ɲεgεns and Kalan

*Disclaimer: because of my limited access to computers and Internet, my entries will inevitably be long.  Feel free to read or not read at your own discretion.

A few things about Peace Corps and Peace Corps Mali:

·      Peace Corps began in 1961; this year marks PC’s 50^th Anniversary.

·      Peace Corps has been in Mali since 1971; this year marks PC’s 40^th Anniversary in Mali.

·      PC Mali’s history includes 3,000 volunteers in 1,000 villages and communities.

·      My group of Trainees is the first time a second group of trainees has come to Mali in the same year, which means we are expanding!

·      My Training group is made up of Volunteers in 3 sectors: Health Education (that’s me!), Small Economic Development, and Environment, with the idea that all of these are related to Food Security.

What an amazing time to be part of Peace Corps Mali! 

Upon arriving in Mali, somehow all 64 of us managed to get off of the plane (it was wonderfully warm outside!), get through customs, and find all of our bags – not a single one was lost!  Thankfully several Peace Corps staff were there to assist us.  I actually fell asleep on the way to our Training Center.  I know, you’re all shocked that I would fall asleep while something interesting was happening. 

Our Training Center, or “Tubaniso” (House of Doves) as it is called is only about a 25 minute ride from the airport.  We were all pretty exhausted by the time we arrived, but before we even picked up our luggage, we had our first Malian lesson: how to use the ɲεgεn, or pit latrine.  Believe me, there is definitely an art to it!  If you’re really that curious, I’ll be more than happy to describe the process on a one-on-one basis, but I’ll save the rest of you the details.  Let’s just say it’s a hole in the ground, at ground level, and while we PCVs have toilet paper provided for us and are more than welcome to buy ourselves some while at site, using toilet paper is not typical in Mali, and so there is an art to…cleaning yourself as well, involving a teapot of water called a salidaga.  (I haven’t ventured to this method yet.  I’m still perfecting the basics!)

Anyway!  Post-ɲεgεn lesson, we all retreated to the réfectoire (dining hall) for a snack.  I downed mine quickly and jetted off to bed for a much needed sleep under my mosquito net.  I was pretty hot trying to fall asleep, but I tried not to think about it, as this is still the end of the cold season and it’s only going to get hotter!

Turns out it was only going to get colder.  I was actually chilly when I woke up!  And while we’re talking about temperature, I’ll just give you a basic rundown of how the last few days have been.  Thursday morning, our first day, was chilly but tolerable, and by noon it had warmed up to a comfortable temperature.  It’s still getting pretty chilly and windy after sundown, so a sweatshirt is a must.  That night I found out how to turn the fan on high (sorry for the low setting that first night, roomies!) and slept much more comfortably, even waking in the middle of the night to cover myself with a blanket.  But the next morning, I woke up freeeezing!!!  I dug to the bottom of my bag for my “winter” clothes, and by the end of our first session, I had returned to my hut for extra clothes.  I wound up wearing a heavy pair of pants, 2 long sleeve shirts, a hoodie with a fur hood, and a scarf completely wrapped around my head and shoulders, for the rest of the morning and the early afternoon.  Who would’ve thought?!?  Thankfully today wasn’t as bad, and I was eventually able to strip down to the heavy pants and only one long sleeve shirt after noon!  Progress.  :)

Anyway, as far as training goes, we have a full Malian staff whose full-time jobs are to train us.  Everything from language instructors to cultural facilitators, and even current PCVs who are spending their time with us to show us the ropes.  The first Bambara word I learned (other than nyegen) was keneya: education.  That’s what we’re doing right now, learning the basics on how to function in a Malian community.  In the last 3 days we’ve spent a lot of time talking about Malian culture, tips to maintain our personal health and safety, how to maintain and fix our bikes, and some very basic Bambara, the most prevalent indigenous language in Mali.  (We’ve only had one lesson so far).  Allow me to greet you:

·      I ni Sɔgɔma!  (Good morning!)  I ka kεnε?  (How are you?) Somɔgɔw ka kεnε?  (How is your family?  K’an bεn!  (See you!)

* Note: greetings are much more complicated than that; I’m giving you the abbreviated version!

I have learned so far that: 1. My French is atrocious (my language test was pretty embarrassing).  And 2. I need to learn Bambara fast!  Our homework assignment for tomorrow’s class was to put the phrases we learned into a song, so last night my roommates and I coordinated our phrases to the tune of Row Row Row Your Boat.  It worked quite while and I think this will be a very useful tool for me.  If only I remembered as much French as I do song lyrics!

