Margins of the Day In Mali

People Ask “Why did you join the Peace Corps.”

2010-10-03T10:51:00.001-07:00

Years ago as I was filling out the Peace Corps application all I knew was that I had always wanted to join the Peace Corps, beyond that I couldn’t express why. Never did make it through that application process. Two years ago at age 58 I did finish the application process and receive my invitation to serve in the Peace Corps I still couldn’t answer the question “Why.” Today I think I can.

Recently a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer said he joined the Peace Corps to become a better person. As most of us I too struggle with the good and evil within myself. After 25 years in the business world my good self could use a good pep talk along with some new points of references. The Peace Corps was guaranteed to do that. It will be interesting going home and testing out my new perspective. Since I am still in the changing phase I only have some idea what those new perspectives are.

A lot of reasons for joining the Peace Corps have to do with my nature. My hopes and dreams never did match my father’s advice to me in high school which was to take shorthand so that I could have a skill to support myself in case something happened in my marriage. With this advice my future looked grim. Luckily I did not take his advice. My life goals, successes and dreams have never been motivated by money or security. As an Aquarian my thoughts tend to first go locally than globally.

I came to Mali my vision of what I wanted to do was to tap into the community organizing skills I used in the 70’s when we organized the community by starting a food coop, a woman’s clinic, and a day care. A lot of that organizing time was just hanging out with people in the community. Meetings only happened when an idea arose that was worth while following through on. I gave a lot and got a lot during this time.

The same goes with having foster children. Having foster children gave me an extended family with outreach into the community. The kids were and are amazing every single one of them. There is a moment I remember with my daughter that I will never forget, she thanked me for having foster children and said it enriched her life. She put into words things that sometimes I have a hard time saying. Again as in my community work in the 70’s I gave a lot and got a lot.

The times of organizing the community and having foster children were the times when the good in me shone through, times of meeting and working with great people. Before coming to Mali I had no idea that these skills would transfer to being a Peace Corps volunteer. Even in the beginning as a Peace Corps volunteer in Africa I was skeptical that with cultural and language barriers the skills I learned doing community organizing and raising foster children might not get anything done.

Luckily I was wrong. Koro my Malian counter part and I networked from Ghana to the Ivory Coast to Segou and Bamako in Mali. We met great people saw their work and even received some help along the way. We learned about their production, skills and marketing programs. Koro and I became the best of friends. We met each other’s families and have become family to each other over the last two years.

Meeting members of the community here in Koutiala, Mali and participating in activities such as the Collective des Femme a Koutiala, the Union of Associations of Artisans of Koutiala (UAAK), and the twenty five professional associations that are members of the UAAK have given me endless resources and projects to work on. My host family where I live has been welcoming and supportive.. There are so many others I can’t list them all.

Now with less than a week here in Mali I can say I did tap into my community organizing skills. The Bogolan Association has new products, new production skills and new math skills to further develop their business. Many artisans have attended literacy classes, the women’s association has acquired the skills to start a soap production business, and recycling has been introduced with the skills to make some products out of the recycled material as an incentive.

Peace Corps offered great support in the way of technical training, language classes, medical coverage and the encouragement to be a part of the community where we live. And because of this there are so many friends that I will be taking back to America in my heart never to be forgotten. What a gift.

Women's Soap Making Training

2010-09-26T01:37:00.000-07:00

During the 2010 planning meetings for the Bueareau de Femme (Women’s Association) of the Union of Associations of Artisans of Koutiala the woman asked me as a Peace Corps Volunteer to help fund and plan a soap making formation. I was happy to do so but was not sure how I was going to pull it off.

As a volunteer I have attended many shea butter trainings. Trainings on how to make quality shea oil, soap making, skin lotions, oil for cooking and many other products. Many of you may remember the shea butter making training that I help fund and plan as my first funded project here in Mali.

In Mali shea is the main oil for cooking and often is an income generating activity for women in villages. Shea nuts are so easy to get you just collect them during growing season out in the fields. Shea is so important in Mali that is illegal to cut down a shea nut tree. Shea butter products in the United States are gaining popularity. You will find shea products in the fair-trade, organic, beauty product isle at your health food store.

Luckily a volunteer told me about a woman, Fanta Diollo, in a small village just outside of Bamako who makes soap for exporting and was willing to come and teach the women of Koutiala how to make four different kinds of soap, cucumber, heemé, honey and Bf.

The women enjoyed the training and are going to start soap production soon. They wanted to pick a name for the soap so that others would not copy it and to implement a marketing strategy. They decided to call it Koutiala Kounadi, Kounandi being my Malian name which means good luck in Bambara. I was over whelmed at the gesture. What a privilege to have a brand of soap named after me.

Mali battles over women's rights

2010-09-08T08:26:00.000-07:00

Rebecca Stewart
Guardian Weekly, Tuesday 7 September 2010

Deep in the vast, burnt-orange Malian desert in the town of Gao, 17-year-old Zina is getting ready for school. One of the luckier Malian women, she is among the 33% who can read and write. "I hope to be a doctor when I finish my studies," she says, through wide eyes framed by her vivid blue veil. "I'm not sure if I'll get married before my studies or afterwards," she adds "but inshallah, I'll find a good husband."

While the professional workplace is slowly opening up to women, with a few female lawyers, doctors and MPs, it remains predominantly the realm of men. I ask if she thinks she'll marry another doctor and how she feels about being equal to her husband – a privilege denied her mother. "We won't be equal," she says with a nervous smile. "I will always be inferior to my husband. That's how it is in Islam. I never want to be equal to my husband."

Zina's pregnant, 19-year-old sister Nana is giggling. "It's not like that here," she says. "Your parents chose your husband and you must obey him. It is in the Qu'ran and it is in the law."

According to Brahim Koné, president of the Malian Association of Human Rights, the position and treatment of women is one of the biggest human rights abuses in Mali today. "If the authorities aren't careful, Mali risks back-sliding," he says.

Under family law, Nana's inferiority it not just cultural, it is imposed by the state. She has a legal obligation to guarantee "obedience" to her husband. This means she can be divorced for anything from burning the dinner to refusing to have sex; she is allowed to inherit only an eighth of her husband's property if he dies; and while the legal marriage age for men is 18, for women it is just 15.

Some seeds of change were sown in Mali more than a decade ago, when the ministry for the promotion of women, children and the family, in association with certain women's groups and NGOs, proposed changes to laws that discriminated against women.

Then, in 2003, the UN Human Rights Committee said changes were necessary to bring local law into line with internationally ratified conventions. "Why did we ratify the conventions emanating from Europe and the west just to then reject the changes and say that the west is imposing its values on our society," asks Maitre M'Bam Diarra, mediator of the republic – the senior-most legal figure in the country – and a leading human rights activist.

"The changes didn't just start now," she says. "There have been several revisions coming from the fact that we need to harmonise local laws with international ones. But what is in the code [family law] is nothing new."

She is flanked by armed bodyguards. "They say that those of us who support the code are blasphemers," she says. "The imam of Kati, a town just outside Bamako, spoke in favour of it, and now he is in hiding in fear of his life."

In August 2009, the national assembly adopted the code with all its provisions. Soon after, demonstrators took to the streets in the capital, Bamako, and in Timbuktu and Mopti, shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) and holding banners declaring: "No to the new code."

Weeks later, President Amadou Toumani Touré, instead of ratifying the law, sent it back to the assembly to be reconsidered "to ensure a calm and peaceful society". Touré, a former general, overthrew a military government in 1991 and handed power back to civilians the following year. He retired from the army in 2001 and was elected president in 2002. He was re-elected in 2007, in elections deemed free and fair by international observers.

The president's backing down on the code reflects the political power of those who oppose it.

"This code has no respect for the inherent values of our society," says Mahmud Dicko, president of Mali's High Islamic Council. "It's just the way our society is organised. The head of the family is the man, and everyone in the family has to obey him." The equality of women is one of the most contentious provisions in the code, along with the secularisation of marriage and the proposal to give women inheritance rights on divorce – all of which, opponents argue, run counter to Islam.

Many of those protesting against the code were women. Hadja Safiatou Dembelé, president of the National Union of Muslim Women's Associations, says: "There are passages of this code that are incompatible with Islam, and that's why we oppose it. We will never leave our religion for this code".

For those fighting for equal rights, there are two main issues. First, the interpretation of a woman's role in Islam, and second, the position of women in terms of economics and education. "It's very difficult for illiterate women to either read the Qu'ran or assert their legal rights," says Maitre M'Bam. "[But] the problem isn't the Qu'ran. It's just a question of interpretation."

Back in Gao, Zina is a symbol of the solution, of a new Mali. She is a devout Muslim and has been told the Qu'ran makes her inferior to men. But she is also part of a generation of women breaking out of the traditional mould. And it is through women like her that change will ultimately come.

Bogolan – Traditional, Commodity or Fine Art

2010-07-30T09:51:00.000-07:00

Images of wood statues, beaded jewelry, and bogolan represent what Americans view as African culture. Thus African culture in the minds of Americans becomes a glorified homogenized icon. How do you dissect this homogenized icon in an effort to rid Americans of the stereo types of Africa? Africa is a big continent. Even in Mali where I serve as a Peace Corps volunteer there are diverse cultures and people which is reflected in the more than nine local languages and in Dogon country every village speaks a different distinct dialect.

In the Peace Corps we are trained to do development work. The message was to develop skills so that the people we work with can make more money and thus have a better life. Working with artisans a debate is in the forefront of my everyday activities as a Small Enterprise Development volunteer. The debate goes like this; to what standard of development am I aiming for and how much of the indigenous culture will be sacrificed for the development work I do.

The concepts of traditional, authenticity, and contemporary, are tossed around in the fair trade shops that have sprung up all over the western world. These concepts are coined to accompany products that have been produced in mass production to sell to western consumers. The goal is to translate long time traditional practices and motifs into commodities for the soul purpose of business. During a training in Mali that I attended a fair trade organization gave a presentation on 2009 Colors and Designs. Watching the Malian translate phrases into Bambara such as “Winter Colors, Fall Colors, Warm Colors,” was painful. There is no winter or fall here in Mali. As a volunteer put it how do you teach Malians about color when they don’t learn what primary colors are.

Many organizations have sprung up in the past decade that “Help” local international artist to achieve the goal of translating traditional crafts into commodities. People from these different organizations go to a place already producing some local tourist art and works with them in product development and business practices thus bringing in a lot of money and trade that allows the artist to become part of the middle class while hundreds of struggling artists continue producing on a small scale struggling just to feed them selves.

We criticize Africa as undeveloped and at the same time glorifying African traditions. What kind of message are we sending to people of Africa? This phenomenon can be said of Native Americans, and other developing groups of people the world over. In the development process it is important for Africa to define and redefine its own culture and goals both as nations and as individuals. I admire Africans. As much as the western world has tried to colonize, enslave or genocide the people and develop the continent, Africans have remained proud in their indigenous and diverse cultural. Bravos Africa!

Ethnography

2010-07-25T12:03:00.000-07:00

Ethnography as defined by the dictionary is the study and systematic recording of human cultures, exactly the thing that my blog has tried to do. Many anthropologist believe that it is important for people to tell their own story.

This project was inspired my daughter Lani BonaDea. I gave my camera to two different Malians to let them tell their own story and this is what they pictured.

Owa's Family

Awa the mother of my name sake.

Mali - A Recycling Program

2010-07-24T12:52:00.000-07:00

We are starting to collect empty water bags that are for sell here in Mali. The need to be washed and then we will make purses or other types of bags out of them. Here are some pictures from our first days.

Bogolan Training

2010-06-18T09:25:00.000-07:00

A volunteer in the village of Diola asked Koro to train a Women’s Association to make Bogolan. The Women’s Association takes in children who have become orphans because of AIDS. In the last year Koro has taken a training to expand her bogolan skills and now she would have the opportunity to train others.

When I first proposed this to Koro she seemed nervous this was a big step for her.

The bogolan business was booming so when the time came to prepare for the training it became more than we had bargained for. Koro had been offered 10.000 cfa a day for seven days, transportation to and from Diolla as well as room and board while she was at the training. This was a good income for Koro. She just needed to come up with a supplies and materials budget. This was not as easy as you would think. The mud which is the main dying compound needs fermenting for a long period of time in a large pot. Koro has had her pot fermenting mud for longer than I have known her. Most of the dying materials are natural plants.

We arrived in Diola with rice sacks full of plants, bark, and fabric along with paint brushes, plastic gloves, stencils, and everything Koro needed for the formation. Koro stayed with Nako the woman who runs the NGO that sponsored the training and I stayed with a fellow Peace Corps volunteer. I don’t know about Koro but I was nervous about how it was going to go. Koro and I mostly visit her family we don’t go into situations where things are not familiar.

At the start of the first day all my worries were over the women showed up enthusiastic. The big surprise for me was how much I learned and I watch bogolan being made every day. Koro started out making designs freehand going through all the color processes then moved into stencil work with applying the color white as the grand finale. We ate together, danced to gather, and made bogolan together and so much more.

At the closing ceremony the Mayor the Dugitigi, several NGO’s came and were presented with some bogolan material that the women made. Koro and I made many new friends. We contacted a woman who does trainings on how to make soap which will be my next project if I can squeeze it before I leave.

Seeing the Fruits of My Labor

2010-04-13T19:49:00.001-07:00

Today the second literacy serious held their graduation ceremony. Thirty five Malians received certificates. They learned adding, subtracting, multiplying, the metric system, reading, writing and some even wrote poetry. The mayor and the prefect (kinda like a county executive) came to the ceremony. I gave a speech in French. In the middle of the ceremony the Mayor presented me with a banner that read in Bambara “Kori de la pe Sababula Kucala boloa baara law ya kalan soro. Which means Peace Corps works with artisans of Koutiala.

This week Koro and I did math together. We were going over the cost of some new products for pricing and sales calculation. There have been many times in the past months that I tried to facilitate tracking expenses, reassessing prices, and just crunching the numbers as a routine business practice.

When I first arrived here in Koutiala I saw so many things the Bogolan Association could do to improve their business. In the last several weeks many of these have been implemented successfully. There were things like pricing, product development which included new motifs, colors, products, and marketing; business practices such as purchase pricing and sales calculations, just to name a few.

Last week Peace Corps held an In-service Training Session (IST). Koro spent several weeks preparing new products with all the skills she has been developing over the last year and a half. This includes new designs, new patterns and new colors. A lot of these skills were acquired during the bogolan training in Segou (which is known as the bogolan capital of Mali). We were going to the IST with this product debut for the Peace Corps volunteers to browse, buy and give feed back to improve. We didn’t sell as much as we wanted to but you never do, do you. Koro did get some good feed back manly on quality control.

