'Room Temperature' depends on where your room is

And here, it's about 81 F. Tomorrow everyone leaves for homestay for two weeks. Here we get 5 hours of language class a day, then some cultural discussion, then the usual homestay benefits--eating all our meals with our Malian family and having them help us use the language.

I'm heading to Moribabaougou, about 17 km outside of Bamako to learn intensive Bambara, the local language which 80% of Malians speak. I'm incredibly happy about this: nearly everyone in Mali speaks either Bambara, french, or both, so unlike some of the minority languages, I should be ok anywhere. Which, right now, is the reason why I still am in the dark about my permanent work site. I was told due to my grassroots experience (over office or beureucratic experience) that I'd most likely be put in a pretty small village, working at a community health center. Called Centres Saite de Communitaire (CSCOMs), these things are initiated by the village and are incredibly limited, only having some midwives, birthing attendants, and maybe even a nurse. In the Malian health care system, you have to go up to the regional level before you can get to a Nurse Practitioner or even a doctor.

It's absurd being in a country where there is still the colonial language (French) and the many local languages (Bambara being the majority). For example, Claudine, our Health Ed instructor is from Cote d'Ivoire. She has french and limited english, but her assistant only has limited french and her local language. Since every health volunteer has at least some knowledge of French, it's everyone trying to meet somewhere in the middle-- the volunters trying to use their limited french, Claudine using her slightly less limited english. Nearly every conversation goes this way, falling into a mix of french/English. Hopefully, it will get better with knowing Bambara. No Malian wants to speak french unless they really must.

Since leaving Philidelphia, the immunization count is now at 7 since I received 2 more today. Fortunantely, this Typhoid is the first one that has really hurt (the Rabies is surprisingly fine). I have honestly probably doubled the total number of immunizations I've had. Such is being a health worker in Africa.

Who knew that Mali, Africa was so far away? I'll be short since there are only 4 computers between 80 people. Friday, we started with a 7 some hour plane ride from Philly to Paris CDG. Since we had an 8 hour layover, we actually checked into hotel rooms to get a bit of sleep, and then back to the airport at evening for a 5 some hour flight to Bamako.

At about 10 pm we landed in Bamako, where it was 29 C. Thats about 95 F for everyone stateside. And it had rained earlier in the day, so it was humid.

Then we loaded into vans and made the 40 minute drive to the training site, Tubani So, which means "peace of the doves" in Bamabara. We're sleeping about 3 people to a mud hut. Today we start the Bambara classes (all day), and as a break, head over to the health building to get 3 more vaccinations (we received 3 in philly).

We're staying here at Tubani So until the middle of the week, after which we'll each move to our homestays to continue language and cultural training--a Language and Cultural trainer (LCT) comes to the village to perform language instruction during the day. Then we live and work with our Malian families to immediately use whatever local language (and french) we must use.

I don't really think any of this can be completely conveyed without photos. And yes, we're all really that insane.

The best time to be online-

Is when there are about twenty other things to do. Which is right now, two days from when I head to Philadelphia, and then Mali with the Peace Corps. Excited? Sure. Terrified? Absolutely.

Hopefully this page will become my Africa-specific page for updates and pictures for the friends and family scattered all over the place.