Since my last post mid-September, I’ve had issues with one of my jobs, spent two weeks in Bamako, been in a bus accident (I’m fine), doubled my music collection, received my new laptop, become fluent in French, and began studying New Testament Greek at the local bible college. How did I fit all of this and more in? Glad you asked.
I had been planning on doing a very large project with the garbage collection agency that I work with, making around 500 soakpits (a method of water filtration). But my work counterpart was a little too much (too forceful, not involved enough, unconcerned about the appropriateness or lack thereof), so I decided to call it off. I had other reasons as well, particularly time. I’m only in Gao for another six months, and that’s not really enough time to do a project of this size. Unfortunately (for them), they had already told people that it was happening (despite my constant reminders that it wasn’t definite). So now he is mad, and not as excited about the business development that I was trying to do with them. This part gets more interesting down the line.
I was supposed to fly to Bamako, but the day of the flights had changed. I had to take a bus, which as I’ve described here before is not pleasant. After 20 hours on the road, and just outside of Bamako, a bus swerved out to pass a truck and the rearview mirrors smashed into each other. This wouldn’t have been a big deal, except that I was sitting right behind the driver’s open window. All of us in the front row had minor cuts on our faces. Thank God I wasn’t wearing my glasses, because they would also have been shattered by the plastic and glass that hit around my eyes. No one was seriously injured, but it did cause a three hour delay.
I had planned on catching a ride back to Gao with a Peace Corps car, but that fell through. I was advised to take the plane on that Sunday. How could I turn that down? But they changed the dates again (now to Saturdays and Tuesdays, then they cancelled Tuesdays). So I had to take the bus back to Gao, and was nervous the entire way from flashbacks. Plus the school year was just beginning, so all the students were moving all over the country to get back to their schools. It took me four days to get a seat. It’s like getting out of a bad relationship; you swear to yourself, ‘Never again.’
The first week there in Bamako was great. Over the summer my Dad ensured his sainthood by a month of comparison shopping and another couple of weeks of purchasing, packaging and sending my new laptop. It went to Washington, where a volunteer friend of mine was visiting family. She brought it back with her on the plane.
My best friend Andria was returning from the worst vacation I’ve ever heart tell of, and was around for nearly that whole first week. Then my other best friend Leslie came in just for the night to see us and hang out. I made a new friend in this time as well, which is always a wonderful thing. Being in Bamako is expensive and socially exhausting, but for me completely worth it. I spend most of my time conversing with and helping volunteers with random questions and issues. This is work that really sustains me, that directly satisfies my compulsion of service to others.
I always intend to stay in Bamako just a couple of days, and always end up staying for two weeks. The problem is that I’m just about the only person left who does this, and so it’s really obvious that I’m not at site. This brings unwanted attention from the administration, who rightly wants their volunteers at their site working.
It took me a week or so to get back into the routine of site, which itself is routine. In that first week is when I told my work counterpart that I wouldn’t do the project, and he began to sulk. Work with my other job has been going great, due entirely to the presence of an outside consultant getting things going. It’s been great collaborating with him and making plans for the (near) future. He’s heading back to the states in November, and it’s nice knowing I’ve made another friend, another connection.
Sometime around the middle of the month, I finally stopped being outright sick. No head colds, no sinus infections, no ear infections, no amoebas (at least no active ones), no projective diarrhea, no malaria symptoms, no fatigue. I’ve had all of those and some others in a constant barrage since the end of June. Talk about being worn out!
I’ve been spending a lot of time on the new computer, trying to get everything organized. It’s taken me a month, but I think I’m about done. Though there’s always more to do.
The big anticipation this month was for my site visit. Each volunteer is visited by their boss once in the first three months, and then right around their year mark. But because of the difficulty of scheduling trips to Gao, and being the only one out here needing the visit, I didn’t get my first one until month seven and my second until just now, at month 19. No worries though. Ok, so there were some worries. Volunteers are always harboring guilt, being very hard on ourselves. We don’t do enough work, we don’t speak the languages well enough, we’re not completely (or maybe at all) integrated, etc. And site visits (which we take to be our annual evaluations) feel like the teacher looking at your homework. It doesn’t matter how much effort you’ve put into it, you’re always worried that it won’t be good enough. Approval and respect will not follow, and reprimands will. My theory is that this is because a lot of the time we (meaning people everywhere, not just volunteers) aren’t being as responsible as we could be, and the guilt is fear of the consequences of that irresponsibility. I’ve become hyper-sensitive to issues of responsibility, and become a fairly responsible person to boot. I’m also pretty aware of myself and my intentions, and hence comfortable with whatever consequences come from my actions. My anxiety about the site dwindled as I convinced myself that I really was doing all that was healthy for me, and not any more than that. The boss that I have right now, who’s temporary, completely justified that.
