Teacher Training

Zoe would like to announce that she is back to blogging and feeling 95% better.

We went to Camp Chiwara today and spent the morning working with the 24 student teachers. Our teacher training session went very well, especially considering that the program has been having a hard time with these women, who often flirt with the male teachers during class. We taught them a special session on project-based learning, with a focus on different modalities of learning. They were really responsive and even did some thoughtful reflecting at the end. They also did some great skits, drawings, songs, and dances to show different ways of learning. Tomorrow, we hope to talk about group work and student support.

The Sikasso women doing a skit in our open air classroom

For the afternoon sessions, Zoe went to sports and played pickle and football. Sara went to art to make paper flowers for our hippo ballet set, and then taught puzzles like Black Magic (and my French is slowly getting better).

Paper Flower Bonanza

After camp, we went to the tailor to get clothes made. For about $2, you can get an outfit made here, and $6 at the market buys enough material for 3 skirts. So, we are custom designing multiple outfits, but the tailor doesn't speak much French. He called in a random guy off the street to translate, who brought in his adorable twins: Christophe and Christine. They all stayed for a good half hour while we attempted to describe and design our clothes. They'll be ready for pick up next Monday.

We continue to be surprised by random events, such as children plucking feathers from a pigeon (which apparently they eat here). Also there was a cow outside the door to school today. We've also had a string of rain and thunder storms, which has cooled things off quite a bit. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Other Photos:

Francois and adorable baby

Mom of adorable baby

More paper flowers

Lazy Sunday.... and Balloons

Today was a lazy Sunday, with a solid nap, lots of card playing (I learned a new game called 151), and just plain hanging out. Zoe is currently recovering from whatever stomach bug you are supposed to get in Mali. She is feeling better now. I went to the Kati market this morning, which was a big accomplishment, especially given my poor French skills. I also did balloons for the first time, while it poured outside. Here are some photos:

Maria models the hippo mask that I made, to practice for our upcoming production. Does it look more like a fish? I'll need to practice more...

The kids model the mask.

Maria's sister, Rose, with a balloon corsage.

Here I am making a frog, while Christiane looks on with her Santa hat.

The family kids with their first balloons

Bamako Saturday

Today we spent our first full day in Bamako, the big city. In the guide books, they call it “the most African of African cities,” whatever that means. We rode there in a bache, which is a 15 passenger van that has all the seats taken out, so they can cram upwards of 25 people in there. We were lucky that our first one wasn’t too crowded, but then we got dropped off in the market and were thoroughly overwhelmed. It was so hot and we could barely walk with all the people. We hadn’t yet been to the bank, so we couldn’t buy anything. We did see local medicine men selling monkey heads and other dead animals, which we walked by as quickly as possible.

We set out to change money, which involved three banks, a lot of walking in circles, two taxi rides, and a handful of frustration. When we finally found the ATM, we considered staying in the air conditioned booth to hang out for a while. We were also tempted to buy some fruit across the street, but couldn’t cross (too much traffic!) so we journeyed back to the market. With money in our pocket for the first time since we arrived here, we conquered the market (sort of), managing to purchase some beautiful fabrics. We will bring them to the tailor to get clothes made soon.

After more unsuccessful meandering involving the purchase of some bananas, we finally made it to the Grand Hotel, which was very grand indeed. We had lunch on the patio, which was good, except it was expensive and we waited a long long time. However, we did get to listen to a CD of American hip hop looping over and over. Then, we went swimming in the hotel pool!

We were surprised to see our Malian family show up – though it wasn’t really a coincidence since they had recommended us to go. Debbie brought 7 of the family kids – Djenneba (Alice), Sebastian, Christiane, Sire, Catherine, Moise, and Miriam (Mami). They are watching me type and just helped me spell all the names. Anyway, we played in the pool for a long time with them, and it was fabulous! Christiane had never swam before (she is 7), so we helped her learn and gave her piggy back rides. So sweet! We had given them a big beach ball that I got from our homebase pool party, and they brought it along to play with in the pool. We played and danced and had a great time. It felt so different to see them in this setting, which is totally different than anything in Kati.

