Day One
12 July 2008
So what can you buy with $4,000? A home theater? A lifetime supply of Snickers bars? A one-way trip to Bamako? I opted for the last option and the U.S. Government was kind enough to pick up the tab. I left Escanaba on the 7th, almost missing my connecting flight to Philadelphia where we spent a couple orientation days in the Historic District. The bus then took 77 of us to JFK where we flew to Paris and then on to Bamako. The journey was over 7,000 miles in all. It took almost 30 hours to just to get from Philadelphia to Tubani So, our training site (just outside Bamako on the Niger River).
We are staying in round huts with thatched roofs for the first few days and will be relocated to our host families on the 15th. Food has been good so far; the staff here is doing a good job of easing the transition. We start eating with our hands in a couple days. The weather also takes getting used to. My watch told me it was around 34 much of the day. This is the rainy season where the temperatures are moderate but humidity is high, making our business-casual attire that much less comfortable. The cold and a hot season are yet to come.
We started culture training classes and as expected, many customs are very different from those I am used to. Unless in a bigger city, every person is to be greeted at least with a hello. If a longer greeting is appropriate, a firm handshake is viewed as aggressive and the soft grip is held for an incredibly long time. Looking someone in the eyes while shaking their hand can be offensive.
Amazingly all of our luggage made it through. I have only been here 24 hours so I can't offer much more than a couple pictures, but more updates are sure to come. The following is an introduction that I wrote about a month ago to provide some background information:
As some of you know, I just graduated from the University of Michigan with an Engineering degree and will be leaving for Mali, Africa in early July. As a Peace Corps volunteer I will be stationed fairly close to the capital, Bamako, which is about 700 km southwest of Timbuktu. Mali is a big country, slightly less than twice the size of Texas, much of it stretching into the Sahara. The national language is French although local languages such as Bambara are also spoken, both of which I will need to learn. The time commitment is 27 months and I will be working as a water sanitation engineer and extension agent. According to Wikipedia, Southern Mali gets more rain on average over the course of a year than Detroit although for 5 months out of that year less than a quarter inch of precipitation is recorded. This adds up to big water problems as they do not have adequate methods for storing up water for the dry season. This is one problem I will be addressing along with health education.
Mali is one of the poorest countries in the world with a life expectancy of just under 50 years and the median age of 15.8 years. As my sister pointed out, I am soon to be a middle-aged man! Rice and millet are sometimes the only food options available so I have been eating as much as possible before I leave. I will send out updates every so often and would love to hear back from you! I want to stay up to date with what is happening in your lives, even if it is just some random things you did that day. It will probably take some time to answer your e-mails as internet will be sporadic, but I am sure they will me most valuable to me.