What I didn’t know then that I know now is that no one in the Bogolan Association knew much math. As a Small Enterprise Development volunteer I did get some training in Illiterate Bookkeeping which seems like an oxymoron. Now that most of the Bogolan Association has gone through two of three series in the Literacy program they now know what we in the States would call basic math.

At the ceremony for the Literacy II class all of this came together for me so when the mayor presented me the bogolan banner I got so emotional I had to hold back the tears because tears just are not appropriate to cry in public here in Mali. I am going to miss everyone here so much.

Journee Internationale De La Femme 2010

2010-03-12T22:11:00.000-08:00

We celebrated here in Koutiala. I had my outfit made and was looking forward to the day. The night before I went by Koro’s for a visit. She had a head ache and said she was not going to participate in the next day’s festivities. I was so disappointed.

The next morning started with my usual bike ride. When I got home I left the house with the top of my IWD outfit and a skirt on my way to the market down the street. My host mom was dressed in her IWD outfit and invited me to go with her in the car. Now this doesn’t happen very often and I wasn’t sure where the celebration was so I took her up on the ride.

International Women's day is an important day in developing countries to rally people together for women's rights. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton identified equality for the world’s women and girls as the central challenge that will determine the peace and progress of the 21st century.

This year marks the 100th aniversary of International Women's day. In 1910, the first international women's conference was held in Copenhagen and countries around the world began celebrating the event annually beginning the following year. In places like China, Russia, Vietnam and Bulgaria, IWD is a national holiday today.

Every year, there is a theme to the day. The UN's theme for International Women's Day 2010 is Equal "rights, equal opportunities: Progress for all." Here in Koutiala there were two themes to this year’s IWD, one a National Malian theme because 2010 marks 50 years of Malian women’s freedom from colonial rule and the second a local Koutiala theme was Husbands helping their wives space the birth of their children for the health of the family. There were speakers, women from the audience giving testimonies, and theater skits with a woman dressed as a man that got a big response from the audience.

I sat with Fanta Diallo my host mom but kept an eye out for my friends the artisan women. Fanta was cooking the food for the event so she left when the time came and low and behold Koro showed up and stayed through lunch. At lunch time my friends the artisan women, Koro and I all ate lunch together. Even though my language is not that good we laughed, talked, and teased each other and just had fun together.

P.S. Kounandy is doing so much better this week.

Kounandy

2010-03-04T10:43:00.000-08:00

Kounandy my name sake was born September 2, 2009. Koro didn’t even know that Awa was pregnant I suspected but during training was told that Malian women don’t talk about pregnancies so I never said anything besides Awa never did get big so I shrugged my suspicious off. When Kounandy was born she was the smallest baby I have ever held. I worried that she wouldn’t make it.

I hold her everyday at work while her mother does bogolan. They fitini Kounandy and beleble Kounandy that’s little Kounandy and big Kounandy in Bambara. Kounandy has pissed on me, thrown up on me, and shit on me as well as laughed with me, slept in my arms, and blown bubbles at me.

The name Kounandy was given to me during training by my mom who named me Kounandy after her grandmother. Kounandy means lucky person in Bamabara. I feel it is a privilege to be named this and a privilege that Awa named her baby girl after me. The name is not as common as Fatamata, or Salamata; Kounandy its perfect for me

The worry I have for Kounandy’s well being comes from the fact that Mali’s infant mortality rate is one of the highest in the world. Mali is in sub-Saharan Africa one of the regions making “insufficient progress” towards improving an infants life.

The following are some rankings on infant mortality. These figures show that the situation is getting worst in Mali not better even with all the NGO’s and Peace Corps work. What is the answer I don’t know. I don’t even know what the answer is for this one infant my name sake.

2006 figures

USA ranked 33 under five 7.8

Iceland ranked number 1 under five 3.9

Mali 191 Under five mortality rate 199.7

Haiti 136

CIA’s 2009 estimates

Singapore 1 2.31 out of a thousand babies die within the first year

USA 46 6.26 out of a thousand babies die within the first year

Mali 217 102.05

Here in Koutiala, Mali the public hospital just received funds from a Belgium NGO to improve children’s nutrition in the region. This came out of stats that showed Koutiala as a high risk area for children’s nutrition.

UNICEF says that child survival programs are inexpensive, basic interventions that save the lives of children under five from the leading causes of child death and promote healthy and productive families and communities.

Today, almost 25,205 children under age five will die mostly from preventable or treatable causes. This is a loss of over nine million children each year. A majority of these child deaths are from everyday conditions. Pneumonia, treatable with 27 cents’ worth of antibiotics, accounts for almost one of every five deaths among children under age five each year. Diarrhea, treatable with 6 cents’ worth of oral rehydration salts, causes 17 percent of young children’s deaths. And more than one third of child deaths result from complications related to birth, a cluster of causes that includes tetanus, which is preventable with a $1.20 tetanus vaccine for the mother during pregnancy.

Kounandy is only one face of all the infants at risk, she is the one that has touched my heart.

Mali Notes

2010-02-07T22:14:00.000-08:00

You know those days the mind is wondering and your on automatic pilot going in the direction of the usual routine when you meant to go somewhere else. I had a morning like that. Saturday I left my house for my morning bike ride a little later than usual and started taking the turns for work. This just confirmed what I had been thinking. Everything has gotten routine.

Sitting at my favorite street food vendor at the market I noticed for the first time in a while that there was the usual dirty water and trash in the walkway and it didn’t take my appetite away any more.

It seems that I can still make the children cry. The other day sitting at work a young girl who was babysitting a baby for someone in the tailor school got sight of me grabbed the baby and ran into the tailor class. Awa the Bogolan apprentice saw the whole thing and started laughing. As I laughed I drew up my hands in a boogie man pose wrinkled my face and said mean toubab (technically a white French person its used for all white people today).

Koro is my best friend.

Road protocol still puzzles me when my daughter was here she told me I scared her every time I crossed the street. I have learned to think of the road in small sections to be navigated as opportunity presents its self and not wait for the whole way across to be cleared. This has been a especially useful in Bamako, the capital city. When making a turn either on a bicycle, moto or in a car you can actually give a hand signal and anything on the road will respect that and let you take small spaces of the road over to your destination. Another maneuver for turns is that you go across the road when the opportunity presents its self and ride on the shoulder on the wrong side of the road until your turn comes up. This scares me when I do it and when someone else does it.

Maybe it’s just that food is plentiful now but my cuisine repute has gotten better. The list includes French toast, Thai peanut sauce, Russian beet salad, and a variety of salad dressings. Today I even su su’ed something to cook. That’s a process using a big mortar and pastel thing made of wood and smashing vegetables to use in sauces.

My Malian name is Kounandy Diallo. Kounandy means privlidged one or lucky one. It was given to me by my home stay mother during training. I kept that name and changed my last name to Koro’s which is Diallo. Diallo is a Falani name, Falani’s herd cattle and many are still nomads in the northern regions of Mali but there are Falanis all over West Africa. Awa at work had a baby in October and named her daughter after me. She is so cute. At work I hold her so Awa can work when I am not busy.

With routine came homesickness. I miss my friends and family. Fortunately I can skype (internet phone service) and people back home can even call me. On New Years day I talked to my bicycling group in Marysville Washington. The internet has made the world a very small place.

BILAN D’ACTIVITES DE LA VOLONTAIRE DU CORPS

2009-12-14T14:46:00.000-08:00

Introduction :
Dans le cadre du renforcement de sa collaboration avec l’Artisanat du Mali, le Bureau National du Corps de la Paix du Mali met à la disposition de l’Union des associations d’Artisans et de la Chambre Consulaire de Métiers de Koutiala, un ou une Volontaire du Corps de la Paix. Ce dernier appuie et accompagne les OPA précitées en leurs apportant son expertise et son savoir faire. Pour la facilitation de l’exercice de ce travail, les OPA (UAAK et CCMK) fournissent deux homologues représentatifs de chaque Structure. Ceux-ci sont chargés de guider, d’introduire et de traduire au volontaire les idées de la conversion avec les artisans.

Ainsi un plan de travail couramment appelé Plan d’Action est établi et exécuté chaque année conjointement avec les présidents de l’UAAK/CCMK et d’Associations.

Ce présent rapport sans pourtant être exhaustif tente de ressortir les grands axes des activités réalisées au titre de l’année 2009.

I. Activités organisationnelles

1. Auto organisation :
La volontaire a assisté à plusieurs réunions mensuelles de bureaux et AG des Associations.
Les ateliers d’artisans visités ont bénéficié de son conseil en matière d’organisation de travail au sein de l’atelier.

2. Au niveau de l’UAAK/CCMK :
Définition d’un programme de travail avec les deux organismes (répartition des jours de travail entre homologues). Participation aux jours de séances de travail et aux réunions de l’UAAK/CCMK.

II. Activités d’appui aux associations et entreprises

2.1. Activités promotionnelles et commerciales :
Diagnostic des besoins de formation des Associations et Ateliers :
Chaque visite d’ateliers ou d’associations donne occasion à la volontaire de faire l’état des lieux de la situation trouvée sur place. Les difficultés élevant du cadre général c'est-à-dire communes aux ateliers sont traitées et traduites en besoins de formations ou de conseil. Certaines difficultés se résolvent en réunions d’échanges d’idées et d’informations entre personnes concertées et d’autres par formation.

Dans le cadre promotionnel :
La promotion du Bogolan :
Dans ce domaine contact a été pris avec un salon revendeur de bogolan de Ghana lors d’une mission de visite de Ghana de la Volontaire et Korotimi Diallo. De futures relations de partenariat sont en cours.

Une exposition de gammes de bogolan suivi d’explications sur ce que c’est que le bogolan a été faite par la volontaire en juin dernier en USA dans la Ville de Vashon.

De nouveaux modèles de sacs à main ont été confectionnés par la volontaire, un artisan tailleur a été formé sur la confection de ces sacs.

Une cliente fidèle de l’Association Bogolan de Koutiala du nom de Haoua Check a été rendue visite par la Volontaire lors de son passage à Oregon aux USA.

2.2. Activités de formation :
Les actions de formation de la période allant de janvier à ce jour portent entre autres sur :
- L’Extraction du beurre de karité : trente six (36) femmes issues des Associations d’artisans et des femmes rurales de onze (11) villages ont pris part à la dite formation. L’action de formation a porté sur la méthodologie d’extraction de beurre de karité de qualité et sans odeur susceptible d’être exporté hors du Mali.
- L’Alphabétisation : trente neuf (39) artisans de treize (13) Associations membres de l’UAAK et CCMK ont été formés aux méthodes d’écriture, de lecture et de calcul niveau i de la langue Bamanakan. La presque totalité de ses artisans ne savaient ni lire ni écrire dans aucune langue.
- Journée de travail avec la présidente de l’Association des Teinturières : la visite rendue à la présidente a permis à la volontaire et à son homologue de l’assister dans une séance d’imprégnation de support tissu (Bazin). Le travail de production de Bazin teint a été assisté durant toute la journée.
- Le renforcement de capacité des membres du bogolan : les membres de l’association bogolan de Koutiala a sur facilitation de la volontaire à participer à un atelier d’apprentissage de nouvels Design à Ségou pour cinq (5) jours. Hormis les matières d’œuvre et les frais d’hébergement et de transport la formation a été dispensée gratuitement.
- Développement de produits : un artisan tailleur partenaire de bogolan a été initié aux techniques de confection d’un nouveau type de produits (sacs à main).

2.3. Infrastructures et Equipements :
Le projet de Galerie des artisans de Koutiala a été revu et discuté avec les présidents de l’UAAK et CCMK. Un partenariat de collaboration a été établi entre ces Organes et l’Université d’Oregon aux USA. Des projets de plan de Galerie ont été faits à l’UAAK/CCMK
L’Atelier de l’Association bogolan a bénéficié de la part de la volontaire de petits matériels de travail.

III. autres Activités desfemmes :
La volontaire a participé à la célébration des festivités des journées de huit (8) mars et 31 juillet, journées de femmes travailleuses et Panafricaines.

IV. Difficultés rencontrées :
La principale difficulté rencontrée reste celle de la langue car la plupart des artisans et artisanes ne comprennent pas le français ni l’anglais, la volontaire également ne maîtrise pas la langue locale le Bamana kan.
L’autre difficulté demeure celle de l’offre de prestataires sur place. La plupart des prestataires résident hors de Koutiala ce qui contribue à élever souvent le coût de des formations.
V. Perspectives :
Elles portent sur :
- La finition et la recherche de partenaires au financement du projet de Galerie des Artisans et du Centre multifonctionnelle des femmes d’Alliance Couture.
- La formation en Alphabétisation Bamana Kan pour doter les artisans de compétences afin de pouvoir tenir l’administration correcte de leurs ateliers
- Une session de formation en lobbying à l’endroit des leaders artisans de Koutiala afin de renforcer leurs capacités de négociation avec les partenaires et l’administration publique
- L’organisation d’une Exposition vente de produits des artisans pour la consolidation de leurs marchés et la découverte de nouveaux clients

La Volontaire de Koutiala

Maridee dite Kounandy DIALLO

A LUNCH IS NOT JUST A LUNCH

2009-12-06T01:00:00.000-08:00

A LUNCH IS NOT JUST A LUNCH

After 17 months here in Mali I am stepping back and reflecting on what went on and looking at things beyond my work here. When I first arrived I surrendered to what ever came my way. At the time I thought I was doing it to help me to learn the language to and live here but in reflecting surrendering helped take in the deprivation of the culture that I would be living in for 27 months.

The food is the fist thing we Peace Corps volunteers realize has very little variation. Rice and sauce and rice and sauce for lunch and dinner as for breakfast there’s tea or coffee and French bread. The markets where we end up living don’t offer much variety either. If a volunteer is up north it is even worst, they get tô three times a day everyday. The first year I lost over 26 pounds some from being sick and some from just trying to figure how to eat nutritiously here in Mali. The Malians suu suu all their ingredients so even if there are vegetables in the sauce they have been pulverized and cooked into non recognizable form. When rainy season hit here in Koutiala and everyone went back to their village to farm there was hardly a tomato in town let alone some lettuce. Most of the packages I get from home have some kind of food in them. My food cravings started with a ceasar salad and ended with things I never eat at home like ham sandwichs. Going back to America for a month got back my appetite and some of the weight I lost.

Everyday I surrendered to what ever cames my way. If I was offered African tea I drank it, if I was to watch a sheep being slaughtered I watched it, if I was asked to walk miles around town to greet people I walked miles. I wear skirts that I would never wear back home. All that I could do to keep going everyday was to go along with what other people had in store for me, not my usual way of doing things.

