site rat

wow, it's only been about 4 months

site rat... That's the name my friend Amber has dubbed me with. This is officially the second time I have made it to Bamako in four months, and well, my 4th time away from site total. Now as I type it, it seems like a lot. But, not going to lie, in comparison to others, it is NOTHING.

So what to say, I havent really had reliable access to internet in the last four months and a lot has happened. I will probably talk about some of my most favorite memories, and some that stick out the most.

First and foremost, Nyaminakaw (people of Nyamina) are the most friendly fun loving group of people I have ever met. The group of people in my quartier alone are amazing. Nyamina is made up of six quartiers, I live on the edge near the river, which is BEAUTIFUL!

My main set of friends consist of a group of neighbor guys and one the guy's wife. In the afternoon I usually drink tea with them and put works on my husband's fish hooks. Yes I said husband, but please take this lightly. His name is Baba and they call him the American. For the most part he is a soft spoken, kind gentlemen, who is really tall. The women in my neighborhood always ask me which guy I want to marry and conveniently I chose Baba. All of the time he is known as my Ce.

The younger population in my neighborhood knows better and always asks me how my husband Amahfah is doing. Amahfah has been helping learn language (bambara and some arabic) and get to know the village. He is my best friend in village and he is always willing to help out. His family is also very kind and his mom is always trying to get me to eat. I usually have eaten before I go to her house and when I tell her I am full she asks if I don't like the food or if the hot pepper is too much. I laugh and rub her on the back and say no seriously I am full. There have been a few occasions at his sister's house where I was so full I couldn't move, and they still didn't believe I was full, but amahfah straightens things out.

Ive been working in the women's gardens hoping to start my own garden in the future. I will also be doing a tree pepinaire, but mostly the past three months I have been talking to the women in the garden and watering with them. They are always telling me to take a rest and when I refuse they say " a be barrala bi" "she is working today" which is pretty humorous. Most women are shocked that I cook for myself and wash my own clothes. Then they usually tease me and say my clothes aren't cleaned perfect. The women are really awesome and all have great senses of humors. My neighbor's wife is young probably late twenty's with two kids. The two cutest kids ever. She is a sweet heart and is always watching out for me.

All of my guy friends act like my brother's and are always watching out for me. They like to make sure I am only hanging out with good people and are always willing to hang out with me when I am alone and inviting me to different events (soccer, dances, etc)

My best friend Bamoussa is an awesome soccer play but unfortunately moved to Bamako. Amahfah and I got to see him two weeks ago and it was memorable.

I have been learning some about Islam and have become really interested in it. My friend Amahfah has been teaching me how to pray and teaching me arabic, soon he is going to teach me how to read arabic and I am pretty excited about that. There was a day of reading the Koran at the mosque in my village and it was an amazing site to see.

43 days ago my host sister died. It was pretty horrible for me. My host sister was probably 18 years old and my closest girl friend in village. All of the time people would talk about her behind her back saying she was pregnant, etc. I always just shrugged my shoulders and explained to my closer friends that it takes two people to make a baby so why are they condemming her alone. Well Ev ery morning I go to my Djatigi's house for breakfast. As I was approaching the concession I heard shouting. This was really strange for me because my Djatigi and his wife NEVER fought. Both are very happy, friendly people. I walk into the concession and I see my host mom gripping a post of the hangar and a woman behind her she is crying. She stops crying as I greet her and then says, "Nana, Tata died" I just said no over and over and over again and she told me to walk into the room. I walk into the room and I see Tata's body lieing underneath a sheet, every part of her body covered, but I could tell it was her. I started crying and just sat on the ground. My host mother kept telling me to stop crying stop crying (crying allows bad spirits to enter the environment plus malians believe crying doesn't solve anything). So I just sat and waited and she told me to go home and tell the woman I lived with. I was upset because the woman I lived with always talked about how Tata was pregnant and how horrible it was. The funeral service was beautiful, but also very very very hard. I found out later that Tata had overdosed on medicine because she was trying to abort the pregnancy. This made me really really upset and has really motivated me to try to start a project for women's reproductive health and women empowerment.

Time is running short and I hate to end on a bad note

SOOO I will leave you with this. Language is going AWESOME and I really love speaking the language! hope all is well with everyone at home!!!!

Well, tomorrow is the day... I am finally moving out to site. Internet access will be scarce, but CELL PHONE RECEPTION IS AMAZING. If you need my digits, call my folks or my siblings, someone should be able to get it to you. I think facebook is also sporting the digits. I am going to be lonely... so call me! My closest volunteer is at least 60 km away. So hopefully, I'm crossing my fingers, that Nyamina hosts as many awesome people as Kabe did.

Things have been a little... thought provoking here to say the least. I'm going to be honest. I have just realized how hard these next 3.5 months could really be. But it's all about attitude. Unfortunately, these past couple days I have been feeling a little down. SOOOO if calling is not your style, send me a letter. I will have plenty of time to write back. In addition to the fact that I will in the future have a post office box in Nyamina hopefully.

So I guess basically this is just a goodbye message. Keep the emails coming, I just won't be responding too quickly. I can get internet in my banking town... but it just depends when I go there. Which, if things go as well as I hope... I won't be there too often.

So, here it goes.... Wish me luck, keep me in your thoughts, it's time to get to work!

A vid vid

This is just to show you what a numu ( smith) family does in Kabe. Though really, it just shows what their kids do and how bad of a camera operator I am....wahh wahhh waaaaaaaaaaah

More pictures

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2553962&l=53714&id=13900547

Swearing....it's not just curse words anymore

8 long weeks of being emersed in language and culture and hot weather and MOSQUITOS. We have come to the day. THe day we have all been waiting for. We have committed all of the cultural faux pas's... struggled with the language... struggled more with the food... and here we are. Today we officially commit ourselves to two years of probably the most exciting experience ever. I am so ready. I have never been so set to do something as I am now. Next week I will be in Nyamina until January researching and researching the town. Studying its problems... questioning it's needs. After this time I can really explain what I want to do. It is a new village, so no PC projects are in existance there. I am so ready. I am so excited.

