’m preparing for the GRE on February 12 which is rapidly approaching. It’s nice because everyone at sight understands that I have a test to take in order to continue school so they’ve been wishing me well for the past few days as I prepared to go. Today was a girl’s only day full of manicure’s, pedicure’s, chick flicks and desserts. It’s been such a fun day and great way to celebrate two girlfriends’ birthdays (both 27). Tomorrow several friends from all over (about 20 of us) are coming to San. It will be the first time I’ve seen all of my san friends since before I left for Christmas so I’m looking forward to catching up with everyone. Afterwards, I’m headed down to Bamako to pick up the 60 new volunteers from the airport, they get in on the night of the second. Then Justin and I are staying in Segou for four days to attend the Segou Music Festival. It hosts the best of the Malian musicians which are known for some of the earliest music known to man. They are certainly well respected through all of Africa.

Everyday seems to be passing with increasing awareness that I have suddenly one less. It’s pretty scary that I’m so aware now of everything going on around me. Seeing beauty again in things that used to irritate me… Hopefully I can maintain my optimism through hot season!! I’ll write again before I head out to site.

Much love,

Cait

Hey,

I hope everyone had a merry Christmas and happy New Year!!! Spending the holidays in Kentucky was a wonderful reprieve from my life in Mali. I had however, become more adjusted to my Malian life than I realized and my time in America was a temporary assault to my senses. Despite this sensory overload, I can’t begin to explain how wonderful it was to be surrounded by family, especially during the holidays.

My Papa’s 90th Birthday was a huge success in my opinion and, while leading up to the big day he was somewhat stressed, he was quite the social butterfly on the night of the event! It had been a couple of years since I’d seen some extended family and it was so nice to get almost everyone together even just for the one evening.

Peace Corps Headquarters warned all volunteers that upon return to America, whether vacation or permanent return, that reverse culture shock can be somewhat crippling. I was just beginning to see that warning come to fruition but what took me by surprise most, was the fact that life went on without me. Sometimes, spending days and weeks on end living in an African village, I forget that things kept happening at home. It was surreal being home. Part of me never realized I left and the other half is so completely changed that I see everything, even the familiar, differently.

I went on a bit of a shopping spree and gave my parent’s credit card a workout while home, but in my defense, I hadn’t been shopping in a long time and much of it was for my family in Mali. I’m so excited to be able to catch up with my village friends, but this trip home has just reminded me how quickly these next few months will pass. My service is 2/3 over and the realization that in 9 months or so I will return indefinitely to America hasn’t sunk in yet.

That said; I was greeted at the airport with only one of my checked bags…Welcome back to Mali. It’s now been a week and no news yet ….

I spent the New Year in Bamako with some friends and am still here waiting hopefully for some news of my lost baggage. The amenities available in Bamako have made the transition a little easier, but it comes at a price and I’m anxious to get home to San and then site this week.

Every holiday now has become my last in Mali with friends who have become family thus they are bitter sweet celebrations. Last Halloween. Last Thanksgiving. Last Christmas. Last New Year’s… It’s my 3rd New Years out of the country and I haven’t spent a full year in the same country since 2007. 2011 will continue in much the same trend but perhaps there’s some hope for 2012???

I trust you all had fun plans to ring in the New Year and wish you all the best in sticking to your resolutions for 2011.

Much Love,

Cait

Hello everyone,

It is far too cold. Culture shock in addition to the frigid temperatures is making a fairly amusing somewhat painful transition back home for a few weeks. It was a bit of sensory overload sitting at the Paris airport waiting to come home. Good Food, electronic everything, so many people, Christmas Decor, intercom systems, Prada (I remind you I live on about $3 a day…on average)…

Did I mention it’s cold? I had a long sleeve t-shirt and one last pair of pants that still has the butt in a semi presentable condition (though wearing very thin) and tennis shoes to greet this winter weather...thank God for winter clothes and parents who remembered to bring them to the airport!

Thanksgiving in San was fantastic and delicious though I’m not too disappointed that it was my last one in Mali. Justin and I left the following day and made it all the way north to Bandiagara where we stayed the night in preparation to go to another SED volunteer’s (Andy) sight on Saturday morning called Djigibombo. Justin and I biked the 25 kilometers uphill to Djigibombo and after some recovery time, went out for an afternoon hike. The real hike was Sunday morning when Andy’s homologue took Justin and I on a 12ish kilometer hike up and down and all around the Dogon cliffs. It was a beautiful day and an absolutely perfect way to celebrate Thanksgiving and my rapidly approaching trip home. Rumor has it, the pygmies of central Africa are descendants from the Telmen people who long ago resided in the cliffs in Dogon country and we investigated the old houses (well, the remains of) of these tiny people during the hike. It was pretty entertaining seeing Justin standing next to one of the houses…he’s a tall guy, but these houses came up just past his hip.

We left Djigibombo early Monday morning and made great time getting home…until I blew my tire… Oh well, we met some nice people at a surrounding village who fixed it up for us and allowed us to continue on our way without too much of a delay. I spent one night in Sevare and then left for San where I did my last minute packing then caught the 5am bus down to Bamako on Wednesday. It’s been a whirlwind ever since Thanksgiving and even before that because my last stint at site was busy as well. I finished up my Christmas shopping in Bamako and had a fairly painless trip home. When my biggest complaint is the cold weather, I think I’m one lucky lady.

I have so much I want and hope to do in Kentucky I don’t anticipate it to be a leisurely Christmas vacation and I’m so excited for it. I only have 3 weeks so I’m going to make the most of it!

Much love,

Cait

Hey Everyone,

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

It’s my last Thanksgiving away from home and I’m mixed between joy and sadness. I left this morning from site and will not return until after the New Year. It was an emotional goodbye this morning and it gave me a preview of what it will be like when I actually leave next fall. My family here is so excited that I’m going home to be with my family for Christmas. They know everyone by name and told me to greet Cathy, Chuck, Molly, Becky and their husbands (and Allison of course). It means so much to me that they know my family and want to know my family.

My last few weeks have been busy and flown by. I went up to Bandiagara for a friend’s birthday and on the way home on what should have been a 3 hour bus ride became a 7 hour ride bus ride. The delay consisted of loading about 150 sheep on the top of the bus, under the bus…and in the bus.

I eventually made it back to site for the last time and fittingly my tire blew out just 2 kilometers from site (which I took as a good sign because I was close enough to walk and the sun wasn’t too high yet). I brought back with me the finalized papers for my animal raising association and we had a presentation with the chief of the village giving the papers to the president of the Cooperation.

I also decided to paint a world map at my school. It’s a first cycle school which is the equivalent of an elementary school and I painted on the “principles” office. It turned out really well and I finished on Monday with just enough time to pack and do some chores at home before coming into San for Thanksgiving. It was more of an undertaking than I first anticipated not necessarily regarding the drawing and the painting, but the kids. They were ceaseless in their questions and even if they weren’t talking to me they were whispering or just sitting and staring.

Last Wednesday was the biggest Muslim holiday of the year, Tabaski. I live in a Christian village and thus we didn’t celebrate like the rest of the country but Bah’s best friend is Muslim so we went to his house for a mini feast! It was delicious but of course of all the yummy sheep meat, they gave me the organs. I suffered through a few bites because it is such an honor is given the “best meat” but man it tastes so bad. Makes me think I could get through some of those road blocks on the Amazing Race if I had too. I’ve eaten more disgusting things then I can count in the past year and a half.

With that said, I’m more than looking forward to our feast today of our closest approximation of a good old fashioned American Thanksgiving meal.

I’m going on a hike in Dogon country then heading down to Bamako on the first and will then fly home on the night of the 3rd! I’m so excited to see everyone and hope everyone has a fabulous Thanksgiving.

Much love,

Cait

Hey everyone,

Hope you all had a fantastic Halloween and November isn’t bringing in too much cold weather. Site has been busy harvesting the rice, peanuts and millet thus my past few weeks have been occupied picking peanuts and carrying baskets of millet on my head…I was not graceful.

The men’s animal raising association I’ve been working with to obtain their legal status as a cooperative finally finished and I’m so happy to say that, the document called a recipcee, has been taken and stamped by our local department of justice thus ending 10 months of savings, red tape, delays and bribes. The men now have access to government loans which is practically impossible for people living in the brush to acquire and thus creating opportunities for profits to be made which they wouldn’t have otherwise.

While rainy season has essentially come to an end it has rained twice in the past two weeks giving a brief reprieve of mini hot season. The nights, unlike during hot season, cool down and with the rains all but over, I’ve been enjoying being well rested sleeping outside. My homologue even built me a small gate to put up to keep the donkeys and sheep out of my yard and eating my papaya trees at night.

A few nights ago I had a fantastic conversation with my homologue on womens and men’s role in the US versus Mali which is so vastly different. They are always so concerned that I am not yet married and do not plan to be in my near future. They always ask if how I will live back home where I have no man to give me money…they were blown away that I have to work and earn my own money in addition to housework. I’m pretty confident that they are now convinced I’m crazy or lying through my teeth but it was a pretty interesting cultural exchange.

Listening to BBC World Service is my lifeline to current events. A few nights ago, Obama was aired when he addressed the two suspected bombs found originating in Yemen. I decided to try to test the waters on the topic of terrorism with my homologue and his friends and was surprised to find a fairly sound understanding of Al-Qaida and was fascinated to hear their opinions regarding their activities. Muslim extremists are active in the north of Mali just as they are in most of North Africa. The men in my village do not live in fear of terrorism but they do understand the rest of the world will be less inclined to help their country if it is associated in any with Al-Qaida and have thus formed some distinct opinions.

I’m heading up north to Bandiagara to help paint a world map at a school and to celebrate a friend’s birthday for a few days and when I return home, it will be for about two weeks. When I leave for San on the 24th for Thanksgiving, I won’t be back until the New Year. I’m leaving for home on December 3 and my return flight to Mali is on the 27th. I’m so looking forward to being home to celebrate the holidays with my family. I can’t believe my service is 2/3 over…where did the time go? Sorry it has been so long since my last update but fear not, I’m in great health and great spirits. Can’t wait to see Kentucky again!

Much love,

Cait

Hello everyone

I’ve had a great past week at site. The rains are only coming once or twice a week so I can start sleeping outside again thus I’m much better rested because I’m not drenched in sweat by the time I wake up in my hut. I didn’t realize it, but for much of the past year I’ve slept outside and it’s so nice to be back in the beautiful outdoors. Also, sleeping inside my hut comes with its own hazards. The intense rains we’ve had severely weaken the roofs of our mud huts (seeing as they’re made of mud) and many people are killed each year by collapsing roofs. And to think, I was just scared of the scorpions and creepy crawlies.

I also haven’t been able to get to my market town because the road was under water until this past

Thursday. The mosquitoes are still a menace but they’ll only be around for a few weeks which seem totally manageable after getting two rainy seasons under my belt.

I had a pretty entertaining conversation with my homologue the other day. There is a pretty common belief among Malians living on bruce that all white people know each other. I can honestly see how this misconception was created as the only white people many Malians on bruce know are Peace Corps volunteers who seem to all know each other. Thus, the other day I was asked about this white person who they couldn’t remember the name of. They described a tall guy who lived nearby. I guessed all the volunteers who just left and they finally remembered the name and said he was a volunteer who served in 1996-98…and they couldn’t understand how and why I did not know him.

If anyone would like an enjoyable read I’ll recommend a book I’ve just finished. It’s called Dark Star Safari by Paul Theroux. It’s a man’s journey from Egypt to Cape Town, South Africa and all the countries in between down eastern Africa. He is a sarcastic and insightful writer who both answers questions, raises them, is painfully honest and at times just a stubborn old man. Through his travels he evaluates social, political and economic problems facing the continent while providing incredibly vivid written pictures. While Mali is on the other side of the continent, I laughed out loud at some of the descriptions that are spot on accurate of life here. The death trap of African transport, the stability on bruce vs the chaos of city, the bribes demanded by the police, endless corruption, lack of food security, misguided donor money, etc are all detailed in the book. The author was a Peace Corps volunteer long ago and it was interesting to see some of the similar views we shared with regard to development work among other things.