All that I knew was different even my role as a volunteer. Peace Corps Mali handed me a card during training with the expectations of a Peace Corps Volunteer here is what it said

Commit for 27 months
Share/Learn skills
Be flexible expect hardships
Build trust integrate
You are on duty 24/7
Respect and cooperate with Malian partners
Work within Malian & US laws and rules of Peace Corps
Be responsible, protecting your health and safety
Bring Mali back to the US.

This seemed like a tall order and still does most days. On those days that it is too over whelming I just hide out in my house. Over whelming comes when the children yell Toubob boo, toubob boo over and over again where ever I go gets to me, when I can’t remember a word in French or Bambara, Its been months since I did something for myself (this being very American), maneuvering in another culture has exhausted my mind and body, I can’t face cooking tomatoes and onions for another meal and during hot season there is always the heat and the list goes on.

A big splurge was buying a broom with a handle on it. Others are when I have some else do my laundry because the thought of doing them by hand stooped over gives me a back ache just thinking about it, going over to Koro's for a meal and I don't have to cook or do the dishes or go shopping for that matter. Malians are so much better a cooking here then I am.

Recently I went to a photo show in Bamako the 8^th Bamako Encounter with the theme of Boarders this year. The deprivation that came through in the photographs brought tears to my eyes. The show reinforced the deprivation that I feel here in Mali everyday. This deprivation covers all parts of live, food, politics, health you name it Mali and Africa as a whole comes up short. I have tried to keep my blog on a positive note to show my love of Mali and it’s people but I do want to give people a glimpse of the hardships, of the deprivation endured by everyone in Mali. Yet I wouldn’t have missed this experience for the world.

The Face of Poverty

2009-11-30T07:44:00.001-08:00

Historically the world has been trying to “relief” poverty for many centuries. The three concepts used to define poverty since the 1880’s include subsistence, basic needs and relative deprivation. In a collective where I worked for four years we debated the difference between wants and needs every time we processed our pay. The debate became heated every time. How do you define wants and needs and how would you measure substance, basic needs and relative deprivation which in some form have been and still is at the center of defining and measuring poverty. Do your own experiment when you are out with friends start a discussion on what each person believes are their needs as opposed to their wants.

Today alternative perspectives have refocused the concept of poverty as a human condition that reflects failures in many dimensions of human life – hunger, unemployment, homelessness, illness and health care, powerlessness and victimization, and social injustice; they all add up to an assault on human dignity. Working against any aspect that assaults human dignity is why so many development organizations focus programs on gender and development as it relates to poverty. Measuring only subsistence, basic needs, and relative deprivation without looking at social needs is inadequate particularly when measuring gender inequality. As Peace Corps volunteers I believe one of our biggest impacts is on the social needs of our communities both where we work and back home. Poor people are not just the victims of a misdistribution of resources but, more exactly, they lack, or are denied, the resources to fulfill social demands Looking around in my community of Koutiala I am aware that most of the women in affluent families have more freedom to have a career, choose their husband, and are able to meet more social needs then their less advantaged counterparts. In doing gender and development work our main goal is to relief poverty by giving women the ability to meet social needs for a full and happy life with opportunities. Thus the means of giving women access to meet social needs leads to the end of poverty for the whole community. Working to end poverty needs a multiplicity approach to the solution.

In asking the question what is poverty we need to ask the question, “What is Income?” In my home town of Seattle many people do bartering for a lot of their needs and have little income. There was a time that I helped start a food coop, a women’s health clinic, and day care center to improve the lives of people in my community. As an active member of these organizations I did not pay for healthcare which I could not afford, I got a discount on the food I ate, and even though I didn’t have children at the time a woman in my household was included in my family and got a discount on her child care. My income was way below the poverty level for 1974 America. Yet I had access to health care, was well fed and since I lived in a collective house hold I had very good housing. Thus poverty can not be determined by income alone but by some other means.

Let’s look at International Development and how it addresses the issue of poverty. In the new millennium development theory has gotten so complex and some call sophisticated that the United Nations has developed a program called the Millennium Campaign with eight goals to end poverty to be accomplished by 2015. These goals are measured by 48 indicators. They never mention the views of poor people and what poor people consider poor or talk to them about what they have, what they need or what they want. The agencies defining poverty include the United Nations and the World Bank. My questions to the development businesses are; How will development end poverty; Who sets the standard for what is developed; If the developed world keeps raising the bar how is the rest of the world going to catch up; When are you going to empower the people.

When a good friend of mine died several years ago because she lacked access to health care I wondered what poverty looked like in America. In the US there are people who can hardly read, live on minimal wages and don’t have access to health care. Today in America we are all faced with the question of who has access to health care. Access to health care is one component in measuring and defining poverty the world over. We throw the rhetoric around but what is poverty and what does it look like, is it different in the US than in other parts of the world. Since coming to Africa this question of poverty is on my mind everyday.

Some Peace Corps volunteers made comments during training that started me thinking about what influences us as Americans when we define poverty. One volunteer who lived in a good size house with a single mother of four, all girls, made the comment that the family would be on welfare if they lived in America. Another volunteer said that his family just didn’t have much money. The first volunteer’s family had the best food of all our families, the oldest daughter was in higher education and hoped to get a job in a bank, all the girls were well dressed, the family had a TV, and nice living room. The second volunteer’s host parents were school teachers; one son was in nursing school. They were building a house for retirement. This started me thinking, as Americans by what standards do we see and define poverty.

Another incident that got me thinking about what is poverty came one evening in Abidjan as I was sitting around the court yard with four Africans most of them Malians. We talked until the wee hours of the night. One person was a teacher of physics, one a law student, one a bogolan artist and one was unemployed. We sat around on wooden benches in a courtyard cluttered with kitchen utensils and crowded with people. These people were not at the bottom of the scale of have’s and have not’s in Africa. As we talked the rats ran in the urinal, through the kitchen and where else I don’t know. Thirty people lived in this court yard habitat all of them related in some way. I was visiting here for several days with Koro, the bogolan artist, we are good friends.

I don’t know if any of the people I work with here in Mali would fit the UN’s or World Bank’s definition of poor but when I go to Koro’s house just blocks from where I live and she has no electricity, no running water and her and her husband live in two rooms with minimal furniture I am aware that she has none of the conveniences of the Western World.. I eat over at Koro’s several times a week and am well fed. I even went to the hospital with Koro when she had a bad cut on her foot; she recovered but paid for the visit out of her pocket. Most of the children I know don’t have toys; run around in minimal clothing; and are not getting a very good education. But I ask myself on a daily basis are these people poor.

So far I have not come up with the answer of “What is Poverty.” But where would you draw the poverty line? Would you look at family income, at the nutritional intake, the clothes they’re wearing, what furniture is in the house, do they sleep in beds or on the floor, can they read or write, are they healthy. How would you separate out your western conceptions of the “good life” from what is needed and what is wanted?

The Niger River

2009-11-20T08:36:00.000-08:00

Its been a hole year that I have waited to take a boat up the Niger River here. Coming from the Northwest I miss the water, the boats and the reflections the sun rises on the water.

The Niger River brings mythical images of ancient times. Whether things have changed much over the last several centuries. Many of the boats have motors. You can see western dress on some of the people although many are dressed in traditional clothing from their regions.

The connection to Timbuktu just fed the imagination. Many people think Timbuktu is a mythical place that does not exist. When you tell someone you’re going to

Mali

they get a blank look on their face and ask where is that. I respond by saying it’s the country where Timbuktu is.

The culture and language gets more diverse as you head north. Bambara the dominant language of Mali is hardly spoken up there. In Dogon Country alone there are hundreds of dialects with each village having their own. That's just the gateway to the northern regions of Mali.

The boat we took was a little more upscale then I had envisioned but the landscape and the people were amazing. We left in the dark with a bustle of people, animals and goods being loaded for the voyage. Our accommodations did not include anything but a deck on board the ship. We fortunately took a scenic spot where river life unfolded starting every morning with the first light becoming muffled every night.

Every morning I woke with the first light then witnessed the sun rising over the lush green flood plain of the Niger River. Even thought it hadn’t rained in several weeks the water ways this far north flooded out into seasonal lakes stocked with an abundance of animal and plant life. People took a back stage living with the bare minimum of land.

How the captain navigated through the main channel is beyond me. Most of the water ways are shallow yet we only came grounded once. We were heading to the boundary of the Sahara Desert surrounded by water and green as far as the eye could see. This is not the Mali I live in. How refreshing to see another side of a great country.

Photography Malian Style

2009-11-20T08:25:00.000-08:00

Mali has a long history of photography. The pinhole camera is an important part of that history. Lani and I found a man on the street in Mopti that had one. The best we could tell he mostly did passport photos for Malians. He displayed one photo of other tourist posted on his camera.

We sat on the bench poised waiting fascinated by every move he made. First he mixed the developing chemicals in little plastic bottle bottoms and placed them in the camera. The whole process would be done in the camera by feel. The camera took pictures and became a dark room for developing the photos.

He set the lens on the focusing mode looked through the black fabric at the back turning the lens just right. He put the lens cap back on turned the lens setting to the right exposure took the lens cap for just the right amount of time. He got busy with both hands in the camera through the black fabric so we could only conclude that he was developing. What he came out with was a negative print of us. He placed the negative on a holder set the lens to the focus mode followed by setting the lens with an exposure mode and again developed some photos. This time the photo came out a positive.

The pictures here are copies this one of the negative and the other a copy of the copy of the negative. We paid our 1,000 Cfa (about two dollars) for each print. We got two prints one for each one of us and he through in the negative for free. As a photographer that was the real treat.

Another photo phenomena is the photo studio, the portraits at weddings, holidays, and baptisms. Koro took me to met Photo John during our meet the artisans of Koutiala marathon. Photo John has a big studio at a major intersection in town. He has an automated printing machine, a computer that he showed me some incredible touching up jobs on old photos. Photo John invited me and Koro next to his portrait studio. He tried several back drops before settling on the one he thought would be the best. Several days later Koro showed up with some prints for both of us. Months later as we waited for the bus to Ghana a man started talking to us he spoke somewhat good english and said he was from Ghana and going to Ghana. He recognized us from our photos on the wall at Photo Johns where he worked. Again this is a copy of a print didn't turn out too well did it.

As a photographer I did not give the art of photography here in Mali the scholarly attention it deserved. In neither an art history context nor as an anthropology cultural phenomenon. Photography here in Mali has been shaped and reshaped in order to fit into the local fabric of imaging and imagining. People are at the center of Malian life so it makes sense that the art of photography centers around people and major events in their lives. I caught myself between the art form, the technology and the culture. We have a saying in Peace Corp "Cross Cultural." Cross cultural studies is a major part of our training. How to apply that in everything we come across depends on our outlook and understanding. And as my outlook and understanding expands so does my ideas of things I run across in my everyday life here in Mali.

Full Circle

2009-10-31T09:28:00.000-07:00

Two bogolan artists and I just came back from a training in Segou, a town 159 kilometers north of Koutiala. As I reflect on the training one of the first activities I did with Koro and Awa comes to mind. The activity was the first time I introduced product development and as it turns out was a good introduction to the Segou training. In this introduction Koro, Awa and I went to the computer place, googled bogolan and looked at products made from bogolan clothe.

The goal of the internet session was to look at what bogolan artist were exporting. You could call it “Product Development 101.” We saw greens, reds and yellows not used by Koutiala bogolan artists. We saw purses made of straw and leather with bogolan accents. We saw candle holders, photo books, wallets and much more with a dash of bogolan From that day on one of my goals for the bogolan artists here in Koutiala was to think outside the box and explore new ideas. How to accomplish this at the time seemed out of reach.

Early on I had a bag made by the leather guy at the market with a bogolan accent around the middle. When Koro saw it her only comment was “Oh that’s nice.” I carried the bag around town for a while but it didn’t seem to inspire the artists to try something new. As time went on the goals expanded to talking about quality control, sizing the scarves differently, thinking about new techniques, how to display the products and the list goes on and on.

The Segou training only cost $30 for materials and came out of a networking trip back in May when I went to every bogolan gallery in Segou and asked the people if they did trainings. At the Soroble Cener Mr. Coulibaly responded enthusiastically. Since May several volunteers told me that Mr. Coulibaly had talked to them and was willing to do the training for free and he wondered why no one had called him. Things have been so busy here calling him back took several months but I was glad when I did because this training was one of the most successful projects to date.

During the training the artisans learned to dye 10 colors, use different processes to make the dyes, they learned different techniques for applying the white and black, and Koro set up an agreement to buy scarf material from the Soroble Center. The material is finer cotton and the size is perfect for scarves.

Many ideas and projects fell into place with this Segou training. The supply and equipment project funding came through just before we left. During the training the bogolan artists observed the equipment and supplies that were well maintained and some used in different ways than the Koutiala artisans use them.

Upon returning Koro and the man who weaves the fabric talked about how the scarf fabric could be made here in Koutiala. They measured the size of the scarf material and talked about getting better quality thread. We started right away at replacing some supplies and equipment that make good quality production possible.

The Koutiala Bogolan Association has come a long way to making new and better products from that first exploration on the internet. All of the trainings including the literacy training have made the bogolan artist better prepared and closer to their dream of exporting more products. I would like to thank the three people who donated to the Supplies and Materials project through he Peace Corps’ website and all of the people that support me back home, I could not do this work with out all of you.

Just need a few of you to help out

2009-09-29T22:21:00.000-07:00

In a couple of weeks the Bogolan Association will be going to Segou to participate in a week long training that Segou bogolan artist are gracously offering for free to help out their fellow Malians. Since my National Counterpart Koro who helped me intergrate into the community and has been a major help on all my projects here is a Bogolan artist my next few projects will be focused on helping the Bogolan Association of Koutiala.

Before we begin this next phase the bogolan artists are in great need of new equipment and supplies. Thier main work table top is roating, the other tables are ready to fall apart and if they repair any of thier stenciles one more time the quality of their work will not be exportable.

I would like to ask some of you to go to http://www.peacecorps.gov/ click on "Donate Now" in left menu and search for Mali. I am asking for $138 for supplies for the bogolan artists. It is not much but will mean so much to the people I work with.

Thank all of you who have helped get me to where I am today I could not do my service without all the support of my friends and family back home.

Ghana and Beyond

2009-09-28T22:13:00.000-07:00

Months ago I suggested to Koro that we go to Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire to visit her family and then I would go on to Accra, Ghana to meet Lani to travel around. This would have been the perfect way to go. Koro wanted to stay in Koutiala for the feast at the end of Ramadan so we left two days later which meant Koro came to Ghana with me and I couldn't meet Lani at the airport, this made me nervous.

As we approached the boarder of Burkina Faso I called another volunteer who was heading down to Ghana where we had made plans to meet at a hotel. She only agreed to meet Lani if things went
well when she arrived in Accra. At least she didn't say no right off.

