PICTURE!!

I am at a different location in BKO and I am finally able to upload pictures.  The one posted below is of my host family little sister.  She is the sweetest little girl! Her name is Dunumba. I will post some more random pictures of Mali.  

Quick Update

I am in Bamako for the day.  We are almost done with training.  One more week left in our language villages.  I'm excited to start my service here in Mali.  I have been looking forward to today for the past week.  I ate pizza and am now about to feast on home-made chocolate ice cream.  Ice cream is such a treat here because: it's hot, and ice cream is great in hot weather.  Also, because it is just soooo good and it's a treat!

I am doing well out here.  No more sicknesses, and I'm starting to feel fairly comfortable with the language.  I got my first package!  Shauna, you are awesome.  I got Fritos and some trashy US/People magazines!  I am now caught up on the latest gossip-at least from Aug. 11 and before.  Hey, I need some way to keep up with American culture!  More fun stories to come!

Short funny story:  Yesterday I was asked how much my dad would ask for me.  Meaning, how many goats/cows/$CFA for someone to marry me in America.  I laughed and said he couldn't afford me! 

More stories later!

My Future Home

I had a really fun/interesting/adventurous week.  Sunday morning we headed out to the city of Segou.  It’s a really cute little city that every January holds a music festival: Festival on the Niger.  I checked into the nice little hotel that PC puts us up in.  It has nice rooms with air conditioning and flush toilets; I didn’t get one of those rooms.  They put us up on the top floor dormitory.  It is actually pretty cool (minus the bed bugs), the room was big with about 10 beds lined up, and my favorite part was that we get a shower and toilets.  It takes very little to make me happy here. 

So, after checking in the PCT and myself with me grabbed a bite to eat, then met up with other volunteers at the pool.  Yes.  The pool!  It was like a mini vacation for me!  I thought I wasn’t going to see a pool for a very long time, but now I know that I have one available to me 2hrs away from where I will be living.  At the pool we got some amazing homemade ice cream-mango for me! 
Monday morning came and we left for my village.  I opened a bank account in Bla (my banking/market town).  This is the first time that I’ve opened a bank account and am already in debt to the bank.  Here, you are charged to open an account- even if you have money to put into the account.  No ATM card though, just a big card about the size of 2drivers licenses put together with my picture on it and my account number, laminated.  That whole ordeal took about 2 hours and I was told that that was pretty fast!

I met the girl that I am replacing and she took us into the village.  By car my future village is reachable in 15minutes.  By donkey cart it is a 2hr. ride (I have now logged in 6hrs of donkey cartage, but will get to that later). The road: it is a dirt road, but it is in fairly good condition.  There is no public transportation that goes in/out of Kamona so my transportation means are either: car, donkey cart, or bicycle.  It’s about 8k into town. 

I had a really good experience overall at my future ‘So’ (Bambara for house).  It has 2 rooms- a kitchen area and my bedroom.  I have my very own, high-walled nyegene attached to the back of my house.  This is a great luxury now: to have your very own nyegene.  The house is pretty much furnished because of the previous vol. that I am replacing. 

The village is very lush with many crops right now.  We have corn, cotton, watermelon, peanuts, millet, beans, and sweet potatoes fields all over!  It’s great to see crops thriving.  AH! Almost forgot- most importantly my village has palm trees!  They make me so happy, even though I’m pretty far from the coast- I have my palm trees.  Great.

 

I am off to my home stay site one more time.  I will be there for 3 weeks of language training.  Not looking too forward to it, but it’s not going to be that bad.  Hopefully when I get back I will have letters and/or packages waiting for me!  Overall I am still doing well, nothing drastic is happening.  Will write when I get back!

 

When I get back, it will be almost time for ‘swearing in.’  This is when it will be official that I will be a Peace Corps Vol. (PCV)!  Can’t wait. Training is almost over.

Things to Send Me

I've been asked before, so here is a list of things that would be great for anyone to send me:

1-Cambells Extra Noodle soup-the powder mix, not canned

2-Cliff Bars- I particularly like Peanut butter crunch

3-Any kind of drink flavoring: Gatorade, Crystal Lite, Kool Aid, those Vitamin C drink mixes(Strawberry, Cherry are my favorites)

4-I really like the 365 Cinnamon/Apple Oatmeal pouches sold by Whole Foods.  Most any type of flavored oatmeal would be great though.