September 22 was the 50th anniversary of Malian Independence and we had a huge party in my commune capital, Bolokalasso. It was no comparison to Bamako where there were military and police and many others paraded through the streets of Bamako and there were parachutes and heads of state from all over Africa who were in attendance. I was more than happy to celebrate in my village with my village hunters dressing up in traditional dress and shooting off their guns after each speech by the local figureheads like the mayor and police and doctor. There was singing and dancing and a big feast of rice, but the highlight of the party was the kids potato sack races and their version of a piñata. A bunch of little cakes were tied to a tree and the kids were blindfolded and spun around and left to wonder aimlessly with their arms stretched out grabbing the air for the treats. It was hilarious!

I wasn’t planning on coming into San today, but I unexpectedly got to set up a meeting with a man to finish legalizing our paperwork for the animal raising cooperation I’m starting in my village. Things are standstill for weeks and then I have to drop everything and get to work but such is life in Mali and I’m grateful to continue the process. Once we get the actual papers I’m scheduling a small conference in my village led by a Peace Corps orator on proper management of the cooperation as well the potential for profit they now have being legally recognized by the government. Of course this means they need to start some sort of bookkeeping as currently my homologue is the only one with any sort of idea how much money he is putting into the sheep before he sells them to know his profit margin.

I’ll probably be at site for a while unless I have another unexpected meeting arise which is always a possibility, but in all likelihood, I’ll write again the next time I have internet which will probably be around October 15th when I head up to Sevare for two or three days.

All my love,

Cait

I’m in Bamako and am pleased to say it was the most pleasant experience on Malian transport I’ve had thus far. It only took 8 hours and while my friend Holly and I had to wake up at 4:30 to get to the gare in the pouring down rain, the actual bus ride was relatively delightful. No break downs, not unbearably hot while at the same time having most all the windows in tact so minimal leaks and water dripping onto us. Successful trip and made it to Bamako in under 9 hours. Afterward Holly and I ran some errands around town and met up with a former volunteer in San, Jen, who just moved to Bamako for a third year. She has her own apartment with a shower and toilet and fans…one lucky lady.

My mid service exam didn’t go quite as planned starting early on with my blood work. Peace Corps provided transport to the blood work facility in Bamako and while waiting for my turn I could feel myself getting nervous while evaluating the cleanliness of the building and staff. While all appeared to be in good condition (considering I live in one of the poorest countries in the world) I still couldn’t help getting in my mind and getting way too agitated. Thus before the nurse even got near enough to pick up the needle I knew I wouldn’t make it. After telling the staff in Bambara that I was falling down I came too in the arms of two doctors. They were both attractive so it wasn’t the worst way to come out of a fainting spell but still embarrassing because there is no privacy wall and the whole waiting room got to witness the fall. It wasn’t graceful either. I hit my head on the way down and then had to be helped to the bathroom where I promptly threw up…Mali won yet again. Passing out takes a lot out of you and much of the rest of the day was spent resting and finishing up the rest of my physical exam back at the Peace Corps bureau. I faced my fear by going to get my teeth cleaned at the scary dentist and while it was certainly not a pleasant trip at least it’s over now and when I COS in less than a year I get vouchers to go to my dentist back home. I’m happy to report that all the results thus far have come out and I’m in about as good of health as can be expected so hopefully can maintain my standard of health for another year.

I’m headed back to San tomorrow hopefully with Peace Corps transport. My boss is headed up to the region of Mopti for some site prospective and Holly, Justin and I are hopefully getting to ride along for free and AC!!!! God willing!

I’ve been so blessed and was able to talk with both of my sisters and meet my niece plus talk to friends and my parents over these past few days in Bamako via skype. Wireless is kind of an anomaly in this country and has been a delightful treat. I’ve even started researching grad schools and possible career prospects seeing as how I’ll be home in less than a year and I’d like to have some idea of where I want to live when I get there. Pretty crazy how quickly the time goes.

Anyways, not too much to report; I hope all is well back home and I miss you all very much.

All my love,

Cait

Again, my apologies for the delay in updates, the internet was out yet again last week when I was in San. I am leaving early tomorrow for a few days in Bamako for my mid-service exam…hard to believe it’s time for this check up and impossible to believe that I have less than a year to go! While in Bamako I should have access to more reliable wireless internet…God willing.

The past few weeks have passed quickly with the goodbyes and welcomes officially over and am adjusting to a very full house in San, now 13 of us. Holly and I have been run ragged taking the new volunteers around San and buying what they need to furnish their houses and basically get a feel for the city so we won’t have to be at the house the next time they’re in town. I now remember just how many questions we had last year and there were only 3 of us asking 7 older volunteers. Now the roles are reversed and 10 new volunteers are relying on Holly and me for guidance.

Site has been pretty quite these past few weeks. The month of fasting just came to an end and while my village is Christian, we still celebrate with a feast called Seli. As you can imagine, people can get pretty crabby when they don’t get to eat or drink anything from dawn to dusk, so I’m totally content to have this month of fasting over. The rains are great this year, coming almost every day but as with everything in life, the downside is that bruce roads are completely impassible thus I can no longer get to Djeli market. It’s not a problem seeing as how my friends in Sebanso are exceedingly generous and give me garden produce regularly. That said, hungry season is coming to a close and I can see a dramatic difference in the quality and quantity of food I am given over these past few days. Still a few weeks to go before harvest, but the end is in sight. Many of my friends have clearly lost a significant amount of weight and with malaria running rampant, I’m anxious for some relief of the rains. Just like home, each season brings with it some ups and downs; I just didn’t realize how extreme these ups and downs would be in Mali.

It’s hard to know exactly what people are sick with during rainy season because any sickness is diagnosed as Malaria. That said, at least 2 people in each family seem to be diagnosed with Malaria each rainy season and this is often when the most deaths in village occur. The elderly and children are most susceptible and while the death of elderly adults is celebrated, the death of a child is rarely mentioned. My homologue, Bah, has lost 3 children and from what I gather this is quite typical. Kardi, Bah’s best friend, just lost his youngest son a few days ago. This was the first child I knew and played with regularly so it was pretty tough to have no ceremony or any real recognition of his death…the mourning process is significantly different here and has been quite an adjustment.

Well, I should be going. Hopefully I’ll have lots of internet access over the next week and I can send out some more updates.

Much love,

Cait

It’s been a while since I last wrote and so much has happened! First and for most, rainy season is in full swing and much to everyone’s relief, the rains while starting later this year, have proven to be significantly more frequent than the damaging lack of rain in 2009. My village is busy at work plowing, planting and weeding their fields of peanuts, rice, millet and corn. I even had the opportunity to push the plow behind the cows and while my rows aren’t exactly straight, I did it! My homologue’s garden is lush and green which I cannot begin to express how unbelievably beautiful the color green can be after 9 months of being encompassed in a world of brown. Bah, my homologue, and I are trying to spread the use of urine fertilizer in our village by using his garden as a guinea pig. Some interest has been peaked as people see the size and speed at which his garden veggies are growing (okra, hot peppers, corn, egg plant). Mom sent some veggies and Bah is fascinated with the American corn which is different from Malian corn therefore very excited to try it. We are also growing green beans, squash and zucchini, none of which he had heard of and thus also very curious what the final product will be (he is convinced that zucchini’s are actually cucumbers and will not rest until he proves me wrong…). I walked to the garden a few days ago and thought I saw Sali (Bah’s wife) working, but nearly fell over with laughter when I saw two newly constricted scarecrows standing in her place…too funny. He also took the tape from a cassette and tied it up throughout the garden so the wind blows and makes a loud noise to keep those pesky birds out. I never cease to be amazed by the ingenuity and lack of waste I find in this country.

The rain brings with it difficulties in travel as Bruce roads become nearly impassible during and after a rainstorm. The best, and most recent, example I can give happened just last Thursday on my way back from market in Djeli. I bike to and from Djeli with Bah’s best friend, Kardi because Bah takes his moto while we have to bike, and on Thursday we left too late from market and were forced to bike 10 kilometers in what can most accurately be called a monsoon. 10 k really isn’t too much to complain about but Bruce roads are mud during rainy season, and when it’s not mud, it’s underwater. I won’t get into the details because the memory is much too fresh and painful in my mind but it’s safe to assume the adventure was hilarious, exhausting, frustrating, hilarious, muddy, emotional, and then hilarious again. To peak your interest I can tell you this odyssey includes multiple bikes breaking, me falling off my bike, me falling while pushing my bike, me “swimming” (water was about waist high at one point) along with my bike, a brief donkey ride, meeting new friends and finally, given a chicken. I was soaked head to toe when I got home but didn’t really matter because I was covered too in mud from head to toe…the joys of rainy season continue to show themselves to me each day.

While saying goodbye to my friends in San is proving to be extremely emotional, I’m currently having some leverage in fighting the sadness with excitement because I’ve just met the 9 new volunteers to become SanKaw (people of San). We will lose 6 from the STAGE before mine and gain 9 making an even 12 for my last year of service (Holly, Brad and I are the only 3 from my STAGE in San) or at least until February when yet more volunteers come to Mali. As San house manager I have to lead a house meeting explaining the basics of the house, collect dues, answer questions, etc so this has been a crazy week. To make things even more stressful, I had two site buddies this past week. There is a volunteer being placed about 2 kilometers from me and another in my market town that I had to visit each for a day and take into San on Friday. I’d forgotten how completely helpless and totally clueless we were a year ago…we knew nothing! I’m exhausted and tired of being mother hen but it’s been a nice distraction as my two best friends in the STAGE before mine are COSing in the next few days. Good news is, I think we are getting a great group and I’m excited to see what this next year will bring. It will be completely different from last year now having two volunteers so nearby but I think it could prove to be a great tool in getting work done and collaborating for projects in addition to being a nice reprieve for my sanity.

I guess that’s enough for one email. Sorry again for the lack of correspondence, internet has been down in San for over a week now! I’ll be in and out of San saying my goodbyes to friends and then in san in early September for the new volunteers installation to site and finally and then headed to Bamako the week after to pick up a friend from the airport. It’s going to be a crazy few weeks coming up, and to think, August is already half over!

Miss you and love you

Cait

I just got back from a weekend trip to my friend Cassie’s village and a spontaneous trip to Djene. Cassie will leave for America on August 4, as she is finishing up her second year. She invited her closest friends in village for a feast in her concession that we cooked for. Esther, Jen and I all came from San and had a great time at Tene, Cassie’s site. We got to Tene on Saturday afternoon and greeted the necessary people before heading over to the radio station where we acted out a skit on air. One of Cassie’s biggest projects as a volunteer is preparing a 15-20 minute radio broadcast once a week on health topics ranging from birth control to the effects of smoking to AIDS to nutrition. It was really fun and all the people of Tene were taking about how exciting it was to hear all the Americans on the radio. The next morning we headed over to one of Cassie’s friends houses and prepared the meal of rice and peanut butter sauce for 35 people…quite an undertaking. It took several hours to prepare but it was a great time to learn how to cook the sauce which is delicious but pretty expensive to make thus nearly impossible to eat at site. The party was a great success and it gave me a glance to my future a year from now. It was incredibly powerful to hear people talking about Cassie and how much she meant to them. It definitely helped put in perspective the role each of play in our respective communities.

Jen, her friend from home, and I left in the evening on Sunday for Djene. We had to cross the river via ferry, wading through the water to get on and off, but finally made it to our hotel around11pm. Djene is famous for the mosque in the center of village. It is the largest mud building in the world and is an impressive site, especially having lived in a very modest mud hut and knowing the extent of maintenance and upkeep required. In the weeks leading up to rainy season each year the entire city comes together for the very important festival in which all community members help to bring water to make the mud to re-mud the entire mosque. The festival is the one of the most important times of year and the tourist industry is dependent on it. Only Muslim people are allowed in or post menopausal women thus I only got to see it from the inside but it was still in impressive site. Apparently, there are 100 mud pillars in the interior to hold the ceiling up. No building is allowed to be taller than the highest point of the mosque thus you can see it from nearly everywhere in Djene. Just beside the mosque is a UNESCO building that is making huge progress in transferring Ancient Arabic manuscripts onto computers. Most every family in the city has these manuscripts passed down through the generations and have been kept in trunks for years suffering endless termite, mud, rain, heat, etc damage. Becoming a World Heritage Site has increased the tourists in the area which I’ve become torn between loving and hating. They bring a lot of money to the community but they also give handouts thus making our job as Peace Corps volunteers increasingly difficult as people associate being white with giving away money.

It was a great weekend away and I’m being forced now to start saying my goodbyes to some really great friends. On the other hand, I was just assigned to be site buddy for two new volunteers coming up in August so it will be a great chance to get to know the new guys who arrived a few weeks ago. I can’t believe it’s time for me to be doing this. I remember in my site visit how totally terrifying it was and how lost and confused and overwhelming it is, and now, I have to be the site buddy for two others…woah.