Koro and I spent the night in a bus station in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. In the morning we took off for Ghana. When the Ghanaian boarder was within an hour the thought crossed my mind that Koro had never been in a country with different currency. You see many West African countries including Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Togo, Senegal, Niger, Guinea-Bissau use the West African CFA Franc. This startled Koro's new experiences.

In Ghana the national language is English, I am not sure how many local languages there are. Not many people speak good English so the language even challenged me. For Koro this meant that she didn't have people to talk to and my French is not that good. Even finding food in Ghana that Koro would eat became a challenge. Malians are not an adventurous people when it comes to breaking out of routine. Malian routines are like their rituals that haven't changed in decades, in centuries particularly at the village level.

My friend did meet Lani at the airport. Koro and I arrived in Accra about 4 am sleeping on the bus until taxis started their day on the streets. Arriving at the hotel Emily and Lani had got acquainted and a good nights sleep. Lani, Emily and I decided to go out to eat and Koro stayed at the hotel to get some sleep. This hotel was too expensive so Koro, Lani and I moved to the Salavation Army and Emily stayed with a friend.

The next morning Lani and I took Koro to a bus station to get her on a bus for Cote d'Ivoire but the bus only leaves Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 4:30 am this was Saturday. We ran with the flow and headed to Cape Coast. Koro didn't seem very happy about all this and even got a little cranky she wanted to stay in Accra.

Cape Coast lies on the Ghana shoreline with a rich history during the time of slave trading. Walking around we found some bogolan in one of the artisan stands. I introduced Koro as a bogolan artist from Mali and asked the guy if he was interested in buying some. He said come back later in the day. We also found a fair trade retail store where all three of us bought some kind of a bag made from plastic water bags. The store even had some shea soap that I pointed out to Koro.

Later that day Lani went for a walk and Koro and I went to try and sell some Bogolan. When got there the guy said that he lent his money to a friend because the fish catch for the day was good so everyone in town bought fish. He said he would go and get his friend who might be interested in buying the bogolan. His friend showed with dreads and speaking both bambara and french, he is from Burkina Faso. Koro and I went over to his store. He makes musical instruments. We sat and visited in the usual Malian fashion.

Koro negotiated price and talked about home. The guy has lived in Mali, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Senegal and now Ghana.

After Cape Coast Koro went to Cote d'Voir and Lani and I continued on to Kumasi, Hohao, and up to my friend Rhoda's village in the Volta region of Ghana. This region is situated on the Togo boarder and during rainy season which is when we were there is green lush cool with water falls and hilly terrain. We hiked, Lani cooked us great meals and we visited with Rhoda and her site mate Leanne for a whole weekend.

What a great visit with Rhoda. It was hard to leave and head back to the big city of Accra where we had business to attend to and arrange the bus transportation to Cote d'Ivoir. We have figured out public transport in Accra so taking taxis is at a minimum. The bus for Abidjan leaves at 4 am, we report to the station at 3:30 am. As usual the bus left at 5 am. The ticket price was 1.000 cfa for the bus and 8.000 cfa for the boarder crossing bribes and as we found out there is a person at the boarder that does nothing but gets us trough the board. This frontier was the most guarded so far. The way we breezed through in three hours I would say the bribing worked.

In Abidjan we did nothing but visit with Koro's family. They are the greatest people. We were fed good, they took us around to artisan places, and when we left we got a ride in a truck and several of the women Lani's age took a taxi to the bus station to see us off. This was a great
brake from the heat and hardships of Mali.

The elders of the family. Lani and I estimated that about thirty family members lived in the household and there was a serious of three household where we were and more accross the street. Koro's family just goes on and on. We even went to Yamoussoukro to visit Koro's sister for a night.

Dancing at Weddings

2009-09-22T06:22:00.000-07:00

Many have asked what some of my favorite things here in Mali are. Here is my doing my favorite thing Dancing with women at weddings.

Celebrating the Literacy Formation

2009-09-03T21:29:00.000-07:00

The participants showed their enthusiasm by coming to class regularly and on time and did good work. And let me tell you for a Malian to come on time is a big deal.

So when they wanted to send out invitations for the closing celebration to the Prefet (county executive) and the Mayor as well as many other community leaders I did not hesitate to use some of the left over money to help make the closing celebration a big one.

For me this meant that I had to participate more then I have in the past. This last year at all public events I have been asked to say a couple of words. I usually answer “Non Merci.” Language has been my biggest struggle in my Peace Corps Service. But since I knew all the officials in Koutiala were coming my language tutor Sadio helped prepare and practice a speech. Here is what I said.

Monsieur le Préfet de Koutiala,

Monsieur le Maire de Koutiala,

Mesdames et Messiers. Bonjour

C’etait un grand plaisir pour moi d’être parmis les organisateurs de

Cette formation.

L’alphabéisation ouvre de nouvelles opportunités.

Je voudrais remercier l’Union, la chamber des métiers et le

RAC pour tout leur travail. Merci.

Not much but saying a couple of words made everyone there so happy it was well worth it and will be easier next time.

The celebration gave back to me so much of what I have given in the last year. There are little things on a daily basis but this with so people that had been touched overwhelmed me. I held back the tears, Malians don’t cry in public and they sure would not understand tears of joy.

The participants in the literacy class would not be considered the poor in Mali, many have moto’s most have cell phones but they could not read, write or do math and they sure didn’t know French. Making money in Mali obviously does not depend solely on knowing how to read and write. This made me think of the times this last year when someone in the market didn’t give me the right change. At the time I thought I misunderstood the price that we had negotiated but after this class I am not sure that merchants in the market know who to give change out.

As we say in Mali things happen dunnie dunnie.

The Diary of a Sewing Machine

2009-08-25T08:39:00.000-07:00

From the first day of seeing the peddled sewing machines here in Mali I wanted to get my hands on one and sew away. At home sewing is relaxing, an escape, a way to create. In Mali with the fabrics there seemed like so much potential to create. Then there were the irons that heated up with charcoal the vision that came to mind wuth the possibility of using one of these was medieval times, a time with different sources for the creative energy. Yes I am a dreamer.

Every volunteer here in Mali tells a story of a tailor botching a sewing job. Its not that their bad tailors it just that volunteers try new and foreign designs out on them and it really isn’t something they have been trained for. Another volunteer bought a sewing machine; it cost 30,000 about $60. That’s a lot of money for a volunteer. I did my blotched tailor jobs over with hand stitching.

Going to America gave me the opportunity to bring back some purse patterns. One of my objectives for the Bogolan Association has been to help with product development. The day I arrived in Koutiala I showed Koro the patterns and told her I wanted a sewing machine to make purses out of Bogolan. She said she would see what she could do.

The next day Koro talked to the President of the UAAK and told him what I wanted to do. He seemed to think it would be no problem but Koro still had follow Malian protocol. She talked to the President of the Chamber des Metiers too. Then she talked to the president of the Sewing Association Ami.

Ami (on the right) has been around since my first day and we are joking cousins. Joking cousins is a cultural way of getting to know someone and sharing your heritage. You can also call on joking cousins to resolve a dispute. Always good to have some around, they will usually help you in any way possible.

The Women’s Association came next in the change of protocol. Luckily Ami and her best friend Jenibob are actively in leadership with the association so no problem there.

Last but not least we attended a Sewing Association meeting. The meeting was the first association meeting I even knew about, for a year I have been wanting to attend more meetings. Not that I understand everything that is going on but they would give me a feel for the organizational structure. I guess going through the protocol to get this sewing machine has given me an idea of the organizational structure which just goes to show the sewing machine idea will full many objectives some have yet to be revealed.

Right after the meeting Koro, me and a member of the Sewing Association hired a push cart and went and got the sewing machine.

Mali protest against women's law

2009-08-22T23:42:00.000-07:00

Fresh off the press from BBC News

Tens of thousands of people in Mali's capital, Bamako, have been protesting against a new law which gives women equal rights in marriage.

The law, passed earlier this month, also strengthens inheritance rights for women and children born out of wedlock.

The head of a Muslim women's association says only a minority of Malian women - "the intellectuals" as she put it - supports the law.

Several other protests have taken place in other parts of the country.

The law was adopted by the Malian parliament at the beginning of August, and has yet to be signed into force by the president.

One of the most contentious issues in the new legislation is that women are no longer required to obey their husbands.

Hadja Sapiato Dembele of the National Union of Muslim Women's Associations said the law goes against Islamic principles.

"We have to stick to the Koran," Ms Dembele told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme. "A man must protect his wife, a wife must obey her husband."

"It's a tiny minority of women here that wants this new law - the intellectuals. The poor and illiterate women of this country - the real Muslims - are against it," she added.

Literacy in Mali, Or Not.......

2009-08-16T06:03:00.000-07:00

My dream is that someday everyone can at least write their name and do simple math.
Most of the artisans here in Koutiala can’t write their own name. When the Union of Associations of Artisans of Koutiala (UAAK) has a meeting and the sign up sheet goes around some one who can write follows it around to write the names of the people who can’t.

The Peace Corps initiated the Shea Butter formation I organized last April because USAID offered a free trainer. USAID selects several initiatives, Sea being one of them. The Peace Corps in partnership with USAID trains the Small Enterprise Development and Environment sectors in processing Shea.

Even though the Sha training was a huge success I didn’t feel that it was a priority of the people I work with. The literacy formation however was a grassroots idea. The UAAK wrote the proposal including the budget. They even had a trainer who was available and well qualified. Koro (if you don’t know by now is my homologue and best friend here in Mali) and I agree that doing a literacy formation annually would be a great idea.

Figuring out what to do has not always easy. The first three months I fretted over how, what and who should I focus on in my service. When Macki my APCD came to site he helped by saying that I didn’t need to work with everyone and could focus on the Bogolan Association if that is what I wanted to do. During all this time weighing what I think “They” need and what they think they need was a challenge. With this literacy training I feel like I have reached out to all the people I came here to help.

In the literacy classes they are learning to read and write in Bamabara the local language as well as doing basic math. Two thirds of the class are women.

West Africa has a huge illiteracy population. It is even a bigger problem among women. In Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger still fewer than three in ten young women aged 15 to 24 can read and write. Not one of the nine countries here in West Africa with literacy rates below 50% in 2000-
2006 is expected to reach 50% literacy by 2015.

Mali the stats for total literacy rate among adults ages 15-49 is 23%; Male literacy rate 31%; Female literacy rate 16%;

Peace Corps Mali has stepped up their Education sector this year with 15 new volunteers. In my stage there were only six. When all us volunteers no matter what our sector do something about illiteracy here in Mali my dream may come true.

Koutiala Artisan Center Project

2009-07-14T14:17:00.000-07:00

Gwynne’s Concept

A design studio class at the University of Oregon with the help of professor Naoto Sekiguchi is collaborating with me a Peace Corps Volunteer to generate design proposals for a new artisans’ center in Koutiala, Mali.

There are just some projects that come along that everyone involved is excited about. The exchange with the University of Oregon Architecture School is one of those projects. Carmen, a volunteer was visiting Koutiala who I knew was an Architect graduate and it just so happens that the Union of Associations of Artisans of Koutiala has several building projects coming up. Carmen got excited from the very start and that excitement has carried on through all the phases and all the people involved.

Here is the link to the project's website, www.uoarchkoutiala.com. The photos are examples of the student's ideas.

By Stacy Hsu

Sharing information on

Mali

and my work is always rewarding. This project has not only been rewarding but touches on all three Peace Corps' Goals;

To help the people of interested countries meeting their need for trained men and women.
To help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of people they serve.
To help promote a better understanding of other people on the part of Americans.

Watch for updates on this project and visit the website there is more information on Mali there then anywhere else I have seen. Enjoy!

Ameriki

2009-06-23T06:46:00.000-07:00

Went home to Vashon Island in Washington. My father became ill in Hawaii where I am from and the hospital called and said get there fast before he passed away, which he did within hours of my arrival. This gave me the opportunity to come to the Northwest to see my daughter and friends.

Even though I was not in Mali my Peace Corps work continued. Giraffe a fair trade retailer had agreed to highlight Malian Bogolan during July's First Friday Art Walk. Priscilla the owner is also interested in helping out with design and product development. She has an idea for an upscale purse made from multimedia.

Giraffe is committed to supporting alternative methods of business that emphasizes sustainable and equitable living wages for artisans all around the world. Goals that she shares with the Bogolan Association of Koutiala. For all you on Vashon here is link to Giraffe's website; www.giraffevashon.com

Working with the Bogolan Association for the last year the artisans have focused on export ready skills as defined by the West African Trade Hub and Aid to Artisans. The skills include managing a bank account, processing an order with invoices and packing slips, quality control during production, and product design and development. Transportation has been a big obstacle in exporting. Partnering up with Priscilla at Giraffe is a great opportunity to developing products and a great outlet for exporting the goods.

Another work related task I planned was to visiting a Malian woman who has been buying products from the Bogolan Association for several years. She lives in Oregon and has been a great resource. It was a great visit we talked about bogolan and other export opportunities. Haoua Cheick understands where Malians are coming from yet helps me know what I need to work on with the group.

As one of my projects I hope to have a series of trainings such as product design, how to process an order, what does exporting intail, and tech exchanges with other bogolan and soap making places in Sagou. Sagou is a big tourist town here in Mali and the artisans there are much more developed as far as products and exporting.

It's not just the Work

2009-04-27T23:47:00.000-07:00

It’s been a while since I have written an update. Things have been busy here in Koutiala.

Also it’s been 103 plus degrees every day for a while. The good part is that I have been waiting nine months for mango pancakes and finally along with hot season comes mango season. We eat mangos for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I haven’t experienced anything like this since I was a kid in Hawaii.

As for my work I am still very busy. When I first came here there was no way I could see how I could help the people I was meeting. I didn’t know the language, the customs, the office politics, when the holidays were and I didn’t need to go to work. I barely knew how to buy and cook the food that was available.

Today months later the work is overwhelming. The bogolan artisans need to do some work to get export ready. The UAAK has asked for help with a literacy formation, the women at the NGO that does Gender and development would like to do a joint project and if that won’t keep me busy there is an NGO here that does AIDS/HIV work that has been wanting a volunteer for some time. (And all volunteers are supposed to be working on this issue.)

My schedule goes like this Monday’s I meet with Omar to speak English, Tuesday morning Omar and I do Jr. Achievement at a fifth grade class, Tuesday afternoon I go to the NGO for the women’s group, Wednesday I spend the morning at the Bogolan workplace, Thursday is market day here in Koutiala and language class, Friday morning is language class. In my spare time I visit the Union of Associations of Artisans of Koutiala and planned a formation on Shea Butter, wrote articles on Gender and Development for the Mali Rag (the volunteer newsletter), attended Gender and Development Committee meetings since I was elected as the Training/Research coordinator for the committee.

