Mali Trip

Im currently sitting in Nouakchott detoxing from my trip to Mali…. where do I even begin? This trip has truly tested me in the Peace Corps motto “Be Flexible” since basically every single plan I had made was thrown to the wayside by either crappy transportation issues, minor incidents of international terrorism or complications with the Mauritanian government. Its been a crazyyy few weeks…

So the first leg of our trip was to get from Boghé to Bamako, which was of course full of the usual ridiculousness that accompanies travel here in West Africa (aka lost reservations, 2 am border crossing, sleeping in a bus station). But once we got to Bamako it was completely worth it. Unlike cosmopolitan Dakar and sand dune filled Nouakchott, Bamako is a real African city. It is so green and tropical and has both western amenities (including a pool at our hotel!) and traditional African charm. I had a great time celebrating my birthday eve at a local bar full of PCVs from Mali and Mauritania (in town for the World Cup qualifying game and PC Mauritania/Mali Soccer game). And on a random side note, turns out it was the bartenders birthday as well so me and my friends enjoyed free bottles of champagne all night! The pictures below are me at a re-creation of the famous Djenne Mosque at the National Museum of Mali and me and Julie on my birthday eve.

After a few days in Bamako, me and Julie headed out to meet up with our friends who had already started hiking in the Dogon country. The bus ride from Bamako to Severe (jumping off point into the Dogon) was such a trip from hell that I decided it was better to forget it was my birthday because that just made me more angry, but even with the bus ride from hell it was completely worth it. The Dogon country is known for its beautiful rock formations and traditional Dogon culture that has withstood centuries of imperialism and globalization and is considered one of the top places to visit in all of Africa. The dozens of villages are only assessable by hiking up and down the rock facades and with an experienced Dogon guide. The views are amazing and the history and culture are unparallel to anything that Mauritania has to offer.

On the left is an aerial view of one of the Dogon villages where we hiked to and spent the night and on the right is a close up of some of the alleys throughout the village.

On the left is a traditional Dogon village and mosque with the ever present baobob tree in front and on the right is an engraved pole holding up the thatched roof of our campement.

Notice the houses built into the rock face on the left. These were originally built by the 'Tellem" people, a pygmy race in Mali. Due to the location of the homes, upon entering the territory the Dogon people believed that the Tellem could fly (although they soon discovered otherwise and forced them to leave). On the right is a house of "fetishes", things used for traditional medicine and rituals, like stuffed monkeys and skulls.

The goat skin is not Dogon specific but unfortunitly popular throughout West Africa. They swear it cools down water but i think its about the sickest thing ever! The picture on the right was in one of the Dogon villages where mirrors (or reflective sunglasses) apparently dont exist... these girls spent a solid 5 minutes tapping my eyes and showing their friends their reflections (although im sure they could have gone on playing with them for an infinite time if i would have let them).

Sadly in the middle of our Dogon trip we found out that the PC Mauritania/Mali Soccer game was cancelled. Everyone had really been looking forward to it for a long time but due to the continuing terrorist activity in north-eastern Mali the embassy decided it was best not to have so many Americans congregated at the same place. Then later during the same phone call we found out that our new group of volunteers had been denied visas by the Mauritanian government so all of our plans for this summer (that virtual revolve around training the newbees) no longer existed. Although there is still a possibility that training is just postponed until later this summer, it is still a huge blow to our moral as we watch the second year volunteers COS (close of service) and the possibility that they wont be replaced starts to sink in.

GMC Art Project

One of the last projects I did at the center this year was an introduction to art lesson in coordination with Amanda (my fellow girls ed volunteer in Aleg). For almost every single one of these girls, this was the first time they have been given the opportunity to use their creativity through art and learn hands-on about things like the color wheel, drawing, African/Islamic art motifs and painting. We taught the girls how to create secondary colors from primary colors and then had them practice with a color by numbers and watercolor paints. From there Amanda taught the girls about some basic painting techniques and together we practiced by painting a flower using pointillism. On the next day we studied African and Islamic motifs and using the projector (a borrowed godsend from our bureau in Nouakchott!) we studied photos for the different type of art they could find throughout Mauritania and Western Africa.

The next step was the hardest, giving the girls absolute freedom to create their own painting of African/Islamic art. It’s a delicate balance of giving them examples to use but still making them push themselves to really create something original. In the end, it was a pretty successful couple days and you could see some of these girls discovering their artistic side. Even though there was only a few weeks left in the school year they keep asking when the next art class would be!! I guess I’ll just have to start planning one for next school year!

So for now the center is closed during the summer, with the exception of the 10th Annual Girl's Conference in Nouakchott at the end of June. Although its going to be an exhusting 4 days, im excited to be able to bring my 3 best girls to participate. Blog post on that to come in just a few short weeks!

My Faux 23rd BDay Party

Because Yates will be out of town for my real birthday, her and Julie decided to throw me a little mini faux bday party last weekend. Since everyone else was down in St. Louis for Jazz Fest, it ended up being just me, Yates, Julie and Zach but it was still such a great day! By the time I came over to the house in the morning they had already hung ballons from our big neem tree (Yates actually thought I may not notice the ballons due to all the trash and plastic bags that are in the tree haha ). Then we made enchiladas for lunch and spent all afternoon lounging in the kiddie pool. They even made me two desserts, a banana cake with chocolate icing and Zach’s famous mango pie (with colorful coconut shavings on top). Sadly, by the time the cake was cut the fluish sickness I had been fighting the whole day got the best of me and the drinking games we had planned were replaced with sleep, but I still could not have asked for a more perfect faux bday party! Now onto Bamako to celebrate my real bday!

look how good our enchiladas look!!! its amazing wht creativity and some velvetta can do!

its always so sad when we have to drain the kiddie pool at the end of the day