Anyways, I’ll be back soon for just a day next week and I’ll try to get a letter out.

Love you all,

Cait

I just returned to San for a day before heading home to site but had to come to the internet café to see pictures of my new niece!! I’ve been breezing through phone credit with regular phone calls home to find out when she was born and I was oh so excited to hear on Sunday that mom and baby were healthy. Well worth the expense. Congratulations to the new grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts and uncles and of course, mom and dad.

I was at site for the fourth of July which was significantly less anticlimactic than last year when I was preparing for my last days in America, but I left on the 7th for San and then up north to celebrate our 1 year in country anniversary on July 10. When I was in Bandiagara we watched the finale of the World Cup and I was torn if I wanted a bunch of euphoric Netherland fans roaming the streets of Johannesburg post game or distraught fans…

I went to Justin’s site for a night and was fascinated at how different each person’s experience is. We are both in the same country but that is just about where the similarities end. Of course he speaks a minority language, Donoso, while I speak Bambara so that was an adjustment not being able to communicate with the same ease that I’ve developed at my site. The actual physical contrasts between our villages are what really made me realize just how huge this country is. His village is situated on the rocks and absolutely gorgeous. While mine is simple and quaint with mud houses and fences, all the buildings in his village are made of rock. I think I would be in significantly better shape if I lived in Dogon country because to go anywhere in village you essentially have to rock climb. I was there less than 24 hours and my legs were sore for days after…and these people carry buckets of water on their heads and carry heavy loads up these cliffs multiple times a day, it’s incredible. The beauty comes at a significant price though in that water so close to the dessert and in that rocky of a terrain is exceptionally hard to come by and clean water even more so. Thus Justin, as a water and sanitation volunteer has his work cut out for him trying to educate his village on basic sanitation practices. A primary source of dirty water comes from the lack of bathroom facilities. The Malian bathroom, a negen, is hard to dig and build in Dogon due to the rocks so the villagers defecate on the rocks. This is the root cause of much of the water contamination because as the rains come it washes everything right down the cliffs and into the drinking water…

The tenth came as quite a surprise, how could it have already been a year? So much has happened I can’t imagine that I have another year to go. People are already asking my plans about what I want to do when I get home and I can’t believe how fast the time is passing. The one year in country mark is traditionally the hardest time for a volunteer and I’m happy to say that the overwhelming gloom that consumes many volunteers hasn’t hit me and hopefully won’t. I have a strong and stable support group both at home and in country which has proven to keep me grounded. Before I left, I was hoping to learn a thing or two about myself being able to spend a significant amount of time alone at my site, but I’ve come to learn that I need other people in my life to learn about me. It’s been a year full of changes.

I hope everyone is doing well and know that I miss you all like crazy. Time is passing quickly but that doesn’t go to say that it’s not incredibly difficult at times to be so far from home for so long. I love you all and think of you often,

Love always,

Cait

I just finished my Food Security conference in Bamako and my two villagers enjoyed a day in town before heading home to Sebanso on Sunday. I am staying in San until Monday so I can go to market day here due to my inability to go to my own market because our road floods each time the rain comes.

The conference was in Bambara entirely and thus the few volunteers there attended some alternative sessions and in our down time enjoyed the wire access we so rarely get to enjoy. A woman working for the CDC in Atlanta, Dr. Mary Alleman, came to speak to us on some of the most common preventable diseases present in Mali with particular emphasis on Polio. A large part of my job as a volunteer is to share my experiences with family and friends while in country in an attempt to raise awareness of our country of service, thus, I’m writing this email primarily to inform you all about some issues present in Mali.

Just a few years ago there were no cases of Polio in West Africa and today there are many spreading north/west from Nigeria. Several years ago rumors of female infertility caused by receiving the polio vaccine circulated through Nigeria, so today a significant proportion of the worlds cases of polio are found there (India, Afghanistan, and Pakistan are the other endemic countries). The first case of reported polio in Senegal in many years occurred in January 2010 and Mali has had 2 new cases reported in both 2009 and 2010 and expected to grow quickly without immediate prevention and treatment intervention. Small Pox is the only disease to be completely eradicated in the world and polio was very close until recently. With these new cases surfacing the World Health Organization, Center for Disease Control, and Ministries of Health are all working hard to eliminate the disease and hoping to utilize PC volunteers to help spread the information and help ensure all the children are vaccinated. There are specific weekends were the local CSCOM (bruce doctors office) relays (kind of like a nurse) go door to door and vaccinate the children 5 and under in each house in their respective communes and use a permanent marker to color the child’s pinky nail as an identifier that they’ve received the vaccine. This is where we as volunteers can be particularly effective. We have developed a relationship with our communities and can find the kids without the marked pinky and have their parent’s get them vaccinated. These campaigns occur every few months since the first occurrence of polio in Mali in 2008 and during these campaigns the children receive the vaccine for free.

As our conference pertained to Food Security and the starting of committees and associations we have learned some interesting stats during our sessions. For starters, there are 1 billion hungry people in the world and in Sub-Saharan Africa one in every three people is chronically hungry. I’m hard pressed to find a more important issue facing Mali than Food Security. I can truly not imagine having to reduce my meals to one a day in an attempt to make it through hungry season or being in fear that I’m not going to have enough money to buy food for the week.

Food Security is a global problem and defined by a community’s accessibility of food in a community and for those people in the community to have adequate access to it. This includes quality of food and the nutritious value of that food. Nutritious food is difficult to come by even during cold season which is when most of the garden produce is available in market not to mention the other 10 months of the year when produce is exponentially more expensive and harder to find. When millet is the staple of your diet and the only regular sources of protein are in dried fish (one of the most horrid smells in market) you can imagine the difficulties in eating a balanced diet…scratch that, the impossibility of eating a balanced diet. I heard an interesting theory on one of the many reasons Mali and other West African countries continue to be unable to develop which essentially comes to the conclusion that sorghum is the only indigenous crop in Mali and all the millet, corn, beans, etc that are grown have been brought in from outside.

This is just the tip of the ice berg relating to Food Security and the possibilities and also the dangers of not addressing the problem. In theory, upon my return to site my villagers will have some ideas on how to protect the village in saving food and increasing production, etc. Hopefully I’ll have some positive updates for you in a few weeks.

Love,

Cait

June has proven to be exceptionally busy! I started the month going to what I like to refer to as an oasis in the desert aka a little village on the Bani River that served as a going away party of sorts for the 6 volunteers in the STAGE before mine. The village, Teriabougu (house of friends), was about 30 kilometers off the main road between San and Bla (a most unfortunate city name). It was more a little resort than a village as it was gated off and the hotel was the primary location of guests. There was a pool that was legitimately clean and lounge chairs that we took full advantage of. As a reward to surviving hot season we spent a great deal of time just sitting in the pool, getting out and jumping right back in. The village in and of itself is pretty fascinating. There is a tree nursery with thousands of trees being grown as well as an established beekeeping practice and they have a Jatropha seed press to make bio-diesel fuel. We splurged on the last night and all ate at the restaurant the hotel that was perhaps one of the best meals I’ve had in country (not saying too much when my diet is toh or on good days, rice and sauce).

I returned to sight for just a few days before heading north to Bandiagara for the start of the 2010 World Cup! It’s such an experience living in Africa for the first World Cup ever to be held in Africa. There is such pride through this continent as the African teams are being cheered on. While realistic expectations are not high for any of the African teams to make it to the second round, you wouldn’t know that based on the enthusiasm of the fans. I met up with Justin in Sevare and then went up farther north to Bandiagara. Bandiagara is a frequent starting point for the tours of Dogon country so there is a lot of western influenced food there and nice hotels for us to watch the games in. To celebrate my year in country coming up on July 10, 2010 I ordered a Dogon Bracelet to be made. They are region specific and the designer melts down coins then hammers them into shape. I’m getting my Malian name, Aramata, carved into the bracelet and so excited to see how it turns out. I’m getting to go back to Bandiagara briefly for my actual 1 year anniversary so I’ll get my bracelet then.

I again returned briefly to site for a busy two days. I met my newest host sister who is just 3 weeks old, she is yet to be named as Malian tradition goes there is a naming ceremony a week after the birth where the name is announced but being in a Christian village we do things a bit differently and they wait until the Dad decides on the appropriate name. I was taken to the fields and helped plant millet…kind of. Mostly I just watched as the fields were plowed then planted not even a full row of millet because the Malians were laughing hysterically at my pathetic attempt to be agile in my planting. I failed. It was a great experience none the less and really helped me experience a huge part of their lives that until know I’d just heard rumors of.

Currently I am back at Tubaniso, the training area where I was brought when I first arrived for PST and again in December for IST. Two members from my village are here, Tabita Demebly and Dabassy Coulibaly, for a food security conference. I technically do not need to be here but I think it meant a lot to my villagers that I came even though just a few other volunteers are here. Its working out well though as this morning I was able to meet with my boss, Macki Cisso, and discuss some project plans and generally just catch up. It can be really hard being so far from Bamako and easy to feel like you’re slipping between the cracks so it was nice to be greeted and asked about specific people in my village he had met months earlier. I suspect the rest of the week will pass quickly and I’m looking forward to Peace Corps transport back to San. I have to admit though; I have reached a whole new level of confidence when I managed to get from San to the Bamako bureau by myself. Never before had I had to negotiate with taxi drivers and navigate the insanity of Bamako traffic so I was really proud of myself when I actually reached my destination with minimal trouble.

Hopefully, I’ll be back to site on Sunday and spend at least a week there before heading up to Bandiagara. My friend Holly is flying home to Washington for a month and leaves on the 7th and there is a possibility that I could join her on her trip to Bamako for a day then head north with some friends who are coming from the other side of the country (Kayes) where they will be celebrating the 4th of July…but I detest transport and don’t know if I want to spend 9 hours on a hot bus just to turn around for 13 hours more the next day.

In papa’s words, “That’s all I’ve got to say”

Love,

Cait

Sorry for the lack of correspondence, I’ve been away at site for almost a month!! The STAGE before me is getting ready for their Close of Service Conference in Bamako in a few days so I’ve come into San for the day in preparation for our trip to Teriabougu…basically a village with a pool and a hotel that is up to American standards (well, there is a fan in the room and the pool water isn’t green…I’m not sure it qualifies for American standards but it’s a welcome sight for Peace Corps volunteers). It’s our good party for the 6 getting ready to go home in just a few months! I’m sad to see them go and cannot believe this will be in a year…God willing I survive another hot season.

The end of hot season is very near on the horizon, twice now, the rains have come and with them a welcome breeze. Thunder and lightning have been all but forgotten until this past week when I was almost mesmerized by the long lost sound. Though I have to admit, I had forgotten how much more challenging riding my bike on bruce roads is when you have to either create an alternative route through the trees and bushes (which have malicious thorns) or go swimming.

I ate my first bug last night. My host dad brought me a bowl of what looked like a combination of a dragon fly without wings (they burnt off when the bug was toasted) and a little caterpillar. I didn’t vomit as I threatened I would but it’s not something I want to repeat in my near future. Fortunately these bugs aren’t around long thus the novelty of them. Speaking of mutant creatures I learned there is such a thing as a scorpion tarantula mix bread of scariness! I knew I killed one a few months ago but nobody believed me until others have been spotted wandering around…I’m glad to be vindicated in being right but I’m torn because I would have been totally fine convincing myself it was a figment of my imagination.

In other news, I attended a funeral in a neighboring village on Sunday. It must have been a really wealthy family because the woman was buried in a casket!! All funerals I’ve been too before the deceased have been wrapped in fabric only. The service was nice but a little long and I’m guessing about 600-700 people were there. It made for a long day but someone did give me a chicken!

My host mom just had a baby girl two nights ago. I’ve yet to see her but when I go back to village on Monday I’ll see her and take lots of pictures for the next email. Most women have their children in the morning and are back cooking dinner and watering the garden in the afternoon…these women are amazing. However, my village is pretty sophisticated and the women can stay at the Maternity for a few days to recover.

I spent a day at a friend’s site just 9 kilometers from me and we did a world map mural painting on the side of her millet cereal bank which was a welcome break and a lot of fun. During that trip we also did a Neeme cream formation. The Neeme tree is a most interesting tree whose leaves have a natural mosquito repellent, so we presented to the women’s association in Zana (the village) how to make the cream. They can either sell the cream at market or use for personal use as the rainy season approaches.