We began the day meeting with my work counterpart at the Guinea Worm office, which went well. I’ve been managing a $10,000 project there, and things have been unfolding better than expected. Then we went next door to meet with my work counterpart at the garbage collection agency. Arby is a capable, motivated, concerned citizen who also works for the city. He is just as in favor of education and behavior change as I am, and when we focus on that things go great. But when money is involved, he’s just as bad as everyone else here – gimme gimme gimme. He complained to my boss that I made promises that I wasn’t keeping, that the agency has already promised soakpits to people. Also that they should have been receiving money for this project, and weren’t happy that I had refused them that. He said that he’s worked with three Peace Corps volunteers, and none of them have produced any results. He doesn’t want to work with people who don’t give (a direct translation, and right to the point – give) results. My boss said, ‘no problem; you don’t have to work with us.’ And we left shortly after. He was pretty nasty by the end, and she later offered sympathy that I had had to work with him.
I’m going to meet with him on Monday, and see if he’s interested in continuing our collaboration for the next six months. There will also be an offer to just walk away, no feelings hurt, which I’ll cheerfully do at this point. There is a lot of great work that could be done with him, but he’s taken the money issue too personally.
I have several really fantastic ideas about what to do with my remaining time here. The first of them is specifically for the next six months in Gao; I want to make a map of the city. It started out as a hand-drawn thing, just to get an idea of how my neighborhood was divided up. It has since turned into a much larger venture. I’m going to approach the Office of Tourism, the Mayor’s office and a number of non-governmental organizations (some of which have made maps of other cities here). My boss mentioned that Peace Corps has GPS equipment that I’d be able to use, and given me the go-ahead. I’m really excited about this, happy to be able to do something creative. I’ll also be learning quite a bit more about computers and programming; I want it to be able to function like Yahoo maps, or like a Rand-McNaley street guide. The tourism office would be able to print personalized maps for tourists, guiding them from their hotels to different attractions, etc.
I made some new friends back in July, a rare find of Songhaii Baptists. Issa runs a boutique (a small shop) across the street from the Bible college, and is a part-time student there. The school year just began a couple of weeks ago, and recently I asked what kind of classes they offered. I had thought it was more of a Christian community college, offering a wide variety to a lot of students. Instead, it’s essentially a seminary. There are five or six guys that live and attend classes there; it’s a seven year program. I spoke with some of the professors (all friends of mine that I’d met well before this, by virtue of the fact that they speak English), and they encouraged me to come sit in. I’ve wanted to study New Testament Greek since I learned that there was such a thing, and I certainly have the time and the means to do so now. The same professor also teaches Hebrew (when there’s time), and I’m hoping to get some private tutoring over the winter break and before I leave next March. We were geeking out this morning about different bible-scholar things we each had, exchanging files on our computers. ‘I tell you,’ he said at one point, ‘it gets lonely here, not being able to really talk about academic things. No one is into it like I am.’ ‘I know just how you feel.’
Three months before we leave, volunteers have a Close of Service conference; three days of resumes, recommendation letters, and life after Peace Corps. They like to call it Continuation of Service, as it should be, because Peace Corps doesn’t really end. There are three goals: sustainable development, cross-cultural exchange about the host country, and cross-cultural exchange about America. So when one returns after their two years, they continue the exchange – this time, teaching their people in America about wherever they served. Anyway, this conference has always been held in January. It gets set into our minds that after cos conference we’ve only got three months left. It’s a major psychological milestone. And they’ve moved it up a month. It’s now the beginning of December, which is really messing with our heads. And our travel plans.
I had planned on spending Thanksgiving down south with Andria and Leslie, coming back to Gao for a few weeks, going back down for Christmas and the cos conference, and then sticking out the last three months in Gao. Now I’m going down just for Thanksgiving and the conference, and will now have four solid months in Gao. And it’s so far that there’s no where else to go, even for a day (especially for a day). We’re not supposed to leave our regions during our last three months, and that effectively means that I can’t leave my site. All the same, I’m still looking forward to Thanksgiving.
I’m hoping to stay in Mali an additional six months, until the end of October 2006. That means exactly one more year. There is a lot of administrative-type work in Bamako that I would be perfect for. Also, the next training doesn’t start until next July, and I’ve always wanted to be a part of that. It’s like a nine-week technical and leadership retreat, and we all know how much I love retreats. It does mean an extra six months, but it’s a fantastic opportunity to do work that I’m very passionate about. I’ll be talking about this with the country director in the next couple of weeks, and should know one way or another by the time of the conference at the beginning of December.
Well, I’m sure this is more than you were expecting in one sitting (unless you remember my fondess for going on and on), so I’ll stop. I’m off, and should be back onto a more regular schedule here.
Before I go, I’d like to send out some birthday wishes: Mom, Nicole, Morgan, Craig, and Milly. I’m sure that there are others, but I just don’t know many people’s birthdays. And my parent’s anniversary is coming up beginning of November. Bonne anniversaire! Bon fete!
