Homestay

I just got back to Tubaniso after twelve days living with a Malian family in a nearby village. Eight of us from the Small Enterprise Development stayed in the same village and met each day for Malian culture and Bambara classes. My host family is the Traores. My host dad, Adama, was not at the initial welcoming cermony, so I was taken to my house by my sisters, Mama and Umu. They gave me a Malian name, Alima and showed me to the room in their house that peace corps had set up for me. (They named me Alima after the grandmother of the family, Alima Diara. I later found out my name is the same as a famous Malian women's rights activist, Alimata Traore.) After about 20 minutes of mixed hand gestures and awkward pauses of just staring at eachother, we set up my room and had a silent lunch. The meal was "to", a form of millet pounded to death, turned into gluten and eaten with your hands. Your right hand. The left hand is considered "dirty." My first hurdle. We have "to" or rice or pasta with every meal and an onion sauce. Some other trainees have had peanut sauce, which sounds divine, but I haven't had it yet.

My host dad is a farmer, so he brings me cucumbers and melon every day from the fields and they are an awesome source of vitamins in an otherwise carbo loaded diet. Beans are the absolute best thing Malians make, but there's a cultural joke around them so you get made fun of if you eat them. I don't care, they are great! Can you tell I'm having some cravings right about now?

My family is all women. I live in a compound of four houses all with courtyards and the gaggle of women sit and talk and pound millet and braid eachother's hair and make me dance and sing. (sound familiar?) Sometimes we walk aorund the village to the market and they parade their american and tell me what to say.

Greetings are very important and a huge part of Malian culture. Each greeting is a long exchange of questions and answers that varies depending on what time of day it is, "Good morning! How are you? how did you sleep? how is your family? how is your father and your mother? What is your family name? ooooo, Traore? you eat Beans!!! hahah, No you do!!!" And you have to do that with EVERYONE you see on the street or you are considered impolite.

It's exhausting, but those moments where I understand what's going on and I can actually particpate in the exchange are worth it. I am really lucky. I LOVE my host family. They are always so excited to see me when I get home from class and we mess around with eachother, joking and dancing and making fun of eachother. My little sisters are the coolest chicks I have ever met. One of them, Batama, is so hard core. She can pump water with a baby on her back and abucket balanced on her head while laughing at me. Awa, is the best dancer around and knows all the Malian hip hop songs so she's teaching me some new moves. I spend the most time with Mama. I think she was kind of put in charge of me, so we eat together and she gets me my bucket of water in the morning for my "shower."

Everyone asks me who my husband is and when I reply that I don't have one, they assume it is because I would not make a good wife, so they are actively trying to make me a good wife. I am learning how to cook and clean and carry water in the bucket on my head and never get tired from it. They do all these things and never sleep! The women are so strong and wonderful. They laugh a lot and eat, and eat and eat. They want me to get fat so they can show that they are providing for their American. Which would be great, except that everything is going straight through me, so I 'm not exaclty living up to their expectations.

Being back at Tubaniso is a much needed break from our village stays where we live in a fish bowl, followed around constantly by little children screaming, "alima jan! Alima jan!" (Alima, the tall one) Which is so adorbale for the first five minutes. Thank god it's socially acceptable and encouraged to beat children... (no I haven't! but i'm close)

Things I wish I had brought: yoga mat and yoga pants! duh. Emergen-C's acai berry flavored. Pro bars! Craisins. Ice. can you ship that to me? There is no ice in this country and it's 100 degrees.

I made it!

It's been almost a week now since I left the states with 66 other peace corps invitees headed to Mali. When I arrived in Philadelphia for initial orientation (staging) I was not ready to believe I was actually going to Africa until I held that plane ticket in my hand. The flights were long, tiring and exciting. Everyone in the group getting to know one another; chatting, cracking jokes, nervous and anxious. I think it was a total of 30 hours before we finally landed in Bamako, the capital of Mali. We walked down a flight of stairs off the plane right on to the runway and I can still feel the heat and I just remember the flatness of the landscape. This was such a huge moment. Two years I've been talking about joining the Peace Corps and going to Africa and it had finally happened...

