Woke up and guess what, I am in Africa!

This entry is different for all others, it is not a rant, these are just my thoughts.

I know I have been here for several months now, but every so often through all my discomforts I have to wake up and remember, I am in Africa. I feel there are days where I will be back in NYC at my apartment on the Upper East and think of all this as a long dream.  Guess what though, every day I wake up on my mattress enclosed in my mosquito net wishing I was some where else.  Its not all bad as my dramatics may make it seem. I am really appreciating the experience.  I was on a bus this morning headed off to Bougouni for my birthday weekend, and while looking out the window, I had another moment where I was reminded I am in Africa.  I look out and see children running in villages chasing tires, I see women carrying their livelihoods on their heads, I see donkeys in the  roads and farm animals roaming every which way, I am on a bus with no A/C surrounded by people who have not heard of deodorant, through all of this, I remember I am in Africa.  I really do appreciate all of this, it opens my eyes to a whole new world; one can forget that we share the same planet! Do not get me wrong with previous posts that probably seem to just be a long random rant of bitchiness, I appreciate this experience and encourage people who are interested in the slightest to try it out.  I am told by many volunteers that this is not for everyone, and I agree it is not.  I will never regret my decision to join this wonderful organization, it stands for everything I believe in.  With that said, whether I stay here another 2 months or 2 years that is to be foreseen,  no matter how much I love this experience, I do have to listen to my body and mind.  It is very tolling on my as you can see from previous entries; I am not sure if I was ready for such an endeavor. This is my question to myself, How would I know when I would be ready?  Tomorrow is my birthday and I will be 26! I realize here that I was not ready to leave NYC, not sure if I was ready to make a 2 year commitment, but when would I be ready?  I am realizing there are so many things back home that I am not sure if I want to miss... my nephews first birthday, my moms 60th, more holidays more anniversaries. I understand that I will have to miss something no matter what I choose to do, but to be unhappy and miss out on the lives of my loved ones.  I am not homesick, but I do think about what I will be missing.  As I said, whenever I choose to leave be it in July or April 2013, I appreciate the fact that I got to meet some amazing people, not only volunteers but the Malian people.  Malians are extraordinary, they live in such adversities with a smile on their faces!  They are some of the most hospitable people, yet they have next to nothing. If I asked, they would give me the shirt off their backs.  There are the annoying ones of course, especially the children who stare and taunt but as a whole, this is a wonderful society.  I just wished I was ready to accept it and be a part of it!  I could only hope with time!

More Adventures... or not!

So I am currently in Bamako, about to leave actually after being here for a week.  I have been sick with some unknown disease, they call it a viral infection but not 100 percent what caused it.  I had major pains in my lungs, my chest, I had a migraine that lasted for 14 hours, nausea, fever, major headache and other such fun symptoms.  They do know that it was not Malaria though which is good.  So I have been in Bamako which was a nice break, hanging out with other volunteers, enjoying the air conditioning and have some good food, only thing is that I spent a fortune here but it was worth it.  I do not feel 100 percent yet but I feel it will be good for me to go back to site and see my villagers, I haven't seen them since last sunday!  Plus I will be going to my regional capital next weekend for my birthday celebration, big 26!!!

Before I got sick, things were going okay...  I have been trying to find ways to motivate myself to stay, I had an LCF visit for 6 days which was a great help.  He helped me find a tutor which will make Bambara a little easier to learn.  He also talked to my villagers to let them know that I do not eat fish so they will not make it for me anymore which I am so happy about.... I hate fish! As for nothing to do, I find out that the reason I have not visited my service since I have been at site is because they will not be opening this year.  They did not pay taxes or electric last year so they will be shut down.   I wish I knew this before hand but my homologue (local counterpart) decided not to tell me.  He has been avoiding me at all costs which is annoying since he is the one I am suppose to count on to meet my community start my work.  Only reason I found any of this out was because my LCF told me...

At site, I have been reading a lot and watching a lot of tv shows on my laptop to help get by the boredom.  I read in front of the boutique so the villagers gets to see me.  I have been trying to spend significant time with them and show them that I do care.  I really like my villagers, it is still taking some time to adjust to the life here.

I managed to get a lot of new downloads for my ipod as well as tv shows for my computer.  I am starting to get into glee which is an awesome show!  I have a lot more to watch at site.   I will be going to ist in less than a month which will be another nice break! Then we are allowed to travel to other areas.  We will have a 4th of July party in Kaye which will be awesome and then I will probably go to Sikasso and visit the waterfalls.  I need to plan these trips so it will help me stay here as long as possible, nice little breaks from site every so often!

Well next Saturday is my birthday and I will be going to Bougouni on Friday to Sunday... I will be with clare and some other volunteers, it will be nice to celebrate it with other volunteers, versus alone with my village which just sounds awful!

