Update

I made it to site visit and spent a few days meeting everyone and seeing where I’d be working and what I’d be doing. I also did a lot of thinking about my time here and Peace Corps. And I’ve decided to come home to America. It’s not that site visit wasn’t good or people weren’t nice; the opposite actually. Everyone was super nice and welcoming to me. It’s just that I wasn’t happy and I couldn’t see myself being here for two years. I’ve been unhappy for most of my time here but mostly out of culture shock. However, while I was at site visit I realized I was no longer “in shock”. I was simply unhappy and with no reason to be unhappy. I’ve had only great experiences so far. An awesome host family, a good counterpart, a good site, I’m picking up the language quickly, I’ve made good friendships with the other trainees, yet I’m still unhappy. Peace Corps is hard, especially in a place like Africa. Some people love it and can handle it, others can’t. I never really thought I’d ever be a part of the “others” category; but I am.

I could stick it out and continue on, but it wouldn’t be fair to anyone. My community deserves a volunteer who’s going to be excited about the work and look forward to sharing cultures and above all, be happy to be there. Those are all things I am not. Peace Corps deserves a volunteer who represents America well and who will be worth all the money and time spent on them. It’s hard for a community to replace a volunteer once they’ve been installed so I’m leaving to go back to America now where hopefully I can find a job I’m excited and happy to work at and my community will hopefully be able to get a replacement volunteer. I could’ve probably stayed longer and stuck it out but I want to make it as easy as possible for my community to get another volunteer. I at least owe them that. Also, with me being unhappy, I wouldn’t be the best representation of America that they need to see.

So tomorrow morning I’ll go into Bamako and then they’ll let me know when I’ll be leaving. They’re hoping to get a flight out for me by tomorrow evening. So I’ll be back in America in 2-3 days.

I want to thank everyone for the support they’ve given me over the past few months (before I left and while I was here) and I just hope you all can understand why I’m leaving and that you don’t judge me too much. Thanks again for everything.

Love,

Jasmin

Farafina

I'm back from our second round at homestay. Here are random stories that happened while at homestay!

On the way back to homestay we stopped at a Tubab store (white person store) and I bought Nutella. It was sort of expensive but it's worth it. I eat it on basically everything for a snack haha
Homestay is getting easier each day I'm here. Partly because I'm slowly starting to understand people more and partly because I'm simply getting used to everything and overcoming culture shock. Now I understand like 50% of what they say opposed to the 10% from last time. haha But that all depends on how fast people talk and whether they have all their teeth. Some of the older people only have like 5 teeth (exaggeration) and so when they talk I understand about 5% of what they say. But usually they're just greeting me or giving me a blessing so I just answer with "Nse" or "Amiina" and hope that covers it all. :) My family has starting asking me what word are in English and it's really funny to hear them pronounce English words. It makes me wonder what I sound like to them when I speak Bambara....haha

Side note: we found out that the word "Africa" in Bambara is "Farafina" which literally translated means "black skin place". I found it highly amusing. :) Also, some of the children like to call us "Tubabo" which means white person which gets really annoying at times. Also, if you think about it, it's sort of rude. I mean, in America if I went around yelling "black person!" I'd get shot. Not so here. So I've started yelling "black children!" back at them. It makes me feel better and they have no idea what I'm saying so I feel like it's a win win solution..haha ;)

My family has two donkeys and one was super fat...or so I thought it was fat. Which I thought was weird because animals in Africa aren't really fat; they tend to always look like they could keel over and die at any moment but this donkey looked like it had alot of meat on its bones. Until one morning I woke up and found a new born baby donkey walking around. It was so cute and fluffy I took a million pictures of it which made everyone laugh. Baby animals aren't a new exciting thing for them. I felt like such a city girl...

Exciting note! We finally got our bikes! We've been hitchhiking/walking to go visit people in other villages so we're stoked to have bike to be able to get there faster! Although we still do hitch hike because riding your bike over bumpy, dirty, sandy, gravely, unpaved roads does a toll on your body. My bike seat isn't so comfortable and I'm pretty sure I'm going to have bruises on my butt for the next 2 years. haha Also, Malians have no concept for personal space so they literally will ride their motorcylces or big trucks like 2 inches from where your riding your bike. I've already had like 7 minor heartattackes from trucks flying past me. But we have bikes!!

I'm slowly becoming accustomed to having people stare 24/7 at us. Children love to just come stand around and stare at us for hours on end. After class sometimes a few of us will go sit under a tree and hang out and after about 10 minutes there'll be like 7 kids just standing around watching us speak English. Personally I'd be bored listening to someone I don't understand but apparently it's enterntainment for them.

