One School, One Volunteer, One Mural

One School, One Volunteer, One Mural...one by one Education Volunteers will take Mali by storm.

This was the joke that myself, my fellow trainers, and the education trainees have been saying the last few days as we worked on a map mural in a local school near Bamako. We had a ton of fun, got a bit wheezy from all the fumes, had to wash our hands with kerosene, and listened to alot of Akon. It was a blast. Here is our mural from start to finish.

Jared studying the world map intently before diggin' in.

We made a huge grid on the wall, each square was 70 in by 70 inches.

Then we transfered the countries from the grid on the paper map onto the grid on the wall.

Labeling countries for names and color coding.

(Dao, Veronique, and Amanda)

Getting ready to mix the paints. These are paints used for vehicles, it is all they sell here.

(Veronique, Hunter, Me and Ali)

Us trainers are quite pleased with the progress.

(Katie, Hunter, and ME)

Coming along...

Slowly but surely...



Almost there...



Action pic of Jeremy and I, throughly enjoying ourselves.

Can't forget to label the countries, all in French...hmmm....where's is google when you need it.

The trainees

The Trainers

A lot has been going on...

Joe and I have had a lot going on lately or so it seems like we have had a a lot going on....

We celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary on July 26th, it was celebrated with a wonderful dinner of Velvetta Shells and Cheese (homemade right out of the box), paired with Crystal Light Lemonade....what a night!!!!

I also turned 28 on August 10th. I was in Bamako helping out with training and Joe came down to suprise me and we stayed in a hotel for 2 nights. It was so nice, we were out of touch with Mali for a few days enjoying air-conditioning, a swimming pool, a hot shower, a flat screen TV, and wine paired with pizza. What a luxury.

Rainy season has recently started so all of our villagers go out into their fields from sun-up to sun-down everyday, we have been helping out too. We usually tag along with Oumar's family, to their fields, which are 5K away from our village. It is so interesting to see farming done without the convenience of machines. Here in Mali it is all done by hand, from plowing, to planting to harvesting. These people are amazing, working the fields by hand in the heat. Although, it is tough work we have been enjoying it.

Joe dropping millet into the hole and then covering it up with his bare feet. Yep, that's how it is done here.

Look at the rows of planted millet behind me, all nice and straight and done by hand, AMAZING!

Ramatu, taking a break from work, what a beautiful woman!

All of us planting millet, a family affair!

Joe has recently been studying for the GMAT, which takes up alot of his time here, he will take the test in October in Dakar, Sengal. They do not offer the test here in Mali. So we are bummed that we have to travel to the coast and hang out on the beach, inorder for him to take his test. :)

Joe's "study buddy", Smalls, our new cat!!!

I have been plugging away in Bamako helping out with the new group of volunteers. They have been here for about a month now. It has been fun to teach some classes, but also to see and meet new faces.

And as always, we are constantly hanging out with children in our village.

Saly, she will just stand in our doorway and wait for us to come and hang out.

And this cutie is Gellie, she comes over and just repeats everything Joe says, it is absolutely adorable.

6 Years

Ashley and I celebrated our sixth year wedding anniversary last week. It has been a WONDERFUL adventure and I am more in love today than I was six years ago.

New Energy

Joe and I in our matching Fourth of July outfits, ready to hit the town!

After our 4th of July shindig with some fellow volunteers, Joe and I headed to Bamako, the capital city, for our mid-service medical exam and also to welcome the new volunteers to Mali. The new volunteers arrived on July 10th at around 8pm. I was able to go to the airport and meet them all, with my clipboard in hand to make sure everyone was accounted for and all their baggage had made it to Mali safely. Waiting back at the training site Joe and some of the old volunteers waited to give them their first lessons in bathroom etiquette, how to use their mosquito nets and repellent, and reminded them to only drink filtered water. It was an enjoyable few days at the training center, good sessions, and great new energy. The new volunteers bring a refreshing breath of fresh air to those of us who are at our stale-one year marker.

Speaking of a stale-one year marker, Joe and I were recently were having a bit of a bad day, Joe was sick of traveling back and forth to work and I was down and out for the day with some type of intestinal sickness. Here are two instances that perked us right up and reminded us how grateful we are to be here and how we can't let the little things get us down.

1) Joe had just come home from work and we heard some motorcycles coming towards our house. Joe quickly headed outside and 4 men from the Traditional Medicine Center (Joe's work) had come out to wish me good health. One of the men proceeded to tell me that "when I am sick, it means Joe is sick, which in turn means the staff at the Traditional Medicine Center is sick because we are all family." What a great feeling to know that we are considered to be family here.

The guys from work were sporting their Obama T-shirts when they came to visit; this is quite the joke at work, because they all know Joe is a Republican.

2) On the same night, the sun had gone down and Joe had just gotten done with his bucket bath and I was lying on the bed. Joe's counterpart came knocking on our door, Joe answered it and Oumar had a bucket in his hand. He handed it over to Joe and said it was for me because I was sick. Joe opened the lid and there was a whole chicken, plucked and cleaned for me! (Eating meat here, is suppose to make you healthy). I know you are all thinking gross, but it is such and honor here to be given a chicken. Chickens are VERY expensive and are a rare treat. The chicken that was given to me was probably worth about a month's salary.