5-Cheerios!  I can eat it dried at least, good source of fiber for me.  Go ahead, send a bag (take it out of the box)

6-Fritos/Cheetos/Nacho Chips from AZ or CA (east coast just cant get them right)/Doritos (Ranch or Nacho Chz).  I would absolutely love seeing any of these unhealthy products.

7-Easy Mac!!! Please!  All i need to do is add warm water-I think?  I will not have access to milk or butter all the time, so Easy Mac is my best hope.  The cheesy goodness is already mixed.

8-Blowpops/Jollyranchers/ any kind of candy that will not melt en route.

9-Pancake mix!  Unfortunately just the kind where you add water.  No more bisquick pancakes...Aunt Jamima or a healthier alternative is fine.

10-ANYTHING that isn't Perishable.  Please.  There are very few comfort foods here, so anything that you may want to through in their go for it...no beef jerky though:-)

Here's my cooking set up: I will have 2 gas burners.  This means I can fry stuff, and boil things.  I can store things also, so canned goods would be ok, but you don't have to send that stuff.  

I would also love to be sent books, DVD's (new, used, burned), Magazines-The Economist, Time, Cosmo, Self-I'll take it!

Here is my new address:

Monica Garcia PCV

Corps de la Paix

Bla, Mali

West Africa

*I am pretty much the only white person in the city of Bla, so my mail will get to me.  Shauna said there is a flat rate box you can send, it's $40 but you can fill it to whatever poundage you want.  It's a lot, but come on- I am out here in Africa saving the world one person at a time:-)

**Mail takes anywhere from 1-3 weeks to get to me.  Average seems to be about 3 weeks, so think ahead.  

Finally made it into the capital.

Today I was one of the few lucky ones to get a free day.  I was able to sleep in (until 830am), then I sat outside and did my bucket of laundry on the washboard with 3 other girls.  I then hung out in my little hut, cleaned out my suitcases, and then took a nice long shower.  I even did my hair-well wore it curly.  Since it's just so hot here in Mali, the typical hairdo is pulled back.  I do get creative: braids, pigtail braids, ponytails, or bobbypinned, but today was special.   

The big event of the day was to go into town and eat at the Toubob restaurant, and shop at the grocery store.  I used a flush toilet for the first time in 1 month!!!!!  That was highlight #1.  The toilet was in the nice restaurant that we ate in.  I started out with an appetizer of fries, then followed that with a main course of cheese pizza.  It was a glorious event.  I washed down these food items with a cold Castle Grosse.  Bliss.  Oh yes, and cake for dessert.  

After the restaurant we walked over to the grocery store.  I really had to stop for a moment to see if i was really dreaming this up!  It was a nice little European grocery store that had cold items in it, Corn Flakes, and to top it off....Nutella!  I opted to just buy some Lays, bleach, and a Popsicle,  but the fact that there is a little bit of heaven right here in Bamako makes me so happy.  

Bamako.  I finally went into the city.  It was not really what I expected, but then again I really didn't know what to expect.  Most of the buildings I saw were 2 floors or lower, there were a lot of cars/motobikes, and a lot of people.  I am looking forward to exploring the city more... right now it's jut a big disorganized mess to me.  I'm sure it's not though.

So, I finally had a recharging day!  I feel great!  I am ready to go out into the Mali real world and see where I will be living for the next 2 years.  

ShoutOut....Aunt Kath-you win the person of the month for me!  When I was cleaning out my bags this morning I remembered that I did have battery solar charges, but was mad that I didn't go buy rechargeables before I left HOWEVER, I opened the solar charge and voila! There they were.  4AA's and 4AAA's.  I shouted a 'Thank God/Tia Kath!!'  So, that just added on to my great day.  I'll be back next week.  Enjoy the nice amenities of the U.S. I hand washed cloths for 1.5hrs this morning, and now I have sun-dried hard jeans.

