Peace Corps Journals / Mali / all updates

My First Project or The Most Annoying So ...

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:22:00 +0800

(Mali / Matt in West Africa (Mali))
This entry is the story of my first funded PC project. Before I get too far though I should preface with this background information... Last year in one of my grad school classes that was specificall ...
5 reads

Dogon Country

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:50:00 +0800

(Mali / Jenny in Mali)
Here's a link to an article that recently appeared in the NYT about Dogon Country - the area of Mali that most tourists go to. I live about 2 hours away from the Dogon cliffs.http://travel.nytimes.com /2010/03/07/travel/07personal.ht ml
14 reads

Allah akbar!

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:47:00 +0800

(Mali / Jenny in Mali)
This song is really popular in Mali right now - everyone in my village goes around singing it and it's always on the radio. It's about how great Allah (God) is and how good it is to praise Allah.http://www.youtube.com/wat ch?v=D8SGpI47_qA&feature=rel ated
14 reads

another reason to hate the song "Ho ...

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:08:00 +0800

(Mali / West Africa)
“Today will be f#$%ing hot with a 100 percent chance of getting hotter” is the unofficial weather report for Segou Mali. Normally I’d be scraping ice from my windshield. These days the only i ...
3 reads

Farmer Field School: A participatory app ...

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:14:05 +0800

(Mali / YouTube)
Author: LunaJessie Keywords: Added: March 11 2010
7 reads

Earth babies

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:12:00 +0800

(Mali / Mali Bohème)
My house is built from mud and wood –I watched them make one just like it the other day a crowd of shirtless men in dirty cotton pants weaved the soft new wood into a circle glued with a slab on w ...
9 reads

bits of life

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:57:50 +0800

(Mali / Dan in Mali)
Just a couple little bits as I’m on a one-day swing through Bamako:1) My last post garnered a lot of check-ins from friends and family for which I am tremendously grateful. It’s nice to know so ...
12 reads

Seed Storage Facility Project

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:51:00 +0800

(Mali / Peace Corps Mali!)
Friends family and readers!Songuela's Seed Storage Facility project proposal has been posted on the Peace Corps website. I have been working closely with the women's association in my town. They are ...
9 reads

Untitled

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:43:00 +0800

(Mali / Peace Corps Mali!)
It's been a busy few weeks in Songuela! Last Friday I spent the night at my site-mates house so that we could attend a concert together. The young men's group in her village brought in two artists fro ...
11 reads

American Samoa

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:51:17 +0800

(Mali / Where's Rachel)
From my journal: January 24 2010 I have an announcement to make. My life back home will have to wait another year. I have accepted a position with WorldTeach in American Samoa next year. I love t ...
11 reads

Presenting: Banta Traoré

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:19:14 +0800

(Mali / On Air in Mali)
Banta only wears one pair of earrings these days but her ears are littered with a trail of holes from the bottom to the top of her earlobes. Oh she'll say to me you should have seen me when I was y ...
14 reads

mars 8 2010

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:05:00 +0800

(Mali / Holly's Mali)
Yesterday was International Women’s Day. Here in San there was singing and dancing a huge gathering of women celebrating women. And there is a lot to celebrate. Women here just like women across ...
14 reads

Start of the Dry Season

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 02:46:52 +0800

(Mali / Where's Rachel)
From my journal: January 24 2010 The weather has finally turned and it seems that the rainy season has passed. We still have the strong winds which should stick around until April or May but now w ...
13 reads

The heat is on

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 05:10:19 +0800

(Mali / Chikuru)
Today I finally figured out what has been causing our hot tub to intermittently become a tepid tub. It wasn't the pressure sensor or the heat sensor as I'd suspected it was the little doo-hickey pic ...
16 reads

Amadu’s Calendar: New York New York

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 02:56:33 +0800

(Mali / Jermsy23's Blog)
DISCLAIMER: This blog states only the opinions of a Peace Corps volunteer and in no way states the opinions of the Peace Corps Organization or the US gov. So my parents because they love me so much send me tons of packages. In one of them I had asked them for a calendar. I also asked [...]
23 reads

Holiday Memories and Sarah’s Visit

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 01:27:29 +0800

(Mali / Where's Rachel)
From my journal: January 24 2010 Things have been pretty hectic this past month with Christmas going to Majuro for midservice and then Sarah’s visit. But now that Sarah has left I’m getting ...
1 reads

Naming Ceremony

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 16:35:00 +0800

(Mali / Jenny in Mali)
A couple days ago I went to the naming ceremony of a friend's baby boy. Naming ceremonies are very important in Malian culture and are similar to a baptism in that the baby is welcomed into the villa ...
8 reads

