End of Ramadan

Our village just celebrated the end of Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting in which Muslims abstain from eating, drinking and smoking from dawn until dusk. In our village the men go to the cliffs right outside our village and pray facing the east looking out over an expansive valley. Everyone in village dresses in their nicest outfits and spends the day walking around and greeting each others families. These are just a few pictures I was able to take throughout the day.
The men walking back to village after prayer.

One of the elders from village.
A man from our village with his two daughters.
On the right is one of the religious leaders in village. They have laid before them the Koran and a ceremonial sword.
Me, and the chief of the village (small man on the right) and another guy who just wanted to be in the picture.

Two bike trips and my work

A few days ago I had the opportunity to take a 80 km (about 50 miles) bike trip with my friend. It was nice to be out on a little adventure after spending almost 10 days in village by my lonesome. Ashley has been down in Bamako helping to train the new volunteers and so I have been spending time in village on my own. I would have to say that village on my own is not as fun as village life with Ashley. I did get a lot of reading/studying done and my language skills did seem to improve more than they would have if Ashley had been there since I was not able to speak English at all. The improvement of my language skills were noticeable because several villagers mentioned that "I could hear a lot of Donoso" which means I was getting better.

Looking over the village of Songo which is a Dogon village of about 3,000 people west of Bandiagara about 4 km off the road to Sevare.
The pelt of a monkey hanging from a granary.
The rattles
Songo is famous for a male circumcision ceremony that takes place every three years. It is one of the largest circumcision ceremony in the region and boys age 11-13 come from many villages nearby to take part. The paintings seen in the picture above represent different clans of the region and drawn every three years up in the cliffs above the village where the circumcision ceremony takes place.
Rattles that are made by the boys after the circumcision ceremony. ** My village has a circumcision ceremony for boys every two years and I was able to take part in some of the ceremony this year, and the boys in my village made rattles that where similar and for days after their circumcision they would sit near the road and sing songs to everyone who came by. Passerby where expected to then give money or food.
The view from the cliffs above Songo.

About two weeks ago I had the opportunity to travel with two new volunteers to there villages/sites. This is an important step in the life of a volunteer because this is the first time a volunteer will get to see the village he or she will be living in for the next two years. For a new volunteer this is awkward, thrilling and terrifying. You don't speak the language yet, it is your first time you are on your own in the country and it is the first real feeling of what your life will hold as a volunteer. So, I travel to two village with the new volunteers and just hung out with them and made sure that everything was going well.
A waterfall that has formed on the road between Djiguibambo and Kani Kombole.

After a heavy rain this waterfall formed...the view is from Kani Kombole.
On the road between Bankass and Bandiagara

I was also thinking the other day that I have placed no pictures up of the place I work. So I took a few photos the other day so you can see what the Center for Traditional Medicine in Bandiagara looks like. Ashley and I live about 5 km away from Bandiagara, so I bike into the Center about three or four times a week. This center was built with funding from the Italian government about 20 years ago. The Center produces seven traditional medicines that are certified by the Malian government and are sold at pharmacies through the country . It has very distinct architecture that is unique in that almost no timber was used in the construction, which is important in this region of West Africa where desertification (deforestation) is a problem due to environmental changes both man made and natural.
The main court yard of the Center for Traditional Medicine.
A view of the front.
Entrance to the Center...

Also, I have added this picture which was taken from the roof of our house a few day ago of a storm forming in the distance.

Also, a video I took of a storm rolling in from our front door...yes we are happy that the rain has come to water the earth. Rainy season has start slow and our village start

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.