We got a ride back with the family, and we are exhausted now, from all the sun and walking. (We realized our sunscreen is not waterproof. Whoops. We managed not to get burned somehow.)

We decided not to go out dancing tonight, but perhaps we will join the others another time.

love, Sara (Zoe is already asleep)

Christiane on her first day of swimming

Playing with the Beach Ball

Mami in the pool

What?

Just when we thought things were starting to make sense, everything got confusing again. We prepared a fun little rhyme to teach about multiple intelligences, but the class ran out of time and didn’t get to teach it. Here it is (hopefully we’ll get to teach it on Monday – don’t mind our poor grammar in French):

Theatre, jeu, dance, et chanson,
Ca sera super presentation.
Si vous parlez sans un jeu,
Ca sera tres ennuyeux.

Before class, we got a lesson in Bambara from our friend Baboi. While our French is coming along, our Bambara is not so hot. There are five different ways to say hello:

Ani Sogoma (before noon)
Ani Tile (12-4)
Ani Mula (5-7)
Ani Shu (7 pm and after)
Kanshi (just before bed)

The afternoon was quite different than expected. Right after lunch, we got a ride to town to break our 10,000 CFA bill (equal to $20). We haven’t spent any of our own money yet, because we couldn’t find anyone who had enough change. We haven’t found a bank or an ATM, so this was already borrowed money which we just arranged yesterday. With our fabulous chauffeur, we bought 24 bottles of water and a package of cookies, so we are now feeling quite stocked up. We also have small change now, so that we can buy mangoes and other fruit on the street now (there’s some fruit that is supposed to be sour and looks really funky that we want to try).

During afternoon camp, we thought we were leading an activity about our hippo song, but we ended up trying to fix the stereo because there was no electricity in Mississippi (the name of one of the classroom areas of the school). So, instead, we did an improv movement activity in Djenne (another classroom area) while the men made a mess of the stereo wires. After an hour or so, the second group was actually able to hear the music of the song: Malisadio (the hippo song). Once we got the music, some drummers magically appeared, the Bamanan teachers took over, and all of a sudden, there was a massive dance event of African song and movement. Then we sung and danced from Djenne to Timbuktu (the main classroom area). It was pretty amazing, even though we weren’t exactly sure what was going on.

After camp, we took a wonderful walk through Kati Koko, our neighborhood. We found a new main road that we hadn’t seen before, which we got to through a different route, other than going through the landfill. We saw beautiful birch-like trees, a herd of cows, a milk store, and a great sunset. On our way home, we got off track a bit, but we found the landfill and it guided us to our home chez Maria. During the last 5 minutes of our walk, we were bombarded by cries of Vatutu (white person) from a group of local kids. They kept shaking our hands and giggling with glee, just so excited to be touching us. We felt like celebrities.

It’s 9:40 PM and we are still waiting for dinner. Since tomorrow is Saturday, we are going to Bamako for the day (the capital) and we may dance at night. We also hope to buy material in the market, so that we can get clothes made.

Love to everyone at home – we miss you!

Sadio et L'Hippopotame

We have a project and we are so excited! This morning we read the myth of Sadio et l’Hippopatome. This famous Malian legend is the story of a young girl named Sadio, who is best friends with a hippo. Even though Sadio is intelligent, kind, and beautiful, no one wants to marry a woman with a hippo. So, Sadio remains single and lives happily ever after with her friend, the “hippopotame.” FYI—Mali means hippo in Bambara. In the next week, we will perform the myth with the campers, create costumes and sets, and do an African ballet dance (don’t worry - we won’t be choreographing this part). It’s wonderful to finally feel like we have a task and can be useful. We do love a plan. As we teach, we also hope that we are able to model good teaching practice for the Sikasso women who are doing their teacher training with IEP. This afternoon, we taught our first lesson in French with Bambara translators. Students retold the legend in Bambara, and then illustrated a children’s version of the story that we wrote in French (we had some help from our friend, Baiboi). Our first lesson felt like a success, and after we played on the slides with the campers and went back home to Maria’s for more fun with side walk chalk.