My men in my animal raising association are really working hard to get all their paper work together for the cooperation they are trying to start. I was excited because of the eight required people that have to have birth certificates five already have them. I wasn’t expecting any of them to have them and was worried about how we would find the money to pay for all of them, but now we only have to save for three which is much more feasible (15,000 cfa which is approximately $30…much better than the 40,000 cfa I was anticipating).

I’ll try to give another update soon when I return from Teriabugou or perhaps when I’m in Sevare the following week I can get an email out. I will be traveling a lot in the month of June eventually ending up in Bamako for a few days for a Food Security meeting at Tubaniso for a few days so expect better correspondence during this month!

Love,

Cait

My trip into Bamako was successful in that I was able to watch the Kentucky Derby and while I didn’t pick the winner I had Super Saver in second so I was pleased. I also managed to eat 12 scoops of ice cream in three days…it was delightful! Malians tend to be some of the most passive aggressive people I’ve ever met and I experienced a classic case of this when trying to get transport home. We called the bus and reserved four spots to leave on the 4 o’clock bus. When we get to the station we learn that all the tickets are sold out so we go talk to customer service with the woman with whom we had made the reservations. She said to would find out what was going on, so we waited. We waited for 20 minutes and finally went to go find her because we hadn’t found out anything. She left. Apparently our seats had been sold and she didn’t want to tell us so she went home. Oh well. So we had to stay an extra night in Bamako before catching the more reliable 6am bus to San.

On Wednesday we had a spring cleaning of the stage house…much overdue. It was preparation for my birthday which was really fun despite being so far from home. We ended up having about 12 people in san for the festivities and ate a delicious cake to celebrate. I had saved my presents mom sent so was able to open them on the night of my birthday.

My time at site before I left was brief but pretty productive. My homologue, Bah, took me around to several associations to see how the work and try to figure out some ways that I can help them. We met with two of the women’s associations, the road building association, animal raising association and the millet saving association. I spend at least a day each week at the second cycle school and have a date set in mid May to work with 20 of the girls about decision making and like skills. The female English teacher has proven to be extremely helpful in helping me work with these girls. She helped me pick the 20 girls she thought would get the most out of it and be willing to open up. It’s kind of taboo for women to speak openly here so I wanted some strong young girls for these first sessions. If this goes well then I hope to have these sessions each month.

Bah has officially finished his house and had a “welcome home” party of sorts. They made a huge dinner and had about 25 of his closest friends come over. It was a fun party but I stayed up until 11:30…a record for me at site where I’m normally sound asleep by 10pm. The donkeys have been walking through my concession at night keeping me up and creating some hostility in how I feel about them, but other than that, I’ve adapted really quite well to sleeping outside.

Love,

Cait

The past few weeks have been super crazy. Upon my return from regional IST in Segou I barely made it back to site in time for Easter. I was able however to return to the little village who doctored up my bike on my day of Murphy’s Law and pay Solomon Coulibaly the 250 cfa (approximately 50 cents).

Easter was celebrated much like any other event in my village, dancing and eating. We killed a couple of pigs (huge because in a Muslim country you don’t eat pork…fortunately, Christians do!) and danced all night before Easter and then again all night Monday. The actual festivities on Easter consisted on a Sunday morning service immediately followed by singing and dancing (all the village married men, all the older women, all the married women, all the young adults and all the kids danced in respective order). I made a dress of Malian fabric and delighted my village with my new outfit…normally I wear exclusively American clothes which still confuses some people to see a women in pants but I like to push the boundaries a bit.

The heat is something I continue to write about not to bore you, but because it’s hard not to live in Mali without mentioning the heat. It’s getting to such a degree where it barely cools off into the 90’s at night thus you never really get the chance to stop sweating even sleeping outside. Heat rash has taken over my body but unfortunately there’s not too much you can do to stop/prevent it when you live in this environment (unless perhaps I install AC in my hut???). Suggestions from fellow volunteers include taking my bucket bath with my clothes on so they can cool me off as they’re drying…I dried out in about 20 minutes then started sweating again. Others sleep on their roofs to try to get more wind flow but have to wake up by 5 when the sun rises and other keep buckets of water next to them so when they wake up (most can sleep for 15-30 minute intervals) douse themselves the fall asleep again for a bit.

By some divine reason I truly can’t explain I decided to call my mom the Wednesday after Easter…highly unusual for me to call let alone so shortly after I talked to her on Easter because it’s extremely expensive but for whatever reason I called and found that my grandma had passed away just hours before. I have never been one to cope well with death and found that I was grateful to have a bit to time to myself in my hut, not only to cry but to reminisce. I also became increasingly grateful for my dad’s foresight to take me to Lawrenceville last June where I had a chance to find some closure in saying, as it goes, my final goodbye. I was able to hug and kiss the Grandma whom I remember from my childhood and that memory has proven to be a huge comfort and eased the pain of my mourning. Having a good friend to support me also eased the pain of loss of my grandma and I can’t be more grateful for what he did for me.

I’ve been busy at site taking Food Security Survey’s. Food Security is severely under addressed in most developing countries and as a result countries like Niger are facing massive famines and unimaginable deaths from starvation. I interviewed 10 farmers in my village about the kinds of grains they grow, income generating activities, garden products, how to deal with running out of food, etc. I was struck by a couple of the questions and results. (1) when asked how many kids are in the family there is always a minimum age of 5 before the children are actually taken into account by the government because the chance of death before 5 is so high. (2) Every single farmer I interviewed ran out of food as early as August and definitely by September…I knew hungry season was a problem, but its extent still continues to impress upon me how dire the situation is. (3) Every single farmer I interviewed admitted they were regularly worried their children did not get enough food and often they would eat only once a day in attempt to prolong the duration of their food. (4) Each farmer had a least one of their children die in their life. (My homologue for example is relatively well off and still, two of his children died from malnutrition and disease). Last year was a terrible harvest and I fear that hungry season will be particularly cruel this year in Mali.

On a happier note, I took a mini vacation up to Sevare then onto a village about 5 hours north called Hombori. Mt Hombori is the highest point in Mali and my friend Justin and I climbed it…sort of. It was the scariest thing I’ve ever done but really exciting and so rewarding. When we neared the summit and could look out over what felt like all of Mali the view was intoxicating. Carefully looking in the distance you could see the sand dunes of the Sahara just before the horizon. Fortunately Justin grew up with mountains and was able to navigate the cliffs but talk about an adrenaline rush! Going down the mountain was essentially me scooting down the mountain on my butt…but we made it in one piece with only a few bumps and bruises…and a lot of sore muscles.

Getting back to the “hotel” we took delightfully cold showers and continued to hydrate (we each drank about 7 liters of water on the hike and were still so thirsty when we reached town). We didn’t rest long however as we decided to go see the elephants before they crossed over to Burkina Faso. We hired a guide and driver and set off into the African wilderness. We drove about two hours deep into the heart of Mali until we came upon one of the last watering holes that still had water. We didn’t have to wait long before we saw three gorgeous elephants drinking and bathing at the hole; a female, yearling and the Chief male. At one point the male was probably 30 yards from us. I’ve seen an elephant in zoos before but to be out in the wild with nothing between you and this beast of an animal was extremely exciting and awe inspiring. These animals are totally free, roaming as they please without any fences to confine them. After about 30 minutes of admiring the elephants at the hole we headed out into the brush and saw a dozen more eating and foraging. Beautiful is too cliché a word but it’s impossible to articulate what exactly I felt. All I know is that in less than 24 hours I was humbled twice with just how small I am and how huge this world is.

I’ll wrap it up now because I’ve written too much already. I’ll be at site for about 10 days then I’m headed to Bamako for Derby Day and then back to San to celebrate my birthday with some friends so look forward to more updates in two weeks!

Love,

Cait

So, as a request from my mom I’m writing about my worst day in Africa…which I have to admit is kind of funny now that I can look back on it.

March 27, 2010. The wind when biking to San from my village is extremely strong, thus, I decided to leave my house at 6am to ideally get to San before 8am and meet my friend Holly on the way (her village is about 45 minutes from me). So I get up early and bike to the road and start biking to meet Holly when I feel my bike kind of deflate. I look back and my back tire is totally flat. I get my phone out to call Holly to tell her I will be late and guess what, my phone is dead (I was expecting a call the night before so I fell asleep with my phone on which effectively killed the battery). I had just enough to call Holly to tell her to go on without me and then it died for good. I walked to a neighboring village and they pumped up my tire. I hopped back on and continued along my merry way for about 20 minutes before the tire was totally deflated again. I wasn’t particularly close to a village so I was going to try to catch a ride with a passing truck/car so I took a seat on the side of the road under a tree (aka: bush) for as much shade as possible. 1 hour passes and no cars pass only moto’s. Finally, I get frustrated and start walking. Unfortunately I decided to wear my Teva sandals (endurance/trekking sandals) because I wanted to break them in before rainy season when blisters never heal and are easily infected. I hadn’t been walking more than 10 minutes before my feet were massacred with blisters. After about 8 kilometers (still no passing trucks or cars) a man on a moto finally helps me find a village where I can get my bike fixed. While on the mission to find a local village I get the chance to chat with the man who was extremely helpful and friendly…much needed after such a long morning. We find a village a few kilometers off the road and the people were extremely helpful and repaired my broken bike. I go to grab my money and realize I’ve left it at home because I brought my backpack to go to Segou instead of my purse (which ironically also had my bike repair kit in it). I apologize profusely and promise to return the following Saturday on my return from Segou IST and feel absolutely terrible. I finally get back to the road and start biking. It’s now about 10:30 and the wind is fierce. I stopped to take a drink and found that I had only one sip left because over the course of the morning I drank most all the water (usually I never have to stop to drink when I leave at 6am because it’s cool enough). I start biking again and am about 10 kilometers outside of San. I vividly recall looking to my right and seeing a tree, peddle several times, looking to my right and seeing the same tree…it hadn’t moved. I was exhausted and thirsty and it was hot and this stupid tree wasn’t moving. I started to cry. You do NOT cry in front of Malians, it is a huge faux pas. Thus I pulled off again and sat on the side of the rode in attempt to compose myself. After a few minutes I get on my bike yet again and am on my way. I’m totally parched at this point and quite literally can’t talk. When I passed some kids they naturally greeted me enthusiastically and I go to greet them in return and find that I have no voice. Perhaps the most insulting thing you can do in Mali is not return a greeting. As I passed unable to greet I heard them say approximately “the white person didn’t greet let’s get her!!!!” and so the take off running after me. Totally exhausted and against the wind I had no energy left so they caught up pretty easily and started throwing things at me (I know at least one rock because it hit me in the back and did not feel good). Any other day I could have retaliated but this day from Hell I was almost expecting it. They stopped after a few seconds and I was able to finish the last 3 kilometers to San in relative peace. The wind creates a bit of dust and my tear stained face was a dust magnet so by the time I arrived at our house in San at 11:45 (almost 6 hours later on a 2 hour trip) I looked just about as bad as I felt. I ran into the house and broke into tears again this time in the presence of other Peace Corps members who were able to help hydrate and comfort me. After a cold shower and some alone time to recover I was able to return to the outside world.

So, after Africa broke me, I realized some things:

I am incredibly lucky to have extremely supportive friends in San. I can honestly say that I am genuinely happy to see any of the 7 other volunteers in the San area which is very challenging to achieve when 8 strangers are thrown together in extreme conditions. I will never again ride my bike without my phone, money, air pump, repair kit, hand fan, extra water…haha. Mali won this day, but I’m definitely winning overall. Brownies are a great remedy to a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. You can make a new friend in the most unlikely of places. The generosity of strangers reminds us of the best parts of life, especially when we feel like it’s one of the worst parts of ours. I am one lucky girl.

March is absolutely flying by and I can’t believe it’s almost April. I have a regional IST for a few days in Segou from the 28-3 then I’m heading back to site for Easter. I celebrated St Patrick’s Day in San with a bunch of friends where we started a new tradition with a new name, dubbed San Patrick’s Day. It was a great success and there were about 20 people here. We killed a pig and had the butcher cook it then we made yummy BBQ sauce and Cole slaw and salad…No green beer but we all rocked out green clothes. Hosting an event can be exhausting and I apologize for not getting an update out around the 17th but I knew I’d be back soon so I hope this will suffice.

