A life in pictures

I've got a lot of pictures from the last month and a half...enjoy!

Working with shea butter is going to be one of my main projects here in Mali. Here is a photo with my counterpart, Bintou, myself, and the President of the Women's Association, Djeneba. Bintou and Djeneba had just received their certificates for completing a 3-day shea butter training:


Last week, the Women's Shea Association made a whole bunch of shea butter. Here is a picture of 3 of the women "beating" the shea butter:



I've had trouble posting videos in the past, so we'll see if this works. Here are all of the women beating shea butter.




And, me, pretending I know what I'm doing for 10 minutes. Beating shea butter is a good arm workout:

After you first grind the shea nuts, the shea butter is a dark brown paste. You have to beat it with your hands for 1-2 hours to draw out the actual shea butter. After this time, it becomes a white color. So, here's the shea butter, almost done with the beating process.

Next, the white shea butter is boiled for quite a long time to draw out the actual shea butter:

And, then you get shea butter!


I visited a man in my village named Buwa the other day, who has a very large and successful garden. He has hundreds of banana trees. In this picture, the kids who work for him had cut down some of the bananas to sell to women in my village. The women then sell the bananas in the market, where I buy them and am very thankful that I can get fresh fruit in my village!

My friend Oumou gave birth a couple of weeks ago. The baptism was held one week after the birth of her son, his name is Madi Keita. I spent the morning of the baptism playing cards and games with the men. This game is called Lido, and reminds me a lot of Trouble. I did alright, I am pretty sure Adama, Damisi and Mogoba were making up some of the rules as we went...:


In late March, all of the volunteers in the Kita and Manantali areas got together with their counterparts for a regional training. It was a relatively successful training, I was happy just to get some one on one time with my work counterpart, without the distractions of her other work in village. Here's the group photo:

Here's the ladies from Kita region, we all got outfits made of the same fabric for the training.


Eating out of the communal bowl at lunchtime during training. Yum, tigadegena (rice with peanut butter sauce). This is Karmen, Lindsey, me and Ryan:


Another group at the communal bowl, Jess, Jackie, Joelle and John:

About a month ago we celebrated my 25th birthday in Kita with a delicious burrito dinner, tye dye shirt requirement, and a yummy birthday cake (frosting creatively colored by Jess using powdered juice packets):


We had a big party at my site with a married men vs. single men soccer match followed by a dance that night. Here's Oumou and I, resting for a few minutes before going back on the dance floor:


This is Damisi, my next door neighbor. He's just figuring out how to talk, and comes to greet me every morning and evening. Definitely one of my favorite kids in town.

We celebrated a Kuranajigi (spelling totally wrong I'm sure) in a nearby village. This was the celebration of a student of the Koran finishing reading the Koran. There was a big feast with lots of praying, chanting, and chatting. In this picture I am sitting with many of the women inside, preparing dege (kind of millet with sugar mushed into a ball, it tastes okay). The women were surprised to see that the Tubab could roll dough into a ball, I had to explain that we do it all of the time to make cookies...


As the dry season moves forward, I begin to understand more and more why Malians are scared of frogs. This is the drainage hole from my concession onto the street, where I dump my dish and cooking water. I went to do my dishes one night and found tons of frogs congregated in the pool of water! Add this to the many times I have dug up frogs (more like goo balls) 6 inches under the ground in my garden or in my compost pit...I assume they put themselves down there to save moisture during the hot season?

Again, I don't know if this video will come through, but we have some pretty amazing dancers in my village. Just watch those hips and feet move!

Cold Soda, Cold Pop

I guess it hasn't been too long since my last blog entry, but a lot has happened! I just returned from a trip to Senegal for the West African International Softball Tournament (WAIST), followed by a quick trip to the Gambia. Peace Corps and Expat teams from all over West Africa got together for a weekend of softball and parties. Unfortunately my team didn't make it to the semifinals, but we went 2-1-1 in the round robin games. Our team, the Cowboys, certainly didn't receive any help from my "awesome" softball skills! Here is a picture of the Seattle Kawboys...Holly, Gloria, me and Mike (Kaw means family in Bambara ):

Here is part of Kita Kaw after an awesome game of kickball, unfortunately won on the basis of rock-paper-scissors by the Refugees (a team made up of volunteers that worked in Guinea and Mauritania up until the programs in those countries were shut down), Ryan, Jess, Joelle and I:

Me, Joelle and Jess enjoying a view of the ocean on N'Gor island in Dakar, Senegal.


