I am sitting here in the cafeteria at t-so thinking about the last couple of weeks and what is about to come. We just arrived back from site visit a couple of days ago. My site, currently, is in south west Sikasso region in a small SMALL village called Gouriko. It has around 2,000 people. My day arriving there was quite hectic. We departed t-so at 7 am and went strait to the bus station with our homologues. My homologues is this man, im assuming is around 40, with two wives and lots of children. So we get to this “bus station” and immediately a ton of men start running around the bus trying us to buy things and tickets. Now, ive traveled some and you don’t usually go to a bus station WITHOUT any plan. Its quite silly actually. So we are getting BOMBARDED by these men and ladies and gentleman, it is the FIRST time I have been actually scared while in Mali. HAHAHA. It was very overwhelming. So once we finally get to the bus we actually will be taking it starts to sink in, im in Mali. This bus, oh this bus. Let me see if I can actually describe it to you in some detail. This bus was probs built in the 70. It has orange “velvet” seats. There is super glue holding the pieces of this bus together. No top, just card board rafters and layers of stapled mettle hold this thing together. They put all our stuff on the top and we embark actually IN the thing. The first step has holes in it and you can see the road underneath. The seats are so dirty touching them makes you feel like you have hepatitis B. EVERYTHING IS RUSTED. The air inside this thing is so cloudy and BO filled I talk to myself saying “it will be over in a little over 8 hours Hannah, just breath and put on some Pretty Ricky”.
SOOOO we sit in this bus for around 2 hours, just sitting there. In Mali, they don’t leave on time, they leave when the bus is full. Depending on how many people are on it, you can leave at 8am or 12pm or 3pm, depending on if the driver wants to take you. Also, the price can change depending on how many people there are. So we are sitting on this bus. The seats are so tiny that your ass falls out of them. I mean people, im a thick girl, but sers, a 10 year old would not be able to fit in those seats. So we finally leave around 2 hours later. When driving in Mali you just need to shut your eyes and tell yourself that when you get into an accident, because it is an assured thing here, you will be far enough back that the head on collision wont kill you…first. The drivers in Mali are worse than new york! Road signs and even lanes are “optional”. No one has drivers licenses and if they do, they have no idea what the f their doing. Its crazy, caotic, scary…kind like a rollercoaster…for 8 hours.
So we finally leave and 4 ½ hours later we turn onto this dirt road. Actually it is very picturesque, but im like “we must be getting close”. 4 ½ LATER we arrive at this village and the my homogloyge and I get out of the bus. I am the only one left and it is getting dark. I know that I have to bike some way to the village but nothing compared to what I actually experienced. The people in the village (not mind) have probs never seen a white person before so they start to stare. People here stare soooo much, it’s like “SORRY im still white. Yep, still white. Yep still white”. So we start to bike. AN HOUR LATER we arrive in my village previously riding on a dried up riverbed for an hour. I wonder to myself, how am I going to do this every week? When we finally get to my village I start meeting all of these people, but its dark so I have no idea who any one is. After riding around for 30 minutes we finally reach a compound. I later find out it is my homologues house. They tell me to take a shower, and that is when I find out they have NO BATHROOM. People just shit and pee in the fields and where they can find some privacy. Soooo I am trying to take a shower in a cabine which REAKS with pee and I think to myself “its ok, I have my own negen at my house. You’re going to be ok. This is good. You’re growing Hannah. HANNAH YOU’RE FUCKING GROWING GET USED TO IT”.
