Going to Kayes

Whew...what a month. Everything here is going great. I know I haven't written much yet, and I will attempt to rectify that now.

So...my homestay family is really nice. I live with a family of 4 boys, 3 girls, a sick mom, a dad, and many random cousins, uncles, etc...It's an interesting experience and they are in general super friendly. I have found a new love of Malian Tea. It is such a cool production. Heres how it goes.

1. Boil water in one teapot
2. Add the tea (lots of tea)
3. Let it cook for, depending on who you ask, 2-10 minutes
4. Then switch the tea to a seperate teapot with mint in it
5. Cook for an additional 30 seconds
6. Add a hillarious amount of sugar (seriously)
7. Repeatedly pour the tea back and forth from the teapot to a shotglass to create foam...a skill I have yet to master.
8. Taste the tea
9. Add a little more sugar
10. Taste it again
11. Clean the outside of the shotglass and the plate that everything is on
12. Make some more foam
13. Give everyone in the vicinity (ie...strangers, family, etc) a half a shotglass of it (in age order of course)
14. Repeat (all day)

It's so good and strong. Amazing stuff. I'm sure I'm coming home with many cavities. My brother Issa and my language instructor Daou are teaching me to make it. Also, my language instructor is freaking amazing. Even though I didn't do that great on my mid training test, I'm confident that I'll make it through the language (at least I'm not the worst :). Just kidding anyone in my class reading this :) ).

So every day we have language classes underneath a mango tree outside our language instructors temporary house. It's kind of a cool concept but is totally distracting. Random animals, children, people in general pop in on us all the time. It's totally the Malian way...for example, some guy pulls up on a Moto and is like what's up, what are you guys doing. The instructors like, well...practice your language with him. Then he was like, follow him to his house and meet his 4 wives, and countless children. It's really weird. Also, there are always herds of cows, dogs, goats, etc...walking right through the middle of our classes. There is this one little kid, probably 10, who just hangs out all day and watches us. He clearly has ringworm on his face, so no one really wants to touch him (beyond the occasional fist bump (which the Malians love)). The other day he killed a lizard in front of another girl in my class who was totally sick. She's like on her deathbed and the kid walks up and smashes a lizard. Then he rips out the guts. Later he told someone that he ate the lizard. Nasty...

So Malians and all West Africans I think, do these insanely long greetings. It's so different. When walking past random people (everyone), you must greet them and shake their hands, ask how everyone in their family is, give a few prayers...it's wild It goes like this:

• Me: Hello
• Them: Hello. How are you?
• Me: All is well
• Them: How is your family?
• Me: They are well.
• Them: How is your father?
• Me: He is well.
• Them: How is your mother?
• Me: She is well.
• .....and on and on...

Another interesting thing ( I think ) is that the idea of homosexuality is so taboo here that it is not generally even considered. Men frequently walk down the street holding hands. They'll sit on each others laps. I even saw my brother and a friend grab another guys privates once. It's so interesting. During the whole greeting, you start with a hand shake, except you hold hands throughout the whole thing. Sometimes you let go to touch your heart though or bump knuckles.

Hmm...I'm trying to think of other interesting stuff, but I think every moment of my stay here has been crazy, so I'll spare you the minute by minute details of my life. I'll try to add some pictures before I leave for Kayes on Saturday...I'm going to check out my site for a week and basically hang out. It should be pretty cool (hot?). I'll let you guys know how it goes. Love you all.

Homestay

Well, we're off to homestay. Homestay is a phase where we live with a Malian family for a few months. During the days, we have language classes and we go home for meals and to hang out with the family and learn how they do things. It should be interesting though especially because of the lack of shared language. Hopefully by the end of this thing we will speak the same language though! Also, me and Natalie, as expected are living with different families. Unexpectedly, we will be in the same village though so "Yeah!". Well...gotta go.

Some quick pics

Where we live:


The inside of our mud hut:


The nyegen...I'll let you figure out what goes on in here:

We made it!

We are in Mali now! I'll give you a brief run down of the events.

We arrived in Bamako via Paris late last night. It had to have taken us more than an hour to get our bags out of the tiny little Bamako National Airport. We were warned that the people there are very pushy, but I really didn't find them all that pushy. Anyways, afterwords, we were brought to the training facility. It's a pretty cool place. Me and Natalie have a cute little mud hut with two single beds pushed together and a ceiling fan (yes...that means electricity!) We woke up this morning with no electricity and it got pretty steamy, but it was still nice. Luckily I was so exhausted that it didn't phase me. Anyways, we've spent the whole day in training, and I'm pretty muched pooped. Also, last night there was like a foot long gecko in the bathroom. There are really pretty birds and trees here. It's pretty cool. Well...I better run. Love and miss you all.

Leaving for the Airport

Well...staging is over. We are all waiting for the bus now. Natalie and I are super excited now. I spent some time with some of my new friends last night. Today we woke up early and headed over to the clinic for Yellow Fever shots. I didn't have to get one though because I had one in 2002. Me and Natalie also got our Malaria medicines. I get to take a pill every week that apparently gives me really crazy dreams. Natalie has to take a daily pill which makes her more susceptible to sunburns. Well...off to Mali.

Staging Day 1

After a long 9 days of visiting (4 days at the Mette's, 1 day travel, and 4 days at the Bory's), we finally made our way to Philadelphia for our staging. We have now been introduced to most of the 78 people who we are going to Mali with. It's a pretty busy couple of days. Here's our itinerary:

Day1:

Time	Topic
1:30 - 3:00	Registration
3:00 - 7:00	Welcome and Introductions
	Peace Corps Approach to Development
	Personal Definition of Success
	Safety and Support
	Anxieties and Aspirations
	Nuts and Bolts

Day 2:

Time	Topic
8:30 - 12:00	A Slife of Life: Coping with Unwanted Attention
	Managing Risk
	Policies in Practice
12:00 - 1:30	Lunch
1:30 - 6:00	Change 5 Things
	Crossing Cultures
	Staging Capstone
	Bridge to Pre-Service Training
	Logistics of Departure
	Evaluation and Closing

Day 3:

Time	Topic
7:30 - 12:00	Shots at the clinic
12:00 - 2:00	Check out of hotel
2:00	Go to airport

It was a pretty good first day. We saw how everyone else around us has similar fears about going to Mali. Today has really gotten us excited to go on our adventure.

Also, we discovered a few days ago that we will have frequent internet access while we are are the training facility during the first few months of training. Woohoo! Love you all!