A tour of Koutiala

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

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 through 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 “bus” form her site about 44 kilometers north of here where the other volunteers were and their ballots were to get on public transport 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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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