As painful as hot season is, it’s more the dust storms that’s really getting to me. Sometimes when I’m walking through village and I see a tornado of dust come barreling towards me and I just put my head down in a fairly futile attempt to inhale as little dust as possible. Regardless, when I return home I have to brush my teeth to get the grime out of my mouth and shake out my clothes after my bucket bath. While my village is very dry, I have an all new respect for northern Mali and any dessert residents…it can be downright difficult to breathe in this environment. One of my friends from up north has been forced to wear his turban all day just to breathe.

My bike ride in today was anything but pleasant but I won’t bore you with the details, except that I left my house at 6am and arrived in San (should be 1:45 minutes later) at 11:15am…

On the other hand, I’ve had a great week at site. There was a wedding I returned just in time for from San Patrick’s Day. It was someone somehow related to my host family (the groom that is to say) and for days in advance extended family was arriving from Bamako. I’m not sure exactly how many sheep and goats and cows were killed for the festivities but needless to say I ate really well for a few days. The evening before the wedding there was a sort of rehearsal dinner were essentially everyone gathered at the host house and ate and danced till late into the night. In the morning it was super busy. The bride and groom went to mayors office to sign the marriage papers and all the men and women were eating and drinking tea all dressed in their best at the host families house. I found out the families tended to wear the same fabrics. For example, all the “bridal party” was in one of two fabric designs. All the Bamako women on the grooms side were in a fabric and another fabric for the Sebanso women on grooms side, etc. It was fascinating to watch. This was my first Christian wedding and I can’t get over some of the similarities. The bride wore a beautiful white dress and the groom a nice suit. There was a maid of honor and a best man that sat with the bride and groom for the THREE hour service. That was a little excessive and I have to admit that I fell asleep more than once. The singing was incredible though. Three choirs came (two in addition to Sebanso’s) and you couldn’t help but get totally caught up in their music. Several ministers led worship and there were some friends who did readings, there were vows made and I do’s said and rings exchanged. It was truly bizarre. Afterwords there was of course dancing and eating for the rest of the day and again late into the night.

One of my favorite moments since I last wrote actually took place during the socials at night. A lot of the young men and women my age all returned for the wedding and I was able to chat with them increasingly more. People who used to speak and I would stare at dumbly I could now have a semi intelligent conversation with. It was incredibly exciting and when I went to market on Thursday I had a similar experience. I was sitting with my friend Enice who was making and selling little cakes and I was playing with her son Kardi (almost a year old and so darn cute…I ‘ve sent pictures of him before). We were chatting and of course when people walk by and see a white person speaking Bambara they freak out and come joke with me. I’m definitely getting better at my communication (though I have so much to still learn) and it was the first time I really understood just how far I’ve come in the past nine months. I know have a new appreciation for why Peace Corps is a 27 month service…your first year is simply trying to survive. On the other hand, I had my first run in with a really mad Malian at market and I definitely could not keep up with his angry words (I have a feeling Peace Corps didn’t teach the kind of language he was using). From what I could gather it was a dispute about the price of something but these two guys decided to duke it out while we were biking home…My homologue's friend with whom I always ride to and from market with was the so called third party used to keep disputes under control and thus I spent much of the ride stopping and going trying to keep up yet not get caught in the middle of weaving bikes and angry fists. It was a bit of an adrenaline rush and made the 45 minute trip home fly by.

I’ll be leaving in the morning for Segou for a regional In Service Training with all the volunteers in the Segou region and I’ll return next Saturday and try to get another email out for the Easter holiday! March has been a whirlwind and I apologize that I couldn’t get to San more often. I’ll be in San briefly mid April before heading up north for a few days and I’ll be leaving for Bamako on the 30th of April for a Kentucky Derby party at the pool in Bamako. In the middle of hot season, I can think of nothing better (though there’s not really much worse than the transport to get down there…oh well).

Love,

Cait

Hope all is well and everyone is enjoying March and the welcome break of spring. I am currently adjusting to the heat of hot season and I have to admit, it’s really hot. It’s only reached 108 degrees thus far, but apparently in April and May it can reach almost 130 degrees…sometimes I wonder if people were actually meant to live on this land, or any extreme climate like this. At least I’ve been here long enough now that my body has started to acclimate and the 90’s are actually the equivalent of a perfectly lovely day.

I’m mildly embarrassed to confess that I didn’t really need to come into san today, but I have quite literally been dreaming about a cold sprite at night and thus made the trip to San. Most of the time I can deal with drinking what I can most accurately describe as bath temperature water, but at a certain point in time, it just doesn’t cut it. Plus, my good luck finally ran out and I’m sick…you don’t want to know the details but I figured I wanted access to both cold water and a real toilet over the next few days.

Site has gone well since I last wrote; Senegal was a delightful break from the day to day grind. I’ve been attending the secondary school several times over the past two weeks and working with the female English teacher. It’s pretty much unheard of for a woman to teach English in such a small bruce community and she has thus far served as a valuable resource to me. She is helping me plan a monthly workshop for the 8th grade girls about some life skills…relationships, decision making, peer pressure, fighting with friends, etc. As frustrating as it is, I’ve finally come to the conclusion that as much as I work with the older generation, they are “stuck in their ways” so to speak and the only way to make significant behavior change is to work with the younger kids and hope it carries through to the next generation.

I’ve had my first run in of the season with a scorpion and I’m sad to say that this most certainly will not be the last. Apparently during hot season they are absolutely everywhere. This scorpion was huge but they say that that’s good because it’s the little ones that can kill you…oh joy. On the bright side, I have yet to deal with rats and mice thanks in large part to the local cats and my homologues dog, whom I’ve named Duke.

I’ve now been here long enough that when I greet people in village I can’t really ask names anymore because I should know them, but learning a few hundred names is hard for anyone let alone when their names are impossible for me to pronounce in the first place. Fortunately, it’s a compliment to call people by their last names and nearly everyone in my village is a Coulibaly, so I get by most of the time calling people Coulibaly. Even if it’s not their last name, the Malians just laugh because a huge part of Malian culture is joking cousins. Mali is full of ethnicities and minority tribes so Joking cousins are used as a kind of tension breaker. Coulibalys are known to be bean eaters thus calling someone a Coulibaly who isn’t insinuates that they stink because they eat beans all the time. Other joking cousins involve calling someone a donkey, a blacksmith, a younger sibling (age is a huge status symbol here), your slave, etc. There are quite literally about 20 last names in Mali and certain last names joke with others, except for Coulibalys who can generally joke with everyone. A typical greeting in my market village goes something like this

I ni ce (hey)

Nsay (doesn’t translate but can kind be the answer to anything…men say “nbah”)

I ni sogoma (good morning)

Nsay I ni sogoma (good morning)

I ka kene (how are you)

Torotay (great)

Somogow be di (how is your family)

Bashi te (no problems)

Somogow dun (and your family…yes, you must ask about the family twice…I don’t know why)

Toro tu la (they are great)

I Coulibaly (you Coulibaly)

Nsay (you bet)

Hahhahaha, I be sho dun, hahaha (hahahaha, you bean eater, hahaha)

Hahaha, I ye Fali ye (hahaha, you donkey)

Then repeat asking the questions…this is an extremely simplified version of a greeting; I’ve often greeted someone for at least 5 minutes because there were countless benedictions and blessings to accompany the standard greeting.

I hope you all are all doing well; I’m sad to say that I’m suffering another bought of illness though I’m waiting for my medicine to arrive from Bamako and am anxious to start feeling better. I miss you and think of you often, especially when I’m sick and I long to be home the most. Your thoughts and well wishes help get me through these harder days and I can’t thank you enough.

Love,

Cait

I just got back from Senegal and spent a few days in Bamako before returning to San. I hope to get back to site this afternoon. Cold season was all too brief however and the days are already becoming incredibly hot so we’ll see what this afternoon brings.

Dakar was unlike anything I have seen in Africa thus far. The vast majority of the time I thought I was in Western Europe. There are developed roads with street signs that people actually follow, all the stores have windows and air conditioning and there are credit card machines and ATMs everywhere. It was the most bizarre feeling and I have to admit I’m glad Bamako is not Dakar because I would be hard pressed to leave.

WAIST overall was really fun. We had three softball teams and none of them made it to the finals but it was fun none the less. It was actually kind of eye opening seeing volunteers from other countries. I know I’m a little prejudiced because I am a Mali volunteer, but the first time I saw the Gambia volunteers I was struck by how healthy their team looked. Our guys can’t stop losing weight, but I swear some of those guys almost had guts on them…no wonder we couldn’t win a game. This is totally me trying to justify our terrible softball skills but it still makes me feel a little better. Speaking of food, I’m pretty sure I put on a few pounds over the past two weeks. I ate well in Dakar. There was ice cream.

The more time I spend in Mali and having the chance to travel a little outside of Mali to other developing countries I’ve started to find some untraditional poverty indicators. There is the obvious infant mortality rates literacy rates used to measure poverty but I’ve come to find some other measures. For example, you don’t see many joggers in Bamako but there were men and women constantly running near the beach (of course if Mali was as cool and breezy as Dakar we might have more runners too). Another was the moto-car ratio. In Mali only the most wealthy drive motos thus they are the main means of transport you see by Malians other than bikes and donkey carts. In Dakar I rarely saw motos because everyone was driving cars.

The American club in Dakar, which is where the softball tournament took place, was beautiful with a huge pool and yummy delicious food. Needless to say my days were not spent sightseeing but relaxing by the pool with grilled cheese in hand…Cheese, it’s been 8 months since I have had cheese!! Part of me regretted not seeing much of Dakar but I’ve come to really value what a difference knowing a local language makes in getting around a foreign town. I hate getting ripped off and hassled thus I much preferred hanging out with friends by the pool. I did hike up to the light house and had an incredible view of the city and coast which I’ll send pictures of soon.

The bus ride to and from Senegal was exhausting. Spending 30 hours on a bus with no AC and very little leg room probably gives the impression that it was a miserable trip, and I assure you, it was. Fortunately I have medicine for motion sickness that has the lovely side effect of knocking me out. Thus I would wake up at the check points and show my passport, wipe the sweat from my face and fall asleep again. All in all, not a bad trip.

I came back to Bamako on the night of the 17th and spent a few days in Bamako. The Peace Corps bureau moved over the weekend so I went to visit the new bureau which was gorgeous and so nice and clean! We have a stage house in Bamako that I stayed in while in town. I came back to San on the 20th with my friend Justin who stayed until this morning when he left for home in Mopti. It’s been relatively uneventful so I’ve been enjoying the break and soaking up the luxury of San for the day. I am however, sad to say that hot season is arriving with vengeance and it’s a pretty formidable forerunner of what’s to come. I’ll keep you updated.

I’ll probably be at site for the next two or three weeks but I’ll try to write again when I come into San for St. Patrick's Day. A bunch of people are coming into san which will be nice. I like the people in my stage a lot but only in small doses and while I was ready to leave Dakar, it will be nice to see some of them again in a few weeks. I hope you all are doing well and can’t wait to hear from you all soon.

Love,

Cait

I’ve come to San for just two days to say good bye to one of the volunteers whose COS (close of service) date has finally arrived after 3 ½ years of service in Mali. I’ll be back again for a night before leaving for Bamako on the ninth but not sure if I’ll get a letter out before I leave for Senegal.

My plan was to come in on Saturday, but I was roused early to find that my host family grandmother had passed away early that morning. I was surprised by the way Malians approach death. It was much more a celebration of her life than it was mourning her death. The women spent the morning preparing food for my host family as hundreds of people came to great the family throughout the morning. I sat for a few minutes with the women who sit inside the house with the body and sprayed the body with perfume before I left. The rest of the morning things continued as normal doing chores about the house that I thought that might be all. Around 4pm my homologue came to get me and we went to the common area where the service was held. The body was laying in the center of a wide circle of people and there were people singing and drumming for a while before the Pasteur performed a memorial service. All the while, women came to perfume the body as several men led prayers and hymns. When the service was over the attendants (I’m guessing about 700 men women and children) rushed out to the fields were the burial would take place. The hole was already dug by the men of the family and they climbed into the hole and were handed the body which they proceeded to use mud bricks and mud to seal the grave. A prayer was said then all the men of the village took turns shoveling dirt into the grave. Tree limbs and more mud bricks were the final step to keep animals from digging at the grave. we all went back to my host families house where we danced and sang and played the drums for a few minutes. People then went home and ate dinner until about 9pm when the music started again and people met at the common area for dancing that lasted quite literally until Sunday morning at around 6am. Before leaving Sunday morning, I went to great my host dad and still hundreds of women were gathered eating breakfast with the family. In all of this I never saw any tears shed, only smiles and celebrations. My homologue told me that her death was an opportunity to bring the community together to celebrate her life and that there is no reason to mourn when we will all die one day. Blunt, but a lovely way to approach death.

