Just need a few of you to help out

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

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

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

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.