I am EXAUSTED by this time, but have not eaten anything the whole day. Im assuming that I will get feed, but nope, they didn’t feed me. Actually they only meal they ever feed me was one dinner. They did, however, give me 30 uncooked eggs. I was like “um thanks???”. Soooo they tell me to sleep outside and im like “malaria, mosquito net” so I sleep in this house. However, this house is a communal place so while sleeping people are walking in and out…its awk to say the lease. Then at 5 am in the morning, YES 5 AM IN THE MORNING, a lady comes in a shakes the mosquito net telling me to wake up. WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU WAKING ME UP AT 5 AM??!?!?! I tell her im still sleeping (odv) and crash back into another weird fucking dream that I seem to be having all the time now (the other day I dremt that I was supposed to get a pink tutu from the PC and didn’t get it and so flew on elephants to Bamako to get it). Anyways, the next week was an interesting experience. It was filled with a ton of misunderstandings and naps. It was a great learning experience. Let me explain a little about my site to you though:
I have no electricity, no running water, limited to no cell phone service. I am 8 hours away from any major city and 2 hours away from my banking town. I only get transportation out of my village once a week, which means I have to leave for at least a week at a time to be able to get money and become sane again. The “roads” are more like riverbeds, and although they said that I would be able to get in and out, I highly doubt it. my village itself is very picturesque Africa, with a ton of mango trees, and lots of greenery. I love my village actually but this transportation issue is going to be a problem. So the hilarious (yet great thing) is that I am getting a site change. So I think the last week was a good … way for me to look at Mali and have another “Malian experience”. When something here happens that im like “really? Really? Sers?” I just say “another Malian experience”. I wish every single one of you was on that bus with me though…it was, well, only the strong survive.
Sooo now I am leaving for home stay tomorrow morning. I AM SO EXCITED TO SEE MY FAMILY! They are so fabulous and I miss my host sister, Sally, her tea. SOOO GOOD! I will hopefully have some internet in the next two weeks and so will be able to update the blog more. Sorry about my writing, its not that descriptive. I wish I was able to make y’all feel like you were sitting there in that ball of rust, but well yea. Love you all!!!!!
Ps letters? Packages?
I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!
Monday, March 21, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Gnamanto...GNAMANTOOOOO
It’s been two weeks since I have blogged/had Internet. In two weeks the following things have happened:
1)Libya?
2)It is official, 36 days after arriving in Mali I cried. We had a “midterm” test that basically set where our language level was. It just told us where we were and if we needed more tutoring or what not. I scared novice high. Normally, at this stage, we all should be between novice mid and intermediate, which means I scored right in the middle. I guess I should be happy. In reality, every other person in my home stay scored higher than me. I was so upset and mad at myself…so I cried. Sounds pretty stupid eh? I mean, I have been in Mali and learning Bambara for 4 weeks. I know how to say hi, describe my family, tell directions, talk about food, health stuff (peace corps), my wants, likes, dislikes, the past, present, future, all that jazz. Still, I keep on thinking, why am I not better? Anyhow, the whole funny part about it was that we were having movie night in my room so I couldn’t be that secretive with my crying, so I went outside. LITERALLY in like 10 minutes all these women are coming up to me asking me why I am crying and if I am ok. THE WHOLE VILLAGE KNEW. And I am talking like a village of like 5,000 people. “The random tubab is crying”! I mean seriously, everyone else cried their eyes out the first week and I have a mealy 15 minutes of tears and it’s like the apocalypse happened. My host bro, the next day took aside of my friends and was like “why was Gnamanto crying?” she kept saying “she’s fine, no worries” but no matter what she said he was so concerned about me. And then I hear out my window “SHAKA SERIOUSLY WANTS YOUR BABIES”…awk
3)It’s hot here. Mali needs to invest in some pools and put one in our town, and have a no peeing rule, because I am melting. Like actually melting. It’s hot. REALLY HOT. Shit. It’s hot. AND IT’S NOT EVEN HOT SEASON YET!
4)AWESOME thing happened at the bar the other day. So yeah, we have a bar. Its not in our village, but one 7 k from us. We normally hitch hike there, and if we are feeling really good about ourselves we bike. Anyhow, since it is SOOOO FING HOT OUTSIDE, we decided to go to the bar in our village and see if we could get a ride from the jeep that was parked out in front. Turns out, this snazzy shiteeee jeep owner is a Malian police officer who knows ALL OF Mali. Like no joke. His mom’s uncle is the president, YES THE PRESIDENT OF Mali. His dad is a colonel in the army, and he is the chief of police for a branch of the army. Along with this, the bar we were going to is owned by his best friends dad, who just turns up to be the mayor of Gao. Like really people, the mayor of gao. Which for all y’all non-Malians is like a region within Mali up north. Apparently he is liked this international most wanted person who is an arms dealer but who cares, he bought us a couple round of beers. And then gave us his card. Yep his card. Anyhow, can’t go to Gao because it is too dangerous, but it is the thought that counts right?