Peace Corps trainees met us at the airport and directed us through the scene that was baggage claim. (pretty similar to Key West only aboud 200 people all trying to get their bags off of one belt) We drove to our Peace Corps camp training site "Tubaniso" dropped our luggage in our huts and got a crash course on the bathroom situation (Nyegen = cement structure with hole in the ground. Oh, and shower!) I vaguelly remember eating something in the refectoire (dining hall) and then laying down on the bed in my hut (glamorous living digs huh?) and just wanting to sleep so I could wake up in the morning and feel differently.

The past few days have been the longest of my life. Endless training/orientation sessions, language tests, interviews for possible sites and on top of that, adjusting to my malaria medication has me on a rollerscoaster of emotions. Most of them good, some of them great! Some of them really low, but the support network from the other volunteers has been really comforting.

The Malian culture is one of the friendliest and warmest I've ever interacted with. All the trainers I talk to and Malians are just so excited and happy that we are here. The orientation and interacting with the group of peace corps trainees feels a lot like those first days of boarding school, only less crying. haha We're in the romantic stages of the culture shock I think. Everything is new and exciting and the smells are exotic and, well, sometimes disgusting, but hey!

I LOVE my hut mates Ryne and Meggan, our laughter gets me through the mefloquin hangovers that I've been trying to deal with the past two days.... awful.

We leave for our homestays tomorrow morning and I am really nervous, but know it's going to be awesome. There are eight of us going to the same village and apparently there's a huge celebration when they welcome "tubabs" (white people). AND there's a wedding in the village the next day!

The worst part is the unknown, so I'm trying to stay present and take my time with the language and integrating because I know it will come.

The best part is that I know the Peace Corps staff here is really good at what they do and have been holding our hands through it all. I feel very comfortable talking with them about concerns and expectations and know they respect my interests.

I'll be without internet starting tomorrow but I'm getting a phone and will have reception! Email me for the number! I'll be learning the francophone national language which is Bambara and also getting a french tutor for doing business in the regional cities. Although I don't know where my site is I know I'll be near a city and working with Women NGOs and cooperatives. I'm hoping to be placed near a health sector PCV so I can help out with some of their projects too.

Well, there's a lot more I could say, but it's hard to gather my thoughts with everything going on. Love to all! Email me!

New Assignment, Mali

Soon after my trip home from staging I received another invitation for the Peace Corps to a new country in Africa. Mali. Still in the throws of my disappointment from Madagascar, Mali sounded like the last place on earth where I would want to spend two years with the Peace Corps. However, it is now nearing the end of June and I've had almost three months to marinate. While Mali is a landlocked HOT African country with one of the highest rates of poverty in Africa, there are really amazing things about the Malian culture and attitudes that I feel I can really have one of those amazing experiences everyone keeps telling me i'm going to have. It is the epicenter for African music and the people are said to be warm, and very American friendly, especially in light of Obama. I am left wondering now if I am still as excited as I was when I started this process over two years ago. So much has changed in my life that I'm struggling to keep my faith that this is the right path for me. Some days I believe it is something I want to do and other days I have serious doubts. Today is a good day. A day when I am motivated and have had enough rest not to go into complete emotional shut down. So,,, I'm thinking i'll move to Africa in two weeks. Two weeks!!!! omg. yes, omg.

I leave July 7th for Philadelphia where hopefully I'll get a little closer than last time and actually go through introductions, immunizations, get my passport and seat assignment on the plan to Mali. (Not Bali, by the way. That seems to be a common misunderstanding)

I'm already packed, so I'm not really worrying about all of that. Although I've already been able to subtract a few things from my bag in the three months of revising my life and readjusting priorities.

The next two weeks are going to be filled with sleep, volunteering a little more at WomanKind in Key West, (a non profit women's health clinic) and soaking up the family time.