I traveled to the Gambia with three friends after the softball tournament. Highlights of the trip to the Gambia were swimming in the ocean, watching the catch of the day come in on pirogues (canoe-like boats that we were told travel from 10-20 km into the ocean to go fishing), going to a nature reserve filled with monkeys, having to pull a cable to bring a boat across the Gambia river, and the hospitality of all of the Gambia volunteers, especially our host Kris. Here's some pictures from the trip, first the small port where we watched all of the fish come in:


Taxis were being loaded with fish to go to the local restaurants. I got to eat lots of delicious fish in both Dakar and the Gambia.


After watching the fish come in, we had a small "senior photo shoot." This was my winning photo...:


Here's Ester and Jess, both of whom are also from Washington:


Matt, Jess, me and Owen on the beach. The four of us traveled together from Dakar, through the Gambia and back home to Mali. We were so happy to be back in Mali when we crossed the border!


The Gambia volunteers held a toga party for one of their volunteers who is leaving early to start medical school. All of the Mali volunteers who were in town decided to join in.


I'm on my way back to site in just a few hours where I will go to my homologue's son's engagement party, it should be a lot of fun. I spent January and February at site continuuing to learn Bambara, making new friends, and working on my garden. Sometimes I feel like my garden has been a series of failures, and there are two obvious problems with this. 1. Will I get any food for my hard work? and 2. How will the women in the garden ever trust my gardening advice? I'll blame most of my problems on the huge envrironmental differences between Mali and the places I have gardened in the past - Ecuador and Washington. Also, I haven't grown most of these vegetables before, so a lot of what I am doing is based on trial and error. Next year, ni alla sonna, I'll have an awesome garden.

So, what problems have I had? Worms and grasshoppers have become my arch-enemies. Grasshoppers have single handedly destroyed my carrot (x 2), cabbage, beet (x2), and salad (x2) peppinieres. I might have been able to halt the destruction had I caught it earlier, but by the time I had discovered the problem and brewed up some strong natural pest deterent (Neem tree, garlic, hot pepper, onion, and soap), the seedlings were all but gone. Sad times.

Worms are a more recent problem. I have about 90 tomato plants with a lot of fruit on them, which is very exciting. But, I have just discovered that worms have enterred most of my tomatoes...I am pretty sure they are some sort of moth larvae. Once they enter the tomatoes there is not much I can do, so I searched for the little green worms on the plants before I left for Senegal, and I couldn't find a single one. Shoot.

Yesterday, while visiting my site with my boss, Yacouba, we discovered that worms of a different kind have destroyed my green beans. When I left for Senegal, my green beans were robust and just starting to fruit. Yesterday, I was hoping to show my Yacouba my beautiful green beans. When we arrived at my garden, they were yellow, rotting skeletons of plants. Yacouba pulled up the plants and we discovered that worms had enterred the roots of the beans and destroyed them! Oh jeez. So much for all the delicous green beans I was hoping to harvest.

I've also had some transplanting issues, and discovered that the lettuce I was hoping to harvest right after my trip to Senegal has gone to seed during the two weeks I was gone. Now that I don't have any trips planned, hopefully I can do some good recovery work in my garden at get some produce from it. We're on the brink of hot season, and I am hoping the water in the wells will last for awhile longer. It was a really good year for rain, so I might be in luck. Here's some pictures from the garden before I left for Senegal:



Yum, lettuce, except the three largest heads went to seed in the last two weeks, which makes them very bitter and not nice to eat.


Here is one of my four beds of tomato plants. Can't wait to harvest these!

This was the first tomato fruit to appear. It has since been destroyed by worms.


Here are some more lettuce beds, they haven't gone to seed yet, so I should be able to eat and give away lots of this lettuce!