Until next time...

Week in Hell?? We will see!

So I finally have a little time with the internet access which is nice to catch up on the world. So this has been quite the past several days! I have been at site for about 9 days now and man it has been very difficult. To start, I was very fortunate to have Peace Corps drive me to my site which made me happy, I was suppose to take the bus but when they saw the amount stuff I owned, they offered to drive.  When I got to site, nothing that was suppose to be done was done which was a little upsetting but then hey I am in Mali during hot season, things run a little slow.  Then the week started... It was very difficult for me, it has been hot season so being warm may play into a lot of my unhappiness but here is my rant.  First off, I really really love my host family and the locals that I spend time with everyday, this is nothing against the locals.  I am having a very difficult time adjusting to the life here, everyday I am taking a bucket bath with visible dirt and dead bugs in it.  After I bath I am still dirty which is very difficult to get use to.  Then there is the fact that I can not properly communicate with anyone, my french is decent but most people do not speak French and I do not understand Bambara very well yet, this makes it difficult to get to know everyone.  I also have not been eating a lot because majority of my food consists of fish, which I do not like, and there are bones in the sauce which makes me very ill.  There is also a constant bug problem in side of my room, for example the other night I was awoken by a cockroach crawling on me.  I am also still very homesick, I really miss my friends and family.  I realize and started appreciate the aspect of having them in my life.  I called my parents and they give me all the encouragement to stay, explaining that I will get use to my life here sooner or later.  I really hope so, a lot of people explain that I can go home, and my friends would like me to, but I feel it might be too soon to throw in the towel.  There are moments in the day when I feel I can do this, but it is greatly outweighed by the moments of wanting to run away back to America.   I may just be being dramatic or overly critical, but everyone experiences thing differently and adapt differently. 

I have found a new appreciation for America while being here too!  I really miss it, and everything it offers.  I like the variety of foods and will never take it for granted again.  I am really trying hard to stay here for a while still, I need to work this out and I really hope I can.

Until next time, Happy Easter!

What doesn't kill you, only makes you stronger

So yesterday I became an official Peace Corps Volunteer.  We went to the Presidential Palace where we were sworn in by the US Ambassador to Mali.  It was quite the occasion, the President of Mali presided over the ceremony and he had a formal speech with us. It was quite memorable and I have tons of pictures.  The only thing is, we all decided to don mustaches which was super creepy so when you see my photos, they are creepy!!  So today I left training site and on my way to Yanfolila for the next 2 months before In-service training. I will be in Yanfolila on Friday. I am currently in Bougouni for some last minute shopping.  I am really nervous for the next 2 months because I will have minimum contact with all my friends and other Americans.  I hope everything goes well for me and the rest of my Kennedy family members.  This is going to be a very difficult time, but as they say "What doesn't kill you, only makes you stronger." 

So last 2 weeks update :)

To start, my update is going to be in the form of an ADD person, random...  I will be jumping around for 2 weeks, NOTHING is in chronicle order.

So to start, I am officially done with my homestay :) which is nice and not at the same time.   I am really going to miss my family, they cooked for me and I didn't have to worry about anything with them.  They too real good care of me.  It is nice though too because I will not be constantly watched over and questioned with everything I do, which is just the Malian way of life.  I am currently at my training facility which is relaxing, having electric and showers, but it will only last until next week Wednesday when I officially move to my site. I become an official Peace Corps Volunteer next Tuesday at the Presidential Palace of Mali. This is exciting because we are the first stage to ever have that happen.  It is pretty cool to have my swear-in ceremony too!  I am a legit volunteer.

So now what happened during my 2 weeks.  The best part was last Sunday, all of us trainees went to the America Club in Bamako.  It was awesome because we got to go, drink some beer and swim in a pool; basically we got to relax and be Americans, something we can't do with our Malian host families. Alcohol is frowned upon here because 95 percent of the population is Muslim.  I had such an amazing time there and definitely didn't want to leave. It is very rare for me to have actual fun here, between all the classes and limitation on what we can do.  Then last Saturday was awesome too, I was at my village and there was a crazy dance party.  I got a shirt from the locals for the party which was cool for the party.  The dance party started out lame because no one really dances at dance parties and Malian music kind of sucks.  Although, later in the evening, the party was crazy.  The music was amazing, and they had this professional dancer who was ultra creepy, dancing very Malian inappropriate (I say that because he was appropriate in America).  Malian dance parties are funny though, the main way they dance is having 2 lines of people, girls on one side- boys on the other, then all they do is sway towards each other one pair at a time.

I finally got 2 Malian outfits made, one informal which is super big but very comfortable, the second outfit was formal and made for my swear-in ceremony.  I think I will get more clothes made too, especially pants which are comfortable and considered dressy in all occasions (they are Pajamas in America).  The clothes are all costumed made by a tailor, my out fit for shirt and pants cost about 10 dollars, fabric and labor.