My very first chicken...isn't he cute!

So the moral of the stories are, that Malians are very community orientated people. The fact that they would sacrifice time to come visit me and sacrifice money for my health is a humbling experience. We are learning alot about community and were reminded that we are blessed to be living with these lovely, caring people!

The Year Marker: the pie chart is half full

This time last year we were sitting in my Mom's backyard enjoying friends, family, onion rings(oh, those sound so good right now) and laughter. It was the night before we started our Peace Corps adventure.

As we went to the airport the next morning holding back tears and with unsettled stomachs, we both were wondering what our Peace Corps experience would bring. Well, needless to say it has brought a lot. Here are a few highlights of the past year.

We have learned:

• TIME- Who needs it? (we have learned patience with what west Africans call WAIT - West African International Time - basically slow down and hang out because most things are not worth rushing around for)
• two languages- okay they are both not perfected yet, but we still have a year left
• how to eat out of a communal bowl and with our hands
• TV is not a necessity
• how much we appreciate being from a prosperous and blessed country
• cooking with a VERY limited number of ingredients and still edible food

We have been humbled by:

• our villages hospitality
• Malian smiles
• simplistic, meager living
• support from friends and family back home

We have survived:

• without running water or electricity
• 115F temperatures
• amoebas and giardia (and feel blessed to have escaped the wrath of schistosomiasis, malaria, yellow fever, typhoid, and the list goes on....)
• eating millet toh and leftover millet toh
• non-refrigerated meat---its safe, right?
• public transport - in our opinion the most dangerous part of living in a third world nation

Things that have become normal:

• sweating constantly
• bucket baths
• carrying things on our heads
• not showing our knees
• sleeping outside every night
• hand washing ALL our clothes
• going to the bathroom in a hole
• being woken in the morning by donkeys, roosters, and woman pounding millet
• the Muslim call to prayer over a loud speaker (five times a day)

Amazing experiences:

• visiting Timbuktu
• four day river trip on the Niger
• traveling overland to Guinea and Sierra Leone
• having Bubba visit us for 6 weeks
• watching crazy African storms roll in from the distance
• watching beautiful African sunsets
• living a radically different lifestyle than the way we grew up, yet more similar to the way the majority of the world lives

Things we miss:

• CHEESE!!!!!!!!
• family and friends
• a hot shower
• being able to wear shorts
• air conditioner
• Mexican food with a margarita
• lattes/coffee shops- somewhere to relax and get away
• baking(Ashley)
• church worship and fellowship
• TJ Maxx(Ashley)
• Dairy Queen blizzard(Joe)
• major life events of our friends and family - holidays, marriages, babies...
• seeing familiar faces
• set jobs
• date nights
• Target "dollar spot" and popcorn combo

With one year down and one to go, we are still enjoying out time here. Although not everyday is fun or easy, it is a challenge we feel blessed to have as individuals and as a couple. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers as another year is upon us.

Planting Season

The rains are coming and everyone in our village is getting excited.  They have all been spending a lot of time out in the fields tilling the soil and planting seeds.  Ashley and I are excited because the rains help to cool the air and settle the dust.  This last week we went out to the fields a few times.  I got sunburned, which Malians don't understand, so we just tell them that white peoples skin gets sick if its in the sun to long.  Ashley made some popcorn which we took out to the field with us to share with a few of the men from village who's field we visited.  This was there first popcorn break of their life (most people in our village had never had popcorn before we arrived).  We also planted a small garden of our own.    

Umar and I preparing the soil to drop millet and bean seeds.  Umar usually allows me to work about ten minutes and then tells me I have to sit under a tree so that I don't die in the African sun.

Me preparing a garden.  We planted beans and squash.
A hedge hog that a little boy in village found in the field.  I wanted to keep it as a pet but Ashley said "no".   The little boy that found it ate it that same night.  It doesn't look like it has to much meat on it.
Our new kitten...he is so small.  He is about as big as a mouse.
Just wanted to highlight one of my favorite trees in Mali with a few photos.  The Baobab tree's leaf is harvested and used in a variety of sauces and the fruit has a good amount of vitamin C and calcium.  So this is a very important tree to the people of my village.  

Mudding of the Djenne Mosque

So, I (Ashley got sick and couldn't go) got to go to the Mudding of the Djenne Mosque in the city of Djenne (the oldest known city in sub-Saharan Africa).  The mosque is the largest mud brick building in the world.  Each spring before the rains come the community of Djenne replasters (with mud) the mosque, which is a giant festival of fun and mud throwing.  The young men gather dirt, animal excrement, and raisins.  The woman haul buckets of water.  It is all mixed together by the feet of young boys. 

The woman in the background are carrying buckets of water up to the mud pits near the mosque
Mud is being passed up to these men



These are the baskets that they carry the mud in

A few videos I took during the mudding...