In other news, my homologues nephew planted some flowers in my garden...which is very hard to keep alive in Africa. Baba, one of the other boys told me that Seni just planted the flowers so he could spend more time with me because he has a crush on me, haha. My afternoons are still spent watering the garden and my arms are becoming quite toned due to the work. I’ve also enjoyed helping cook with some of the women in the mornings and am mortified that I ate Toh voluntarily for the first time upon coming to Africa and found it good. Wouldn’t want to eat it every day, but considering a few months ago I quite literally gagged myself when eating it, this is absolutely unprecedented. I’ve bonded with the family dog which I’m constantly being made fun of for. But I started to regret this development when he came prancing into my concession holding the bloody neck and head of a baby lamb and proceeded to eat it in my yard. Talk about reminders of my new life in Africa. I managed to give myself a fat lip when I went to get my water from the pump. I was tying the 20 liter water container to my bike rack with the rubber tie like always when the tie snapped and smacked me in the face. With half a dozen kids gasping at my rapidly swelling and bleeding lip I had to finish tying the container and rode home with very little dignity left. My Peace Corps doctor came to my site for site visit just to make sure everything was up to par and she gave me a flu shot. I have a love hate relationship with my doctor. She acts quickly to get us healthy but I’ve yet to see her without getting a shot. In the past year since I found out I was nominated for a position, I‘ve lost track but can only assume I’m well over 25 shots I’ve had to get, plus having to take malaria medicine every week for the next 2-3 years.

Love,

Cait

It is rare that I get the chance to send emails so closely together but I doubt it will happen enough for anyone to become spoiled by it.

In answer to a question Uncle Larry in particular asked, there is bee keeping in Mali. Honey is available in Bamako and some of the regional capitals though it is much harder to come by in village. As a potential project I’m trying to feel out my village for anyone interested in being trained as a beekeeper and thus introducing honey into the market. I think it would be a great opportunity for someone to start their own business or at least add to their income. The APCD (the head of every sector) of the environment sector is a beekeeper and would be more than willing to come to my village for training if I can find someone willing to take on the risk of learning a new trade (MUCH easier said than done)

I’ve returned to the local school (grades 7-9) a few times and assist in the English classes which is really fun and the kids seem to really enjoy it, that might be due to me not beating them when they get a question wrong, but I like to think that I’m a decent teacher. After working at summer camps for two summers, I’ve become more comfortable and enjoy working with kids who used to really intimidate me. I helped grade some papers from the final exam of the fall semester and the average of the English exam for the 7th grade was about 35%. Talk about discouraging. It makes me realize how lucky I am to be surrounded by highly motivated kids in my concession. My homologue’s kids get back from school around 5pm and then help with the cooking and bathing of younger kids then they spend much of the rest of the evening studying (at least Monday through Thursday). I guess I didn’t realize that study time is actually a luxury here and if my homologue didn’t make time for it, they could easily fill the evening doing more chores which are truly endless.

As far as my village I’ve only just realized that I’ve given few details about it. Sebanso is one of 7 villages making up the commune N’torosso. The so called “capital” of my commune is the village of Bolokalaso where the school I work with is located as well as the mayor’s office. The local doctor’s office is about 3 kilometers from my village and the maternity is situated directly across from it near the village of Sokoroni where the local tailor lives. My village, Sebanso, has about 650 people. It is a Christian village and next to my Chief of Village, the Pasteur is probably the most respected man in village. The dugutigi (chief of village) is kind of royalty and the title is passed down to the oldest son upon death. My dugutigi resets broken bones and works with traditional medicine which is pretty cool to see him brewing sometimes. My village is quite well off, relatively speaking, I have reasons to believe due in part to it being a Christian instead of a Muslim village that I’ll discuss later. Sebanso is very fortunate in that we have an wide array of resources such as an adult literacy program, a school (pre-K to 6th grade), a mill grinder, a cereal bank, and financial bank, a butiki aka the Wal-Mart of my village, well builders, animal raisers (and a veterinarian who lives in a neighboring village. Someone I’ve come to know quite well seeing as my homologue is president of the animal raisers association), an established women’s garden, basket weavers, and a tanteen (a women’s group that collects money each month from its members and every month a woman from the group gets to keep the money as a sort of personal savings).

Now, you might be curious as to my hypothesis that Christian villages financially are better off than Muslim villages or animist villages for that matter. It’s actually a very rational and logical conclusion that I’ve come to. The Muslim religion allows and some might argue promote polygamy allowing men to take up to four wives. When these men take multiple wives, with it come multiples sets of children and as all parents will attest, children are expensive. This also demands more housing among other things and nothing comes free. Christian families are still relatively large, most families I know have at least 6 kids but, when compared to some Muslim families where they have 20 or more children supported by one man, you can do the math for yourselves. Often these families are forced to take the older children out of school to work in the fields and take care of the younger children thus depriving them of much needed education, poor quality though it may be. I can’t reiterate enough how important I think improving the education system is to providing sustainable economic growth.

I’ve just returned from my first visit up north which I’m sure will have many more to come. I caught a bus to Sevrae on Thursday and arrived around 6:30 pm…about a three hour bus ride which was incredibly quick by Malian standards. I stayed in sevrae for the night then went to Bandiagara for a day before returning to sevrae on Saturday afternoon and now I’ve just returned to San. Bandiagara was absolutely gorgeous and I can’t wait to go on a hike through Dogon country. The cliffs, unlike the rest of Mali, are very picturesque and scenic (in the dry desert kind of way of course). Saturday afternoon was leisurely spent by the pool of a local hotel; I however refused to swim when I could not see the bottom on the pool. I did get to enjoy a cold apple juice while reading a magazine and listening to my ipod which was delightful. My friend and I ate dinner at a local restaurant that who he knew well and we were chatting with the owner seeing as we were the only customers. He was complaining about the affects terrorism and al-Qaida is having on his business. In fact, much of the tourism industry in the north has all but disappeared with Americans and most all western tourists having been advised/forbidden on going to Timbuktu, Gao and Kidal. It’s so sad to see what might have been a great chance of development absolutely destroyed.

Love,

Cait

I’ve just spent about three weeks at site without much reprieve and am thus thoroughly enjoying my trip to San. Of course, my trip was made even better because I didn’t have to bike in. My APCD (“my boss”) came to my site for a surprise visit to check on everything and he ended giving me a lift to San which was awesome, getting to ride in a car is always a treat.

My mailbox was inundated with letters that have arrived over the past few weeks and I can’t tell you how much it means to me. The holidays were anything but “normal” for me this year and it was so nice to hear things are still going on as “normal” back home. I had lots of questions asked in the letters so I’ll do my best to answer as many as possible without boring you too bad.

My past few weeks have been consumed with gardening, which is the primary activity during cold season. In the mornings I help in the women’s garden and in the afternoon I help in the family garden of my homologue. We currently are growing onions, tomatoes, potatoes, lettuce, some vegetable resembling an eggplant, beans, and we have several papaya trees that are just coming into season. In the women’s garden, we also have some trees in which we eat the roots of. I’m pushing for green beans and carrots next year, but it will take some convincing (there is not much of a demand in market for them). Gardening is incredibly demanding work. All the actual planting and tilling is done with hand held hoes made with a piece of metal wedged into a chunk of wood, kind of primitive but quite effective. Of course, this means that to garden you have to be bent over (there is no sitting or kneeling here; it’s always bending at the waist so that they’re pretty much doubled over). Of course, like most things in Mali I’m completely inadequate at gardening but I can help water the garden so in the afternoon, the young boys in the family draw the water from the well and fill the women’s watering cans and we water the whole garden. It takes about an hour every afternoon to water and then they have to weed and tend to the garden. We go to market every Thursday in a town about 10k from my village and then my homologue goes to San every Monday for market because he has a moto. I always ride my bike to market with Kari, my homologues best friend because he only has a bike too, and nearly all the women take donkey or horse drawn carts with their goods to sell. I can find pretty much everything I need at market as far as food goes, bread is always a treat because I don’t really get it any other time. The fish section of the market is downright foul smelling but the Malians sure do love their dried fish, I however tend to stick to the fruits and veggies. Watermelon season has just ended, sad to say, but we still have bananas and a cross between an orange and a lemon. There are “booths” set up everywhere selling everything you can image from nails to clothes to baskets and jewelry. The booths are actually just tarps tied together and to tree posts in attempt to block the sun, however, the ropes often hang low and more than once I’ve close lined myself while trying to navigate the chaos of hundreds of people bargaining and selling around me.

I’ve learned so much about reusing since coming to Mali. Potato sacks have absolutely unbounded possibilities. They’re used for storage, for sack gardening in houses for herbs, they can be shredded into individual threads and made into rope which is thus used to tie the animals up, pull water from the well, as clothes lines, “bungee cords” for loading goods on the donkey carts, etc, the threads of sack are also used to mend clothes as well as sew together leaking/broken gourd baskets. No waste.

I’ve learned how to make mud bricks which are incredibly heavy, and then made mud fences and houses from the bricks. I’ve learned how to make peanut butter, which is incredibly labor intensive and I’ll never be able to eat it as casually again without remembering what all went into making it. I help with the cooking and have learned to make toh, a classic Malian dish I choose not to eat on a daily basis as the Malians do. It too is very labor intensive. The millet has to be pounded, then sifted and pounded and sifted then cooked over a wood fire while stirring constantly at a consistency of cement. None of this is made any easier by cooking over a wood fire that causes my eyes to absolutely burn and tear and nose to run so that I’m blinded and stuffy by the end.

Our bank in village is surprisingly sophisticated in that we give out loans. We are only open Friday mornings, but last Friday alone we gave four loans. There is also a “savings account” so people quit tucking their money under their mattress, though the majority of people still do. Most people’s guarantees for their loans are a specified number of goats, cows or donkeys which I found pretty entertaining. Though not very long ago the primary punishment for people defaulting on a loan was to make them stand in the sun for two days and if the still wouldn’t pay, they’d go to jail, so I was very impressed to see this improvement in just a few years.

The African Cup of Nations is going on in Angola right now. I don’t know how much US coverage it’s getting, but there is such passion for soccer here that it’s all my village can talk about. The tournament actually started with Mali vs. Angola and it looked like it was all over when ten minutes to go, Angola was up 4-0, yet somehow, the final score was 4-4. I’ve never seen anything like it. The fact that the tournament is being held in Angola is pretty controversial and has been made more so by the recent attack on the Togolese team, killing three on their way to the tournament and causing them to drop out and return to Togo. The bus had just crossed into Angola from Congo when they were attacked by a local rebel group and the bus went under gun fire for nearly half an hour. Angola is also not a particularly easy place to get too and thus very expensive so not many fans get to go to the tournament though millions of dollars went into infrastructure and stadiums (remember that over half the population in Angola is living on less than a dollar a day). Also, Angola only ended their 27 year long civil war in 2002 and are still very much recovering in every imaginable context.

If anyone is interested, I have successfully defeated my sand trap when biking, though the count was lost well after it won for the 30th time. I figured it’s all about speed and leaving early in the morning before the sand has had time to loosen up and suck me in like quick sand. It’s been pointed out to me too that I hold my handle bars of my bike unusually and I realized that I hold onto my handle bars like I would hold the reins while riding with my pinky and thumb on the underneath of the handle. Americans and Malians both have commented on it and I’ve tried to change but to no avail.

Love,

Cait

Happy New Years Eve!!! I hope 2010 gets off to a good start. This New Years Eve won’t be quite as glamorous as last year on Halong Bay, Vietnam, but I’m excited to get it started none the less

My past few weeks have been an absolute whirlwind. IST technically ended on the 19th, but I opted to stay until the 23rd for a workshop with an NGO called Right to Play. It uses sports and games to educate students on AIDS. There were about 25 of us who stayed and other sectors had field trips as well, so it turned to be most of our STAGE that stayed the extra two days and then got to take Peace Corps transport out on Wednesday. I left for San on Thursday, Christmas Eve, and had my first Malian outfit made. Christian villages have a fabric printed every year so my homologue really wanted me to wear it for the Christmas service. As it turns out, they celebrate Christmas for three days 24-26, so basically a never ending feast. They killed several pigs which was a pleasant surprise after not having seen pork in months.