It isn’t just work, the people have found their way into my heart. When the women at the Shea Butter formation broke out into song I was almost in tears.

In my travels around the world I have searched for the words to express the joy found even in the poorest countries. Reading Thoreau’s Walden I found them;

However mean your life is meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as your are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poor-house. The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man’s abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring.

This sums up what I see in the poorest people of the world. Through what lenses is poverty defined and how do you know when something is acceptable and when it is intolerable.

International Women's Day

2009-03-11T07:43:00.000-07:00

International Women's day is a big deal in Mali. Last when I arrived in Mali I remember seeing IWD fabric and promised myself that I was going to get an outfit for IWD 2009. So here is Koro my homologue and me in our matching outfits. In the morning Koro and I walked all around town buying food for the mid day meal. All the Malians kept commenting on us. The women where I buy my lettece all came up and spoke to us when we were ther to get some food. Koro and Awa cooked a feast for the mid day meal. We had chicken, salad, french fries and Mali Koolaid. After the mid day meal I went home for a short nap. It's been getting up to 98-100 degrees in the afternoon. We all went to the festival at the Women's Association of Koutiala. Most of the women were dressed in the IWD fabric, we listened to speakers including the Mayor of Koutiala. There were some Balafon instruments and we all danced until dark.
Music and dancing is an important part of any celebration here in Mali. Women dancing is a commen place event.
Even the girls get into the act

A good time was had by all.

Gender and Development (GAD)

2009-02-21T10:39:00.000-08:00

It all started with a session during Post Service Training (PST) on GAD. The training left mes thinking. I started researching on the internet on what GAD means and what kind of activities people who work in development do to promote gender and development.

During In Service Training two GAD committee meetings were scheduled. Out of that came ideas and a plan to meet at least quarterly. This can be hard since many volunteers need a day or two to travel anywhere here in Mali and places to stay when they get to Bamako or where ever the meeting is going to take place.

Koro, my homologue attended one of these meetings and asked a volunteer who's Bamabara was good to explain what GAD was. When I got back to Koutiala Koro set me up with an NGO that does GAD work. So every Tuesday afternoon I go and attend a group that teaches women and leadership as well as dealing with some hard issues such as female excision and birth control.

When the announcement of a West African Gender and Development conference sponsored by Peace Corps Volunteers in Senegal I emailed the Country Director right away to get on the list of participants. Here is a link to SeneGAD's website http://senegad.org/index.html. The conference had a lot of good information and stimulated a lot of ideas.

Peace Corps Mali has a long way to go to establishing a GAD committee but hopefully we have several dedicated volunteers that will see this project through.

One study I read is quoted as saying;

"The poverty reduction agenda, in particular, would benefit from paying attention to gender issues. One study (Klasen 1999, cited in World Bank 2001) estimates that if the countries in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East and North Africa had addressed their gender gap in schooling similarly to East Asia—which began tackling the issue in 1960 and closed the gap by 1992—their income per capita could have grown by 0.5–0.9 percentage points"

Since Mali is in Sub-Saharan Africa this would apply to all of us doing Gender and Development work here. And it's true the educated people speak French and so far I have met very few women artisans who speak French, many can't read or write.

This work seems overwhelming so I try to look at the little things that seem to be making a difference and hope that I can contribute.

In Service Training Bamako

2009-02-06T08:32:00.000-08:00

After three weeks in Bamako for an in service training. Back in Koutiala a cloud of dust has settled over the city and it hasn't rained in four months. The temperatures have ranged from 41 to 94 degrees.

The trip to IST started from Koutiala at 8:00 am in the morning. About mid morning the bus broke down and low and behold they did a break job in an hour and a half and we were on our way. This bus ride was a big improvement to our 20 hour bus ride going to Mopti. The bus from Koutiala to Mopti should takes six hours, we spent the night on the side of the road because the bus was broken down. Got to love West African transportation.

This is how my IST started. I met my stage (training group) at Tubaniso in January for more training. I call Tubaniso “Camp Peace Corps” because we stay in dorms three to a room, eat in a cafeteria, and our time is not our own.

The first two weeks we were there without our homologues. Small Enterprise Development has sessions on accounting Malian style, illiterate accounting, along with sessions on our sub-sectors of Tourism, Artisans, and Government. I work with artisans. There many field trips planned and I went to the National Tourist Artisan organization in Bamako and a radio station.

Several days I escaped to Bamako. Since I brought my bicycle this turned out to be real easy as well as a good way to get to the capital city. The first day I went in the same circle three times. Giving directions here is hard with virtually no street signs, people not wanting to disappoint you so they tell you how to get somewhere when they don’t necessarily know themselves. Finally realizing the med unit was close to the Niger River I headed that way until things looked familiar.

Many volunteers met during IST to start forming a Gender and Development committee and/or sector here in Mali. In February 2009 Peace Corps Senegal is hosting a Gender and Development conference that Peace Corps Mali has given me permission to attend. I am looking forward to this opportunity.

Koro, my homologue received a certificate for attending and I gave a speech at the closing ceremony. Now it is so good to be back in Koutiala, Home Sweet Home.

I have processed arrival

2009-01-20T01:36:00.000-08:00

It only took six months. Mali now feels like home. Sickness doesn’t plaque me everyday. My homologue (Malian counterpart) is one of my best friends. Drinking tea with the Bogolan women is one of my favorite things, I like mine with a touch of mint. Malians are more interesting than hanging out with than PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers). A seasoned volunteer told me I was in the honeymoon phase when I told her I love living in Mali.

For Christmas I went on a three day hike with other volunteers up in Dogon Country. It was amazing. Being out up and down the cliffs, walking through villages, dancing with Malians at night and hanging out with other volunteers made my Christmas Holidays. It didn’t matter that the bus ride getting there took 20 hours when it should have taken six.

When I got home to Koutiala it felt like I had come home to my own bed happy to cook for myself again. The first thing I did was go around town and great the people I see everyday. I even went to the UAAK (my work place) and there were some of the people I see every day there hanging out, we were glad to see each other.

Currently I am at Tubaniso again for three week training on technical SED (Small Enterprise Development) and language. A week into it and I am home sick for Koutiala. I miss sitting around with the Bogolan women and drinking tea all morning, I miss going to the market and seeing “my friends” that I buy food from, I miss the boutiquie guy who helps with my Bambara and I miss Mali. Here at Tubaniso except for the few Malian trainers its all American, even the food is not all rice and sauce.

Training has taught me that I am right on track with my work. We had a whole day section on exporting. Many of us working with Artisans who want to export may only work at getting the artisans export ready, which matches some of the objectives I have been working on in Koutiala. Also many volunteers get restless because work here is slower that in America and people are intergraded in their work and social life. Talking with a second year volunteer she said that for the first year our work is 80% social and 20% work and at the first year mark that could change to as much at 60% social and 40% work depending on if the volunteer is in a village or city and what sector their in.

My day starts out with a bike ride followed by potato and eggs for breakfast. I take a fast shower before heading off to work. At work I hang out with the Bogolan women. Occasionally one of the three official employees asks for help with a computer problem or I ask them for information. My work is a lot of brainstorming with myself. Currently I am writing letters to a couple of small shops on Vashon it see if they will sell some of the bogolan the women I work with make. Junior Achievement is big here in Mali and would be a great secondary project for me. I visit a fifth grade class that to do an exchange with a fifth grade class in Bremerton Washington that Wise Schools has set me up with. Everyday I go to the market to get food since I don’t have a refrigerator. I take an after noon nap do the wash every three days. Now that dry season is here the dust is beyond your imagination. Doing domestic choirs here in Mali just takes a long time.

When I had my purse design made by the leather guy in the market I couldn’t find him the day he said it would be ready. I couldn’t figure out if he was not there or if I just couldn’t find him. I looked three days in a row. Monday morning he showed up at the UAAK with the finished purse. He knew where I worked and I never told him. Now Koutiala is a town of 110.00 and still it feels like living in a fish bowl as a “tobob”

Things that have been hard are both here and at home. My daughter broke her foot, her first broken bone and I wasn’t there to help her during this time. My dog Schooner just died, he had bone cancer. In the beginning I cried when I would just read the emails from home, this has gotten better. Adjusting to being here and feeling like a part of the community or that I even wanted to be part of the community took some soul searching. Being sick a lot didn’t help any of this. I had a lot of stomach stuff with fever, a cold with fever, and even a rash on my face with a fever. At a low point I had been sick for a week with no appetite going to the bathroom all the time the realization that I was loosing weight fast I started to force myself to eat. Fortunately my appetite is back and I have not lost any more than 23 pounds. The children chanting “tobob boo” as I walk down the street some days it’s OK some days it’s just too much.

Both me and my Malian friends and co-workers are learning to think outside the box. We are sharing our vision of the world through our eyes with each other. These are the golden moments. Cherished are the times my homologue and I are running between our houses to great and talk to each other, when the women (me included) are sharing tea, language class with Sadio one of my best friends in Koutiala or just wondering through the market saying to myself “Damn this is Afica.”.

Working In Koutiala

2009-01-04T07:38:00.000-08:00

Many people have asked about the work I do. For the first three months the main objective to integration into the community and evaluate community needs.

Earlier I wrote about my experience on the last day of Ramadon where the events of the day clearly indicated that I was on the outside of my community. If Tabaski is any indication I have come a long way.

The morning of Tabaski I spoke with my host dad in my concession and asked if I could eat with them knowing that there would be a big feast after killing the two sheep that had been fattening up for weeks. Bocar my host dad told me to sit down served me eggs and tea. We talked for quite a while. He told me how he use to play in a band and perform in concerts all over Mali Mopti, Sagou and Sikasso. The last week I had been practicing Christmas Carols on my recorder and Bocar said he heard me. Bocar’s eyes lit up as he told me about his concert days and said that when he married Fatim he settled down and became a school teacher.

Fatim, my host mom, came out onto the front porch and told me to get washed and dressed. Lukily I decided to wear my Malian Complet because Fatim whisked me off to Mosque to pray on the highest Muslin holiday of the year. After the Mosque Fatim, her sister and I went around the neighbor hood and greeted many members of her family. I had no idea that her family was just blocks away from where I lived.

Just as we were entering our court yard the men were slaughtering the sheep that they had been fattening up for weeks. Fatim sat down and supervised the butchering. I took some pictures and she invited me to sit down, I said it would make me sick and went over to sit with the women cooking. As the afternoon went on I helped cook ate fresh organic sheep meat.

My homologue, Koro, came by around 4 pm and asked why I didn’t come over to ear with her. I had totally miss understood the conversation about the feast and her sheep. She said she was going to town now. I worried all evening that I had ruined my relationship with her. The next morning I went over to great her. Since I found out she lives just a couple of blocks from me I have been going over there a lot and she in return has been coming over here too. We had coffee and made plans to go great people from work. Koro told me I should wear my Malian Complet.

Koro and Awa showed up around 3:30 pm, punctual for Malian standards. We started out by going to the Broche’s house the RAC employee. I met his wife and daughter and I think a sister that lives with him. Then we went to the UAAK President’s house then the Le Chamber President’s house. After this Awa went home and Koro and I went to the Dugitigi of Medina Cora’s house. A Dugitigi is a leader who’s family has been chief of the village or area for generations and he works closely with the Mayor and other leaders in the community. Koro knows everyone. After this we spent many days going around town greeting people. Then Koro left for Corte Ivory for her brothers wedding.

A lot of time has been spent sitting around drinking tea with important people in my service. It is just what Malians do.

Other work has included showing Koro different bogolan websites which introduced new designs that we are going to present to the other bogolan artist. I also designed a purse that I had the leather guy in the market make.

Now my time will be spent finding other ways to help the whole of the artisans here in Koutiala. Many of them are very active.

A tour of Koutiala

2008-11-14T06:09:00.001-08:00

My sister asked me several questions about where I live so I thought I would give you a tour of my way from work. This is the main road just off the road I live on. I bicycle to work every morning Monday thru Friday. The last couple of days it has been cold that for us here is 75 degrees and getting colder. On this day I took the long way to work.

This is the Bus Station where my host family owns a restaurant and I spent a lot of time at during my site visit in August.

This is the main highway through town. Koutiala is known as a trucking town and a main route from Ghana a sea port town and all locations in Mali. You can see my shadow at the bottom of the photo.

These are transports that Malians use instead of pickup trucks. One is a hand cart and the other is a donkey cart.

This is the place I bought my bed, which I had a hand cart transport it home for less then a dollar.

Here is a good example of what us volunteers call street food. In the morning they sell little millet floured pancakes or puffy rounds like unsweetened doughnuts. Later in the day they sell potato fries, regular potatoes and sweet potatoes. And fried puffy balls with a dash of flavored onion in them.

Thursday is Market day here in Koutiala. This is what volunteers call a "Dead TooBob Store" it has used western style clothing. I bought two long sleeve shirts here because its getting cold.

I buy a lot of vegetables from this women. She's not pushy and has good prices.

Well that's it for now. If you have any questions about where I live let me know.

The 2008 Elections From Mali

2008-11-14T05:20:00.000-08:00

Election Day was something special even here in Mali. Everyone at the Union of Artisans where I go to work every day asked me about it and asked about Obama in particular. The whole world was watching that night. When I went to the post office the day after the elections the postal worker said he came into the office there and watched the elections on the internet.

I was invited over to a Malian’s, Sadio Sogoba, who is a friend of mine and has CNN English. We had a great dinner of roasted chicken, salad, and fries. There were three Peace Corps Volunteers and we bought brownies and iced coffee. My Malian Friend Sadio has been to the states so he knew what I meant when I said it was like going to Starbucks for after dinner coffee.

We all napped a little and watched the TV a lot. I was fortunate that I was up for both McCain’s and Obama’s speeches. When I saw Jessie Jackson in the audience during Obama’s speech crying I started to cry too.

And as far as I know I did vote in this historical election. It all started before I even left the Untied States. I called King County in Washington State to tell them of my plans of serving in the Peace Corps in Mali. They asked for my address of residency and my address in Mali. The women never mentioned the possibility of voting via email or fax as I shared my concerns of the ballet getting here in time to vote and getting it returned in time.

A representative from the US Embassy came out and went throught the states from A to W. I learned that I could go on the Washington State Department of the Secretary of State to register to vote via email. All I needed was internet service, my address of residency and my driver’s license number and expiration date. This sounded easy since Tubaniso the Peace Corps Mali’s training center had wireless internet and I had my computer.

During the first try the internet connection spent the whole time trying to bring up the page where I could register on line. Not being a patient person nor a passive person I emailed the email on the home page of the Secretary of State’s website to let them know I was having problems. In a few days I received a pleasant reply from the one-line tech help that they could not find any problems with the website. “Try again,” the email said. There were a couple of problems with this one I did not have unlimited access to internet in my homestay village and second I was in classes six days a week but I did try several other times.

