I just got back from “site visit,” which is when Peace Corps trainees (PCTs) visit the village/town/city we’ll be living in for the two years of our service. Last Monday my homologue, Salimata, came to Tubani So. A homologue, or counterpart, is our closest work contact. They are supposed to help us integrate into the community and provide support/assistance/guidance for projects that we do. On Monday we had some workshops to help orient the homologues to what we Peace Corps is all about and how to (hopefully) successfully work together.
The next day we left early in the morning with our homologues to travel to our region. My site is in Sikasso, the southernmost region of Mali, bordering with the Cote D'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, and Guinea. I was thrilled with my placement there, because Sikasso is renowned for having tons of produce, including avocadoes and mangoes. Supposedly during mango season there will be more mangoes than even I know what to do with. Sikasso city, the regional capital, is near the Burkina border. Two other PCTs and their homologues were on the same bus. Unfortunately we missed the early morning bus, so we had to wait at the bus station in Bamako for almost two hours.
The bus makes fairly frequent stops, to pay tolls in small villages on the paved road, and sometimes to let people go to the bathroom. It also makes longer stops at prayer times so that people can pray. I realized that this is the problem with traveling later in the day. Muslim prayer times are dawn, 2 p.m., 4 p.m., sunset, and 8 p.m. Once you hit the afternoon prayer times (which we did) the stops really slow you down. One time we stopped for a really long time in the middle of nowhere, and I’m not sure why. Buses also break down, but this didn’t happen, fortunately. When it stops in villages, people come up to the bus selling snacks such as hardboiled eggs, cakes, cold drinks, and roasted corn. Anyway, the trip down took about 8 hours.
My homologue and I were supposed to stay in a hotel in Sikasso city, but it turned out that she had family nearby, so she went and stayed with them and I stayed in the hotel. The hotel was in walking distance of a current volunteer’s house. I went to her house and we made dinner together, which was wonderful after a month and a half of not ever getting to cook for myself. The next day she took me to the bank where I was supposed to open an account, then on a tour of the city. It is the second largest city in Mali, after Bamako. Despite this, it is not at all cosmopolitan. There are only a few paved roads, and no tall buildings....and no ice cream! Or if there is ice cream, the volunteers in the area haven't found it, which would mean that they're missing their biggest potential market! There are however, stores that sell candy, a good assortment of cookies, Nutella, cereal, oatmeal, flour, etc. There are some patisseries, there is a hotel with a swimming pool, a bank, a hospital, bars and restaurants.
In the afternoon a Peace Corps vehicle took me and Salimata to my future village, Kafouziela. It is only 18 km outside of the city, but the road is unpaved and there is no public transportation to it except on Sundays. I will have a bike once I’m installed, however, so I’ll be able to bike back and forth easily.
My village is beautiful! It is on a small hill. There are tons of mango trees, and most of the buildings are made of mud brick with thatched roofs. It’s a village of about 2000 people. There are several wells, and one pump, but it doesn’t work right now. My house is the former mayor’s office, and it’s in its own concession (walled-in yard). It is made of cement with a corrugated tin roof, and has two rooms. It also has a large porch, which is wonderful because it means I can be outside even when it’s raining. There is a mango tree in my yard, and a BRAND NEW NYEGEN!!! If anyone missed this before, a nyegen is a pit that you go to the bathroom in. Starting off with a brand new one is sooooo nice because it doesn’t smell at all, and the concrete floor is freshly poured. Some have a separate bathing area. Mine doesn’t, but the whole thing is big enough that I can bathe at a comfortable distance from the hole. It doesn’t have a roof, but it has fairly high walls, which is also nice (some nyegens have walls that are only about 3 feet high, which can be embarrassing).
There is a well right next to my concession. I’m also right next to the market, which happens on Saturdays. I got to see it, and realized that I’d had unrealistic expectations. There were basically peanuts, “Malian eggplants” (not like eggplants, believe me), and hot peppers. Not a single fruit. To be fair, this is kind of an in-between time for fruit, but I think I’m going to have to do a lot of my marketing in Sikasso, which is no problem now that I’m prepared for that. While produce isn’t readily available in my village, bread, pasta and eggs are. Bread is kind of a luxury “en brousse” – because I’m so close to Sikasso, it is brought in from there.
I’ll be working at the CSCOM (“centre de santé communautaire” or community health center) in my village. It’s about a three-minute walk from my concession, and across the street from the concession where Salimata and my language tutor both live (they’re in the “fonctionnaire” concession – they are government employees and not from the village). It’s pretty nice looking (especially compared to other ones I’ve seen). Salimata is the matrone of the maternité, the clinic where women go for prenatal consultations, giving birth, family planning advice, etc. I sat in on a few prenatal consultations. Other than that, I didn’t really get a good idea of the CSCOM on this visit. Once I get back I will make a schedule of hours that I will regularly spend at the CSCOM.
The chief of the village gave me a live chicken as a welcome present. First it was tied up in Salimata’s compound. The next day it was beheaded and lying next to the cooking fire. Later in the day they took it away and de-feathered it, then cooked it for me for dinner. I think it was the first time I had seen a live animal, then known that that specific animal was on my dinner plate. It was delicious though.
On Sunday the Peace Corps vehicle was supposed to come pick me up, but it turned out that a PCV had had a medical emergency and they needed the car to take that person to Bamako. This was good practice for how they would get me out of my village if I had a medical emergency. My language tutor, Lassina, rode his motorcycle to the village 1 km away where there is a guy that owns a car. He arranged for the car to take me to Sikasso if we reimbursed them for gas. And that was that.
Much to the villagers’ consternation, one of Peace Corps’s rules is that volunteers are forbidden to drive or ride on motorcycles/mopeds/scooters. This is a recent rule – PC even used to provide them for some volunteers. Then they did a study and found that they were causing an inordinate number of the injuries and even deaths among PCVs. Volunteers in some countries are allowed to ride on them with a helmet, because in those countries it’s basically the only way to get around, but not in Mali. Anyway, tons of people in my village have motos so it’s kind of inconvenient that I can’t, but I would be afraid to anyway. The roads are so bad here and everyone rides without helmets.
When I got back to Sikasso, several other PCTs and volunteers were there. We went to the market and made Mexican food for dinner! We made flour tortillas from scratch and guacamole, plus ground beef, beans, and other taco toppings. It was so delicious.
I took the earliest possible but back to Bamako the next morning with two other trainees. It was a luxurious trip – the bus wasn’t full, so we each had two seats, and we barely stopped. It took about 6 ½ hours, so I think that’s about the least time it could ever take.
When we got back to Bamako, we learned that one PCT, who is in the same training village as I am, broke his leg that morning in Segou. It was one of those freak things -- he was just walking down a little hill and turned his ankle and it snapped. He is being MedEvac'ed to Washington because he needs surgery, but hopefully he'll be able to return.
That’s all for now. This is an excessively long entry.
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