Training done

So, the homestay component of training is finished and I have to admit that I'm a bit sad to see it end. It was stressful at times but I was lucky to be placed with a great family and I will miss them a lot.

Ramadan started this week, but this didn't really affect me because my family is one of the few Christian families in Mali. The TV schedule actually changed though, so I missed my nightly viewing of French-dubbed Brazilian soap opera.

Training continued and we had Bambara lessons as always. We also had to practice giving presentations to groups on various health topics and evaluating families on their health-related habits, which we are going to have to do once we get to our sites.

Peace Corps gives every training group money to organize a party in their homestay village. We hired a DJ to have a dance. It was okay, as Malian dances go (or at least the ones in this village), which means really awkward and strictly controlled. In the U.S., when you have a dance, everyone dances unless they are tired or don't feel like it and want to sit down. In Mali, everyone (little kids to adults) forms a big circle several people deep, and the DJ calls up a select group to dance in the middle. The rest of the attendees just watch as 4-10 people do their thing. A lot of people end up not getting to dance this way. There are also people whose specific job it is to carry a stick and beat back the children who aren't sitting far back enough.

Our last night, we bought food and invited 2 members of our families to come eat. It was really good : filet brochettes from Bamako, fried plantains and potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, and garlic bread with Laughing Cow cheese (the only cheese you can find here). We invited a neighbor to come and do henna on our feet and left hands (never the right hand, because that's the one you eat with!) and it turned out really nicely.

I gave my family a huge bag of rice, as suggested by one of our tutors. I think they liked it but it was perhaps not the ideal gift, because then it was a struggle for them to get it home. I also gave them some candy, postcards, stickers, crayons and construction paper that I brought from the U.S. I told my host dad that the coloring stuff was for the kids but he liked the paper so much that he said he didn't think he'd let them each have more than one sheet so that he could keep it for himself! Oh well.

I'm looking forward to going to my site, where will I have lots of free time, instead of having to be in class all day. Except that I'll probably actually end up having too much free time...
I'll also have more control over my daily activities since I'll be in my own house. At my homestay, I was never allowed to draw my own water from the well, even though I kind of enjoyed doing it. Every morning, I would try to sneak out with my bucket and sometimes I would manage to get one rubber pail-full of water into my plastic bucket before one of the women saw me and grabbed the rope from me. It's not that I'm bad at drawing water (I think), it was just like I was never allowed to get my own chair, sit in the sun if there was shade available, or carry my own bag when there was a little brother around to do it. I'll also be able to have more control over my diet. I have analyzed my diet at homestay, and it is:

Fruits and vegetables: 10%
Peanuts or their derivatives: 40%
Refined corn, rice or wheat: 40%
Sugar and oil and tea: 10%

Rainy season is ending, which means that it's going to get hot before cool season starts. I'll be here with internet access for about a week until I go out to site. We swear in officially as volunteers on the 21st.

And now, pictures:

I apologize that I have to upload them so small, but the internet here isn't the best. You can click on them to make them bigger.










again, my younger host siblings are incapable of taking a normal picture.










My host dad and a family friend, who is also my tailor.











Rose and me.