So I have been in Mali for, as I said, a little over 30 days now. Tonight, we find out where we will be living for the next 2 years. I am SOOO excited. All I know is that I needed to bring my bike back to T-S0, which means I will probs be biking everywhere. Watch out athletes, I will be backkkkk. Other than that my life is not that interesting. I go to school every day and sleep like literally 14 hours a day. And then eat and try and speak Bambara. I really do like it here though. Other than the spiders, and cockroaches. I guess I could tell you about my family and that I have become absolutely obsessed with Lipton tea, but that is not really interesting. My rooms awesome, its hot in Mali, I hate peeing in a hole so I have an “emergency” cup in my room, which I use at night or whenever I am too lazy to go to the bathroom. Sounds gross, but hey what can you do. I like in a third world country, some people even have EMERGENCY BUCKETS, yes people, BUCKETS. I have opted for the cup, but I guess I could upgrade at some point. Also, my hair is even whiter than before, and my roots are growing in so I look pretty much HOT all the time.
So I guess I could write about this hiking adventure that I went on with some of the other trainees a weekend ago. I am getting lazy though so it’s not too exciting. We just hiked this mountain…in Mali. It was like out of the lion king, which apparently is an old folk legend, which took place in Mali. We took pictures, climbed rocks, almost feel into caves, the ugsh. It was nice and windy up there so we stayed for a bit, and then went to eat food. That’s about it. I guess I could be more elaborate, but as my mom always said, I am a terrible writer. I guess its both the “bad at English” thing and also “I get bored REALLY easy” thing. Right now I’m leaning on the bored easy. Plus I want a pool. And im sorry mom that this blog has misspellings. I can give you my sign in password so you can go back and edit. Uggggghh the Internet is being a little bitch right now.
1)Libya?
2)It is official, 36 days after arriving in Mali I cried. We had a “midterm” test that basically set where our language level was. It just told us where we were and if we needed more tutoring or what not. I scared novice high. Normally, at this stage, we all should be between novice mid and intermediate, which means I scored right in the middle. I guess I should be happy. In reality, every other person in my home stay scored higher than me. I was so upset and mad at myself…so I cried. Sounds pretty stupid eh? I mean, I have been in Mali and learning Bambara for 4 weeks. I know how to say hi, describe my family, tell directions, talk about food, health stuff (peace corps), my wants, likes, dislikes, the past, present, future, all that jazz. Still, I keep on thinking, why am I not better? Anyhow, the whole funny part about it was that we were having movie night in my room so I couldn’t be that secretive with my crying, so I went outside. LITERALLY in like 10 minutes all these women are coming up to me asking me why I am crying and if I am ok. THE WHOLE VILLAGE KNEW. And I am talking like a village of like 5,000 people. “The random tubab is crying”! I mean seriously, everyone else cried their eyes out the first week and I have a mealy 15 minutes of tears and it’s like the apocalypse happened. My host bro, the next day took aside of my friends and was like “why was Gnamanto crying?” she kept saying “she’s fine, no worries” but no matter what she said he was so concerned about me. And then I hear out my window “SHAKA SERIOUSLY WANTS YOUR BABIES”…awk
3)It’s hot here. Mali needs to invest in some pools and put one in our town, and have a no peeing rule, because I am melting. Like actually melting. It’s hot. REALLY HOT. Shit. It’s hot. AND IT’S NOT EVEN HOT SEASON YET!
