Thursday, January 24, 2008
Monday, January 14, 2008
Back To Where It All Began
If Mali was OZ then Bamako would be the Emerald City... with garbage and donkeys. Although I don't really like the city, you can buy amazing things here. Things like a cheeseburger from McCroakman's (not McDonalds but they still call it a Big Mac) or fried chicken that tastes like KFC.
I'm down here because after 3 months at site they call the new volunteers back for their IST (In Service Training). We're basically learning the technical skills we will need to get our projects going. I kinda thought it would be a waste of time, but I am learning things that can be implemented in my village. Whats even better though is seeing all the people I haven't seen in 3 months and exchange stories from site. The girls all look about the same as I remember, but most of the guys have long hair and are rockin some sort of facial hair. You can kinda tell which of us live in cities and which of us live in the bush by our appearance. I have gotten back most of the weight I lost too, which is good.
Now is definitely the time to be in Mali. The days stay coolish and the nights I have to wear long sleeves and a sweatshirt. There are very few mosquitoes and the flies aren't even too bad.
Its very surreal to be back at Tubani So. 3 months ago we were are just nervous trainees about to go out on some kind of adventure with really no idea what to expect. I remember Chris and I got installed on the same day. Chris is the closest volunteer to me. Its about 50K to his village, but we installed him first and then went on to my site. I just remember all his things were unloaded and we were about ready to take off and it finally really hit him and he got this look on his face like, "HOLY SH@$!!! This is it. You guys are really just going to leave me here!!!" I imagine a lot of us had that look. But 3 months later we're ll back (most of us) with so many stories and experiences. 3 months went by so fast, but at the same time it feels like its been 10 years since I left here.
There's really not too much to report right now, but I have a lot of pictures from dogon country so I will try to get those up by the end of the week.
I can't remember if I ever explained how money works here. So if I did just ignre this part, but if not its an interesting system. As it was explained to me, when the french came their lowest denomination was the 5 Franc. Of course the Malians did really know what was going on so they just called the 5 franc 1. So now whenever you get a price in Bambara you have to multiply by 5. For example if you are in the market and someone wants CFA 100 for something then you pay him CFA 500.
If they say transport somewhere cost CFA 500 then you pay CFA 2500. So when I get home and anyone needs something divided by or multiplied by 5, you just come find me and I got ya covered.
Peace.
I'm down here because after 3 months at site they call the new volunteers back for their IST (In Service Training). We're basically learning the technical skills we will need to get our projects going. I kinda thought it would be a waste of time, but I am learning things that can be implemented in my village. Whats even better though is seeing all the people I haven't seen in 3 months and exchange stories from site. The girls all look about the same as I remember, but most of the guys have long hair and are rockin some sort of facial hair. You can kinda tell which of us live in cities and which of us live in the bush by our appearance. I have gotten back most of the weight I lost too, which is good.
Now is definitely the time to be in Mali. The days stay coolish and the nights I have to wear long sleeves and a sweatshirt. There are very few mosquitoes and the flies aren't even too bad.
Its very surreal to be back at Tubani So. 3 months ago we were are just nervous trainees about to go out on some kind of adventure with really no idea what to expect. I remember Chris and I got installed on the same day. Chris is the closest volunteer to me. Its about 50K to his village, but we installed him first and then went on to my site. I just remember all his things were unloaded and we were about ready to take off and it finally really hit him and he got this look on his face like, "HOLY SH@$!!! This is it. You guys are really just going to leave me here!!!" I imagine a lot of us had that look. But 3 months later we're ll back (most of us) with so many stories and experiences. 3 months went by so fast, but at the same time it feels like its been 10 years since I left here.
There's really not too much to report right now, but I have a lot of pictures from dogon country so I will try to get those up by the end of the week.
I can't remember if I ever explained how money works here. So if I did just ignre this part, but if not its an interesting system. As it was explained to me, when the french came their lowest denomination was the 5 Franc. Of course the Malians did really know what was going on so they just called the 5 franc 1. So now whenever you get a price in Bambara you have to multiply by 5. For example if you are in the market and someone wants CFA 100 for something then you pay him CFA 500.
If they say transport somewhere cost CFA 500 then you pay CFA 2500. So when I get home and anyone needs something divided by or multiplied by 5, you just come find me and I got ya covered.
Peace.
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