The way of life here is starting to feel comfortable. We are getting used to the food, the constant stream of people coming in and out of our house, and the walks through town. For meals, we generally have bread or crepes for breakfast, rice and sauces (veggie and meat and whatever else) for lunch, and then dinner varies – but generally looks a lot like lunch. The neighborhood where we live feels like less hectic than the center of town, and there are no paved roads in our part. It’s lots of wide red dirt roads and cement houses and people sitting in front of their homes with their goats, donkeys, or video games. We live in a strange world. We have to be careful when we walk in the road, because motorcycles come screaming by, honking when they turn the corners.

Our house is actually a compound – sort of a like a bunch of houses around a common courtyard. We share a few bathrooms and open space with 18 regulars, plus 4 other volunteers. Everyone is family, even if they aren’t really related. Maria, who likes to wear her “Hillary Clinton ‘08” t-shirt, is the queen mother. Debbie is an American woman (now Malian) who shares the compound and co-runs the school, and she is amazing. For volunteers, there is Sam (master organizer of all), Claire and Emma (two college students who lead sports, arts, and health at the camp), and Bonnie (a Peace Corps volunteer who has been here during an evacuation from Guinea, but will leave next week). Additionally, there are tons of beautiful and playful family kids who you can see in all of our photos. We don’t know all of their names or how they are related, but we are getting it all slowly. These people are starting to feel like our family too.Chalk play today :)

Sam and Jean Antoine

Playing on the Slides

Cow Cross Breeding

Today we had our first Malian field trip. This was not your usual camp trip to the movies or the bowling alley; instead we went to the agricultural center which specialized in artificial insemination for cows! While we did not really understand the explanations in Bambara; we did really enjoy the giant screeching bats. It rained again this morning and we were blown away by the beautiful colors: the red earth, the orange puddles, and the green leaves.

After fried plantains for lunch, we went to the hydro electric plant for part 2 of our adventures. The Niger is wide, impressive, and dirty. No comment on the plant itself.

We came home, showered, and ventured to the Kati market where strangers comments felt kind and not at all creepy. We are trying to figure out a project to work on and might do a drama unit about hippo folk tales at the camp. We will keep you posted about that one.

It is dinner time.

Our First Day in Kati

When we first arrived last night in Kati (actually 5 AM today), we were a little uncertain. Perhaps it was the giant softball-sized frog that hopped into our bedroom, or the mosquitoes hovering around our bed nets. It might have also been the heat that made us feel like we couldn’t breathe, or maybe the sound of scratching at the wall, which we later found out was geckos.

This morning, everything was brighter. We had crepes for breakfast, and started meeting our hosts. There are about 50 of them, because it seems like the whole village lives in our house. Each person has about four names, and they all speak to us in Bambara, the local language here. Our French is also coming back to us slowly.

We went up the red dirt road to the school, where we greeted by a swarm of friendly Bonjours and handshakes. Everyone wanted to meet us, from the people on the street to the children and teachers at IEP. We came home for lunch (rice and beef stew) and played in the courtyard with the family (again, 20 or so people, young and old). The other volunteers have been telling us all the local gossip, such as the tale of Maria’s son driving the car into the house (they just patched the hole up last week).

In the afternoon, we went to school / camp, and worked with the kids and the 24 women from Sikasso (another Malian town) who are here training to be teachers. After singing, we split into small groups and we helped with arts and crafts. When the sewing needles went missing, we taught a group how to make fortune tellers out of paper.

In the evening, everyone comes back to the courtyard and plays. We traced our feet with chalk, played tag, and photographed the children. We also showed off the supplies that we brought, and it even rained for a few minutes, which was wonderful. To our delight, we got switched to a new room, complete with brand new beds and air conditioning!!! This is clearly the deluxe accommodations, and will vastly improve our ability to sleep at night. We set up our new room, put our things away, and finally feel at home here.

Now we need to go to sleep, because there is a field trip tomorrow!

Casablanca!!!