Trip Delayed

Since my last post, there has been political upheaval in the main city, Antananarivo, in Madagascar. Peace corps has since notified me and the other prospective volunteers that all Peace Corps volunteers in the country are safe and accounted for, but they are postponing our trip until the dust settles.

Some articles include last week's NYtimes

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/03/world/africa/03madagascar.html?_r=1&hp

and the latest from CNN

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/02/07/madagascar.protest.deaths/

As of now, my new departure date is March 9th. Here's hoping things are smoother by then, I will try my best to keep everyone posted!

Getting ready to leave for Madagascar!

I'm now starting to feel a little more pressure as I get ready to leave in something like two weeks! I've been strictly instructed by Peace Corps to make my goodbyes meaningful and make sure to load up on all my favorite foods before I leave... So I've been doing just that. Even though I feel totally underprepared to speak Malagasy and expand Malagash small businesses, atleast I've fattened up over the holidays. (Just kidding uncle john, i've been doing some reading on Madagascar too and I won't embarass our family)

I'll be leaving February 11th for Philadelphia to go to Pre-service training, called "staging". This is where we'll fill out paperwork, get shots, meet the other PCVs et c. Then we fly out of JFK on the 13th to Johannesburg (17 hours!) then to Madagascar the following day. I have mostly all my essential packing items together and am pretty confident that I won't regret packing light. ALTHOUGH, care packages will be greatly appreciated and can be sent to:

Jessica Alice Duncan, PCT Peace Corps
Corps de la Paix
B.P. 12091
Poste Zoom Ankorondrano
101 Antananarivo
Madagascar

This adress is for the first three months of training, after that I'll be relocated to my permanent site. For training, we'll be about an hour outside of the main town, Antananarivo. I'll have access to a phone while training but will rarely be able to use it, but I'm planning on getting a cell phone once I get to my site. I've heard the people in my program are located in larger towns with service, and some texting is free or cheap.

For email, I'll still use my jessicaaliceduncan@gmail.com account, but I have a new peace corps account that I may be checking more while I'm over there, it's pcvjessicadmg@yahoo.com. I think facebook is going to be an outlet for me to keep in touch. And Skype!

Well, for now, I'm in Colorado spending some time with my dad, then back to the keys Feb 2nd until I fly out on the 11th. Hopefully I'll be posting again before we leave the country.

Invitation to Madagascar, February 2009!

Hello everyone! Welcome to my blog! 

Wow, when I heard my dad tell me over the phone that my new country assignment for the peace corps was Madagascar, I was beside myself. How totally cool.  My previous assignment was in Togo, West Africa and that was great and all, but who knows where Togo is? I would be spending the rest of my life drawing that map of Africa in the air and pointing out Togo, then saying, "It's between Benin and Ghana and near the Ivory Coast" and still, some people would not know what I was talking about.  So, you can imagine my relief when I hear Madagascar! ok, but seriously, so exotic and beautiful and AWESOME!  

My official program is Small Enterprise Development and I'll be a Small Business Advisor.  This is a brand new program that started in July 2008.  Most peace corps volunteers work in health services and agriculture so my secondary programs will be working with them and NGOs.

I'll be living in either a small town or a larger city and I'll be learning a mix of French and the local language, Malagasy (which I've already downloaded the language learning tapes so I can get started'...)  Salama! (hello)

We're given a health pack during orientation that has all our medical supplies and pills and shots, bandaids, mosquito nets, et c. 

"Your community will either build you a house or identify one for you to rent which could be a local material structure with a thatched roof or a cemetn dwelling with a tin roof" ...ok... 

FOOD: boiled rice, corn, cassava and a simple sauce.  Send veggie supplements!

In the meantime, I'm spending some time out in Colorado with my dad, probably taking a trip to California to see friends and then back to the keys for the holidays.  I started this blog so I won't have to send mass emails, everyone can just keep checking here when I get to Madagascar to see photos and what's happening with my life in the peace corps!