We’ve also spent a lot of time talking about Malian culture.  One of the great things about our diverse instructors is that we get all kinds of viewpoints.  From the Malians, we learn what they believe and how/why they act the way they do from their own point of view.  From the current PCV Trainers, we learn about Malian culture from an outsider’s perspective, and how our own culture will initiate our reactions to what we will experience.  At Tubaniso, we have no topics that are off-limits.  It won’t do us newbies any good to feel uncomfortable or ignorant about what our lives will be like for the next 27 months.  So we talk about everything. 

Perhaps one of our most interesting exercises (at least for me, the Cultural Anthropology undergrad) was our session on Stereotypes, Misconceptions, and Values.  The Trainees split up into groups and the Malians got in one group, and we listed stereotypes about each other, and then discussed them as a big group.  Next, we got into groups again and listed the top 6 values of or own cultures.  The results (and not necessarily in order):

 Malians:

·      1. Family/Marriage

·      2. Solidarity/Hospitality

·      3. Respect

·      4. Joking Cousins (a Malian concept that is a bit difficult to explain but basically allows for escape from uncomfortable situations through joking)

·      5. Peace Makers/Tolerance

·      6. Ethical

       

 Americans:

·      1. Work Ethic/American Dream

·      2. Education

·      3. Democracy

·      4. Freedom/Independence

·      5. Money/Success

·      6. Diversity

·      7. Equality

·      8. Justice

·      9. Upward mobility/Opportunity/Competition

·      10. Individualism

·      11. Innovation/Creativity

* (The Malians were in one group and the Americans were in 6 groups, so this is a summary of our top and most-repeated responses).

It’s so interesting how our culture determines our values, and how our values determine how we act and react.  Following this thought, we got back into our groups and were presented with a hypothetical scenario involving PCVs and Malians.  Our goal was to decide who was to blame, and to rank in what order?  (Quite the “American” task in itself!)  Without going into a lot of detail, it resulted that while the Americans put the Malian as least to blame, and really didn’t blame him at all, the Malians blamed him first.  I wish I could explain it better to you all, but I suppose you’ll just have to believe me when I say it was definitely eye-opening.  There really are two sides to every story, two perspectives, two beliefs.  This will be extremely important for us newbies to keep in mind as we enter the Malian life 3 days from now.

Other interesting highlights:

·      We learned how to make Malian tea, which is unlike any other tea preparation you’ve ever done before in your life, guaranteed.  I bet your Lipton doesn’t take 2+ hours to make and drink!  Tea drinking is a huge social activity over here, and there is an art to making the tea correctly.  There is also a procedure for how it is made, how it is cooled, how it is distributed, how it is drunk, etc.

·      Today we learned how to eat a typical Malian meal.  This involved one giant bowl of food (usually rice with a sauce, meat and/or veggies on top) placed on a mat on the floor with several people sitting on the floor around it (but no shoes!).  And then you dig in, all at the same time, using your hands.  Needless to say, we all got pretty messy for our first attempt.  :)  But yet again, it’s a very communal way of life.  And this is how we’ll be eating with our host families, so it was good to get in the practice early!

Summary of my first 3 days of Training:

I learned that Malians are an exceptionally warm, welcoming, curious, and accepting people.  As long as you abide by certain cultural values and expectations (aka don’t wear ratty jeans to work), your village will accept you for who you are.  They will be curious and ask you questions, but in most cases there’s no need to hide who you really are, and in all cases it is simply a matter of feeling it out as you go.

Peace Corps is The Toughest Job You’ll Ever Love. 

I can successfully perform any function that is required in a ɲεgεn.

I have so much more to tell you, but I’ll save it for another post! 

I’ll end with a ɲεgεn story: I went out to the ɲεgεnbefore bed last night, wearing my headlamp so I could see.  I turned the corner into the ɲεgεn and shone my light on the floor to make sure everything was ok.  As I moved my light up, I saw a shadow scurry across the wall!  It turned out to be a lizard, which isn’t that big of a deal…except that I’m used to seeing little bitty lizards out in Arizona.  This bad boy was at least 3 times as big!  There’s something very disconcerting about having a big fat lizard with bulging eyes watching you in such a vulnerable position…