We've done alot of technical health training this past homestay visit. We learned how to make this porridge that is used for children who have dangerously low birth weights as well as learning how to do baby weighings. We also did a mural painting at the local health clinic. Since alot of people are illiterate paintings help teach them without using words. We drew a painting about the 3 food groups (we only teach 3 in Mali) and washing your hands before eating.

I taught my little brothers how to high five and now that's all they want to do. Over and over and over and over. I've gotten to the point where all I am required to do is hold up my hands and they'll do the slapping. In the future I'll rethink trying to teach them anything that could potentially be annoying in the future. haha

I've found out my family isn't afraid of spiders. There was one on the wall the other night that was literally the size of my palm and I pointed it out and they simply shooed it outside. Pretty sure my face showed clearly my shock and disbelief that they didn't kill it. It's just going to come back inside!! And now it'll have a vengence against me...

My host mom sews for a living (along with selling beauty supplies imported from Europe) and has a little "shop" beside the house. Once the other volunteers in the village found that out they've started having her make them traditional clothing. I finally found some cool fabric I like so hopefully she'll be able to make me an outfit soon. The sewing machine she uses looks like one of those old ones you see in musuems. You have to manually push the foot pedal up and down to turn the wheel which makes the machine work. Pretty sure I'm not coordinated enough to be able to do that haha But I'm sure my mom (in America) would have no problem. :)

Sunday March 6, 2011. 3:23AM.
I'm woken up by a strange sound. It sounds like someone is throwing something on my tin roof. I take out my earplugs and it gets louder. It sort of sounds like rain....but it's not rainy season so I don't think it's supposed to rain yet. I finally get out of bed and open my door and it takes me a few seconds to realize that it really is rain!! There was a cool breeze along with it so I stood out in it for a little while enjoying the relief from the heat we've had.
Downside of rain...humidity. It's been relatively cloudy for a few days but it's felt so thick it's hard to breathe. I feel like I'm sitting in my own pool of sweat 24/7. Fantastic.

Yesterday was national women's day (or something to that affect) so they had a big celebration in town and had singing and dancing and important people speaking. Lauren, Hannah and I showed up together and as soon as they spotted us white people they immediately chased us down and made us dance. It was rather embarrassing to dance in front of 200 people. And then my family made fun of me the rest of the night and mimicked my moves. haha

We find out about site placements later today so I'll finally know where I'll be living for the next 2 years after training! I'll be sure to update you all on it as soon as I find out.

First break from homestay!

The first few days of homestay have been rough. I’ve basically had at least one emotional breakdown a day for the first 4 days haha. And I even have an awesome host family. I have no idea how some of the other volunteers have handled it. It’s been culture shock to the extreme. We were basically thrown into a village without any skills other than the ability to say hello in their language. I’m with 7 other health volunteers in a town called Mountougoula. It’s about an hour outside of the capitol city Bamako. My host family is Diarra and my Malian name is Mase; after my host mom. Typically volunteers stay in a compound with a family ranging anywhere from 10-40 people living there. It’s pretty common for plural marriages to occur so having multiple wives and multiple kids really adds up. However with me, I live with what I like to call my “American Mali” family. My dad, Adama Diarra, is a French teacher at the local school who speaks a little English. I live with him and his wife and their 2 little boys, Booba (5 years old) and Amala (7 years old). There is also a girl named Sali who also lives with us but she’s a relative who helps cook, clean, take care of the boys, etc. Girls tend to marry young so it’s not uncommon for girls as young as 8 to take care of infants. I’m pretty sure Sali knows more about raising children, cooking, cleaning, etc than I ever will. She also finds it highly amusing that I’m basically a helpless 2 year old here. I can’t speak the language worth crap, I can’t cook for myself, I can’t clean my own clothes, and I rely on my host mom for everything. She’s basically my security blanket here. She peels and cuts my oranges, she deshells my peanuts, she cools off my tea, she makes sure I close my door and window each night, she makes sure I wear my sunscreen and a hat if I’m outside too long, she cleans my clothes, she answers questions for me if I don’t understand someone, she knows what I’m saying 90% of the time no matter how stupid I sound, and gets water for me to bathe in. Malians are super friendly and nice and we’re their guests so they really like to do everything for us. I think my mom is just used to having 2 little boys to take care of so one more girl doesn’t matter. haha When I’m with her I feel ok because she cares for me so well, but as soon as she leaves me alone with people I start to freak out. It’s like my interpreter leaves haha My host dad on the other hand probably thinks I’m the biggest idiot in the world. He tries talking to me but I have no idea what he says 90% of the time unless he speaks English. Even then it’s a little iffy with his heavy accent. Also, all they hear is mostly European English which is different from American English…obviously.