Onions, which appear to be growing well. Most of the women in the garden grow onions exclusively, and they all seem to be expert onion growers.


Lastly, here are some pictures from around my village. I should let my vegetarian friends know that there is an offensive picture coming up. First, this is my friend Oumou peeling woso (sweet potato). She will be giving birth sometime in the next 1 1/2 months.


Here is Gundo, Sayon and their kids. Gundo is one of my host moms and makes me lunch every day.

The day before I left for Senegal, there was a big party to celebrate the baptism of a baby named Mariama. As part of the celebration, two goats were killed. In the afternoon, I was chatting with some friends, and all of a sudden my host brothers started attacking each other playfully with the heads and legs of the goats. Shortly after this picture, the heads were cooked and eaten:

Take it easy until next time!

Some Q & A

I haven't written a substantial blog entry recently, partly because of lack of will, and partly because of lack of internet access. I have been at my site for almost all of January, after being gone for all of December. It's a hard transition to make after being gone for so long – in some ways it's as if I am starting from scratch all over again. And, here I am, about to leave for two weeks! (More details to come post-trip)

I have received several questions from friends and family in letters and emails, so I thought this would be the best place to answer them all. Here goes.

How are you?

• I'm okay.

How many people are in your village?

• I've heard anywhere from 3,000-5,000. It certainly doesn't seem like that many! I think the population estimates include smaller neighboring villages, not just my village proper.

How tall are the people in your village?

• As with anywhere, there is a huge range in the height of people in my village. Some are really short, some are really tall. I'm one of the taller women at the moment, though there are some other tall women around. Men are usually the same height as me or a little shorter, and there are a few who are taller than me. (I'm 6'0'' if that helps).

How many Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) are in your village?

• Just me. As a general rule in the Peace Corps, there is only one volunteer per village. This is a way to help/force a volunteer to integrate. If there was an English speaker here who's culture I understood, I would be likely to spend more time with them than out and about in my village. This also forces you to practice your Bambara. The closest volunteer to me is 18 km away. In larger cities, like Bamako, there is often more than one PCV.

Are there any hills close by?

• There is a large “mountain” in Kita, which I think is more like a large hill. There are also several small hills and rock formations on the bike ride out to my site, which I love because they are beautiful and their presence reminds me a little bit of home.

Tell me about the landscape.

• In addition to the rock formations, my village is surrounded by a lot of large, old trees. I wouldn't necessarily call it a forest, but it is nice to see so many trees – certainly more than in many other areas of Mali that I have visited. Aside from that, the land is mostly flat agricultural land, and anywhere not used for agriculture is filled with brush. If you were to walk with a Malian through the brush, they could tell you a use for almost every type of plant. I don't think it's possible to learn them all in just 2 years!

Is there any water nearby?

• There is a river that runs through town during the wet season. This is a good year for water, and the river didn't dry up until December. There are still a couple of large ponds and puddles of water. I think some of the puddles might last the whole year. Every day I see a man placing his fishing net in the largest of our ponds; I've been told he's able to catch a lot of fish. My homologue told me she doesn't think the wells will run dry before the next rainy season, which is a very good thing.

How's the weather?

• People keep telling me how cold it is as they walk around in their winter parkas, and kids can be found in one-piece ski suits. Here I am, still struggling to say cool during the day (it still reaches the 90s every day!). At night, we're in the mid to high 60s. It has certainly gotten colder since my arrival in July – I now sleep with a sheet and blanket (as opposed to nothing). The rain ended in October and won't come again until June. Ever. It's a strange concept to me that the rain just doesn't come during the dry season. Some days it will cloud up like Seattle, and I'll think, “It's definitely going to rain today.” Nope. This cold season will only last another month before it turns into the hot season, a time that I fear a little bit. I'm sure I'll get somewhat used to it, but I've never been one for super-hot weather. Following the heat will come the rain, and the beginning of another planting season.

Are you sick of beans/more explanations of food?