Next I emailed Steve Reed the Secretary of State to let him know the problems I was having. I used the email on the website and the email came back saying it was undeliverable. The time was getting short as the Election Day was fast approaching. Next I emailed Mr. Reed at his personal Washington State email and cc’d to the US Embassy here in Mali. A week went by and response.

Talking to my sister on the internet I learned that she had contacted King County who I had also emailed and they knew of my situation. She also contacted Senator Cantwell from Washington to see what could be done about me voting. She heard nothing back but a thank you and she would look into it.

October 26^th I got a call from the Peace Corps Office in Bamako that they had received my ballot and three other volunteer’s ballots out in my area. I was supposed to pick up the ballot’s at the bus station. One of the other volunteers was in Koutiala and she waited with me as I filled out my ballot, then she caught a “basha” for her site about 44 kilometers north of here where the other volunteers were and they ballots were to get on public transport the for Bamako the next day. Once the Peace Corps office received the ballots they would be sent out DHL to the Peace Corps Headquarters in Washington DC then put in the mail. I figured that would take up to November 2, 2008. The ballots just needed to post marked on Election Day so things looked like my ballot would be counted.

Ramadon ended

2008-11-02T04:52:00.000-08:00

I wrote this almost a month ago.

It was Tuesday September 30, 2008, I can’t say that is started out like any other Tuesday because I have only been in Koutiala, Mali for two weeks now and only started going into my job last Monday and last Tuesday I was sick. Actually I still have that cold it seems to lingering.

Since I needed to do some laundry before going to work I got up early. Laundry takes a while here because I do it by hand with two rinses. As of late I have started to soak my clothes in the soapy water for several hours before doing the two rinses. So I got up made my coffee, started the wash, and enjoyed the morning air which was a cool 80 degrees.

Its been taking me thirty minutes to walk to work but last Saturday I got a bicycle so now it only takes me 15 minutes. I got my bicycle out put on my helmet and started out the door to the street. People were all walking in one direction men in Malian clothing more than usual and women with head scarf’s. I biked out to the road to the bus station that leads me to one of the main roads through Kourtiala. Looking around I realized that none of the shops were open and there continued a steady stream of people all going in one direction.

I decided to follow the stream of people. I knew this was the end of Ramadan today but didn’t know what that meant. The stream of people headed for the big open space behind the Masque near the market. The people were lining up with their pray rugs, men in front and women way in the back. I had heard that in Moribabougou where my homestay town was that they all gather in the big soccer field at the edge of town because all the people won’t fit in the Mosque. This seemed true for Koutiala as well.

I stayed on the side lines and watched as crowds of people filed into the field. A young man came up to me and greeted me first in Bambara and then French. I said the greetings I knew in Bambara and that’s not a lot considering how the Malians like to spend a long time greeting. He finally said,” photo?” I said in my broken French “pas photo.” That put him at ease and he walked away.

I watched the pray session unfold and then watched as all the people started streaming out of the field to go home. As I left I started heading for work but again noticed that all the shops where still closed and everyone seemed to be going home so I turned around and headed for home myself.

When I got to my concession all the women were busy cooking, the man of the house had just gotten back from the Mosque. I communicated with father that I had gone to the Mosque and watched the praying. He invited me to sit down and eat with them. As I sat there and visited with the women men filed through the gates and greeted us and then went in and talked to the man of the house.

As the women finished cooking they packed up about ten plates of cocuss and sauce for families in the neighborhood.

It felt like Christmas to me and no one bothered to tell me. The people where I go into work did apologize to me the next day for telling me.

Finding my nitch in Koutiala

2008-10-11T06:50:00.000-07:00

This week it felt like I had found my nitch here in Koutiala. Since Saturday I have been going on a bicycle ride every morning. For the last five mornings I figure I have been doing 22 km round trip. This has changed my whole outlook on the day. I bicycle out the main road to Sikasso south of Koutiala. The mornings are cool; the birds are singing and all the industrial city is left behind for a while.

Monday when I reported to the Union where I go to work everyday for a couple of hours there was a metal workers formation (training) going on. It went on all week and the Bogolan women was there too so being at the Union was interesting. I took pictures for the first time in a long time, drank tea, and watched the metal workers build their fabricated structure.

I have been in Mali now for three months and Koutiala for one month.

Bogolan Fabric

2008-10-11T06:12:00.000-07:00

Every morning Monday through Friday I go to "Work" if you can call it that. I report into the Union Associations of Artisan's of Koutiala. Go through greeting everyone there and then sit with the President of Bogolan Association of Koutiala. Drink tea and just kinda be there. She doesn't speak French (my French still is not that good) and I don't speak Bambara.

Through language difficulties we have become friends. She knows my host mom. Several times a week I buy tea, now drinking tea in Mali is a ceremony as much as its the actual drinking of the tea.

Here is some information on Bogolan fabric and how its made;

Bògòlanfini (sometimes bogolan) is a traditional Malian fabric dyed with fermented mud, particularly associated with the Bambara. The name is a Bambara word meaning "earthcloth."

In the creation of bògòlanfini, simple cotton cloth is woven, shrunk, and then soaked in a preparation of leaves from certain trees. An artist then outlines an intricate design with a mud dye, often taking several weeks to cover the entire cloth. Yellowish areas of mud are then treated with a caustic soda, bleaching them back to white for a stark black and white design. Traditionally, a man will do the weaving while a woman will do the dyeing.

2008-09-22T06:46:00.000-07:00

We were installed by a member of the Peace Corps staff to our sites. Here in Koutiala we visited the head of police, the head of the military in charge of policing in rural areas, the governor of this circle and the mayor of Koutiala. As amazing as it sounds for us Americans we were able to get in and talk with each official without an appointment. They all had good things to say about the Peace Corps and the work volunteers have done in Koutiala.

Now that I am in Koutiala my work begins. But how? I have two homologues. What is a homologue, a homologue is my Malian counterpart that directs me with my work, introduces me to the community, and helps me with projects. One of my homologues is on vacation and here in Mali it is not uncommon for people to be on vacation for all of August and September, life in Mali resumes after Ramadan which ends the first of October.

My other homologue showed up drunk and was inappropriate. Luckily a Peace Corps staff was here and when I brought it up to them they agreed something had to be done. He is no longer my homologue. So for the next two weeks things look like they will be moving lowly. The first three months we are not suppose to do any projects, just integrate into the community do what is called a base line survey of community needs.

Language classes continue. I walked an hour each way to my language tutor’s house yesterday for a two hour lesson. My bike is on loan to a volunteer who needs it to get the 5 kilometers to her site. Our Stage has not officially received their bikes because they have not come in. Can you believe it I have hardly ridden a bike for over two months.

My house is in a concession (a concession is a compound of buildings walled in where usually a family lives with grown children in some of the houses etc.). I call it the “pearly gates” because it is the most upscale compound I have seen in Mali and the gates are painted black and white instead of the rust color everything else is painted. The family owns a restaurant at the bus station called the

Dunni Dunni, which means little by little in Bambara. Here is my front door, my kitchen and my clothes rack that is in my bedroom.

I MADE IT I AM A PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEER

2008-09-18T09:24:00.002-07:00

I made it I was sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer September 12, 2008 at the United States Embassy in Mali.

This me in Malian. Many of us wore them for swear in.

These are all the people in my sector Small Enterprise Development

These are the people in my French Class
Natalie and Steve who are married Dou our Language and Cultural Facilitator and Markham the man I met from Bremerton before I left.

Here are the people in Droit II my home stay village Adele, me, Natalie, Fatim the Bambara Language and Cultural Facilitator, Amber, Megan, the Health Program Director, Steve, Dou, Markham and Bobacar the head of the language program

Shea Butter

2008-09-18T09:24:00.000-07:00

This entry is dedicated to my daughter Lani BonaDea who told me about shea butter before I ever came to Mali.

Shea butter is becoming important world wide because it is becoming the preferred ingredient in cosmetics, and chocolate products. It is important here in Mali because it is an untapped resource and Malian shea butter has a better consistency than in other parts of Africa resulting it being in bigger demand if the quality is right. Shea butter has the potential to help women of Mali to generate a higher income because it is considered women’s activity.

We visited two businesses that work with shea butter. One of them was a woman who bought the dried nut and sold them to exporters. The name of her business is Shea Baara and her name is Lah Dasse. She owns two trucks and buys in quantities of 10 tons or more.

The other business was a women’s association that bought shea butter and went on to make soap and pomade products. They are looking for more retail outlets for their products.

The shea tree grows all over the southern part of Mali and produces nuts that can be simply gathered when they fall to the ground. This method is actually recommended over shaking the tree to fall the nuts. The nut can be dried and then sold or it can be processed into shea butte and then sold. The shea butter can be made by individual women and can be stored as a savings account to be drawn on and sold through out the year.

Traditionally here in Mali shea butter is used for cooking oil, moisturizer, a hair pomade, medicinal uses, and ointment for muscles and joints. For Medicinal uses some people ad plant extracts to shea butter and ingest it to treat stomach problems.

Shea falls within the domain of women’s work therefore women stand to benefit from the efforts to improve the shea market in Mali. Shea offers a source of income separate from husbands that can be used to meet important family needs such as children’s clothing and school.

A benefit that shea holds over other agricultural products is that shea trees fruit during the rainy season which here in Mali is the lean season for food and income. These are months of July through September. This period is known as “the hungry times” here in Mali because the previous year’s food has been exhausted
Many organizations are working with women’s associations across southern Mali to improve the quality of the dried nut by helping women dry the nut in a way that it stores better and has less toxins. They are working with villages as a whole to consolidate their produced nuts and sell them to a buyer in bulk when the price for shea butter is high yielding more income for the women of the village.

New Address

2008-09-06T09:52:00.000-07:00

I want to thank all of you who posted comments. Some asked my current address and here it is. Who is D. Joan anyways. Training is coming to a close and we will be sworn in Friday September 12, 2008 at the US Embassy here in Mali.

Peace Corps
Maridee BonaDea
BP 71 Koutiala, Mali
West Africa

Any all letters packages gladly appreciated

The Mayor of Moribabougou

2008-09-02T12:07:00.000-07:00

One of our cross cultural trainings was a meeting with the Mayor of Moribabougou. He came with the president of the Women’s Association because the local elected officials have been mandated to work closely with the local women’s association. They came to talk to us about the decentralization of Mali.

Decentralization started in the early 1990’s when the one party had been in power since the early 1960’s. During this time there was only one political party that was allowed to have candidates. It took three years after the fall of this regime before other parties could legally participate in the election process. Today they say there are more than 60 different political parties.

Mali is broken down into regions there are nine of them and these are the ones I know; Kyes, Bamako Sikosso, Segou, Mopti, Goa, Timbuktu. From there the regions are broken down into circles which consist of literally a circle of villages. It works a lot like it does in the United States the different levels of local government are responsible for different government tasks. It does seem that one of Mali’s goals is to collect taxes for general improvements. There has been many references to this both in my Small Enterprise Develop training and in this talk. The Mayor said that if a village does not pay taxes there is a good chance that will not receive monitory help from the National Government.

The Mayor was asked what his priorities were for Moribabougou. He said that clean and safe drinking water for the residents here was his biggest priority. We asked the president of the Women’s association too. She said safe drinking water and a high school. It turns out that the schools here only go through middle school and then the children have to Bamako for high school. Many don’t go to high school because they can’t afford the transportation cost. We have been told all along that attending school through high school is mandatory for all Malians and that many rural farmers or herders find away out of it. After these I realized the situation was more complicated then our LCF’s (Language and Cultural Facilitator) have telling us.

Daily Life of a Peace Corps Tranee

2008-09-02T11:34:00.000-07:00

Many have asked about my daily routine and what I eat. Since arriving in Philadelphia for “Staging” or orientation if you don’t know Peace Corps jargon we have had training from 8 AM till 5 PM Monday through Saturday with a litany of homework projects for Sunday.

Once here in Mali we were at Tubaniso for four days with trainings in Cross Cultural, Safety and Security, Language, Health, and last but lest our sector training, which for me is Small Enterprise Development.

Now that we have been at home stay most of our class time is taken up with language, I am learning French. I wish I was learning Bambara because that is the language most Malians speak where I will be living. Malians speak Bambara in their homes, at the market and at their work place. They say French is spoken at formal meetings and it is true most educated Malians speak French but only in formal settings.

As for the food it can be summed up in two words RICE, SAUCE!!! Or sometimes I get millet and sauce or To (pronounced toe, a thick millet pudding not sweet) and sauce. I get this for every lunch and every dinner. The women and children gather around a huge stainless steel bowl and we eat with our hands, only our right hand unless you’re the two year old in training but he has gotten better. The number changes around the bowl depending on what family members are present and right now Ramadan has just started so for lunch it was me and the kids. There are three nieces staying here and the oldest married daughter and her two kids along with a niece that lives here regularly. This is on top of the three daughters and two sons that live here.

For a treat we get fried plantains or french fries and Sunday night we got onions and liver, I happen to like liver. As for protein there just never seems like enough. There is little meat in the sauce at meals. The oldest at the bowl doles out the meat to different parts of the bowl and I have been told never eat anywhere in the bowl but right in front of you. So each person gets about two small pieces of meat on lean days and more on other days. At my house we don’t get beans a lot but I have seen black eyed peas and white beans in the markets. They say don’t drink milk unless it has been processed. I know for a fact my host mom buys raw milk from the herder that wonders around Moribabougou. You can find yogurt but here in Moribabougou it is very sweet. I had some in Sagou and it was not as sweet and really good. That about sums up the protein options.

There are street venders that sell mostly fried foods. There is a doughnut like pastry made from millet flour that is not real sweet but taste good, they sell beef skewers marinated usually with mustard these are good if you can chew them. We get the beef skewers and french fries at the only restaurant we have found in Moribabougou, Clean Air. As for going to a restaurant even the toboob (slang for white person here in Mali) restaurants there is no guarantee that you will get your order so we have learned never to pay for our food until it arrives.

Rationing the energy bars I brought has been a good thing. I like the Odwalla ones the best but they all are a good source of protein and vitamins. There are days at meal time when just coming to the bowl and looking at the rice and sauce I loose my appetite. I have been sick twice. Once I had amebas and the other they never did figure out the problem. After being sick I avoided the rice and sauce for several days by going to the medical unit and finding places in Bamako to eat once I felt like eating. One of my best finds was a market that sold cashews. They are a good source of protein and they are grown in Mali but you can’t find them in most food places.

Gardens of corn, okra, beans and squash are every where and being the rainy season they are growing fast and are about to harvest the corn

So that’s the food situation here in Mali, I can hardly wait to get to my site where hopefully I will have a two burner gas stove and maybe even a refrigerator. There are some vegetables and they say the rainy season food is scarcer than any other time of the year because this is the growing season and what is grown now is for the whole year.

