Rain, 40+miles, Bamako,and New Vols

A break in the storm on the Niger, Segou

Kids playing in the puddles, stopping to look at the white girl taking pictures!

Jenn, Hannah, and I before my 20mile bike ride back to my village.

Rainy season has finally come upon Mali. The extreme heat is supposed to be over, but it is now replaced with extreme humidity, to be then cooled off by the amazingly powerful rains. This is a welcomed season for Malians because the rain means planting, harvesting, and that there will be water in the wells. In my village they have started planting their corn, cotton, millet, peanuts, and beans. I myself have planted American Sweet Organic Corn, Organic Carrots (seeds kindly sent to me by my awesome Dad), celery, basil, and green beans. It took me 3 days to prepare my raised beds and to plant. I used my Malian style 'daba' to carve out my plot. The daba is an old school hand hoe. My body ached for about 4 days from my hard work!

The rains are so important here in Mali, they are necessary for the crops to grow. No rain, no crops, no money, no food. Majority of farmers have no irrigation systems, no watering mechanisms. Just faith that it will rain and provide water for their crops. So far, the rains have been coming to Kamona dooney dooney (little by little). I am told August is when the rains come into full swing and it should rain everyday. Its difficult for me to explain the power of the rains here, but when it rains, it really storms! It's wonderful to experience.

Next story:

A few weeks ago I told my friends Hannah and Jenn that I wanted to visit them in their villages. They are technically in a different region than me, but they aren't that far away, only 40k through the wilderness. What an experience! It took me 3 hours, 4 villages, and was truely one of the coolest things I've done in Mali! Since everyone is out in the fields, if I got lost I was easily able to ask for directions, and the people gave me blessings for a safe trip. And, as usual they got such a kick out of the white girl speaking their language! That always makes me happy, to see them so happy. I can only imagine what it must be like to see a while female, riding through their village on this nice American bike, saying hello to them in their language. I think it would be like if I was in Guilderland, and I saw a giraffe walking by that said hello to me in English and acted like he totally belonged there!

Anyway, it was so nice to visit my friends in their villages, and to meet their work counterparts and families. In their villages, they spoke a different language, but fortunately I was still able to communicate with them. So, total I think I rode my bike over 40 miles (due to me getting a little lost at times!) Next time they come to Kamona!

Story #3:

I'm in Bamako-the capital city. I came for two reasons: 1 being I wanted to spend the day with my boyfriend in the city before he took the plane to go to Lebanon for his month long vacation. We spent a wonderful day together, and had the most Amazing dinner at the best restaurant in the country. I felt like I was back in France! I had gaspacho, steak and steamed potatoes, and homemade ice cream. I really felt like a princess for a night! How wonderful! He's gone for the next month, and I'm left here...waiting for next year when I can hopefully visit Lebanon.

Reason 2: Since I've been in Mali for over a year now it was time for my yearly physical. My health has been great here, so I'm not too worried about anything. It's so nice to have 100% free health care for once!

Story #4:

The new volunteers are here. I am so excited for them to be here, to show them around and to let them know that it's not so bad here. In a few weeks I will be a 'buddy' for a new volunteer, acting as an interpreter and a guide for helping them when they go to their future home for their site visit. I am planing some activities for the new group that will be in Segou! Our welcoming last year wasn't so welcoming, so I'm happy to be able to give a good one to the new people.

Well, this was a long one. Sorry. I've always have so much to say! My Arabic lessons are coming along, my French lessons will officially start in September, and now I've got an Italian friend so I want to brush up my Italian again! I LOVE languages! I think August is going to be a fast month. I hope so, because Samer (the boyfriend) comes back at the end of it. Not only is Samer gone, but all my other friends have returned home for their vacations N.B. Europeans pretty much all take vacations in August, so it feels like the whole world is on vacation right now-except for me. Boohoo. I can't complain, I think the last 10 years have been one long vacation for me!

GOAL REACHED!

Just a quick note, I made the goal and we went over it!!! I can now use that money to do other small projects! Thank you all sooooo much for your support. It means so much to me but also so much to my Malian friends! You have helped out so much, and touched people that you will probably never meet. Thank you to those who donated. Your charity will not be forgotten! Once we buy the machines I will have more updates and pictures!

One Year Mark!!!!

Well, it's almost officially been one year since I left for Mali. This time last year, I went out with my brother and his good friends (who are like brothers to me) and my best friend Shauna for a 4th of July celebration. The next day my wonderful family gave me a great going away party and thankfully the rain stayed away, even though the forcast was calling for it. As I think back at my decision to come here, and how everyone thought I was crazy, I know that I am so happy right now.

