Back in the USA. Twice have I gone out into the world to do good and twice have I been sent back early. Now where does my compass point???
I have tentatively began looking for jobs, but so far the search has been...unproductive. Furthermore, nothing I've seen so far seems to match up to my Peace Corps experiences in Niger and Mali. In Peace Corps the work feels so important, so necessary, so vital, that even though it's hard, we give so much to it. Teaching a class, leading a health training for mothers, repairing water pumps with the village sanitation committees (shout out to PC Mali Wat/San folks!)- the best! Finding purpose in post Peace Corps work seems to be a challenge for many former volunteers. I am sure something will come, eventually...
Enough of me! Do you know how Mali is doing? I don't know if you have been following the news about Mali since the coup, and I don't really want to summarize everything here. However, I can say a few words. The north of Mali, which has been taken over and declared a new state (Azawad, currently not recognized by a single international body), has been put into a humanatarian crisis. In the capital, Bamako, there are still many uncertainities regarding the interim governemnt, the holding of elections (all but impossible to do with the North how it is), the role of the millitary junta in the government, the possible deployment of 3,000 to 5,000 troops from ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) to Mali. Things are far from resolved in Mali, politcally, and on top of that, all signs (drought, poor harvest) point towards a famine this year in the Sahel region (Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad). Is there no end?
Okay, so people are suffering greatly in Mali, West Africa. And with Mali being in the news so frequently, people are only getting one side of the story- the coup and the rebellion in the North, portraying Mali as just another dysfunctional war fraught country, a potential "failed state." The richness of Malian culture and amazing fortitude of the Malian people are ignored. The joking, the resolute acceptance of life's difficulties, the strength, the dancing, the henna, the laughter, the hospitality (especially this!), the warmth of Mali's people- these do not make news headlines. And yet they are what we volunteers saw everyday, why our stay in Mali was not a prison term but an opportunity to to give and receive, to teach but also to learn. To love. 2 my fellow Niger volunteers now serving in Rwanda and Kenya have told me the people in their countries are not this friendly or open. Here's a great video which has so many of our beloved Malian friends just living their lives.
I still have much to say (probably too much), and am wondering if I will continue this blog since my Peace Corps service has ended. I think I should probably close it, but first I will get a few more entries out. Maybe my favorite pictures from Mali will show up here. I might start a new blog and write about stuff which interest me- art, poetry, international affairs, religion (but would anyone read it...). I have to say, writing this blog, and even knowing that a few people have read it, has been rewarding. Though I can get kinda gloomy these days I am still dancing, still reading poetry, spending great time with friends and family, and in my better moments feel grateful for what I lived and saw in Niger and Mali. Times of transition are difficult because of the inherent uncertainity...we crave answers, order, direction, signs and portents...
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