Questions

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 13:17:00 +0800

(Mali / Jenny in Mali)
I've been corresponding with a sixth-grade class in Arcadia as part of the World Wise Schools program of Peace Corps. They recently sent me a bunch of AWESOME letters with some great questions and I ...
30 reads

Homecoming for Soumaila Samake

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 13:02:43 +0800

(Mali / The KOHbear Report)
some excerpt
9 reads

time at site

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 07:47:00 +0800

(Mali / Bala Diallo)
Getting back to Konna was hard as always after a long time away. I took my cat home and she is getting used to it. All my neighbors keep asking me if I got him to fatten him up and eat him. At first t ...
4 reads

Dambé - The Mali Project documentary

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 02:28:00 +0800

(Mali / My adventures in Central America)
When you find some time I highly recommend watching this documentary Dambé - The Mali Project about two traditional Irish musicians who travel to Mali (where I spent my two and a half years in t ...
12 reads

WAIST (introduction)

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:06:00 +0800

(Mali / Matt in West Africa (Mali))
I just got back to Segou after taking a two week excursion through western Africa. The purpose: WAIST (West African Invitational Softball Tournament). For those of you who have never heard of WAIST w ...
15 reads

WAIST (pt 1) - Bamako

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:04:00 +0800

(Mali / Matt in West Africa (Mali))
The origination point for the majority of PC Mali Volunteers going to WAIST was Bamako. Since we had roughly 90 people going we had to rent out one entire tour bus and filled half of another. This ma ...
9 reads

WAIST (pt 2) - The Journey to Dakar

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:03:00 +0800

(Mali / Matt in West Africa (Mali))
I was on the PC only bus. It looked great from the outside but the inside was not so great for one small reason. The seats had been intended for someone no taller than four feet weighing no more tha ...
7 reads

WAIST (pt 3) - Dakar & WAIST

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:02:00 +0800

(Mali / Matt in West Africa (Mali))
The softball tournament covered three days had a social and competitive league and was held on four different fields all located around the Club Atlantique. All the PC teams were in the social leagu ...
10 reads

WAIST (pt 4) - The Gambia

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:01:00 +0800

(Mali / Matt in West Africa (Mali))
While at WAIST I stayed in one of the PC Senegal houses with about 30 other Volunteers some of which were from The Gambia. When I mentioned that I was thinking about going to The Gambia after WAIST f ...
9 reads

WAIST (pt 5) - The Return

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:42:00 +0800

(Mali / Matt in West Africa (Mali))
When it came time to say goodbye to The Gambia I had several days of travel ahead of me. Most of the Volunteers from Mali that went to Banjul chose to retrace their steps through most of Senegal in or ...
3 reads

WAIST (pt 6) - Back in Bamako

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:41:00 +0800

(Mali / Matt in West Africa (Mali))
When making it down the home stretch to Bamako someone called us and said there was trouble in the city and that we should be careful when we arrived. Apparently that afternoon a sotrama (bus) driver ...
2 reads

News From the Neighborhood

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:19:51 +0800

(Mali / peter in mali)
Thanks to modern technology it is pretty easy to stay current with the news while on vacation. Even in rural Senegal an addict like me can get his fix. It was just my luck that so much went down while I was on the road. I won’t try to bring this blog up to speed but [...]
7 reads

Kounandy

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:43:00 +0800

(Mali / Margins of the Day In Mali)
Kounandy my name sake was born September 2 2009. Koro didn’t even know that Awa was pregnant I suspected but during training was told that Malian women don’t talk about pregnancies so I never sa ...
20 reads

24 hours 24 years

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:50:00 +0800

(Mali / Jennifer in Mali)
After 10 hours on a poorly ventilated dusty bus Sonef transport drops me Cassie Joe & Ashley off in Hombori in an unlit gas station parking lot. The village between Mopti and Gao ...
21 reads

Ironic and Entertaining

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:11:00 +0800

(Mali / Peace Corps Mali!)
A link to William Easterly's blog 'Aid Watch: just asking that aid benefit the poor.' Would you want your doctor giving you advice on how to fix your car? http://aidwatchers.com/2009/11/a frican-leaders-advise-bono-on-re form-of-u2/
7 reads

Bike Ride

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:54:35 +0800

(Mali / Sam & Mark Are Where!?!)
It is probably true that pretty much all volunteers who are out en brousse think to themselves at some point or another “I should ride into my regional capital (or banking town or whatever).” It ...
12 reads