We are so happy to be here in Casablanca! Royal Air Maroc has been good to us, and we got transport, hotel, and meals included. On the way to our hotel, we met Mariam, a Malian student who lives in Baltimore now and invited us to hang out with her in Bamako. At Hotel Ajiad, we took a nap and after we went to the King Hassan II Mosque; it was very beautiful! The ocean is spectacular! Below are some of our favorite pictures.
-Sara and Zoe

Off we go...

We leave tomorrow for our journey. We will have a day in Casablanca before we meet "Papa" at the airport in Bamako, Mali. The wonderful folks at IEP seem ready to welcome us!

Zoe's Soul Collage

Final Preparations!

We leave for our journey in less than a week! I continue to learn about Mali, through books, web sites, films, and talking to people. I found this news website which shows local stories translated into English, and this weather website which tells me if I should worry more about malaria (lots of rain) or heat exhaustion (no rain). Today at the bank, I recognized that the man there had a Malian name and we chatted about places to visit. Zoe and I were also lucky enough to go to a workshop led by Mamadou Diabate at the Old Songs Festival. He plays the kora, a unique West African instrument with 21 strings. I am trying to get a mental picture of what it will be like - what will our beds be like? What will we eat? What will a typical day look like? Today, thanks to the generosity of families at school, I went shopping for a lot of art supplies that we will be donating to IEP. I did my best to predict which paints, markers, and other supplies would be most useful there. With only a few days left, I am soaking in the Massachusetts summer sun and checking things off my To Do List. It's almost departure time...

10 Days and Counting

Last Monday, I got my final set of vaccines: rabies shot number three, a tetanus shot, and a TB test. (In case you were worried, I don’t have tuberculosis.) The trip started to feel real when Sara and I met with Kathleen who is also going to Africa---she told us that her nurse from the travel clinic suggested she bring her own syringes in case she needed any injections of anything in Africa. That is when I started to freak out. We’re really going.

The next day, Sara and I went to a reading at our favorite independent bookstore and listened to Kris Holloway speak about her book, Monique and the Mango Rains. As I listened to her share her experiences working with a midwife in Mali as a Peace Corps volunteer, I was on the verge of tears and found myself compelled to join. I signed up. After I received my first informational email from the Peace Corps, I settled down. I think I’ll start with summer volunteering before I begin two years of service.

This week, Sara and I bombarded Sam, the lead American volunteer, with a zillion questions. Yes, protein bars are a good idea, as is electrolyte powder for dehydration. Laundry is easy; so only bring seven pairs of underwear. Communication is available, and Maria, our hostess, has Internet and is working to get wireless.

My room is a mess as I’ve begun making Mali piles. Light flowing skirts that cover my knees, (I can’t wait to purchase their traditional pagnes or colorful wrap skirts), malaria pills, boxes of donated art supplies, notebooks, and mini soccer balls rest next to my dresser. In addition to our packs, Sara and I will bring an extra suitcase or two filled with supplies. We’re getting ready.

In ten days we’ll be on our way to Mali.

Plane Tickets Booked!

We are officially leaving for Mali on July 15th. Situated in West Africa, Mali is a huge country (three times the size of California). Part of the country goes into the Sahara Desert. We will be staying near the capital, Bamako, which is further South. Mali is a very poor country, number one in the world for the percentage of the total population living on less than one dollar a day. The average life expectancy is 40 years old. The official language is French, and 90% of the people are Muslim.

We will be volunteering with the Institute for Popular Education (IEP). This is an association of community educators working to develop alternative approaches to grassroots education in Mali. IEP began as an adult literacy program in 1994, focused on six issues identified as critical to the community: education, gender, community development, rights, economics, and reproductive health. Today, IEP has expanded its mission to include formal education systems. They run a community school, which emphasizes gender equity to both girls and boys in contrast to the realities of home and society. A key feature of the program is the mobilization of the community and parents as advocates and decision makers in basic education. In addition, the increased involvement of women in managing their children’s schooling has resulted in greater educational access and retention rates. IEP has expanded to serve 150 rural communities in three regions. Participants range from preschoolers to adults. Over 9,000 people have participated, and the program continues to attract growing attention as Mali seeks to change the way its people learn, and how they put their learning to use.

(adapted from: http://www.globalliteracy.gov/poped.html)