a video

Here is a video I took with the Camera of a storm coming through. I have a funny story about the guy behind the wall. One night him and his friend came to my concession while I was hanging out with the kids and he was asking me why I wasn't making tea and told me he hadn't eaten dinner yet. I kept telling him N ye imuso ye. Well after saying that a million times and he kept laughing and just nodding his head I realized that I forgot to negate the sentence, so I kept saying I was his wife (in really bad bambara) so I shrieked and negated the sentence and he just laughed. The next day I was walking to school and I passed him at the butigi. I just laughed/ blushed send my greetings and booked it out of there. He really is a nice kid though.

SARA ASKED FOR PICS

Here is some friends and family right outside my host dad's door!
















These are the boys on the negeso (iron horse=bicycle) Brama and Fa















This picture is from right before a storm hit. I thought the sky looked amazing! Plus my family and friends were just hanging out on the bench, PHOTO OP!

















This is a picture of my Host dad Seke and his second wife Ya. He has three wives, but this is the one that takes care of me the most. Plus she is so CUTE!










The two boys on the outside are my brothers Brama and Yaya. The boy in the middle is my friend Madou. They are sitting on the wagon.













This picture is taken right outside of my concession. In the background the orange yellow beige building is the mosque. On the right hand side of the background is the market which is open Thursdays but is empty since it is rainy season and everyone is in the fields

SOME NEWS

So it has been awhile!

Computers at Tubani So are HOT and I hate to use too much time. So like I have said before I am living in a small village of Kabe pop. 800. My host family is amazing. My host dad (Seke) sings in a xylophone band and is of the numu caste (he is a blacksmith). He has three wives (Oumu, Ya, Batoma-Batoma means name of mother) and I think five children who are my best friends (Brama, Yaya, Boi, Draman, Yi) 4 boys and 1 girl. For breakfast I usually have Kafe (lipton tea with lots of powdered milk and sugar) and bread. Lunch and dinner varies. Sometimes I have rice with peanut sauce (sometimes the peanut sauce has dried fish, fresh fish… I definitely prefer the fresh fish) or Macaroni with a red oil sauce or one of my favorites Yams/sweet potatoes with potatoes onions and bouillon cubes for flavor. Seke’s older sister always gives me fried woso (yams).

I take my bucket baths in an open air Nyegen and it is really cool to see the sky while I bathe!

At 715 pm I sometimes head to a different concession to watch the Brazillian soap Opera “Coeur du Peche” which maybe the funniest show I have seen, or everyone’s reactions to it!

I eat dinner at about 8pm followed by lantern conversations with my host brothers and their friends. Most of the kids are about 15 and really funny. One boy named Aloo had 1000 fcfa and he knows some French, and in French 1000 is mille. WELL, these kids occasionally whip out some English for me (they come up to me and say HEY NANA! Good Morning Sir! And I just laugh) and one day Aloo came up to me in a suitjacket and just shouted the word MILLIONAIRE!! I couldn’t stop laughing! He told me that night he was going to make me chicken and I would get a leg. I teased him all day the next day asking for my chicken. The following day he offered me the liver (which was actually delicious) and after class that day my host mom Ya told me Aloo had left me a present. It was definitely the Chicken leg and it was definitely delicious!

SO the kids are great. One guy Adaman tries to get me to marry him all the time, even offered me his lilac motor scooter. I tell him I don’t want a husband that has a wife already. I also showed him and his friends a picture of Nic and they ask me all of the time about my big boyfriend. It is funny. My host moms think he’s cute and are always like THIS IS YOUR BOYFRIEND… WHAT??

So that is pretty humorous

The language is coming along. I do get to speak a little bit of French with some older kids, but other people say HEY SPEAK BAMBARA! So I then try…. Very hard!

Mali had its Arbor day equivalent and it was a blast! I planted a bunch of Baobab trees!


I go to my future site on Sunday to check it out for a week. I am pretty excited!

Sorry this is short, gotta let someone else use the computer. I have tons and tons of pictures so hopefully soon.

Last day before Homestay

Homestay begins tomorrow. We head out at 8 am. That means tonight I hope my clothes are dry and I can pack them up. Today was a little more crazy than usual because there was a lot of buzz about our sectors and our homestays (the places we will be at for the next 8 weeks... to practice our Bambara). My host representitive plays xylophone, which I'm pretty excited about. He only speaks Bambara, so I better learn QUICK. My LCF (language and culture facilitator) is very nice and has a great sense of humor. Everyone has a great sense of humor. We were told today that people that do PC Africa learn to laugh. I think I have that down pat.

I got my typhoid and rabies shots today. Took 'em like a champ. I wore my taafe today... like a champ. I was able to keep it up, no buttons/zippers etc. Its all about the rolling.

I got to try the whole sit and eat with my right hand thing (Malians believe left hands are dirty and really shouldn't be used for eating or greeting.... I agree) I was doing ok. My host rep made fun of me because I was taking small bites.

At our sector session we got to learn about our projects/goals, planted some trees, and sowed some corn (Dad thanks for teaching me that. I got it down.) We also learned about different trees in Mali and how to identify them. I'm not too good at that yet. Maybe later! Thanks to Sara at the wetlands office though for teaching me transects because I'll get to do those at site when I get there in September! I'm also excited about the chance to write Natural Resource Management reports.

I'll be at my homestay with three other really great people! I'm excited. We will all live in different homes, but in the same village. The village is called Kabe and it's south of Bamako.


Played some soccer today. Pretty funny to have bushes in the middle of the field, in addition to termite mounds. The cold shower afterwards definitely felt good.


Sorry, this entry is a little scattered. I've been writig a little in my journal to gather my thoughts. But not as often as I wanted. I'm so exhausted from all of the learning by the end of the day. I still love it though. I am really excited about starting my garden!


Ok that's it for me tonight. Details really coming soon. Or wait a few weeks and I can finally send some letters.

Training

Tubani so is AWESOME!

I'm learning so much already and having a great time. Temperature is in the 90s... though right now its only 79 because it rained last night. All the volunteers and staff are great. We just started learning Bamanankan.

Another short post but I need to find some stuff I left.


Anyway!

I leave for Homestay on Tuesday and I will have a cell phone real soon. Skype is supposed to be pretty cheap to call cell phones (incoming calls are free) Let me know and I can get you my number. Also.. if you are into texting ask your provider if you can receive texts from africa. I'm five hours ahead of you Minnesotans. Just so you know!


Miss you love you

short and sweet

Just wanted to write a quick message

Stage was awesome Everyone is so funny and great to be around.  I feel like I know everyone already!  we leave for paris soon and should be in Bamako tomorrow night!

Miss you all

Thinking about you

It's about that time!

I am finally all packed up! I hopefully shouldn't be missing anything because I have only packed, unpacked, repacked a dozen of times. Plus there is no turning back as soon as I head out.

I'm really excited to meet all of the other volunteers. Everyone that I have met through facebook seems really enthusiastic, which only makes things more exciting and I cannot wait!

I just want to throw out a quick thank you to everyone that made my last few months in MN really exciting. I had a great time and I'm going to miss you all.

Letters will be slow to come... but don't worry I will have time after training to really get them rolling.

Post is a little short, but I really should go to bed soon so I can make it to the airport by 5:15 am....ahhh :)


Here's to you MN! Thanks for everything!

And if you feel like writing me

Audrey Respet, PCV
Corps de la Paix
B.P. 85
Bamako, Mali