Mango Lotion

2 Christmas' ago my cousin Mary Beth bought me some really nice mango lotion.  I could never bring it back to PHX with me bc I always carried my luggage on and it was over the 3.4oz rule for liquids.  It was left in Philly until I decided to take this lotion with me to Mali.  Mary, can I tell you how nice it is to actually smell like a girl!???  It is so relaxing and calming for me.  Oh the mango lotion.  

Thank you Mary, thank you.

1 Month Down, 26 to Go!

It is August.  1 month down, 26 more to go!  Time really feels like it is flying by, but then again I feel that my life has flown by-especially the last 3 years.  I went from living in Nicaragua, back to Philly, then to Brussels, back to Philly, next came Arizona.  Now Mali, West Africa.  I am still not even settled here yet!  Right now I am in just in the training process of Peace Corps. I am not officially a volunteer yet; that will come on September 12^th.  During this training process I am staying in my small village for language and cultural training.  This week we are taking a little break and I will be going to my actual site (another village about 6hrs. from the Bamako) where I will be working and living.  The name of the closest city is called Bla.  Yep, I wrote ‘Bla.’  Mali is a country that has really cool names for places: i.e. Tombouktou (Timbuktu)! 

I am nervous, anxious, but also kind of just going with the flow.  For the last 4 weeks, everyday has been scheduled for me-this is just another thing on my schedule of things to do.   Now, don’t get me wrong-this isn’t really ‘just another thing to do,’ it’s actually really important.  I will be doing site assessment, meeting the townspeople and starting a rapport with them.  It is really important that I make a good first impression (which I’m not worried about), and that I use my time there wisely. 

Now, what will I be doing here in PC Mali?  The big questions many of you may have.  Well, here we go:  I will be taking over for a current volunteer that has finished her 2 years of service.  In my sector NRM (there are 5 here in Mali: Natural Resource Management-NRM, Health, Water Sanitation, Education, and Small Enterprise Development) it will be my job to work with natural resources!  Specifically I will be doing things like environment education, planting gardens, making compost piles, and will be able to work with other sectors to maybe market our Shea butter that is so widely produced here….maybe even ORGANIC certification (that’s for you dad!).   It seems like a lot that I will be doing, and I am really happy that I have the flexibility to do different projects.  I also couldn’t be happier that for the next 2 years I don’t have a 9-5desk job!  I get to work outdoors and with people.  This is really the type of work environment that I love. 

 

My last week in a few sentences:

No funerals, but I did have the baby naming ceremony and a wedding-I got gypped on both through my own fault!  Since I am living in a Muslim community their process is a bit different than the baptizing I’m used to.  Now, I would love to tell you all the details of this ceremony, however I didn’t wake up early enough to attend…I was there just in time to see the mother, take a picture, give a little Muslim blessing, ask it’s name, and give them the $200CFA that my host dad gave me to give them.    Bada boom.  Done.

The wedding was nice…we got to see the bride leaving the village to attend her wedding in another village.  Miscommunication.  Damn.  I’m sure I will have more weddings to attend in my 2 years here. 
Amoebas.  I had uninvited visitors in my stomach for a little while.   It was uncomfortable, I’ll spare the details but after 3 heavy dosages of meds I am now better!  Apparently it’s pretty normal for every PCV (Peace Corps Vol.) to get them.  There are various ways that I could have gotten them- I have been drinking filtered water, but really I have no idea where/when they invaded.  At least I’ve been christened!  I have now had amoebas, and parasites as visitors to my intestinal system….I’m an experienced woman!

 

This should be all for now.  I am really trying hard to get pictures posted, I even tried to email them to Brian so he could put them on, but it just wasn’t working.  I would love for you all to see my environment…it is pretty cool!  I’ll be back in about 8 days. 

 

 

My 1st Letter!

I got mail today!  Thanks Aunt Kath!  I can't describe the instant happiness I felt when my friend Dan handed me the letter.  Yesterday, packages and mail were handed. I wasn't expecting anything, and didn't get anything.  Today, mail came again and there she was....a nice envelope with a letter from my Aunt Kath.  

So- please write to me, send me any dryed-goods to eat(oatmeal, crystal-light drink powders,noodle soup packets).  

Pictures- I've been trying to post pictures but again, the connection isn't that great.  I have 1 pic up on myspace.  Check it out if you can.

Another post coming very soon.....