Mon-Saturdays mostly consist of my mom waking me up around 6:45am. She then gets me a bucket of warm water for me to bucket bathe with….which I’ve known gotten pretty good at! After bathing I eat breakfast with my mom which usually consists of bread and lipton tea. Before Mali, I was never a huge tea drinker except for really sweet tea. Not so anymore. You never really see Malians drink water. But you sure do see them drinking tea!! The Lipton tea in the morning is my favorite because of the amount of sugar put in it. It never actually tastes like tea…just sugar and a little bit of orange she squeezes into it. The other tea they drink throughout the day is a REALLY strong, bitter green tea. They brew the leaves 3 times so by the 3^rd time it’s usually sweet enough for me to be able to handle it. Which everyone finds hilarious that the 1^st batch is too strong for me. That’s another thing, Malian humor is completely different than American. In Mali there’s this system called “Joking Cousins”. It started a long time ago to keep peace between families in Mali and is actually really effective from what I can tell. Basically everyone has a certain family name that they joke with. My last name is Diarra so when I come across a Coulibali I would call him or her a donkey, dog, etc or say that he/she eats beans. They would retaliate with something similar and everyone laughs and has a great time. I mean, literally all I have to say is Coulibali be sho dun kosobe and I’ll have like 5 Malians on the ground laughing. I’ve learned to just laugh even when I don’t find it funny. They would never understand dry humor so I might as well learn to laugh with them.

Anyway, so because of this strong tie to family names, people don’t fight among themselves. I feel like America should try this out. One of my language instructors said he got into a 3 car accident but no one owed anyone money because they joked it off. Imagine how much nicer America would be! Haha

So yea, after breakfast I go to class for 4 hours where I either learn language (Bambara) or health training. Then we all go home for lunch and then have more class in the afternoon. Dinner is usually at 7 or 8 and then bed at 9 or 9:30. Being surrounded by a new language 24/7 really wears you out.

My food has actually been pretty decent compared to other volunteers. Usually I’ll have rice with sauce and meat for lunch and then either macaroni noodles, or potatoes with meat for dinner. Since I’m the guest and hold a position of honor, I eat with my host dad for lunch and dinner. Traditionally women eat with women and men with men. Also they eat communal style meaning one big bowl everyone sits around and uses their RIGHT hand to eat with. The left hand is reserved for special tasks such as picking your nose or wiping your butt (not joking). Needless to say, whatever concerns I had about germs went away super fast. Haha

But I really do have it easy because my parents make sure everyone washes their hands and makes sure to keep things as clean as possible. Oh yea, and did I mention we eat dinner in front of cable TV everynight? Yea, that’s right, I’m in the middle of Africa with electricity and TV. Haha They use a generator so reception is kinda sketchy and it’s all in French so I understand like nothing but still. While other volunteers sit around in the dark trying to communicate I’m plopped down on my butt on a couch watching tv. J

On the more negative side of things or things I’ve had to adjust to is the amount of trash everywhere. I have yet to see a trashcan and if there is one I’m pretty sure they just dump it on the ground when it’s full. Malians don’t use a lot of paper products like TP or Kleenex but there’s still plastic bags, and other things all over the place. And what’s worse is that all that garbage is what the kids play with! You’ll see little 5 year olds playing with sharp aluminum lids to cans or sticking pieces of plastic in their mouths. A lot run around barefoot so I can only imagine how many germs they’ve picked up. It’s also not uncommon to see children running around half naked. And it’s always the bottom half that’s exposed. You’d think that that would at least be somewhat of an important area to keep clean but apparently not. Once again though, my family is really good at keeping Amala and Booba clean, clothed and trash free. I feel like my parents should teach classes on how to raise clean, healthy children…

Also, animals walk around everywhere so there’s always poop everywhere. And the donkeys make this horrible noise that sounds like their dying all day long. It’s not a great way to be woken up all the time. And besides the animal noises, there’s the call to prayer 5 million times a day. Literally it goes off anywhere from 2-5 times staring at 5AM in 15-30 minute intervals. Then around noon they have another 1-2 calls. Then another 3-4 around 7-8pm. Then I think periodically they feel the need to throw random ones in throughout the day/night just to make sure people really are praying. Although the only time I’ve ever seen/heard anyone pray is on Friday when my host dad goes to the mosque to pray. Otherwise I think people just ignore it. If only I was able to do that!

