It just dawned on me, it’s April fool’s day. I wouldn't even know how to explain this particular "holiday" to a Malian. Holidays don’t mean much here. I also just realized that next week is Good Friday then Easter is coming. Life in the states moves on without me. Who’d of thunk it.
Today we all went over to the butiki to buy gifts for our families. It seems that they eat so well here but from what I know and have seen our host families are eating this well because Peace Corps is paying them $6 a day to feed us. Which may not seem like a lot to you but that’s huge here. That’s what a person makes in a week. So for gifts we bought them about 40 pounds of rice ($16) and tea and sugar (another $4 or so). So we gave them these gifts already. Not like you can hide 40 pounds of rice under your shirt. They were very happy to receive these gifts. I wanted to get some material for my host mom and sister as an extra somethin somethin. My sister especially. The mom hasn’t done a lot except for agree to let a volunteer stay in her home…and get paid for it. But my host sister has cooked, cleaned, pulled water for me twice a day, has done my laundry and sacrificed what I imagine was her room and lived in the same room with her mom and her brother for 2 months. Although in exchanged I’ve put up with her busting my chops, talking to me like I’m an idiot for not understanding or being able to speak her language, especially lately, there has been more good times than bad and I really will miss her. I will miss all of them I realized today. I may not go out of my way to come back and visit, but it truly has been a once in a lifetime experience living here and I do have to thank them for the culture training, their language training, their time and effort and all the sacrifices they made having a stranger live in their home. There are times when I thought PC could really rethink this part of their training, but immersion did serve its purpose. I’ve been in Africa 2 months and am a different person…already.
Tonight there is a party at the dugutigi’s house. All of the trainees and their host families will be there. There will be music and dancing. I hope there is something cold to drink. Although I somehow doubt it. We wrote a speech that each of us will read a part of in front of the community. I’ll leave out the Bambara and just give it to you in English…to the best that it can be translated:
Brothers and sisters of Muntugula, dugutigi and his council, men and women, young and old, good afternoon. We find our day in peace. Allah gives us peace. Today the dugutigi finds everything here without problem. Allah has everything good.
Bambara people say “everything has it’s time”. Because it has been 2 months since we came to Muntugula, now it is time to leave. We remind you that since we came here we have only respect. We weren’t hungry, we weren’t thirsty, we weren’t dirty. You welcomed us well and didn’t get angry once. You took care of us. You helped us with Mali culture, to learn/say greetings, blessings and solidarity. This will make our stay in other parts of Mali easier for the next 2 years.
Muntugula people you took care of us like our own moms and dads. On behalf of me and my peers, on behalf of Peace Corps we greet/thank you all very much for your good care.
May allah reward you. May allah let us stay in good relationship. May allah allow us to live long. May we leave peace behind us here. If we see each other again may allah make it peaceful.
Of all things I am doing the last part. All the blessings. What do you think about that America. It should be a swinging good time…Muntugula style.
Sunday we leave here for good. It still seems so far away but it’s less than 2 days. Today PC came with pick up trucks and took our bikes. Tomorrow they will come and get any luggage and trunks and stuff that we won’t need between tomorrow and Sunday. I’m getting rid of everything except my small suitcase, which is filled right now with dirty clothes (I’m hoping I can get my sister to wash all my stuff tomorrow morning so I don’t have to worry about dirty laundry as soon as I get back to camp), my water filter, and my backpack that has all my electronics…computer, phone, kindle, etc. The less I have to worry about the better.
So we also found out that after these next 12 days at camp when we get installed into our permanent sites we have to get there by public transportation. A big truck will come and get most of our gear and drive it out to our transit houses (a community PC house in our banking town that we will visit (by bus) once a week to do our banking, recharge our electronics for those without electricity, get on the internet, connect with other Americans) and leave it there. The day after our PC swearing in we will then get on a bus to these transit houses and stay for the night. The next day we have to get ourselves and all of our luggage, trunks, backpacks, water filters and buckets to our sites on the same public transportation. I can’t even imagine. How the hell are we supposed to get all this stuff to the bus station. We have only our feet. It would take me 5 trips to get all my stuff from the transit house to the bus station. Then who will sit at the bus station and wait with my stuff while I go to get other stuff. There are three other volunteers that will use the same transit house so they and all their stuff will be there as well. Maybe we need to call a bush taxi just for us. Once the stuff is on the bus it doesn’t matter to me that there is 7 different things, heavy or light. It will be underneath in the cargo compartment. When I get to my site which is right on the main road I’m sure there will be plenty of people to help me get the stuff to my house. Kids love carrying your stuff.