So after today you can erase PCT (Peace Corps TRAINEE) from my Job Description and change it to Audrey Respet PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer)! Inshallah


One of the trainers here was laughing at me the other day and told me I was most likely to extend a third year. The funny thing is I have already thought about it. Kabe is looking for a volunteer... Maybe I can return to those roots.


hope all is well back in the states!

Its the Final COUNTDOWN

How to sum up the last twenty days?

Well first off I must start with a petite histoire. When my roommate Kevin found out that I was going to go to Mali West Africa for the Peace Corps, he would daily serenade me with Toto's “Africa” as he belted out “I BLESS THE RAINS DOWN IN AFRICA!!!!!!!” at good ol 204. He reminded me everyday that each day I wake up in my mud hut… I would need to sing that song. He had promised to try to get me a CD with the song on it, but time flew by too fast before I was swept away by the Peace Corps. I had almost forgotten about the song, until one day when nyenafin be n na (nostalgia was on me) and my friend Kelly said, “Audge, you gotta listen to this song, it will make you feel better”. Right as the song began I started laughing. We both had an ear bud in and danced and belted out the song. At that moment, I don’t think I could have felt happier. Maybe it is possible, but truly, homesickness was gone. I had completed one of my small… small goals. Also, Kevin can be glad I took his advice.

So a weird way to start off an entry maybe, but I needed to get that out there. So the past twenty days were spent in beautiful Kabe learning Bamanakan gua koro (under a hangar). Eating bread and tea in the mornings, macaroni at lunch, and rice and na(sauce) for dinner. The past twenty days have been very very warm with every few days a downpour to cool us down. Plus, the rain helps put me to sleep as it pit pats (or slam bams) my toli (tin) roof.

My language teacher was intense and fantastic. He pushed us four trainees real hard, and I don’t think my language would be anywhere near to how good it is right now if it wasn’t for his work. I tested at intermed. Mid at the mid stage test which is the requirement to pass training, so I have exceeded that by now (at least I would hope so). I have gotten compliments from my homestay family and other villagers because I can finally understand them and they can understand me.

Now when I say “N t’a don” (I don’t know) I actually mean that I don’t know and I assure them that I understand by saying “N y’a famu, nga n t’a don” I understand, but I don’t know. I find it funny though when some of my Malian friends in town would talk to me in French and I would answer in Bambara, because that would be the first language that would come to me. It is really exciting to see how much a difference being emerged really makes in the language learning process. I feel blessed with being placed in the village I was in. I was very lucky to be placed with a very open and enthusiastic, helpful community. I was very sad to leave them Yesterday, but this only means my real service is going to start.

I will be swearing in this Friday at the embassy! How exciting! Then a few days after I will be on my way to Nyamina! Working with the women’s garden there. I am also working with my APCD to work with Soulyemane Cisse on organizing the film festival in Nyamina! So many many exciting things.

I am feeling sad though lately. I loved my homestay village, probably most than other trainees. I made a lot of great friendships, so it just means I will have to visit a lot! There was a little rumor that my host dad and a friend might come visit me after Ramadan, but Malians like to joke, and are just about as sarcastic as I am, so it may just be a cruel cruel joke.

But that is another thing I love about Mali. Everyone is funny. I am pretty sure I have mentioned this a hundred times, but I think this is what has helped me learn the language as fast as I have. I joke. I try to learn new jokes or new funny sayings such as I am going to marry 15 men and have 25 children (the women get a kick out of this). I also like to tell the men that propose to me that they will have to cook and clean if they want to marry me, and can’t be upset when I marry a new husband. It is also funny when they ask me what I am going to be doing in Africa for two years, I tell them that I am searching for a husband and they laugh and they say seriously what are you going to be doing. I continue to say well I might garden but my priority is to find a husband. They usually ask if I will be going back to America after the two years and I said that I will probably just stay in Mali for another hundred, and that I will never go back to America. That one also gets a lot of laughs.

The nature is also amazing out here. I would describe Kabe as a savannah esque type area, though it is really hard to know for sure because most places are fields. There are some trees, lots of bushes and grasses. There were some very pretty flowers out in the kungola (forestish area) that I had wanted to get a picture of but decided that if I didn’t take the picture I would have to go back. The birds are also amazing here. Some just look like simple finches while others are just amazingly different than what I am used to. The kids are afraid of frogs and anything amphibian or reptile, so of course I pick them up and display them for the kids to see that really the creatures are fine.


I was constantly having a great time in village and unfortunately it had to end. I’m sure Nyamina will be awesome, but a piece of my heart is always going to be in Kabe.

QUICK QUICK UPDATE

My new site is amazing. It is right on the Niger River! There are two very large gardens and Eaux et Poissons department (I'm going to see if I can work with the man that works there...He was pretty nice). My homologue was amazing. She speaks French and Bambara. I was so nervous the whole week that I spoke Franbara. It was still great. Nyaminakaw (the people of Nyamina) are very funny and diverse. I am going to have a great time there. As a welcoming/come back here later present they presented me with 4 live guinea fowl and dozens of eggs. A group of friends and I got to have them killed and we plucked them and made the best chicken salad Mali has ever seen!

Sorry this is short.

I'm headed back to Kabe in a few days for twenty more days so there won't be any updates there.

Hope all is well back home. Ive been able to keep up with the olympics a tiny tiny bit.

Love you miss you!