Before coming here in my mind I pictured Africa as this cool exotic place I’ve always wanted to go and now I can’t help thinking “why did I ever want to come here???” And I mean that in the best way possible. I think it would be better if I felt like I was doing something but right now all I’m doing is sitting in language classes 6 hours a day 6 days a week. I’m just hoping I can make it through this homestay part and then start feeling useful once I make it to site and am working.

I’ll try to post some pictures from homestay on Facebook later if internet lets me. I’ll be here at the training camp until Wednesday morning when we go back for another 12 days to homestay. I’m picking up the language faster than I thought so hopefully by the next time I’ll have a lot more positive mood! Haha also I typed this really fast so sorry if there’s any mistakes. My hands are cramping from typing so much so fast…

First Two Days!!

So this is a post from the first two days in Mali!!

The first night in Africa!! We've spent the last 36 hours traveling to get here. We arrived at 8:50pm and got to exit the plane using stairs that lead directly to the ground. The air was warm and had a dirt smell to it (which apparently is a burnt wood smell). By the time I reached pavement I was ready to do a happy dance! haha We're staying for the next 6 days just outside the capitol inside the Peace Corps compound while we get orientated and separated for training. We're separated into hut groups to stay in and I'm in a hut with 2 other girls. We sleep in beds that have mosquito nets on them which is slightly disturbing to be 'closed' into your bed. Besides the beds, there is nothing else in the room. We have toilets outside called "negens" pronounced sort of like nyagens which are just holes in the ground that you squat over. There's cement walls around them and doors with locks with I guess is better than out in the middle of nowhere. We have a pump outside for water, however we don't drink that water since it's not filtered. The drinking water is in the cafeteria. We have showers, but they're a little iffy on pressure so I showered from a bucket. It wasn't so bad. haha I'll have to do that at my site so I might as well get used to it. There's electricity in our huts so we have a light and a fan, so I sort of feel like we're being pampered before being sent out into the wilderness. Although some volunteers will have electricity and water because they'll be in the larger city. I found out we'll be getting cell phones which will enable us to text and call anyone in Mali as well as anyone in the world. It'll cost a little bit of money, but it is reassuring that even if I don't have electricity or water, I'll still be able to communicate.
After these 5 days we'll be sent into a village with around 6 other volunteers to go through the 3 month training program. We'll all be learning the same language in that village but won't necessarily be in the same sectors. With my group, there are 3 different sectors here; small enterprise development, health education, and environment. After the 3 months we'll be placed at our official sites which most likely won't be with other volunteers.
The food so far is pretty normal. Potatoes with green beans, spaghetti, and bread. They say alot of what we'll eat is millet. They also say girls tend to gain weight while guys tend to lose weight. Fantastic.
It's all pretty exciting still right now although some of what they say make us really nervous still. The rest of this week will mostly be for vaccinations, language placement, and more orientation stuff.
I'll try to take pictures to post sometime in the next few days!

Oh, and we have to post a disclaimer on all our blogs. So here's mine:
Anything I post on here does not reflect Peace Corps ideas or opinions. They are simply my own and you should not take them seriously and judge Peace Corps by them or Mali. :)

So close to leaving, yet still so much to do!

It's still 2 weeks and 6 days until I leave for Washington D.C! I'll leave bright and early on Monday morning on the 31st and spend a day in DC meeting the other volunteers going to Mali as well as go through a short orientation. We will then leave on Tuesday for Mali. It seems like it's going to be a 2 day journey to get there; stopping for a night in London. So I will now be able to say I've been to London! haha

For the first 3 months I'll be in intensive training in the capitol of Mali, called Bamako. After that I will be placed in a nearby city/village for the following 2 years. I'm not entirely sure about all the details; I'll find out more once I get there. Training will be everyday for most of the day and will cover everything about cultural, language, technical, health and safety, and any other information I'll need to know.

As of now, what I know about what I'll be doing is working in the Health Education field. This could include working in health clinics in several cities, creating educational programs, teaching/giving ideas to city leaders on how to have health educational programs, etc. The infant mortality rate is extremely high in Mali so most of what I'll be doing is educating people on pre/post-natal care, health care up to age 5, breast feeding, hygiene, etc.

I'm not sure how often I'll be able to update this because I'm not sure how often I'll have access to internet. During training I should have pretty regular access to internet however after that I may not have any access for up to a month or so. From what I've read in the packets they've given me, some of the larger cities have internet cafes where I can pay for internet. So if I'm placed in a larger city, I'll have access to internet whenever I want, however if I'm placed in a smaller city, it might be a while until I can get to an internet cafe. Either way, I will try my best to update you all on somewhat of a regular basis!