Touba and Diourbel

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:42:48 +0800

(Mali / peter in mali)
After St. Louis I took a series of sept-place to Kaolack where I planned on finding a bus that would go all the way to Bamako. I was in no rush so I took some time to check out the cities of Touba and Diourbel. These cities are significant because they were the home to Cheikh [...]
3 reads

The Hidden Cost of High Prices

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 11:11:46 +0800

(Mali / The KOHbear Report)
some excerpt
2 reads

Untitled

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 07:13:00 +0800

(Mali / Is this thing on?)
Relent.I'll admit to not understanding Lent very well. I never noticed the word until I was in Jr. High. "What are you giving up for Lent?" Good question I thought. What is Lent? I was pretty good at ...
2 reads

Saint-Louis

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:07:37 +0800

(Mali / peter in mali)
Saint-Louis is a quaint city situated in northern Senegal just below the Mauritanian border. Founded in 1659 it is the first French settlement in Africa and was a major commercial and cultural hub by ...
13 reads

In the meantime

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:43:00 +0800

(Mali / mary-in-mali)
As we wait with bated breath for the school construction to commence the temperature gets hotter and hotter. It got up to 120 degrees today - hard to believe for those of you still laden with snow! ...
13 reads

Growing Cement

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:10:09 +0800

(Mali / Rambling on)
Did you know that in order for cement to properly form and solidify to be structurally sound and strong that it must be watered? Of course all of my engineer water sanitation and otherwise technical ...
16 reads

Untitled

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:22:00 +0800

(Mali / Peace Corps Mali!)
Here I am - back in Koutiala. The Segou music fest has come and gone. My sister and brother-in-laws visit has also came and went.They are now back safely in the states. I proud to say that I kept them ...
3 reads

Dakar vs Bamako

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 11:47:01 +0800

(Mali / peter in mali)
Gao will always hold a special place in my heart as it was my home for a year. Bamako is a city that exudes a grimey hustle that I have learned appreciate and even relish. The chance to travel out ...
8 reads

Pump project up online!

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 01:10:00 +0800

(Mali / Two Years in Timbuktu)
My pump project is now up on the Peace Corps donation website; you can read about it at https://www.peacecorps.gov/index .cfm?shell=resources.donors.cont ribute.projDetail&projdesc=6 88-322Here's a b ...
8 reads

The Good-Bye Party

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:07:21 +0800

(Mali / Where's Rachel)
Guest Post: Sarah I had to catch the boat to go back to Majuro on a Friday so Rachel took the day off and instead we arranged to go to the school at recess and throw candy to the kids. It’s like a pinata but cutting straight to the good part. The kids went crazy scrambling [...]
1 reads

Dakar to Saint-Louis

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:29:04 +0800

(Mali / peter in mali)
Getting from Dakar to Saint-Louis should have been a simple prospect. Rather than take the bus several Senegal PCVS suggested I take a sept-place (a Peugot station-wagon that seats seven) which tend ...
9 reads

Yelimane run

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 11:29:38 +0800

(Mali / Sam & Mark Are Where!?!)
We headed up to Yelimane recently for a visit. Mark’s old counterpart up there Kadja had a baby so we went up to see him. Needless to say he is a cutie. Kadja was calling Sam his mom and when ...
5 reads

My Run-in with North Korea

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 11:18:27 +0800

(Mali / peter in mali)
It’s hard to visit Dakar and without noticing the colossal multi-million dollar bronze statue that dominates the skyline. Conceived by Senegalese President Abdallaye Wade the structure is meant to ...
6 reads

Snorkeling

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 19:57:47 +0800

(Mali / Where's Rachel)
Guest Post: Sarah Snorkeling is definitely a ripelle thing to do. They don’t even have a Marshallese word for it; they use the same word as for spear fishing. So when we head down to the dock w ...
8 reads

Dakar

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 19:31:00 +0800

(Mali / peter in mali)
WAIST left little time to explore Dakar. Once the games and parties were over and most PCVs had cleared out I and a group of likeminded travelers got to explore the city a bit. I was in no rush to get out of Dakar and had a place to stay thanks to two Americans teaching [...]
7 reads

WAIST

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 16:26:39 +0800

(Mali / peter in mali)
Peace Corps Mali fielded three teams for the West African Invitational Softball Tournament (WAIST). We played under the broad umbrella of “Desert Kawboys” (kaw is the Bambara word for people) and ...
5 reads

Bamako to Dakar

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 15:44:13 +0800

(Mali / peter in mali)
The bus ride from Bamako to Dakar was as expected long and uncomfortable. Several volunteers attempted to take the edge off this discomfort by pulling an all-nighter and drinking heavily the night b ...
45 reads