Many people are stuck in jobs that they hate, maybe in relationships that they are not happy in, or just in general not happy with their life. I am fortunate to have a great parents that even though I may not follow the normal path that most people do, they still support me. I'm doing work that really satisfies me. I may be living in the third poorest country in the world, but the people I've met here are truely amazing and wonderful. Within this last year I've picked up French, Bambara, and now starting tomorrow will have my Arabic lessons. I still get to keep up with the Spanish because of my Cuban friends. I've learned about grafting trees, and gardening. I've learned survival skills that may one day safe my little life! I'm learning about the importance of the life we are given, how fragile it is, to really make every day count, and how being kind to people is easy and it does come back to you.

So, in general thanks to everyone for sending me care packages, letters, and emails. Support from back home is just great. So, one year down and one more to go. Who knows where I will be heading to after Mali.

Donation Time!!

Janet spinning the cotton

My first official project for my Peace Corps service has finally fermented.   I am really excited about it because the women of my village initiated it on their own.  I am just aiding them to improve their product!  Last November my host mother and work counterpart attended a training on how to spin cotton into string.  From there, she has taught 20 other women how to spin the cotton and they are now using it as additional income for themselves and to feed their families.  

Cotton is grown in my village and the surrounding towns (fun fact: Cotton is one of Mali's largest exports).  There is plenty of raw product, however the problem is the way they are spinning it...all by hand.  There is only one machine that the women have to make the process faster.  Now, when I say machine I mean a bicycle wheel frame that is operated by ones foot.  When I first saw it I immediately thought of our vacations to Colonial Williamsburg!  After the women spin the cotton into string, we then are able to sell the cotton for 4x's the price of what it is sold for when it is just the raw product.  In April, my women sold 32 kilos of strung cotton to an all women's bogolan co-op which makes artisan work with the natural products.

  

My need is this:  I am working with another NGO to get the wheels from, so this is a very straight forward project.  I just need to raise the $500 to pay for 6 machines and 6 paddles in which to brush the cotton so it is fine.  Now, I will be working with an American NGO-African Sky to get the money.  

Here is their website: http://africansky.org/  

This non-profit was started by a Peace Corps Volunteer here in Mali, and he just wanted to continue work here after his service.  

Please Please Please, I know the economy is horrible right now, but even if you can just send $10 it would be such a great help.  This is a project where 100% of your money will go directly to helping out these wonderful, self-motivated women.  I also need the money fairly quickly, so no haste!  

As for getting me the money, his website is still being updated, so the most difficult part of this process is that the money has to be sent by CHECK!  Yikes, sorry but we all must make some sacrifices and anything that is easy isn't always so rewarding! 

Directions on how to donate: 

Make your 'RE':

Monica Garcia Kamona Womens Cotton Project

this is very important so African Sky knows where the money has to go to and not to just any project, but MY project!

Address: 

African Sky 

PO Box 203 

Munroe Falls, OH 44262

Thank you to all who will be donating!  This is such a good deed and really really a great project for these women.  

Dogon Country and Tombouktu!

Sunset after the massive sand storm Janel and I got stuck in-Kamona

The 4 banditas in Timbuktu, about to ride off on our camel adventure!

Me on the roof of the manuscripts musuem, in front of the oldest mud mosque, or the biggest?

Trekking through the Sahara

Camel Riding!

Dogon houses- Day 1 of our 3 day hike

Alright, so now that I've got your attention, here is the explanation of why I haven't written in almost 1 whole month!  W'allahi! I've had my friend Janel visiting since late May.   It's great when having a visitor because I get to be a tourist in my current country of residence, and explore explore explore!  For attention span sake, I will be brief on what we did- as we really got to see and do many things here:

In Segou, Janel got to meet all of my wonderful friends.  We went boating, made Bogolan (malian art, using mud and all natural dyes to decorate all natural cotton).  We also did a lot of shopping for gifts and hanging by the pool.  The calm before the craziness!

From Segou, we bussed up to tour Dogon Country.  It's on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list (I always try to visit WHsites).  We met up with a fellow PCV-Hannah and her friend Kat that was visiting her.  It was a great 3 day hike through the villages.  Dogon villages are built in the cliffs and the people disappeared a long time ago, in short-due to deforestation and lack of food (they were hunters, not so much farmers). 

From Dogon, crazy Monica thought it was a good idea to go to Timbuktu.  My friend convinced us we should go up there to visit him.  Timbuktu.....why not!?  It took us 7hrs to get there in a 4x4 car-which that in itself was an experience.  It should have only taken 4hours.  Thats life here in Mali.  We got there, and I thought Mali was hot....but this place was SOO hot.  Like 120 degrees.  Thank God my friend has A/C in his house and we just got to relax on the 1st day there.  The second day we did some more shopping, and then started off on our camel ride.  The camel ride was fun, of course I got the 'special' camel.  First my saddle wasn't on correctly, then the camel kept tripping over it's feet (just like me!), then he just couldn't make it up the his and boom.  Down he went.  I'm alive and it's an entertaining story to tell.  No more camel rides for me though.  