Koutiala The Cotton Capital of Mali

2008-08-18T04:08:00.001-07:00

Koutiala is the town I have been assigned to and where I will be living for the next two years. My work will be with the Union Association of Artisans of Koutiala. This is an umbrella organization for all associations of entrepreneurs and their associations.

Koutiala is about 400 kilometers (6 hours) from Bamako, the capitol city of Mali. It is located in the region of Sidasso and its population is about 110,000. The market is the largest market within a 60-kilometer radius and happens on on Thursday. It has the biggest cotton mill in Mali; cotton is Mali's biggest export. Also it is half way between Mopti and the town of Sikasso and it is not a tourist town. I will be living in a three bedroom house in a family concession. The town is good size and I will be working with artisan organizations.

At Tuboniso we had one day of training with our Malian counterparts “Homologues.” My homologue was not present. When the time came to travel out to Koutiala I was on my own. Everyone in Mali has cell phones but me; that will change. When I arrived in Koutiala I had a boutique owner phone the person who said they would come and pick me up at the Bus Gare.

My host family in Koutiala is very well off and own sthe Donni Donne Restaurant at the Bus Gare. If someone had told me I would come to Mali and hang out at a restaurant at the bus station I would have thought they were crazy. Madam Fanta Diallo is the president of the Association Des Restauratices De Koutiala.

On Friday they found me a homologue. Three metal workers from the Metal Workers Association came to meet me and gave me a tour of their shops. This is my homologue Tiemoko Diarra demonstrating a water pump that pumps water out of a well and connects to a hose to water gardens. The shop here builds them and school desks. Tiemoko builds metal shutters for windows and metal doors. All homes in Mali have metal window shutters and metal doors partly for security and partly to keep water out when the storms come suddenly with the hardest rain I have ever seen which comes after thunder and lighting followed by strong winds then the hard rain falls.

Small Enterprise Development

2008-08-08T12:46:00.001-07:00

Seydou Coulibaly in the Picture is the Program Director for the Peace Corps Mali's Small Enterprise Development sector which is the one I am working with.

We attended a panel with four businesses a Veterinary Supply Store, a Cosmetic boutique, an electric supply retailer and a street fruit vender. These bussiness people were from the community where my home stary is. On the way home we ran into the girl who runs the Cosmetic boutique.

The questions asked inquired on how they funded setting up their business, whether they were licensed, paid taxes and it they had an accounting system, and how they maintained their inventory..

Here in Mali most people set up businesses with money borrowed from there families. There are in formal lending groups called Tantes where people from a village get together and give the tante some monty every month and a member gets to borrow on that monthy. There are also microfinance institutions. Two of these are in my community but not many people seem to know of them. There is not a major bank in my community.

We also visited a business called Mali Chic that exports crafts they have even gotten several orders from Hallmark. The business was started by an ex-PCV and currently is a partnership of Malian artisans. A current Peace Corps volunteer is working with them and trying to help them get some accounting in place.

Tomorrow I go out to my site that will be my home for two years. My home will be in the city of Koutiala is 400 km from Bamako the capital of Mali. Here is the capital of Mali's white gold, cotton. People call it a truck stop which means it will have a high percentage of peopleinfected with AIDS/HIV. Population 110,00; there is an array of Mali minority groups; it is the home of Mali's biggest cotton factory; the people are 90% muslim; there is a x-pat community; the market is on Thursday.

My appartment has all the amenity, running water, flush toilet, and is located near the bus station.
Here are all the SED volunteers and their Malian counterparts they are going to be working with at a session on expectations.

My work will be with Union Association of Artisan's of Koutiala and Chamber of Professionals. They are asking me to go to the office six days a week and both the Peace Corps and the groups I will be working with are excited about my bookeeping skills.

So even though I joined the Peace Corps to get out of the office and do something besides bookkeeping and didn't want to live in an apartment here I am going to work six days a week with a good possibility of training people in bookkeeping. Actually I have enjoyed meeting the small business owners and the idea of learning how to train illiterates to do bookkeeping intrigues me and living in an apartment right near the bus station in the third largest city in Mali.

Home Stay

2008-07-26T10:43:00.001-07:00

The full of Africa shines through my window. In the morning I heard the call for pray for the first since coming to Morabougou a suburb of Bamako, Mali. This was Sunday after being here for a week. We had Six straight days of French classes

Here is our class room under a mango tree

My homestay parents are professionals. My mom has worked for C.A.R.E. for twenty years and my father works in Senalgal as a railroad engineer. They have six children, two of the older girls are not living at home presently. One is married and the other is studying at school. A niece lives here and as in Malian cultural she is completely integrated into family life. The house has two, not one but two bathrooms with flush toilets and showers. I am truly living in luxury here in Africa at least for now. There is a nagan (outhouse) in the court yard.

The oldest boy lives in a three room structure within the courthouse. He doesn’t eat with us because he seems to be self sufficient. He is studying physics and math at University.
One of the girls that live here is at University, one is in high school and the niece is in technical school for accounting. The youngest boy is eleven.

When I first arrived the mother and I would eat in the living room off of plates with spoons. When the father came home from Sengal for a vacation several days later; I found my self sitting on the other side of the living room eating by self off a plate with a spoon. After dinner on the second night I went out into the court yard to find the women. They were all gathered around their a traditional Malian bowl eating just outside the kitchen building in the court yard. With my broken French and the mother's broken English I told her I wanted to eat with them outside. After this I did eat with the women. Sometimes we ate out by the kitchen and sometimes we ate on the front porch of the house that is covered and tiled. The father’s sister visited strengthening the feeling of camaraderie among the women. While the father was home the men were on one side of the living room and the women on the other side.

Three days later the father was called back to Sengal for work and the mother and I ate a table and chairs with plates and spoons for the first time. The women took over the living room again. The next night we were back to eating out side eating around the bowl with everyone else..We get sauce every meal. Sauce over rice, over rice, over rice and sometimes over macaroni or over millet. One night we had spegetti without too much sauce on it, it was a relief. The Malians have a dish called Toe not sure of the Bambera but it is millet mush thick mush with the best sauce so far.

A big pass time here is watching soap opras on TV. Every Peace Corps trainee in my area has a TV in the house and the whole family watches soap opras. People who know more than me say that several of the soap opras are Brizilian soap opras dubbed in French. I have seen House and Miami CSI dubbed in French.

I love my walk to school. The children line now waiting to shake my hand. They all know Ca Va as a French greeting. I see cows being milked, sheep herded, donkey carts with men on their way to the daily task, people on motor skooters going to work, There are two possible routes, one the main road with boutiqueies and street venders or the back way along a dirt path/road that is quieter and more relaxing.

WE HAVE ARRIVED

2008-07-13T14:02:00.001-07:00

We made to Bamako. It's been a long road for many of us with many challenges and ups and downs. Language will be my biggest challenge. Staging in Philadelphia was a meet and greet afair with flip charts and ideas being thrown around. We did skits, sang songs and started to get to know each other. The Peace Corps staff kept saying your starting to bound with each other, these people will be your best friends and your best support system while in the Peace Corps. We loaded onto the Air France plane taking most of the seats. In Paris many of us took naps and dreamed of a moment of free time sometime in the future.

Since arriving in Mali we haven't left Tubanisu Peace Corps training center. We have had cross-cultural training, Language training and testing, diversity training, met the Peace Corps Country Director with hardly a moment of free time. We learned the Emergency Action Plan we have eaten out of bowl had a cultural festival.

This is a picture of the Main Hanger. The floor is sand the roof grass and chairs are old folding chairs when we got a chance we sat in the chairs that were strung with plastic. The first the Malian training staff were in front all sitting it these chairs and now we know why.

The medical team has given shots, educationals on treating water, received our medical kit, learned how to prevent malaria. We learned about Mr. "D" and Mrs "C" and how to prevent them and treat them. My blood pressure was up a little and they took our temperatures too. Our medical kit looks like a small suit case with every kind of non-prescription and prescription drugs. The kit also included some herbal mosquito repellent by mistake. They handed some stronger stuff the first day. The Medical Officer suggested using the herbal stuff as a air fresher. We also received a mosquito net for our home stay today.

LEAVING TOMORROW

2008-07-05T07:26:00.000-07:00

I am not going to pack or repack one more time. Every time I do my suitcase gets heavier and right now it is maxed out on the 80 lbs. not counting my carry on backpack and personal bag which is not petite.

Here is my address for now;

Maridee BonaDea
Peace Corps
B.P. 85 Bamako
Mali

Here is the final packing list.

Clothing (Vetements)
Four Skirts (one dressy)
Four pairs of paints (two Capris)
Dress for sleeping
One fleece
On pair of sweatpants
Four tank tops
Four t-shirts
Two long sleeve shirts with collars
One short sleeve shirt with collar
Six pairs of shocks
Ten pairs of underwear
Seven bras
Bathing suit
Shaw for dressy times
One brim hat
One baseball hat
Sun glasses
Jewelry
Three bandanas
Light weight rain jacket

Toilettes
Toilettes small traveling bag (soap, tooth brush, toothpaste, shampoo, deodorant)
Two mosquito repellents
Bar of Soup
Lotion
Tooth brush
Tooth paste
Shampoo
Floss
Razors
Sunscreen
Brush/comb
Chap-stick with sunscreen
Three months of medications
Toilettes carryon baggy (in a quart bag travel size, shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant, sunscreen, etc)
Hair ties
Towel quick dry
Hand sanitizer
Deodorant

Electronics
Wrist Watch
iPod
iPod speakers
iPod alternative power sources
Solar charger
Batteries AA AAA (galore) etc.
Lap Top
Jump drive
Instamatic Digital Camera
Two memory sticks for camera
Card reader for camera
Three camera batteries
Calculator
Binoculars
Alarm Clock
Windup short wave radio (solar charges too)
Windup flash light
Two Battery flash lights
Head light
Pin plug adaptor (French)

Paperwork
Peace Corps paperwork
Civilian passport
West African Map
20 passport photos

Misc.
Recorder
Recorder sheet music
Eyeglass repair kit
Three pairs of reading glasses
Leatherman
Pocket knife
Bike tools
Duck tape
Four 4X6 sketch pads
One Journal
Stationary & Envelopes
Photo book
Color pencils
Medium size backpack for carryon
Day backpack
Travel money belt
Fanny pack
Travel sheets
Mosquitonet tent
Pens
Scissors
Two combination locks
Pillow
Sewing kit
Two water bottles
Snack Foods
Sharp knife
Energy bars

Gifts
Small tools
Crayons
Shopping bags
Frisbees
Color books

Kitchen (cuisine)

Frying pan
Mexican spices
Italian spices
Curry spices
Spatula
Serving spoon for stick-free pan
Potato peeler
Ziploc bags
Plastic containers
Garden Seeds

Send Off with Family and Friends

2008-06-29T11:50:00.001-07:00

THE DAY WAS PERFECT

We rented the Grange so that people from off island could come over without their cars since ferry fare is about $18 round trip. The reality that I am leaving is just now setting in with me and my family and friends. (Here today gone to Mali). I want to thank everyone who helped with the party it was a great success. There was a Mali table and West African map along with the Peace Corps welcome book for Mali so that everyone could get their questions answered. Many questions seemed to answered when you say that Timbuktu is in Mali. In my love of the photo image I setup a photo shoot area and placed disposable cameras around. Many memories and a great group of family and friends came together and visited.

My daughter came over came over early and helped setup for the party. We have planned other times around her studying to spend time together before I leave. I am so proud of her in all her endeavours. We talked about how I felt when she went off to Central America with no return date and no real plan except to attend Spanish School in Nicaragua.

She is doing amazing work in math and science in college now. Hopefully she will come visit me in a year and we can travel West Africa together like we have explored many other parts of the world.

The bicycle group "Rainbow Riders" that I have been riding with once a month for many years now sponsored a ride here on Vashon Island. We had seventeen riders with many Vashon women joining us for the first time. Some stayed for the party and some road to the ferry. Here is the group at the party. We missed several members who were not present.
There are many great memories with the Rainbow riders and know they are all routing for me and my new adventure. You all will be missed, RIDE ON!

My sister came from Bremerton with her husband. They have been married for about 29 years and lived near me and my daughter for 23 years. My Sister is one of my best friends. She told me when we found out I was going to Africa that she didn't see why anyone would want to go to Africa. She defiantly did not get the adventure gene. We raised out kids together and did many fun things like camping at least once a year and every holiday. I appreciate all her support even when she doesn't understand. I hope it goes two ways. Laura my friend of 24 years and partner of 14, has been a great support to me in fulfilling my dreams. Thank you. She's taking care of my dogs and all my affairs. We are blessed to live on Vashon Island a fifteen minute ferry ride from Seattle Washington. There have been there ups and downs but some how we have come to place to let each other to not just dream to do go after those dreams and make them come true.
My friends Kristi and Kristen win the price for best commute to the party. They came from Marysville about forty miles away. They took a bus to Seattle rode to the water taxi they took them from the Seattle waterfront to West Seattle. From there they bicycled to Fauntleroy and hopped the Vashon/Fauntleroy ferry to Vashon. Luckily for me they spent the night which mean they helped clean up after the party and got up and had coffee with me in the morning. We talked about bicycle projects in Africa and we all hoped I would have some opportunity to pull one off. Here they are on the Water Taxi with Seattle in the background.

Here's my friend Cheryl, she won the hat as one of the door prices. Cheryl rides with the Rainbow riders. The hat came from Madagascar and the weave is only found in the village that I visited with Habitat. Afterwards a friend said she really liked the door prices there was a story behind each one. Like the Seattle Reign hat in which we drew Beverly's name and she wasn't there. We had said that you had to be present to win but with this we made an exception because Beverly gave Laura and me our first Women's basketball tickets to a Reign game and we were hooked after that. I am sending Beverly the hat.

As you can see fun was had by all what a great send off.

My oldest friend Beverly and her partner Maggie came over from Seattle.

More pics

And Away We Gooooo

2008-06-12T11:49:00.000-07:00

The staging packet arrived on Tuesday, Philadelphia here I come July 6th and Mali just beyond.

This is the invite to my going away party that Laura and I are throwing for our friends, family and community. Without their support I could not take off and volunteer for the Peace Corps. We will have a potluck dinner, enjoy each others company and dance the night away. Leave a comment if you want more information.

Today is my last day at work. This is shaky ground, the beginning of change, of the unknown, and the adventure. They had a nice taco potluck and gave me several nice cards. I thanked the support staff and gave them little gifts.

Ideas about packing change everyday.