While in San I was able to pick up some packages and the Christmas tree and decorations you sent mom absolutely made my Christmas. I’m sure I looked ridiculous riding back with a mountain of boxes on my bike but I wanted take everything home. I turned on my ipod and listened to Christmas music and decorated my tree while snacking on the cookies and goodies. It was very special and I even had three wrapped presents to put “under” the tree plus my stocking, all of which I saved for Christmas morning. Christmas day was reserved primarily for a 4 hour church service with tons of singing and some dancing then chatting and relaxing the rest of the day while the 26th was the all night dance party. There is no way I can keep up with those dancers so I stuck with the old ladies who were much more my speed.

Since then, things calmed down a little. It is Christmas break so all the kids are home all day which I’ve never really experienced so it’s been fun playing with them, and I’ll try to send a video or two of them singing and dancing. Most of the youth my age also returned from Bamako and other regional capitals from school so it was nice to see them and I’ve had more visitors this past week than most my time here added together. My homologue must have told our Pasteur that all my friends were in Mopti or Bamako for Christmas but I had come to site, so Daniel (Pasteur) announced it on Christmas morning to the whole village so they were all smiling at me kind of awkwardly for the rest of the day, very embarrassing.

The kids have been my constant companions as of late and I’ve had the chance to see how they entertain themselves. Two boys, Izac and Etienne, were bowling one afternoon. They each lined up 4 old D batteries and then used a ninth battery as the bowling ball. This entertained them for hours. The girls have their version of rind around the rosy as well as patty cake so it’s been fun watching them play that too. I brought a nerf football and they’ve taken to playing soccer with it which has turned out to be incredibly entertaining seeing as a football has really awkward bounces that they way over/under estimate when to kick. Whenever I’m having a bad day I just have to spend a few minutes with the kids (certain kids of course drive me absolutely crazy so I’m kind of selective who gets to play in my yard) to make me feel better.

Love,

Cait

This is probably the last chance I’ll get to write before Christmas so I wanted to was you to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and I’m so sad that I won’t be there celebrating with you, but I’ll be thinking about you all day. Apparently Malian Christians celebrate Christmas by eating all day and dancing all night which will be very interesting considering that I have no ability to dance…at least I should be a source of entertainment, not that this is anything new here. I’ve bought some Christmas fabric that hopefully can be made into an outfit before Christmas because the whole village buys the same print for the holiday.

I’m not really sure on your plans for the holidays, the last I heard, Becky and Phil are going to Philadelphia and Molly and Chad will be spending much of their day at the Evely’s but I hope that papa can make it out or you and dad can make it out to Frankfort. I’m not going totally without Christmas either, we had a white elephant gift exchange and yummy dinner a few nights ago at Tubaniso which will have to suffice for my American fix. We decorated the “mess hall” with paper snowflakes and drawings of reindeer and Christmas trees. It was nice to be able to just immerse ourselves not matter how brief in some American culture.

IST has been totally draining, but at the same time has flown by and I can’t believe that I’m heading back to site for what feels like an indeterminate amount of time. I know that I’ll be leaving in February for Senegal and the West African International Softball Tournament (WAIST). Most all of my stage is going so that will be a nice reunion of sorts especially because some of the people who have left I might not see again until my close of service in 2011, so surreal. I’ve definitely been able to reconnect with my two best friends Rose and Emily so I have no doubts that I’ll be keeping in touch with them especially because Emily is only in Mopti thus not too far away and Rose is just outside of Bamako and I have to come into Bamako several times a year.

Another highlight of IST was going to my first Malian concert. The singer was a guitarist named Habib Kote and he was fabulous. We had a pretty big crowd of volunteer who went and the venue was exclusively American and European so we got to really be ourselves. Living with Malians all the time can be exhausting; constantly having to be on guard and making sure you’re always abiding by their culture. It was the first time I really got to meet some of the Malian ex-pats and NGO workers…many of which were old Peace Corps volunteers. It was cool, but I’m so happy to be able to return to my village. I wouldn’t want to be with them too much because it’s pretty much like a mini America. A few friends and I stayed at one of the ex-pats houses and it felt utterly bizarre. AC, frig, stove, coffee machine, flowers, beds, couches, counters, good food…it felt like I was cheating. It was definitely nice to be reminded that I will one day be able to return to my so called life of luxury but for the time being I’m perfectly content in my mud hut.

I had a pretty awesome day the other day with my homologue where we set up a temporary plan for work projects and he is so excited to get started. He has a pretty awesome garden and is respected in the community so I had wanted to introduce the urine fertilization technique we learned about but most Malians are pretty averse to it. He brought it up to me and asked me to help him organize a training/demonstration for the village. It’s a great technique to increase dramatically production of all garden products so he is really excited to try it out. If he has any success I have no doubt that the other villagers will jump on the band wagon.

Love,

Cait

IST is going well and I’m having a great time and for once, really feel like I’m learning at lot from my sessions. Today we had several hours of HIV courses and local language vocabulary as well as possible methods to raise AIDS awareness back at our sites.

My most influential class I ever had in college was economic development where every day we would study a different factor contributing to the poverty cycle and analyze its affects. I remember the day we spent on AIDS, but now having lived in Africa for several months (which I still can’t really believe), I can actually see how AIDS is in fact contributing to cyclical poverty. Part of my job as a volunteer is to try to help Americans understand the culture where I’m living, daily life, interesting beliefs/traditions, etc. Thus I’m going to start writing about some of the issues I’ve been forced to deal with everyday while living here in hopes of explaining why Mali is in fact one of the five economically poorest countries in the world. Today, thanks to my morning sessions, I’m writing about AIDS and their role in perpetuating the poverty cycle in Mali.

-68% of people in the world suffering from AIDS live in Sub-Saharan West Africa, 90% of infants with AIDS live in Sub-Saharan West Africa

-As men and women are infected with the disease, they become less productive in both their physical ability to produce on the small scale as well as their life expectancy and the loss of production associated with a shorter lifespan.

-Myths exist in Mali that mosquitoes are the only way to contract AIDS. Another popular myth is that Americans are always pushing for condom use because they’ve put AIDS in the condoms thus gains financially as people have to buy our medicine.

-Education is the best means to fight AIDS but teachers are often victims, leaving their students without teachers. Additionally, as parents get AIDS, children (especially young women) are pulled out of school so as to take care of the other children and house hold responsibilities. Often, these young girls are forced into prostitution to contribute financially, which of course only exacerbates the spread of AIDS.

-Mali is a Muslim country and most families are polygamist, so when if a man contracts the disease, he is likely to spread it to each of his four wives (four is generally the most wives one man will have).

-As countries develop, their roads and infrastructure develop internationally; however truck stops are a huge source of AIDS spread and with more international traffic, countries like Mali, who have relatively low levels of AIDS become inundated with a disease they don’t have the ability to contain.

-Mali provides everyone with AIDS with medicine, however it is hard to be tested and harder to have access to hospitals or local doctors in which they can receive the required meds daily or weekly.

-Governments are forced to spend an enormous amount of resources on caring for orphans and treating the disease itself that they don’t have the ability to test everyone, thus allowing for decreased production from workers, and again you can see the cycle…children having to leave school uneducated about how AIDS is actually contracted, etc.

-Sex is also an extremely culturally sensitive topic. For example, in Mali you are not to talk about a woman if she is pregnant because it insinuates that she has had sex, thus sex education is almost nonexistent in the schools. Along similar lines but another topic for another day, 90% of Malian women are forced to have genital mutilation.

-Another Malian specific problem is that it is the woman’s responsibility to provide protection via condoms, birth control, etc. However, many women don’t have any source of income in which to purchase these or the education to know that they have options.

This is definitely the hardest part of development work. So much of what we learn is on a large scale and absolutely impossible to see a silver lining. The only way I can maintain my sanity is to try to focus on one person or one day and try to make a difference in one life. We talked today about how important options are and that we have to focus on giving people information they wouldn’t have otherwise. We can’t make a person make the decision we want, but we can let them know all the information. It’s so hard to take that stance because you can see people making the wrong choice in your village even after you’ve done your best to lead them in the direction you want them to take yet there is nothing you can do. In these circumstances you just have to keep talking and hope that someone else is listening.

Hope you all got something out of this email, I know it helps me just writing things down, so this email has at least helped me articulate some things that have been on my mind recently. If you want any details about anything in particular about life in Mali or Africa, let me know and I’ll try to give you a firsthand account. I know many people have questions about my opinion on why Africa never seems to be able to develop and I’m learning more everyday about the causes that seem to inhibit development here.

Love,

Cait

I’ve arrived safely at Tubaniso and it is surreal to say the least. It’s amazing that I met all these people five months ago, hung out for random days for two months, and disappeared to site for three months and now thrown together again like nothing has changed. The crazier part is, I’m so excited to see people I know that it doesn’t seem weird that I’ve only known them a few days. I’ve been given more hugs in the past 24 hours by what would under normal situations be with relative strangers, but when you have to discuss in detail your medical and personal problems with complete strangers, it’s quite the bonding experience.

I got to take Peace Corps transit to Bamako which was awesome because it’s free, reliable, and has air conditioning. We spent the evening chatting and catching up with everyone and better news…I got a new room that’s bigger and has a thatched roof!! I hate tin roofs; they’re so loud, though of course there is not too much rain these days to make a racket. I have a whole new respect for Becky and Phil adjusting to Florida, because I don’t know the temperature last night, but I was in two sweatshirts and sweatpants and socks and still freezing! Who knew I’d be cold in Mali.

This morning was delightful to have my water heated for me to take my bucket bath and bread for breakfast. We don’t have bread in my village so I only get to eat it once a week at market, thus every morning for breakfast here I make a pb&j sandwich. I just had a great session where I debriefed all the SED’s and trainers about my site and what I hope to accomplish etc, and it was nice to hear other people were having the same questions and concerns as me. I’ve got a language test coming up in a few minutes which I’m terrified for…I don’t think I speak bad bambara, but it surely isn’t great and I hate oral exams anyways.

I forgot how structured our days at Tubaniso are so that will be an adjustment for sure considering pretty much every hour of my next two weeks is planned out for me. Fortunately, we have a week here by ourselves before our homologues come for a week which I’m dreading. It gets so crowded with them here and makes lines at dinner a logistical nightmare. The sessions look pretty interesting though and tell Uncle Larry that I’m going to a beekeeping session and we have killer bees here! I’ll take some pictures and send them along in a few days.

I just loaded up on my malaria meds which I have to take every Sunday which is particularly annoying because the side effects never seem to really end. Some weeks are worse than others, but Sunday nights I’m pretty much guaranteed to have nightmares or extremely vivid dreams at the very least. Fortunately, insomnia is a common side effect that I haven’t had since the first few weeks and I never got sick which is lucky because most people taking Mefloquine would get bad cramps and nausea.

Love,

Cait

Happy Thanksgiving!!! I’m writing because I wanted to let you all know that I have in fact successfully survived my 97 kilometer bike ride to San on Tuesday. I’m a little sore, but all in all, it was a fun day…it took about 6 hours but I’m confident I could have done it in five if I do it again. The four of us who rode, received the most bizarre reactions from the Malians who just could not understand why we would do such a thing when we could afford bus tickets. Regardless, we set out early and it made for a lovely day…long, but fun.

Today there are eight of us cooking up a storm for Thanksgiving and it’s going to be great! My next several weeks are going to be incredibly busy so I’m just trying to enjoy the holidays and get wrapped up in what I’m doing so I don’t have to think about what I’m missing at home. It doesn’t really feel like Thanksgiving so it’s not too sad, the 80 degrees and nice breeze probably have something to do with weirdness of holidays. The saddest part of the day is that when we’re done eating, I won’t be decorating the house for Christmas.

December 1 is world AIDS day and Peace Corps San has sponsored a soccer game and dance on the 1st. I’m going home quickly on the 27th and then coming back to san on the 1st then back home on the second and back to San on the 5th to leave for Bamako on the 6th. I’m not sure if I’ll actually go back and forth both times, when I come up Tuesday, I might just stay until I leave for Bamako and just take a month off from site. I suppose it will be a good opportunity to reinvigorate myself and allow me to get my thoughts together and project ideas started.

