My assessment of my place in the world is small because even though I live in a democracy I have one vote and that one vote does not give me a whole lot of voice. I watch the politicians, the courts, the congress do their job not always feeling that they take me or my family, or my neighborhood, or my community, or my State, or my civil rights into account. I escape into photography, my friends, family, gardening, writing and now this blog.
Friday, February 6, 2009
In Service Training Bamako
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.
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 
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