Overall, it's been an amazing 3 weeks.  I now need to get focused on my work and get some things accomplished.  I'm sure I'm forgetting tons of things that I need to add, but I'll have internet access for a few more days.  

Passing on a Good Deed

Last February I attended a futbol match (soccer game) that was headed up by my village secondary school English teacher.  One Friday the girls play, the next Friday is the boys turn and they switch throughout the school year.  I thought it was great that they got to do this organized sport, but when saw them playing in bare feet, no nets, no cones or chalk to mark the boundaries, and no uniforms or markers for designating teams I felt bad.  I had an idea.  I wrote to my wonderful family members that are either teachers or have children in grade school and quickly (for Malian time) got a response from my great cousin Steve.  Well, he ended up sending 24 pinnes (above and beyond my request) for the students to use for the phys-ed class. 

Last Friday I was finally able to give them their gift.  The kids couldn’t be more excited!  It was great to see, and really I thought it was no big deal at all.  When I was growing up and going through the school system- both public and catholic schools-I took for granted having all the sports equipment available to me.  We even did rock climbing as an activity one time! 

So, here are the pictures of the kids with their new pinnes on.  It’s great to be able to give and to directly see the results of your work.  Thanks so much to the Westfall family for getting these jerseys out.  This small gesture made a town of 3000 people know you and send you many blessings for your generosity! 

 

On another note, I am told that I got over the worst, most difficult 110+ degrees of hot season. Now it will just be in the low 105’s.  My mom’s almost done with the chemo and hopefully Brian will be coming out here.  It's been 6 months since the passing of my grandma-I think I'm still in a bit of denial about it.  My friend from Phoenix will be coming out in 2 weeks for my first visitor!  I’m super excited and have a really fun time planned.  My languages of Bambara, French, and Arabic are coming along.  It’s great to be able to communicate and feel comfortable communicating in different languages.  You really get so much more out of relationships when you expand your horizons. 

 

One more short story.  Here in Mali, just chatting and spending time with people is super important.  I like doing this, but as an American it’s still a bit of a task to just show up at peoples houses to just ‘shoot the *ship’ with them.  Well, yaala yaala (bambara for taking a stroll) is great and it really makes me say to myself “wow, I’m really living in AFRICA!”  Some of my conversations included questions like:

How many cows will your dad get for you when you will get married?

Barack Obama only has 1 wife????

I’m going to go to America and farm and make a lot of money. 

Today you are a women! (N.B. This was the day I actually wore the traditional Malian long skirt-as opposed to the Capri pants I always wear)

*There are so many more instances of great cultural exchanges, I will write out a more detailed story some other time.  Ciao!

Camels and an Attempt to see Elephants

My first Malian vacation!  Myself, Megan, and Dies (a Dutch friend) went to the Mopti region of Mali.  It's towards the East.  We went to visit a fellow PCV-Dan Dayton.  It was a 2 day journey to get there, but we finally made it.  Dans village is absolutely beautiful; set between 2 huge rocks.  His village is a Fulani village, so communicating was a bit difficult for me because I do not speak their local language.  Luckily many people did speak Bambara so I was ok.  As soon as we arrived, we were whisked off in this pictured automobile for our elephant safari.  June is the migratory season for them, but Dan's counterpart said that they saw a pack yesterday.  After 5hrs of searching we didn't find any.  It's ok though, bc I saw some camels and just had a nice Malian time looking for elephants.  The next day we just chilled a bit, I got to talk to the locals and meet Dan's host family.  The next day we had the adventure of getting out of his village, the locals trying to charge us WAYYY to much for a ride to where we needed to go-reason being "you are white, you make money"  That reason didn't fly with us, so instead of working and making money, the bus drivers preferred to sit and drink tea. Nice.  Mali.  

So, we finally made it to our destination-5hours later.  The Hand of Fatima!  Oh it's a beautiful rock formation.  This place was so peaceful and majestic.  The rocks were a bright orangy/red, and gigantic.  I felt so small.  We did some fun things and camped out.  Met up with some Quebequois and had a great time with them.  Overall, my first Malian vacation was great!  It's good to explore ones country!  My next planned vacation is Senegal and The Gambia.  I want beaches and nice restaurants.  I don't want the typical African vacation because I'm living it!  June.  I can't wait!  It's so hot here, but I'm surviving.