I already bought a bed. The volunteer that lives in my area from the last group that came in 8 months ago that stayed the night with me in Bougoula (my permanent village) mentioned that she was going to sell her bed. So I texted her the other day. She is selling a full mattress and the girl that lives at my transit house is selling her frame. I bought both for 15,000francs ($30). I didn’t ask about the thickness of the mattress though but I figure even if it’s a piece of crap it’s one less thing I have to think about initially. She said she was going to contact PC for me and see if they would drop it off in my village. Wouldn’t that be awesome.
*There was another sand/wind storm just now. Man can that wind really blow. There has been sand in my eyes and hair and every other nook and cranny I have all day. When the day is windy it’s usually windy all day. It would be like a San Diego Santa Ana wind. It blows all day and then dies down at night. But we had a gust just a few minutes ago that nearly took my roof off. I just finished sweeping and all kinds of cement fell from the ceiling.
*I carried water on my head yesterday. I was just practicing in the courtyard at school. Video is attached for your amusement. Actually if you use your hands to balance the bucket it is easier than carrying a bucket normally (our normal). If you center the bucket correctly your whole center of gravity is in balance. When you carry a bucket as we would normally everything is thrown off balance. No I did put my hands down for a few seconds. That didn’t work out that well as you will see in the video. My bucket was also only half full. We’ll see what happens when I’m at site and need to carry a full bucket…or make 2 trips.
*I’m starting to really figure out the creatures of Africa. Lizards are out during the day…big lizards. But they hate us as much as we hate them. They run away as soon as they get wind of you coming. I’ve been trying to take a picture of the big, giant black and yellow ones but apparently they are camera shy. At night the frogs and cockroaches come out. They do not run from you. The frogs don’t move at all and the cockroaches run around in circles but never really leave. Frogs can be anywhere but the cockroaches usually stay in the nyegen. As far as other bugs go, flies are only around during the day. Creepy, crawly things occupy the night. So, lizards are no worry, stay out of the nyegen at night, bring your fan with you during the day and make sure to stay tucked under your mosquito net while you sleep. All is good in the world.
*NEVER look down in the nyegen. I don’t know what’s living down there but there’s a million of something…not to mention cockroaches the size of cats. Those ones never come out. They are nyegen bottom dwellers.
10pm – Our going away party, speech, dance was a great success. We met in the same room with the dugutigi and the elders/council that we did the day we arrived. Many of the host family representatives spoke and said what a wonderful experience it’s been having us here. We are always happy, we always greet, we always bless. We eat whatever they give us and don’t complain and we have not been a burden. Part of their greetings/blessings in a situation like this include asking as well as forgiving for any offense we/they may have caused over these past 2 months and if our paths should cross again may allah bless us all. I think they are full of crap but they say what is traditional and right whatever the case may be. We’ve been hot and cranky, each one of us has at one time or another been caught crying, and a good portion of the time we don’t return greetings because all they ever do is call us and say our names over and over again. Our annoyance is apparent. My host mom said how nice it’s been. We dance every night. WHAT!!?? Maybe the past couple of nights and that’s because I’m excited to be leaving and although I think I may miss them and think about them a bit after I’m gone it hasn’t been real fun for me…or them as well. It’s apparent on both sides. But, greetings/blessings and their “niceness” is part of who they are. So they say what’s expected.
Regardless, the party was a hit. There was drums and singing and dancing. I have great video. Hopefully I can download it. Apparently the more dust you kick up while you’re dancing the bigger hit you are. We dances for almost an hour straight, and you’ll see from the video it’s not like dancing in the states. Maybe comparable to the raves the kids go to. The women dance their asses off. There was a 70 year old woman with a 6 month old baby strapped to her back that you couldn’t stop from dancing. They kept asking us if we were tired. We certainly could not admit to 60 and 70 year old women that we were tired. Unless they were hoping we were tired and would stop so they didn’t have to do it first. We kicked it up!!
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