Balafun, bike dancing and dugutigi time

Back in Farakala now and things are finally rolling. The day I got back to site from being on a long December break, I attended a party for education being held in a village 10km behind my village. The party was thrown by an NGO called ‘Save the Children’ in celebration of the new "Child Development Center" opening there. Believe it or not, I managed to run into celebrity America Ferrera (actress in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) in this tiny village with a population that’s got to be no more than 500. At the party, I got my dance on to the balafon (traditional instrument of the Sikasso region similar to the xylophone) and I trotted around the talented Malian dancers while they draped different fabrics around my neck. One women dressed in bogolan fabric wearing an army hat hooked a daba (tool used for farming in the fields) on my shoulder while we were dancing. The crowd went pretty wild when I raised the wood stick above my head and waved it all around like a complete 'toubab'. There were also bike dancers (not something you see everyday) and little boy dancers who moved their feet like egg beaters.

After dancing I sat down for lunch which was a clusterbundle of different foods in a bowl (olives, avocados, French fries, onions, fried plantains, chicken, bones, and oil to be precise) with ‘2010’ written out in mayo across the top like frosting on a cake. During lunch, I sat across from the mayor, my friend who helps me with language and a leader in the women’s association. I was quite amused the entire time as I watched their very different and very peculiar eating habits. Who am I to judge though, I know that I look like the biggest goon around the bowl. You must remember that we eat with our hands here and it’s quite a challenge for someone who’s used to the fork and knife. There’s a bit of a sacrifice in every meal : a satisfying bite for me requires that I accept the bottom half of my face smothered in grease. Oh well, I have another year and a half to learn how to shovel handfuls of food into my mouth properly.

The day after the party my counterpart and I held a meeting at the house of the dugutigi (village chief) and invited all of the major heads of families in the commune. Our goal for the meeting was to finalize our plans for the literacy center and select a place where it will be built. I was happy about how the meeting went and the turnout was great for a Malian setting. During the meeting I completely lost it when my village chief, an adorable old man who is on the verge of being both blind and deaf, asked me in the literacy center would be able to supply him with a pair of new ears.

Christmas, IST, etc.

Wow, it’s been a long time since I last wrote but damn it’s hard to find a good connection around here. It’s the truth. Since time flies faster than we can find ourselves some decent internet, I’ll briefly touch on the best parts of November and then move right onto Christmas and IST (In-service training). For thanksgiving, we killed and roasted our own turkeys (around 5-6 of them), made mashed potatoes, stuffing, and the whole shebang. Me and Sikasso kaw (those who bank in the Sikasso region with me) threw a big party here in Sikasso and had around 50 other PCVs show up to our lovely thanksgiving dinner. After a couple nights of stuffing our bellies, we took a camping trip to the waterfalls where I discovered my head-balancing abilities and my friend Emily mastered the art of popping corn over the fire in a wok.

And then there was Christmas. I’ll admit that I didn’t get too big of a whiff of the Christmas spirit this holiday season as I was tubing down the Niger River under the hot Malian sun. Although it was quite a relaxing vacation, I sure did miss the bundling, sledding, wrapping, caroling, tree-thing this year. After a few hours of bathing in the sun and hanging out in the river on Christmas day, we decided to roast ourselves a pig, mash up some potatoes, and build a bursting bamboo fire. We did also spice up our not-so-white-Christmas with rainbow-frosted Christmas cookies and stockings. My friend Emily and I went and bought Malian socks from the market and filled them with random goodies we could find off the street in Manatali.

Christmas came after a long 2 weeks at the training center getting our final round of training in before we dive in to our projects at site. I arrived at the training center with a bang after running a half marathon from the Peace Corps bureau in downtown Bamako. As I rolled up on mile thirteen panting like a thirsty dog, I saw the gate to the beloved Tubaniso, where I first set foot in this crazy country. For the first week of training, we sat through countless hours of session with our fellow PCVs and for the second week, Peace Corps invited our counterparts (from our respective villages) so that we could spend some time preparing for the next two years. My homologue and I sat down and discussed the major needs of Farakala and decided that we’ll be focusing primarily on building and maintaining a literacy center that will open to the entire commune. I plan to raise funds to build the facility through Peace Corps Partnerships (PCPP) and with my counterpart, I will encourage people to attend and help acquire necessary material to have both a Bambara and a Senofou literacy program. The literacy program will be specifically to teach illiterate Malians who never got the chance to begin or continue their studies in school how to read, write, and do basic math. Although I expect this to be my primary work for the next two years, I also hope to be working on several smaller projects such as teaching English, raising funds for teacher salaries, and working with the women’s association in my village to market and sell their products (primarily shea butter and a spice called Sumbala).

Although it was nice to spend time with other Peace Corps Volunteers this month, I’m looking forward to getting back to site and diving into some of these projects. Next vacation for me to look forward to here is Mom and Dad visiting at the end of the month for a trip to the beaches of the Gambia! Happy 2010!