• I could and probably will do whole blog entries on food options. So, I won't go into detail here. I'm not sick of beans. In fact, I crave beans. I had big intentions of cooking beans multiple times per week, but they are a pain in the butt to cook here, and will eat up my gas tank quickly. So, I save the beans for special occasions. Luckily, there is a woman in my village that sells delicious beans every night, so I buy them every once in a while. I cook my own breakfast and dinner, but eat lunch with my host family. I am a little sick of leaf sauce and millet “rice” which I eat for lunch every day. I have to say, it's not the best stuff. I have tasted some very good food in Mali, but this isn't a dish I prefer. Since I am living in the peanut-producing region of Mali, we eat peanuts and/or peanut butter with everything. If you're allergic to peanuts, you probably don't want to come here!

Are there domestic cats/dogs/other pets?

• There are cats and dogs here, but they aren't like your normal idea of a pet. Generally they must scavenge for their own food, and are pretty mangy. A lot of the time, dogs and cats seem like the beating posts for children. I thought of getting a cat or dog in my village, but decided against it since I don't know how often I'll be gone. So far, a good decision. Of the 5 pets bought by my PCV friends in Kita, 3 have either died or run away. Not the best success rate. Aside from cats and dogs, there are loads of other animals. These are somewhere between pets, property, signs of wealth and food. There are ducks, guinea fowl, chicken, pigeons, rabbits, goats, sheep, donkeys, cows and horses.

• Here is a picture of my good kitty friend, who belongs to my homologue. He knows I am a sucker, and he comes out for a good ear scratch every time I come into their compound. I get a lot of puzzled looks when I pet cats or dogs...that's just not normal.

Do you wear sunscreen every day?

• Yes.

How do you bathe?

• Every morning and night I get a bucket of water from the pump and carry it back to my house on my head. Then, I take a bucket bath. It can be a little chilly at this time of year. When I had a cold a of couple weeks ago, people in my village told me it was because I didn't heat my water before bathing. Hm.

How did you haul poop and were your hands bare?

• I have gotten cow manure for my garden on multiple occasions, collecting from where the cows sleep every night. I ride my bike out to the place and load up an old rice sack with poop (yes, using my bare hands and a daba/hoe). Then I load up my bike with the poop and head to my garden, which is a 5 minute bike ride away. I water the manure for a couple of days before adding it to my garden, because there is so much nitrogen in it that it might burn my plants if I were to add it directly. Watering the poop allows some of the nitrogen to escape.

Alright, that's all for now. Keep the questions and comments coming, I love it. Thank you to everyone who has sent a letter or email, they increase happiness levels 10-fold! Until next time, have a good month and take it easy.

A month in photos...

Happy New Year to friends, family and visitors! I'm headed back to site today after a long month of training, traveling, and spending time in Bamako for the New Year. I am very excited to get back! Before I jump on my bike, I wanted to post some pictures from the last month so that you know what I've been up to.

Here is a picture of me and my homologue (work partner), on Seliba (Tabaski), which was held two days after Thanksgiving this year. It was a wonderful day full of greeting neighbors, giving blessings and eating sheep.

Here is another friend, Bayini, on Seliba as well:

Here is a picture of Oumou, myself and Tierno on Seliba. Oumou and Tierno are two of my best friends in village, and we danced together until late in the night on Seliba:


More of my friends and Malian family on

Again, the moon over Mali, though maybe not the best picture. I'll get another really good one some day.

Onto training - the first year volunteers all had 2.5 weeks of training at Tubaniso, and on one of the last days we had the opportunity to see Habib Koite play in Bamako. Here is Owen, me, Jess and John, waiting for Habib Koite to begin.

For Christmas, and the next several days afterward, I traveled with 15 other volunteers to Dogon Country for a 3-day hike. Here is Colleen and I after a delicious Christmas dinner (Thanks Sam):

There was a Dogon Festival going on in Sangha while we were there, and many of the women from the area came together to dance on Christmas day - this picture doesn't quite get across how beautiful it was:

On the hike - Mike, Marissa, Ali, Chris and Colleen:


The view from Sangha:


Down on the plains, just below Sangha:

Hiking through Yougadougourou:


On New Year's Day, there was a Hungover Hash Run which many of us participated in:


That's all for now, I'll try to write something more substantial for next time.