I am not fully liking it here still but it is growing on me.  I really appreciate the experience I am having and look forward to learning more.  My language is difficult for me still but I am slowly learning it.  I have my final test tomorrow to see if I need a tutor, which I do.  I am up to 22 pounds lost also! I have to take this day by day, the culture is amazing here, but I am just having trouble adjusting to the heat (110+ everyday) and not understanding everything that is going on. 

I will try to update again before I leave for site.  I hope it isn't too long until I have access to the internet again.  TTYL

Update on Life!

So it has been a month or so since I have updated last so basically nothing new really happened, my life is basically the same each day.  Until last week, I have been studying Bambara and living with my host family.  It was good, some drama with some people but nothing to lose sleep over.  Same donkeys making the same ridiculous noise!  Then last week occurred, I found out my site which I am happy with. I am in Sikasso Region where all the fresh fruits and vegetables of Mali comes from, and it is greener than the rest of Mali. I arrived there last Sunday by bus.  Taking a bus in Mali is an experience in itself.  The have jugs of water in the aisles because once every seat is full, they start sitting people on the jugs, once those are full, people stand (for hours).  They played some very lame music videos that were hilarious, Malians dance worse than me which is saying a lot!!  I went with my Homalogue/counterpart to Yonfolila which is my new village where I will be living for 2 years!!  When I arrived, things were okay, I was a little homesick but things were okay, I was in a "hotel" with air conditioning, I use the word hotel loosely because the place was mad sketchy.  Well I stayed there for the first 2 days because my room was not set up yet.  The first 2 days went well enough, I didn't sleep much nor did I each much but it was okay.  I met a local french volunteer so I hung out with him a lot.  Everything was good until day 3!  I fell into this major depressive wanting to leave Africa mood which lasted until today.  It was terrible, day 3 I moved into my house which was not finished yet still...  I had a mouse that seemed it liked to annoy the hell out of me, I got 1 hour of sleep, kids were opening my door at 3 a.m. because my lock didn't work, all in all it was hell.  This consisted for 3 days there, I was bored and annoyed.  I couldn't even communicate with anyone.  My only saving grace was my friend William, who was the french volunteer.  I hung out with him everyday so I can have that connection to western life.  He will not be there when I go back because all the French volunteers have been evacuated, which annoys me because he was the only westerner for 80k from me.  I will be in my village alone :(. Then there is the libya stuff, there is some concern for safety issues with that too.  There is a very strong relationship between libya and Mali.  So we will see how that unfolds.

Honestly, a lot more has happened but I don't have the patience to write any more so I will update in 2 weeks when I return to the internet. 

Adios

Update on Life!

So it has been a month or so since I have updated last so basically nothing new really happened, my life is basically the same each day.  Until last week, I have been studying Bambara and living with my host family.  It was good, some drama with some people but nothing to lose sleep over.  Same donkeys making the same ridiculous noise!  Then last week occurred, I found out my site which I am happy with. I am in Sikasso Region where all the fresh fruits and vegetables of Mali comes from, and it is greener than the rest of Mali. I arrived there last Sunday by bus.  Taking a bus in Mali is an experience in itself.  The have jugs of water in the aisles because once every seat is full, they start sitting people on the jugs, once those are full, people stand (for hours).  They played some very lame music videos that were hilarious, Malians dance worse than me which is saying a lot!!  I went with my Homalogue/counterpart to Yonfolila which is my new village where I will be living for 2 years!!  When I arrived, things were okay, I was a little homesick but things were okay, I was in a "hotel" with air conditioning, I use the word hotel loosely because the place was mad sketchy.  Well I stayed there for the first 2 days because my room was not set up yet.  The first 2 days went well enough, I didn't sleep much nor did I each much but it was okay.  I met a local french volunteer so I hung out with him a lot.  Everything was good until day 3!  I fell into this major depressive wanting to leave Africa mood which lasted until today.  It was terrible, day 3 I moved into my house which was not finished yet still...  I had a mouse that seemed it liked to annoy the hell out of me, I got 1 hour of sleep, kids were opening my door at 3 a.m. because my lock didn't work, all in all it was hell.  This consisted for 3 days there, I was bored and annoyed.  I couldn't even communicate with anyone.  My only saving grace was my friend William, who was the french volunteer.  I hung out with him everyday so I can have that connection to western life.  He will not be there when I go back because all the French volunteers have been evacuated, which annoys me because he was the only westerner for 80k from me.  I will be in my village alone :(. Then there is the libya stuff, there is some concern for safety issues with that too.  There is a very strong relationship between libya and Mali.  So we will see how that unfolds. 

Honestly, a lot more has happened but I don't have the patience to write any more so I will update in 2 weeks when I return to the internet. 

Adios