Visiting with my daughter and foster daughter and some heart to hearts were hard but it made me feel closer to them before I take off. I have to realize this will be a big change for the people I am closes to. My brother and his girlfriend will be here from Australia on July 4Th for a whirl wind visit. Laura is in Maryland on her bimonthly visit.

Looking forward to being out of the office out of 9 to five and learning new things.

Soaking up the Northwest

2008-06-02T19:09:00.000-07:00

Things to do before I take off for Mali. On the list include several weekends on the sail boat, a kayak trip, a hike in the Mountains, visiting with friends and family, bicycling on Vashon, gardening, all of the things I will miss.

This last weekend Laura and I went out on the boat. Starting Friday as we were packing it started to rain and in the 40’s. We looked at each other and discussed whether we should even go, maybe we should head for Eastern Washington, I said.

We left the Dockton buoy at noon and headed out of Quarter Master Harbor for Bainbridge Island. Since there was no wind we motored out to Puget Sound where the wind was and put up sail. We sailed to Blake Island State Park which is only accessible by boat. We never reached Bainbridge because it was getting late. Anchoring is best in the waters south west of the island. The day was a typical gray drizzling northwest day. Laura had cooked dinner before we left except for the vegetables we grilled. As we were eating an otter swam by wrestling a fish in her mouth.

Waking up to clouds the wind was quiet. We ate breakfast and headed north, looking for wind. Before we reached Bainbridge the sun was coming out from the clouds and the winds came up lifting our spirits. The rest of the day went like that lots of sun shining, we could see Seattle in the distance and the wind blew.

The many faces of the Northwest, gray rainy and cold one minute and sunny with snow capped mountains in the distance the next. That’s how the whole weekend went.

When we rounded the north end of Bainbridge Island the wind quieted down in Port Madison. This gave us time to calculate the currents at Agate Pass to see if we should make a run for it or drift with the light wind until we had the currents with us. We decided to make a run for it. We sailed all the way through Agate Pass and on to Liberty Bay where the town of Poulsbo sits on the shore.

Temperatures climbed into the 80’s what a contrast from yesterday. We were glad we left. The northwest just doesn’t get better than this. Luckily there was space at the Poulsbo Yacht Club for us to use the reciprocal moorage. I called my sister to let her know were had arrived so that her family could come meet us for dinner.

On the way off the dock we saw harbor seals and birds hanging out on the brake-wall of logs. Yes soaking up the northwest is what this week end is all about. The moss never goes away here in the Northwest even in the hottest of summers and this time of year the moss shines, even glitters with the moisture steaming from the heat of the sun.

My sister met us in Poulsbo with her husband and his sister for dinner. We had a great seafood dinner and good company. Trying to spend as much time with family and friends before I leave.

The next morning clouds covered the sky as we drank our coffee in the cockpit, packed up and took off with engine running. Shortly after taking off the wind started to come up and we turned off the engine and set sail through the narrow channel of Liberty Bay. Clouds started to break up and the by the time we were out in Port Orchard Passage. Luck stayed with us the whole day, sunshine, wind and warmth. This made two days of great sailing.

Ariving in Port Orchard we navigated the waters to the recipical moorage at the Port Orchard Yaht Club. Friends from Vashon Island met us and we went out to eat on the water front of Port Orchard.

And that's how a great weekend in the Pacific Northwest goes.

What I know about Mali

2008-04-24T05:28:00.000-07:00

Boarder Countries: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Cote d'Ivoire, Mauritania, Niger, and Senegal.

The 8 regions of Mali are Gao, Kayes, Kidal, Koulikoro, Mopti, Segou, Sikasso, and Tombouctoucotton,

Agricultural products are millet, rice, corn, vegetables, peanuts; cattle, sheep, goats.

Mali is among the poorest countries in the world, with 65% of its land area desert or semidesert and with a highly unequal distribution of income. Economic activity is largely confined to the riverine area irrigated by the Niger. About 10% of the population is nomadic and some 80% of the labor force is engaged in farming and fishing. Industrial activity is concentrated on processing farm commodities. Mali is heavily dependent on foreign aid and vulnerable to fluctuations in world prices for cotton, its main export, along with gold. The government has continued its successful implementation of an IMF-recommended structural adjustment program that is helping the economy grow, diversify, and attract foreign investment. Mali's adherence to economic reform and the 50% devaluation of the CFA franc in January 1994 have pushed up economic growth to a 5% average in 1996-2007. Worker remittances and external trade routes for the landlocked country have been jeopardized by continued unrest in neighboring Cote d'Ivoire.

Political History the Sudanese Republic and Senegal became independent of France in 1960 as the Mali Federation. When Senegal withdrew after only a few months, what formerly made up the Sudanese Republic was renamed Mali. Rule by dictatorship was brought to a close in 1991 by a military coup - led by the current president Amadou TOURE - enabling Mali's emergence as one of the strongest democracies on the continent. President Alpha KONARE won Mali's first democratic presidential election in 1992 and was reelected in 1997. In keeping with Mali's two-term constitutional limit, KONARE stepped down in 2002 and was succeeded by Amadou TOURE, who was subsequently elected to a second term in 2007. The elections were widely judged to be free and fair.

Major Infectious Diseases that are high risk: food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever vectorborne disease: malaria water contact disease: schistosomiasis
respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis (2008)

Life expectancy in Mali is 49.94 years per the CIA and 57 years per the UN.
(I am 58)

Status of homosexuality: legal age of consent:laws covering homosexual activity: Relevant sections of the Penal Code are as follows;

Mali 1981: Article 179 - Sexual Offence, Public Indecency: Three months to two years of prison and a fine of 20 000 to 200 000 francs.

As it is written it would appear that same-sex acts are not illigal in themselves.

National Geographic recently had an article on the Sahel region in Africa that extends from the Atlantic coast at Dakar Senegal to the Red Sea at Eritrea. In Mali the Sahel is the area just north of Bamako the capital city to just north of Timbuktu. The Sahel is the transition zone at the edge of the Sahara Desert, earth’s largest desert. Sahel is defined by climate. This climate is on the margin between the high rainfall areas of the west African coast - southern Nigeria, for example - and the arid zone of the Sahara. In this zone rainfall is variable. As climate changes the borders of the Sahel move significantly as it has between 1960 and 1997 because of four major droughts in the region.

It has been reported by National Geographic that U.S. Forces are stationed around Timbuktu. This is due to rebel activity reported to be al Qaeda’s North African Wing. The US having learned a lesson in Afghanistan and is taking action sooner rather then later.

There have also been news reports of al Qaeda activity in Mali’s neighboring country of Mauritania. Many Peace Corps volunteers in Mauritania reported this in their blogs.

Because of these reported al Qaeda activities in Mauritania, Mali and other regions of West Africa, the US has taken a renewed interest in Muslim black Africa.

Resources for these facts include the Behind the Mask, (Behind The Mask – a non-profit media organisation publishing a news website intended for gay and lesbian affairs in Africa, was launched on 8 May 2000. This project operated under the Gay and Lesbian Archives of South Africa until 1 January 2003. Since that day Behind The Mask has been operating as an NGO-trust, registered with the South African Department of Welfare.) CIA, United Nations, and National Geographic.

Departure Date July 6, 2008

2008-04-01T19:41:00.001-07:00

My service departure date is July 6th, 2008 and even though that’s three months away I think about Mali and what the Peace Corps service will be like. When the orientation packet came for Mali the most interesting section was the one on diversity. The diversities addressed were seniors, people of color, gays and lesbians and religions. Because I am 58 years old, a lesbian and don’t consider myself a Christian this was good news to me.

The other minority that was not mentioned was someone who does not drink alcohol. Now I don’t drink not because of religion it’s just that I am an alcoholic. I have been sober for over twenty-five years. So the vision I have of me in Mali is during training, we get a night off and everyone wants to go to the bar for a beer. I can say in French “I would like a beer or some wine.” I can ask you if you would like a beer or some wine. Picturing me at a bar in Mali, I just don’t see it. Even in Vietnam when I bicycled through the country going to a bar never crossed my mind.

As for being a Lesbian, that is just a part of me and a part of my culture that will be in the back ground. The fact that I lived in the Gay Ghettos for most of my adult life and raised children both mine and foster kids both gay and straight will for at least a couple of years be a memory. My daughter may visit me, but maybe not too. She is proud of me joining the Peace Corps and I will miss her. On the Peace Corps application they ask if you’re married not if you have a domestic partner. There maybe a difference with straight people whether you’re married or in a domestic partner situation but for gays and lesbians there is no difference.

What I am looking forward to is learning French and a local language, being a part of the community, learning about the Islam religion, and working outside the box of the 9 to 5 world. Training and working with other Peace Corps volunteers, what an experience to share. I also need to open my heart to people who are different from me.

The internet site http://www.peacecorpsjournals.com/ has a directory of blogs written by Peace Corps volunteers all over the world. Most of the volunteers are white, straight, and under 25 years of age. I have learned a lot from reading all the blogs, written by people in Jordan, Kenya, Mali and beyond. I hope that this blog helps someone.

Recently I read that a baby boomer described themselves by writing that when they were young they tried to change the world, then they had kids, then they were middle age and now they were looking forward to retirement. Me, I am ready to start changing the world again like when I was in my twenties. At twenty-three I was one of the founders of a Food Coop, a Woman’s Clinic, and worked in a collective called Alternative Finance where we would go around and help collectives set up accounting systems. In my thirties I wrote and took pictures for different gay newspapers around the country. My family of kids were always active in the community.

Looking forward to the serving; Until next time.

At last an invitation

2008-02-18T09:44:00.000-08:00

When my medical clearance came through it was conditional that I go somewhere I can get a yearly mammogram. I don’t even get one here at home because I don’t feel like I am at risk for Breast Cancer. But over the year plus of the application process I have learned not to argue with the Peace Corps.

Just before my medical clearance came through one person called asking about my medical clearance and said I could be leaving in February 2007. Unfortunately that can not happen now because of my medical restriction. At the time my medical clearance came through I was told if I was willing to take a French class I could leave in July if not September was a sure thing. So twice a week I leave my island and ferry over to French class. Everyday I study French for at least an hour. The internet has great language recourses.

I have accepted an invitation to Mali scheduled to leave July 6, 2007. Hard to believe that Mali has the medical infrastructure to be able to offer mammograms.

The African placement desk told me the invitation was conditional on passing my French class. I had a melt down this last Friday thinking I was not doing that well in the French class. I called the Mali Peace Corps contact in Washington D.C. I said that it would not benefit either me nor the Peace Corps if I went to Mali for three months and had to come home. She assured me that once I was in Mali they would do anything they could to make me successful in the language classes.

In the invitation packet for Mali the Peace Corps addresses the issues of diversity including female, gay, and senior volunteers all of which include me. Other diversities they address are religious, people of color and disability issues for volunteers serving in Mali.

My sector will be the Business and Community Development. What that looks like in Mali I have not idea, but it will be important to think outside the box to be successful.

This will be a dream come true. Years ago I looked at traveling in West Africa. In my spare time I plan trips this year I have planned a bicycle trip to India, and South America. Now my sites are on West Africa.

Peace Corps - A New Beginning

2007-12-29T10:52:00.000-08:00

Last fall on my daily walk to the post office my mind was dreaming of change; of getting out of 9 – 5. Realizing after many trips to Costa Rica to look at property in Puerto Viejo for a small business space and living quarters there was something holding me back. Something I couldn’t put my finger on but something had to change. I couldn’t go on just talking about doing some of the things I was dreaming about doing. Right there and than I made a pack with myself that by June 1, 2007 I would have a plan in place. Applying to the Peace Corps has become that plan.

On the Peace Corps website this is what they say about waiting; “Now is a good time to practice some important Peace Corps traits: patience and flexibility. You understandably will feel anxious or frustrated at times as you wait to receive more information. Please understand there may be times when you do not hear from the Peace Corps for some weeks — for example, while your medical clearance is being processed. This doesn't mean you are no longer being considered. The process simply takes time.”

Waiting, Waiting, and Waiting. So far that is what the Peace Corps has taught me. Today is August 27, 2007, on New Year’s Eve December 31, 2006 I remember the very moment I pushed the send button on my computer to submit my application to the Peace Corps. I remember the sense of adventure and excitement. I remember thinking that the possibilities of changing direction in my life had just taken a big step forward. As I pushed that button I said out loud to myself, “Happy New Year.” There are days still that that same excitement is alive in me and there are those days when the waiting feels like it has a hold on my life moving in any direction.

My family and friends keep asking questions, they are waiting too. Last week there was an update some motion in the waiting, I now have my dental clearance. I could call everyone waiting and tell them this new update as well as the updates that are going on in my daily life to get ready; renting out my house, arranging finances, finding places for my things; Laura’s feelings about me going. The list goes on.

People at work are waiting too although I don’t tell them much. They are curious more than anything else. They would understand me going to Iraq to fight a war more than going into the Peace Corps to work for peace and harmony.

Acknowledging the motion in waiting. As I get my current life packed up to wait the metamorphoses has already started. It’s easy to sit at work and dream of what could be; what would be; it’s another thing to take action and actually make those dreams a reality. The people around continue to ask questions, I have no answers. They don’t realize that I have already started my metamorphosis and am turning away from my life as I know it. The first steps in any change process can be painful; scary; unsettling at best.

When I realized that the metamorphosis had already started fear gripped me but I kept forging ahead to move my things out of my house. Letting go of things and routines first and then what? The list will grow as I become aware of the process.

In waiting I read African news on the BBC website. Vanity Fair had their whole July 2007 issue devoted to Africa with Bono from U2 as guest editor. The CIA has a web page called the World Factbook a guide to County Profiles that I look up African countries on. Some nights I even dream of being in Africa. I read African novels such as the Purple Hibiscus, and Half Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. In my African internet favorites there are only 8 websites listed. Yahoo search brought up 528,000,000 sites; a Google search brought up 255,000,000 sites. I guess there is plenty to read while I wait.

Reading the history of African countries a pattern emerges at least for many. Chad independence 1960 with elections in 1996; Kenya independence 1963 with elections 1992; Mali independence 1960 elections 1992; Nigeria independence 1960 elections 1999; Sudan independence 1956 civil war until 2005; Tanzania independence 1964 elections 1995; Mauritania independence 1960 one party system came to end in 1995.

What was going on in Africa in the 1960’s and what happened in the 1990’s to change the course of so many countries simultaneously. As I wait this would be a good topic to research.

My internet favorites in my African folder have grown to 31 as of September 7, 2007.

Of course, all African countries, with the exception of Ethiopia and Liberia, started out as colonies. And just as with the American War for Independence, some African colonies, such as Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, also gained their independence only after waging war against their colonial masters. While the majority of African countries gained independence without having to resort to a revolution, in every African country independence was won only after the people organized themselves in a struggle against colonialism.