Love,

Cait

I hope you all are getting ready for yummy thanksgiving food…I will miss you all tremendously, but at least I will be with a big group of friends coming into san. Additionally, in order to work up an appetitive (not too hard in Africa) I’m biking 90 kilometers on Tuesday from a friends site. I think I’m nearing insanity for even contemplating this, but it should be a good experience none the less and I’ll quite literally get my butt in shape. It takes me about 2 hours to bike 30 k, so this will be quite a demanding day, but I’m looking forward to the challenge. I’m actually quite proficient at biking now. While sand has proven to be tricky to navigate, I’ve nearly mastered how to approach it. This one sand trap I have to cross to get to the road though, has been the vain of my existence. Right now the current score stands, sand tap :11, Caitlin: 0… I’m working on a new plan of attack, but now it’s war.

I’ve had a fairly demanding few days at site. On Thursday night, my homologues wife’s brother came over and we chatted for a bit then the next morning, one of his kids died. I’ve only seen the kid in passing and he never stood out amongst the dozens of kids constantly running around, but it was a shock, and jolt back to reality. Then, yesterday morning, I was counting literally hundreds of goats and sheep as they were loaded into huge vans heading for Bamako when one villager came up one goat short. He was supposed to have 27 goats but I only counted 26 loaded (they’re all spray painted in a certain color or design to denote ownership). The 30 or so men all started to search frantically through their goats but no one could find the missing goat. My homologue told me later that when they were herding the goats to the trucks in the morning the missing goat apparently fell down a well… thus, well covers will probably be an up and coming project for me to work on getting funding for.

Peace Corps volunteers have now been evacuated from Mauritania, Guinea and volunteers in Niger are being consolidated and I’ll keep you updated on their security status as we hear about it. Right now, Mali is still perfectly safe and stable (with the exception of the north-Timbuktu, Gao, and Kidal) but with all of our neighbors being evacuated I wanted you all to rest assured that every precaution is being made regarding our safety and if there Is the slightest threat we’ll be removed with efficiency. On the other hand, Mali now ranks first in the most demanding country of service among all countries volunteers are present in. Kind of vain, but volunteers pride themselves on their rank… some kind of twisted logic that makes us feel better when we get overwhelmed by our day to day life.

My best friend here is Holly (Holly and Brad are the two from my stage in San joining 7 others from the Stage before us). Holly and I have gotten very close and our villages are only about 10 kilometers away. Unfortunately she has been complaining about numbness in her right foot and despite a week of tests in Bamako she was just sent to Washington DC for further treatment. Her return flight is scheduled for the 6th of December, but she’s pretty bummed to be alone on Thanksgiving… she’s from Seattle and her parents are coming to Mali in January so who knows if they’ll make a trip to the east coast. Needless to say, this has been a pretty crazy past few days.

Despite all the craziness surrounding me, I’m doing really well and have absolutely thrown our doctor here for a loop. She actually called me to make sure I was doing all right because I was one of three volunteers who hasn’t sent in medical complaints…I’m kind of an anomaly and the source of outrageous jealousy from my friends who don’t understand how I haven’t been sick (with the exception of car sick and a migraine). I just try to enjoy being healthy and fear the day that it all catches up to me. My homologue is also very protective of me, he won’t let anyone give me water, I have to always have two of my own water bottles with me and he’ll only let people eat with me if they’ve washed their hands with soap. At first I think he was really intimidated by me, but now he’s learned how to talk to me and gives me things to do that most of the men can’t do well, like reading and writing in Bambara. Now if someone tries to speak to me and I don’t understand, Bah will come over and rephrase the question in a way that I understand. I’ve also taken up studying with the kids. Two of his kids are old enough to study English so we study together and I’ve also started giving some math lessons to random village children who come knocking at my door. It’s been fun working with the kids and so refreshing to see them get excited to study. Natalie, Bah’s second oldest, is in 9th grade and has already told me that she wants desperately to go to Bamako to study like her sister, but she wants to study English so she is always asking me to edit her dialogues and homework.

Love,

Cait

Hope all is well and everyone is getting ready for thanksgiving, I’m so sad I won’t be there but you better believe I’ll be eating well, a feast is planned!!

Just after Halloween I experienced my first bashe ride (Malian public taxis) which consisted of a van gutted of all the insides and stuffed with about 25 Malians and my two friends (Alaric and Shelby). We were going to Fangasso which is Shelby’s site about two hour bashe ride north to spend the day. Of course this is Mali so we blew a tire about an hour into the trip which was actually a blessing because my butt was numb and I really wanted to stretch. When we made it Fangasso we wondered the market for a bit then spent the day with her homologue and family before heading back to san.

Nothing too exciting has happened at site over the past two weeks. I took a bit of a tumble one morning while running which the kids found absolutely hilarious. The incident did involve an exposed tree root and a low hanging branch… I’m fine, just a few bumps and bruises, but I had to take a few days off running to try to heal my knees and hands and my pride. Fortunately, because rainy season is over, flesh wounds heal really quickly without too much concern for infections. Unfortunately, with rainy season ending, I can already see in increase in the level of dust in the air. Apparently during hot season in May, there is so much dust in the air you can’t even see the stars at night, which is a real shame because there is no light traffic to inhibit my view of the sky at night which is one of my favorite parts of my nightly routine.

I spent a day in the garden trying to learn some of the trees and fruits here but Malians don’t really understand that their trees don’t exist in the US and that the average American doesn’t have to know about agriculture to survive. I pulled water from the well for the first time and I have an all knew respect for how strong these women are who have to water the entire garden every day from the well, my arms were burning after two buckets from the well.

I got a hold a week old baby a few days ago which was terrifying. I love kids from about 6 and older, but babies are one of the scariest things imaginable for me. I was so afraid I was going to break him but at the same time I was entranced by him. Babies have their eyebrows drawn on by eyeliner and also wear eyeliner then they all covered in white powdery stuff so it was exactly the cutest baby in the world, but it was pretty amazing to be able to hold him.

The hardest part of the past time at site was when I went to the schools for the first time. It was both exciting and totally overwhelming and unbelievably frustrating. I met the director and 6 teachers after the 45 minute walk to the school with two of my host sisters. The school in itself was really nice cement building with big windows for a nice cross ventilation. It was approximately 7-9th grade but the kids aged from about 14 to 20. At 7:45 there was a flag raising ceremony where they sang their national anthem then the school director took me to each of the three classrooms and introduced me to the students and that was the overwhelming part. I walked in and was greeted with 130 smiling kids. 130 kids in a classroom no bigger than my classrooms in the US… Kids were sitting five to a bench that should have only seated two, some were on the floor and others sitting on the window sills for class. Totally unable to process the 130:1 student teacher ratio I was talking to the English teacher who confesses that the teachers know the problems raised with the unfair ratio but there is nothing they can do because they can’t afford more teachers or more classrooms. Talk about frustrating.

Days pass both painfully slowly and quickly just as days pass at home and it’s a comfort to know that my bad days are always followed by good ones.

Love,

Cait

I hope you are all ready for Halloween and the upcoming holiday season, I know I am.

Thanks so much for the letters and packages, it’s so nice to come into san and have letters to read, it’s really easy at site to feel a bit disconnected from the…world.

I’m absolutely falling in love with my site and some of the kids especially have already worked their ways into my heart. While days certainly can creep by, the weeks since I last came to san have absolutely flown by.

I led a short meeting the other day because my community had established the problems they faced to improve their animal raising and one of theirs one a lack of water. So I asked why they didn’t fix their pump and the next day my homologue came back to me with a committee they had formed…unfortunately I can’t really help much until after IST but it’s awesome that I’ve got such a motivated village to work with. Other good news, I’ve really started to develop a good relationship with the school director so I hope I can work with him. He wants me to paint a world map and a map of mali in the schools.

Apparently a dog just had a litter of puppies and both my homologue and my host family have taken on new puppies so that has filled my life with a sort of happiness that only puppies can bring and I have to admit, they are so cute. They offered to give me one and you will all be proud to know that I turned it down. I want to travel with the burden of having a dog plus, can you imagine the tears when I’d have to leave it. So, now I have the best of both worlds because I’ve got puppies everywhere and not the responsibility of taking care of one of them.

I helped my host sister the other day with her English homework which was really awesome because she had a lot of fun and has come to me with questions not even related to school work. All the young girls in village want to braid my hair so after a few days of taking out my braids I’m swarmed. Young kids especially still stare and often poke me…too make sure I’m real I think. It’s also really funny to great people I don’t know in bambara and watch their faces contort as they process the fact that I can speak, or try to speak, their language.

It’s harvest season right now which means my days are absolutely filled with helping the women work. It’s mostly peanuts that they’re harvesting right now so I pick the peanuts from about 9am until 4pm… it makes for long days but they go by fast always having something to do and the women love it! Pretty much everyday about 40 women go to a different house and work all day making big bowls of porridge or toh (both make me gag thus I go home for lunch to eat) but it’s pretty cool to see the strong ties of the community. The men are gone from about dawn until dust at the fields working so everyone is generally exhausted at night which is great for me because now they don’t look at me quite so strange when I go to bed at 9pm.

I’ve started running in the mornings (they find this very entertaining too) so I’m up around 5:30am and belive it or not, it’s almost brisk, for about 5 minutes until I’m sweaty, but I’ve found some gorgeous trails to run on. There are some huge trees that I’ve come to love and use as land marks, if you’ve seen the lion king and can imagine the big tree that rafiki lives in you can imagine the magnitude of these trees. It’s gorgeous to run and it’s such a nice escape to be out in my own without having to think about work or bambara or life as a volunteer.

Love,

Cait

I’ve successfully managed to survive another two weeks at site. I was surprised last Saturday when my LCF (Malian teacher during pre-service training) Salifou Bengaly showed up at my house two days early for a week of intensive one-on-one language training. Not only did it prove to assist in my language level, but it also gave me some credibility among the village people because they would come sit in on my lessons and hear that I can in-fact speak Bambara just slowly and very directly. Since Salifou left a few days ago I’ve inherited a whole village of teachers who speak to me very slowly and enunciate absolutely everything (for some reason they think they can talk about anything and I’ll understand if they just speak slowly enough) so it’s been pretty entertaining.

My homologue has discovered my love of soccer so when Mali plays he gears up his tv and about 30 men huddle around the tv to watch the game and then there’s me…the lone girl. I’ve tried to enlist my host sisters to come watch with me but they get nervous being on the same level as the men in village so they won’t stay for more than a few minutes. I guess that’s one more thing I can work on during the next two years. Most of the women are painfully subservient and inferior to the men, so I’m doing my best to encourage my girls to stay in school and not get married when they're 16.

I’ve had a little success already in my village. My homologue is the head of the mens association and they want to improve their animal raising. One of their problems was that there was no one to take care of the animals during the day while the men were in the fields and the women are working in the house except for the children. School started last week and I noticed that everyday one of the kids didn’t go, so salif explained to me that the kids would rotate the days they took care of the animals so we suggested to my homologue that they hire an older boy who had either finished or already dropped out of school. This way the kids get to go to school and we’ve created a job for someone who wouldn’t otherwise have one.

I love nights here! Because there's no electricity people chat and everyone is welcome in everyone's house so the whole community is very tightly knit. Plus the sky isn’t tainted by lights so the stars are very crisp and clear and shooting stars are absolutely everywhere. Friday nights, the choir at church meets at the church for rehersal and dance and sing along with the drums and guitars and that has quickly become one of my favorite weekly routines. This past Sunday the church gave me a hymnal so I can sing along even if I can’t understand what I’m singing and that makes the village people pretty excited.

I just passed my three month anniversary in country (10-10-09) which is pretty crazy because it has absolutely flown by…well, most days have flown by, and others have been so painfully slow that I’ve had to check to make sure that my watch was working. I’ve noticed that time is a very loose term here; it’s like an electrician when they say they’ll be at your house between 8 am and 5pm…great, really helpful.

The rainy season is winding down thus harvest season has started and fortunately the hungry season is also winding down. Watermelon just started and while the interior of the watermelon is a shade of pink that could pass as white, it’s still delicious and a nice change. My diet is regrettable in that protein and fiber are hard to come by. Peace Corps makes us take iron daily and I’ve taken to cooking my own breakfasts and lunches because I can’t stomach some of their foods and I’d rather cook for myself then force down food that has literally gagged me.

Love,

Cait

Due to popular demand, I've decided to start a blog in attempt to stay better connected to my family and friends. As internet access is limited and updates few and far between, I hope this will allow you to read at your leisure and I'll do my best to keep you informed. It will be impossible to encapsulate my past six months in one entry, so I've decided to post some of my past letters I wrote home and will, from now on, update my blog each time I come to San. .