4)AWESOME thing happened at the bar the other day. So yeah, we have a bar. Its not in our village, but one 7 k from us. We normally hitch hike there, and if we are feeling really good about ourselves we bike. Anyhow, since it is SOOOO FING HOT OUTSIDE, we decided to go to the bar in our village and see if we could get a ride from the jeep that was parked out in front. Turns out, this snazzy shiteeee jeep owner is a Malian police officer who knows ALL OF Mali. Like no joke. His mom’s uncle is the president, YES THE PRESIDENT OF Mali. His dad is a colonel in the army, and he is the chief of police for a branch of the army. Along with this, the bar we were going to is owned by his best friends dad, who just turns up to be the mayor of Gao. Like really people, the mayor of gao. Which for all y’all non-Malians is like a region within Mali up north. Apparently he is liked this international most wanted person who is an arms dealer but who cares, he bought us a couple round of beers. And then gave us his card. Yep his card. Anyhow, can’t go to Gao because it is too dangerous, but it is the thought that counts right?
So I have been in Mali for, as I said, a little over 30 days now. Tonight, we find out where we will be living for the next 2 years. I am SOOO excited. All I know is that I needed to bring my bike back to T-S0, which means I will probs be biking everywhere. Watch out athletes, I will be backkkkk. Other than that my life is not that interesting. I go to school every day and sleep like literally 14 hours a day. And then eat and try and speak Bambara. I really do like it here though. Other than the spiders, and cockroaches. I guess I could tell you about my family and that I have become absolutely obsessed with Lipton tea, but that is not really interesting. My rooms awesome, its hot in Mali, I hate peeing in a hole so I have an “emergency” cup in my room, which I use at night or whenever I am too lazy to go to the bathroom. Sounds gross, but hey what can you do. I like in a third world country, some people even have EMERGENCY BUCKETS, yes people, BUCKETS. I have opted for the cup, but I guess I could upgrade at some point. Also, my hair is even whiter than before, and my roots are growing in so I look pretty much HOT all the time.
So I guess I could write about this hiking adventure that I went on with some of the other trainees a weekend ago. I am getting lazy though so it’s not too exciting. We just hiked this mountain…in Mali. It was like out of the lion king, which apparently is an old folk legend, which took place in Mali. We took pictures, climbed rocks, almost feel into caves, the ugsh. It was nice and windy up there so we stayed for a bit, and then went to eat food. That’s about it. I guess I could be more elaborate, but as my mom always said, I am a terrible writer. I guess its both the “bad at English” thing and also “I get bored REALLY easy” thing. Right now I’m leaning on the bored easy. Plus I want a pool. And im sorry mom that this blog has misspellings. I can give you my sign in password so you can go back and edit. Uggggghh the Internet is being a little bitch right now.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Shirt to Vag Ratio = Too High
So it has been a little over two weeks since I have arrived in Mali. I am sitting in my room at Tubaniso, which will now be officially known as T-so, and listening to some Lily Allen. I can’t believe it has been two weeks. Wow, so much has happened, my thoughts are all unorganized, like the rest of my life, haha. I love my home stay and my home stay family. My home stay is in a medium town (apparently, I think its small) called Mountugula. It has about 3 boutikis, which sell chocolate cookies (my downfall) and COLD soda. Now if you know me you know I don’t like soda, or even calling it soda, but I have grown to love it because it is the only cold thing I ever get. It is hot here, and it is not even hot season, SOOO CRAY. I don’t even know what I am going to do when it does get to 120 degrees outside and inside and ever side. Anyways, my home stay village is a new home stay village for the PC so many of the people there have never seen a Tubab (white person) before. I was named “Gnamanto Sacko” when I got there and now wherever I go I have little kids yelling “I ni sogoma” to me every morning, and then due to the culture I have to go through a HUGE dialogue just to greet that one person, or that one little kid and then one second later, right after I left that one person I have to and do it ALL OVER AGAIN WITH EVERY SINGLE PERSON I SEE ON THE STREET. All of us here are like “can we have a village greeting” every morning. Our school is legit a 6 min walk but it takes us like 20 minutes because we have to stop and greet every person. Haha.
