My First 3 Weeks With a Malian Family

Woo! Hello everyone. I recently got back from 3 weeks living with my Malian host family. Who are wonderful! All of us trainees are spending a few days together for technical training, medical sessions, and cross culture training. But I want to write about what living with my family has been like.

THE PEOPLE

My host dad's name is Balla Christian Kamissoko. In his compound live a variety of family members. We Americans would consider most of them "extended," and not "immediate" family, but the Malians do not make this distinction. There are cousins, grandkids, uncles, 2nd wives, brothers, sisters, babies, friends, coworkers, other relatives. I have quite a time figuring out who is who! My family has hosted Peace Corps volunteers before so they are on the ball. I spend most of time there with one of my host brothers- Mahadi. He's 20, still in high school, and goes to work in the fields most days. He speaks pretty good English, and every night he helps me study Malinke, the local Malian language I am learning during training. My brother is awesome and I will miss him.

MY ROOM

I have my own room in the house. The roof is made of tin so it gets HOT at night. Screens have been fitted on the windows and doors so there are hardly any bugs in there with me. My bed and pillow are fine- on the hard side, not super duper comfy but it's life.

BATHROOM

Hole in the ground that I try not to look in or drop things into

FOOD

To (congealed millet) and "Snot sauce" (Okra, not actually snot), rice with peanut butter sauce, oily french fries, goat meat, fish, french bread, bananas, hard boiled eggs, mangoes. I eat well with family!

GREETINGS

Everyday all day to everyone. Super duper important.

PRIVACY

Nope!

Things have been great at homestay. On another note, I've been thinking how when I wrote in this blog about Niger I didn't talk too much about the people of Niger, their culture. I think that culture is an important thing for me to write about, so I will try to do that about Mali. I guess I just want to be careful and knowledgeable about what I say about Mali and her people. I will make an effort, though it may be awhile before I feel like I know enough to say anything.

Well, the "cool" evening beckons, so this is me signing off. Thanks for reading, and be well and happy, whoever you are, whatever you are doing, whoever you are with!

Training again, in MALI

Hey friends, here I am surfacing again...in Mali! Yes I made it back to West Africa safely and soundly. I think today is my 4th day at training here, though time is again achieving fluidity, quite rapidly. It's not as hot here as Niger, and not yet as buggy (though I'm waiting for it). Our training site is filled with TREES.

I am more confident now than when I left for Niger last year. At that time I was anxious and nervous, though of course excited as well. Now I know what to expect from training...lucky me. Though there will still be difficulties, some new, and some familiar. These first few days have been busy, as is to be expected. The highlight was the Malian culture festival, which showcased foods, clothing, music and dance. Yes, DANCE! And you better believe that I got down! Fellow trainees here have already told me that I'm quiet, and I am, but honestly, most everything I'm feeling about being here in Mali was expressed through my dancing body.

It feels weird doing PST (pre-service training, the first 2 months of the Peace Corps experience) again, like I'm repeating a grade. I feel like I'm cheating compared to my fellow trainees, since I do know what to expect and have done it all before. But I knew this would be the case. I'm just trying not to come off to my fellow trainees as Totally Awesome for having survived Niger. And of course language will still be hard, training will still be exhausting, and sickness is always terrible. I guess this is just one of those many challenges The Universe has decided to throw my way, and that I've decided to chase. I read some quotes by Emerson recently and keep coming back to them in my mind:

"Life is a series of surprises and would not be worth the taking or the keeping if it were not."

"Be a football to Time and Chance...the more hits, the better."

YES! Both so true! Emerson uses his words to bring us to motion, to keep us open and flowing and changing. Stasis is death. Deciding for certain on anything is fatal. Our worst moments, our hardest moments, the times of sickness and disaster and loss, these are our greatest seeds. We deny and limit ourselves when we say we don't want difficult times, times of pain. And in my best, clearest moments here, I am happy that I have decided to do Peace Corps again. To strike through the mask, like Ahab.

I still miss Niger, and there are many triggers that bring this up. But of course that is to be expected. I printed out pictures of my villagers in Madarounfa and dream someday of returning.

Well, tomorrow we leave the training site (Tubaniso, "House of the Dove") to be installed at our host families. I am nervous and happy, and hope to do well at training. We do have Wi-Fi at the Training Site (which is totally bizarre to me) so I will be more in contact than last year in Niger, at least for these first few months. My PST in Niger was at times very very difficult for me but it was my fellow trainees who helped me through it. I hope I can be that support for my new stage.