Today is my BIRTHDAY!

Today is my birthday! 28 years of life. I was told by a friend that it is said in some cultures that I have just completed 1 cycle of my life; my learning cycle. Now, for the next 28 years I am supposed to live out my mission in life. I think it’s sort of fitting that I am here in Mali, doing the work that I am doing. We shall see! A nice big ‘mega fête’ has been planned for myself and a fellow friend whom has the same birthday as me! It’s my version of a UN birthday as we will have people from many nations (Europe, Americas, and Africa) represented. My kind of party!

It’s been an extremely eventful time since I last wrote. As I thought about which story was the most exciting to write about, I really couldn’t decide. So, I wrote down a list of key things that has happened to me:

-I helped vaccinate around 250 Malian children against Polio! I think that is my favorite highlight. Now, when I say ‘helped’ I mean that I colored their pinky finger with a permanent black marker so we knew he was vaccinated. The gov’t has a national program of going door-to-door vaccinating all children under the age of 5. It was a great way for me to meet everyone in the community as well! As you can tell, no records are kept of vaccinations-the system is just too basic for that.

-I visited a 2^nd year volunteer in her village. She’s totally inspiring, and such a great role model and source of information for myself in helping me be successful in my job here. They are planting 600+ trees. This is a project I plan on working on next season.

-One afternoon I was just laying in my hammock, reading and my little friend Mari came by to greet me on her way to school. School is about a 1.5 mile walk from where we live. I decided to give her a lift (she rode on the back of my bicycle-a very common thing here). As we rode through town, we picked up more kids that were on their way to school. They ran side by side with the bike. Then, a girl tripped and fell. She cut her toe. Mari said I should give her the ride instead (again, lessons learned by a child). By the time we made it to the school I think I had about 20kids that had run with us to school. I also realized there would be no school nurse to take care of this poor girls cut toe, and I did not have my medical supplies on me that I usually carry on me to clean this girls wound.

-Work has really begun for me. I am now teaching English to a Malian. He happens to speak Spanish, so that is our median language for communication. Soon I will be giving lessons on how to use a computer to some of the teachers at our school. I am also starting to help construct a building for the women of my village for their work with shea nuts. This will be a big project, but I know the women have wanted this for at least the last 3 years. I also have little projects going on, it really makes the time fly when you have something to do!

-I finally started wearing sun block daily on my face! This is Africa after all!

-I may speak up to 4 languages in 1 day to communicate! Bambara, English, Spanish, and French! I’m starting to really pick up on the French now as many of my friends here speak it. I hope to be fluent by the time my service is up.

*N.B. Mali has 25 recognized languages!

-Another afternoon when I was reading in my hammock, the girls stopped by to greet me on their way to school. Mari had her school books and pencil box with her. I asked to see them. The children here still write with chalk/slate boards. Mari had a tiny tiny piece of chalk; I don’t know how she even wrote with it. Well, I went inside the house and brought out 8 pieces of chalk- 2 for each girl. They were so excited. It was great to see their smiles! Such small gifts are so appreciated here, it’s great.

-Every Thursday is market day in Bla. That means that people from the surrounding villages go there to get their produce, or whatever else one needs. Bla is around 6 miles from Kamona. On a normal day it will take me 40mins to bike to Bla. Market day it can take up to 1hour because I have to greet so many people on the way to Bla! Women and men in their donkey carts heading to the weekly market! It’s a real experience! Strangers get a real kick out of the white girl that can speak their language! I really feel like I’ve stepped back into the Middle Ages on Market Day. Here, we can’t just go to the supermarket to get whatever we need. I can only by things when they are in season.

-My wonderful father sent me The Economist for my birthday. One night I brought the magazine to my host families so they could look at the pictures; see the world. It’s really amazing to see their reactions to our Western way of living. My family has a radio, so they are actually really in up to date on current events, but they never get visuals. I showed them a picture of Sarkozy, Obama, Merkel (a woman head of state!), and Castro to name a few. They also love looking at the adverts; there was an ad for steak. I was told ‘American are rich, you eat meat every day’ -something I took for granted, but here, meat is a luxury usually reserved for special occasions.

-Guinea-Bissau’s president was just murdered. Since arriving in Mali, there has been: A coup d’etat in Mauritania, Guinea 'president' died, Ghana had elections go wrong, and this is just in the countries surrounding Mali. This continent is very alive. I really do feel safe here in Mali though.

Well this really is just a blurb of some of the great things that have been going on here. Yesterday I went on a boat ride on the Niger River with my friends. It was great to be on the water. I have many other stories to tell, but will sign off for now. Of course not everything is perfect here, I think of my grandmother daily. I miss her immensely. Will my mourning ever end? She was my best friend and I really miss just sharing our days with each other like we used to. My mom will be getting chemo, and I won’t be there for that. One has to make such hard choices in life. I have made mine to stay here and do my work in Mali. Sacrifices.