So my schedule every day goes somewhat like this:
1. Up at 7, and yes I DO get up at 7 ☺
2. Shower with my bucket in the Negen (Malian bathroom), pee
3. Get dressed in my room
4. 7:30 eat breky with my host sister/mom Sally. She makes me lipton tea every morning, or she makes me sugar with a little lipton tea added and a bulu Shefan which is a fried egg sandwich.
5. Get to school by 8
6. Learn Bambara for 4 hours until 12
7. Walk back home, take a nap, be tots anti social and then eat
8. Back to school at 2:30 to 4:30
9. Go sit under a tree with the girls
10. Around 6 go back home
11. Shower again, pee number two of the day. It is very important in this time to shower BEFORE dusk because that is when all of the cockroaches come out of the negen hole (aka Hannah and cockroaches do not mix)
12. Eat some sort of din
13. Go over to laurens and talk with her fam fam
14. Bed by 9
We go to school Monday through Saturday and then have Sunday for homework. It is always an exhausting day. Every moment is trying to learn or speak Bambara and I am NOT good at Bambara at all. I get frustrated at myself that I am not picking it up as easily as everyone else, but know that I can not compare myself either. Everyone has a different experience here and mine just might be a little more concentrated on the Bambara.
I do like it here though. Everyone is talking about culture shock and what stage we are in. We had the “initial enthusiasm” about being in Mali, which turned into the “initial culture shock” and now we are supposed to be in the “getting used to it” stage. Maybe its because I have traveled so much on my own, but I am not getting the culture shock aspect yet. I mean yes, I pee in a hole twice a day because I don’t want to have to go any more, and I eat out of a bowl and have the most random things for dinner, like French fries and fried plantains, yes that’s it, but I am not having too much of a problem yet (knock on wood). I am really glad to have made some good friends here, but I definitely miss everyone at home. It was so true, I didn’t go to UVA to get a husband, but to get bridesmaids. The friends I have back at home, I know now being here for only two weeks, will be my friends for life. I am so blessed to have people in my life who love me and understand me, for all my silly craziness. I miss not having to explain my language or the way I talk because my friends understand everything I am “trying” to say. LOVE YOU ALL!!!! Not to be saddened or anything, but I do find that if I start to think extensively about everyone back home I get sad, so I tend to only look forward to the experiences I will soon be able to have.
When I signed up for the PC and actually arrived here, I was hoping that my life back home would help me to prepare for my life here. It is so true. I am in this experience and know that it can only go up from here. I guess I feel that in my short 23 years of life I have already experienced more good and bad things than many people will ever dream of. I have an amazing uncle who gave me the gift of education and was able to study at one of the top and most prestigious universities in the nation. I was blessed with my travels abroad and the people I met. I AM blessed with the most amazing family in the world. Although I may not always understand my sister, I do know she is always there and hopefully she knows that I am always there for me. I am blessed with the most courageous mother anyone could have, someone who is selfless because she only wants the best for my sister and I. I am blessed with an AMAZING and phenomenal aunt and uncle, who will always be, in my heart, my second parents. And I am blessed with some of the best friends someone could ask for. Along those lines, I have lived through some of the most horrific hells a person could go through. As I sit here, I think if I have lived and survived so far, I can, hopefully, get through anything life throws at me. When it gets hard, I just think of the last four years and know that I can do this, and not only do this but be successful at it. I guess that’s why they call us “survivors”. We really are.
I have sweat dripping down my leg
I want to Angelina Joli a baby. The only probs is that she never wears pants and the shirt to vag ratio is WAY TO HIGH. Its like I don’t want that on me, put pants on, wipe your nose, stop eating trash and then we can have a discuss (she is only like 1 though).
There is trash everywhere and no such thing as a trashcan. I put my trash down the negen because I HATE littering, but sometimes you just have to ☹
I’m a vegetarian. Well at home stay at least. The meat in T-So is good.
