Sinsina
Hey Guys!
Got back to Tubaniso last night after spending the day in Bamako and eating a cheeseburger and fries (WOW). Anyway, it has been a crazy two weeks in the village and I feel as though I have been gone from the states for months. When i first got to the village, I recieved a welcome like I have never nor probably ever will again recieve. The entire village of 1,100 people were lining the streets going into the town square and were banging drums, singing, and dancing. When we first were sited one of the elders shot of this really loud gun that scared the hell out of the nine of us. After walking through the streets (if thats what you call small dirt alleyways) we made our way into the town square where the small mosque was. After a large amount of greetings and welcomes and dancing, we were introduced to our host families and taken to our new homes. my host father is named modibo doubiya and he has two wives and 5 kids. The kids are absolutely adorable (4 boys and 1 girl) and hopefully i will get my pictures of them up later. The younger wife is only about 19 which was very unsettling for me at first, but the other wife who is 28 is the main one that i talk to and well she never stops talking. The kids names are mamarie, safi (the girl), Brahma, Sidi, and Jeremy (yes jeremy) I unfrotunately have a room with a tin roof and it gets hotter then hell, so that at night it is about 15 degrees hotter inside than out. The town itself is poor but beatiful. It seems impossible that in the village one can see absolute poverty, but going out into the fields the most beautiful landscapes can be found. After takin a bike ride one day i found this amazing place passed the bush that was a large open grassland field with termite hills dotting the ground, in the background treeline. Besides that, it has been really hard learning bambara but we have a really cool langauge facilitator Abdulaye, even though he is a coulibaly ( as a doubiya my joking cousins ar ehte Coulibaly and i ahve to tell him daily that he drinks negen water and is lazy) The food is better than millet which i expected bu not much. I get mainlky rice and a peanute sauce for lunch and maybe some fruit or some small bean cakes for dinner. I only got meat once when Ouomou the other language facilitator ( whom all us guys have a "crush" on) prepared dinner with us: Chicken potatoes, cucumber AMAZING. One of the nights it rained and by rain i mean it sounded like World War III was going on outside. Kaite and Claire, you would have absolutely been terrfied, i have never been in such a storm with lightning and thunder. I really have grown to love the village and find it really peaceful there, i am definitely happy that i am in a smaller area because i don't get the harrassment that i have heard other volunteeers are getting in the larger areas and feel absolutely safe. The little kids sometimes follow us around and everyone stops to greet us and say hello whenever we go out. Another plus is that the pump water is clean which means we don't have to filter it. My host mom does all my laundry and i am absolutely forbiden to get my own water for showering (bucketing as i call it). I only got mR. d once and it was a one day case which is really really fortunate. Oh and my negen is really nice, it is a large square room with no roofe outside the compound that looks out onto the fields so in the morning you can shower with a view. Anyway, tubani so is not so bad and has its perks ( a room with a fan, internet, food, etcc) though it definoitely has a campy feeling to it. That is all i can really remember to write as of now, i miss everyone a lot talk to you later.
-Daniel
Got back to Tubaniso last night after spending the day in Bamako and eating a cheeseburger and fries (WOW). Anyway, it has been a crazy two weeks in the village and I feel as though I have been gone from the states for months. When i first got to the village, I recieved a welcome like I have never nor probably ever will again recieve. The entire village of 1,100 people were lining the streets going into the town square and were banging drums, singing, and dancing. When we first were sited one of the elders shot of this really loud gun that scared the hell out of the nine of us. After walking through the streets (if thats what you call small dirt alleyways) we made our way into the town square where the small mosque was. After a large amount of greetings and welcomes and dancing, we were introduced to our host families and taken to our new homes. my host father is named modibo doubiya and he has two wives and 5 kids. The kids are absolutely adorable (4 boys and 1 girl) and hopefully i will get my pictures of them up later. The younger wife is only about 19 which was very unsettling for me at first, but the other wife who is 28 is the main one that i talk to and well she never stops talking. The kids names are mamarie, safi (the girl), Brahma, Sidi, and Jeremy (yes jeremy) I unfrotunately have a room with a tin roof and it gets hotter then hell, so that at night it is about 15 degrees hotter inside than out. The town itself is poor but beatiful. It seems impossible that in the village one can see absolute poverty, but going out into the fields the most beautiful landscapes can be found. After takin a bike ride one day i found this amazing place passed the bush that was a large open grassland field with termite hills dotting the ground, in the background treeline. Besides that, it has been really hard learning bambara but we have a really cool langauge facilitator Abdulaye, even though he is a coulibaly ( as a doubiya my joking cousins ar ehte Coulibaly and i ahve to tell him daily that he drinks negen water and is lazy) The food is better than millet which i expected bu not much. I get mainlky rice and a peanute sauce for lunch and maybe some fruit or some small bean cakes for dinner. I only got meat once when Ouomou the other language facilitator ( whom all us guys have a "crush" on) prepared dinner with us: Chicken potatoes, cucumber AMAZING. One of the nights it rained and by rain i mean it sounded like World War III was going on outside. Kaite and Claire, you would have absolutely been terrfied, i have never been in such a storm with lightning and thunder. I really have grown to love the village and find it really peaceful there, i am definitely happy that i am in a smaller area because i don't get the harrassment that i have heard other volunteeers are getting in the larger areas and feel absolutely safe. The little kids sometimes follow us around and everyone stops to greet us and say hello whenever we go out. Another plus is that the pump water is clean which means we don't have to filter it. My host mom does all my laundry and i am absolutely forbiden to get my own water for showering (bucketing as i call it). I only got mR. d once and it was a one day case which is really really fortunate. Oh and my negen is really nice, it is a large square room with no roofe outside the compound that looks out onto the fields so in the morning you can shower with a view. Anyway, tubani so is not so bad and has its perks ( a room with a fan, internet, food, etcc) though it definoitely has a campy feeling to it. That is all i can really remember to write as of now, i miss everyone a lot talk to you later.
-Daniel
posted by Daniel Marsh at 1:24 PM
1 Comments:
dan,
Your villages sounds pretty great, Im so glad you were assigned to a small but beautiful place to spend your time in. The family sounds pretty good, I will agree the 19 yr old wife thing would be a bit difficult to swallow. I hope you get to spend time with the kids, I really wanna see pictures of them when you can send some! We miss you so much, take care and by the way your kicking ass with the updating!
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