home site visit
Hey guys!
Just got back from home visit and man, what an experience. I though that Sinsina was a huge culture shock, Wologotonba makes Sinsina look like an urban center. It is hard to figure out where to begin so I guess I will start with the beginning. After one of my good friends early terminated from unkown experiences, we headed out to Koulikoro which is about an hour north of bamako. We went in a Peace Corps vehicle and although i was supposed to get there first, I ended up being the last Peace Corps person dropped off so after leaving at 7 in the morning i got to my village around 6 pm. My house is actually one of the highlights of my village. It has a reallly nice garden in front and next to that a big front yard with gua (overhang). My house is two rooms, fully furnished with a queen side bed and a propane skillet along with various other furnitrue pieces such as dressors and shelfs. the first couple of days were really hard, I realized that despite studying bambara for the past three weeks, I knew very little when it came to communication. It was only made harder by the fact that my tutor did not speak english and spoke very little french ( oh yea and that my tutor is also my homologue and that he is also the brother of my jugutiki or host dad and they live together and look excatly the same, very confusing). Anyway after about the second day I was ready to go home, I mean I couldn't communicate and everything was really confusing, plus the town, though gorgeous and green is really spread out and goign to visit the differnent houses was difficult so i just sat around and read a lot ( dad i finished "The Discoverers"very good). Finally, two of the younger villagers, a kid about 17 and his brother of 26 came over and talked to me. Although it was hard talking and having a converstaion it was realy nice being able to communicate with someone and we had a nice talk about poltiics and President Bush. The next day i headed out to Sirokorola which was about 25 kms away and had a great bike ride there (by great i am mean horrible hahaha ). I met up with a bunch of other PCT's and a couple of PCV's and we hung out dranks some sodas and the PCVs showed us where to eat and stuff ( they suggested we get a bruce house to hang out in once a week) Also we drank this really good juice made of hibiscus leaves that is bright red, and frozen solid, AMZING! Anyway, I spent the next two nights eating dinner at my host family''s house and finally saw the much talked about Spanish soap opera (funny and ridiculous). My family's kids are really cute and one of them really enjoys playing the game of getting naked and dancing during idnner time. I think the funniest thing about the television are the commercials, they are absolutely shameless and hilarious, for a milk commercial they had some guy rapping and another guy flexing his pecks, i guess you had to be there. Anyway today I woke up about 5 am while it was still dark out and biked out to Koula ( my market village) to catch a sotrama (small bus) into Bamako. The bus was more or less a seventies volgswagon van and in it we fit about 30 people, not to mention about 5 people on top, needless to say it was really hot, smelly, and uncomfortab;e. However, it was really nice getting back to bamako and getting a good meal, Pizza!!! (oh yea, i have finally tried to, which is the cooked form of millet...hmmmm....how to explain it? Ok, imagine a plate filled with what looks like cow dung, then thinking hey, maybe it has a good taste, only to find it tastes like gummy porridge miixed with dirt. Then there is this sauce, and thinkingit might be savory i was like oh, a plus, only to dip the to in and find that it has the consistancy of snot and clings to the to, oh and it tastes horrible and is made of okra.) Anyway though, it isn't that bad and by the second day I was getting more used to it. For now I think that is all, I will be in Tubani So for a week or so so I can add more stuff as I remember it. Anyway I miss everyone a lot and I look foward to your messages.
Daniel
Just got back from home visit and man, what an experience. I though that Sinsina was a huge culture shock, Wologotonba makes Sinsina look like an urban center. It is hard to figure out where to begin so I guess I will start with the beginning. After one of my good friends early terminated from unkown experiences, we headed out to Koulikoro which is about an hour north of bamako. We went in a Peace Corps vehicle and although i was supposed to get there first, I ended up being the last Peace Corps person dropped off so after leaving at 7 in the morning i got to my village around 6 pm. My house is actually one of the highlights of my village. It has a reallly nice garden in front and next to that a big front yard with gua (overhang). My house is two rooms, fully furnished with a queen side bed and a propane skillet along with various other furnitrue pieces such as dressors and shelfs. the first couple of days were really hard, I realized that despite studying bambara for the past three weeks, I knew very little when it came to communication. It was only made harder by the fact that my tutor did not speak english and spoke very little french ( oh yea and that my tutor is also my homologue and that he is also the brother of my jugutiki or host dad and they live together and look excatly the same, very confusing). Anyway after about the second day I was ready to go home, I mean I couldn't communicate and everything was really confusing, plus the town, though gorgeous and green is really spread out and goign to visit the differnent houses was difficult so i just sat around and read a lot ( dad i finished "The Discoverers"very good). Finally, two of the younger villagers, a kid about 17 and his brother of 26 came over and talked to me. Although it was hard talking and having a converstaion it was realy nice being able to communicate with someone and we had a nice talk about poltiics and President Bush. The next day i headed out to Sirokorola which was about 25 kms away and had a great bike ride there (by great i am mean horrible hahaha ). I met up with a bunch of other PCT's and a couple of PCV's and we hung out dranks some sodas and the PCVs showed us where to eat and stuff ( they suggested we get a bruce house to hang out in once a week) Also we drank this really good juice made of hibiscus leaves that is bright red, and frozen solid, AMZING! Anyway, I spent the next two nights eating dinner at my host family''s house and finally saw the much talked about Spanish soap opera (funny and ridiculous). My family's kids are really cute and one of them really enjoys playing the game of getting naked and dancing during idnner time. I think the funniest thing about the television are the commercials, they are absolutely shameless and hilarious, for a milk commercial they had some guy rapping and another guy flexing his pecks, i guess you had to be there. Anyway today I woke up about 5 am while it was still dark out and biked out to Koula ( my market village) to catch a sotrama (small bus) into Bamako. The bus was more or less a seventies volgswagon van and in it we fit about 30 people, not to mention about 5 people on top, needless to say it was really hot, smelly, and uncomfortab;e. However, it was really nice getting back to bamako and getting a good meal, Pizza!!! (oh yea, i have finally tried to, which is the cooked form of millet...hmmmm....how to explain it? Ok, imagine a plate filled with what looks like cow dung, then thinking hey, maybe it has a good taste, only to find it tastes like gummy porridge miixed with dirt. Then there is this sauce, and thinkingit might be savory i was like oh, a plus, only to dip the to in and find that it has the consistancy of snot and clings to the to, oh and it tastes horrible and is made of okra.) Anyway though, it isn't that bad and by the second day I was getting more used to it. For now I think that is all, I will be in Tubani So for a week or so so I can add more stuff as I remember it. Anyway I miss everyone a lot and I look foward to your messages.
Daniel
posted by Daniel Marsh at 9:20 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home