My hair is white now. Welcome to Mali.
The end.
So my schedule every day goes somewhat like this:
1. Up at 7, and yes I DO get up at 7 ☺
2. Shower with my bucket in the Negen (Malian bathroom), pee
3. Get dressed in my room
4. 7:30 eat breky with my host sister/mom Sally. She makes me lipton tea every morning, or she makes me sugar with a little lipton tea added and a bulu Shefan which is a fried egg sandwich.
5. Get to school by 8
6. Learn Bambara for 4 hours until 12
7. Walk back home, take a nap, be tots anti social and then eat
8. Back to school at 2:30 to 4:30
9. Go sit under a tree with the girls
10. Around 6 go back home
11. Shower again, pee number two of the day. It is very important in this time to shower BEFORE dusk because that is when all of the cockroaches come out of the negen hole (aka Hannah and cockroaches do not mix)
12. Eat some sort of din
13. Go over to laurens and talk with her fam fam
14. Bed by 9
We go to school Monday through Saturday and then have Sunday for homework. It is always an exhausting day. Every moment is trying to learn or speak Bambara and I am NOT good at Bambara at all. I get frustrated at myself that I am not picking it up as easily as everyone else, but know that I can not compare myself either. Everyone has a different experience here and mine just might be a little more concentrated on the Bambara.
I do like it here though. Everyone is talking about culture shock and what stage we are in. We had the “initial enthusiasm” about being in Mali, which turned into the “initial culture shock” and now we are supposed to be in the “getting used to it” stage. Maybe its because I have traveled so much on my own, but I am not getting the culture shock aspect yet. I mean yes, I pee in a hole twice a day because I don’t want to have to go any more, and I eat out of a bowl and have the most random things for dinner, like French fries and fried plantains, yes that’s it, but I am not having too much of a problem yet (knock on wood). I am really glad to have made some good friends here, but I definitely miss everyone at home. It was so true, I didn’t go to UVA to get a husband, but to get bridesmaids. The friends I have back at home, I know now being here for only two weeks, will be my friends for life. I am so blessed to have people in my life who love me and understand me, for all my silly craziness. I miss not having to explain my language or the way I talk because my friends understand everything I am “trying” to say. LOVE YOU ALL!!!! Not to be saddened or anything, but I do find that if I start to think extensively about everyone back home I get sad, so I tend to only look forward to the experiences I will soon be able to have.
When I signed up for the PC and actually arrived here, I was hoping that my life back home would help me to prepare for my life here. It is so true. I am in this experience and know that it can only go up from here. I guess I feel that in my short 23 years of life I have already experienced more good and bad things than many people will ever dream of. I have an amazing uncle who gave me the gift of education and was able to study at one of the top and most prestigious universities in the nation. I was blessed with my travels abroad and the people I met. I AM blessed with the most amazing family in the world. Although I may not always understand my sister, I do know she is always there and hopefully she knows that I am always there for me. I am blessed with the most courageous mother anyone could have, someone who is selfless because she only wants the best for my sister and I. I am blessed with an AMAZING and phenomenal aunt and uncle, who will always be, in my heart, my second parents. And I am blessed with some of the best friends someone could ask for. Along those lines, I have lived through some of the most horrific hells a person could go through. As I sit here, I think if I have lived and survived so far, I can, hopefully, get through anything life throws at me. When it gets hard, I just think of the last four years and know that I can do this, and not only do this but be successful at it. I guess that’s why they call us “survivors”. We really are.
I have sweat dripping down my leg
I want to Angelina Joli a baby. The only probs is that she never wears pants and the shirt to vag ratio is WAY TO HIGH. Its like I don’t want that on me, put pants on, wipe your nose, stop eating trash and then we can have a discuss (she is only like 1 though).
There is trash everywhere and no such thing as a trashcan. I put my trash down the negen because I HATE littering, but sometimes you just have to ☹
I’m a vegetarian. Well at home stay at least. The meat in T-So is good.
My hair is white now. Welcome to Mali.
The end.
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