"Life on Mars?"

It’s hard to believe, but I’m finally here: on Mars. That’s what some friends from Georgetown call Africa – so far away, so foreign, so out there. I left McMinnville for Mali via Philadelphia and Paris on July 17th, 2007, for 27 months of Peace Corps training and service in West Africa. For the next two years, I will be a small enterprise development management advisor in a town or city somewhere in southern Mali (exact location TBA). It is my hope that this blog will a) keep you updated on my whereabouts, activities, and general well-being, b) answer specific questions posted by you, and c) give me a place to tell the many stories I have already started to accumulate.
First, I would like to say a few words of explanation about Peace Corps in general and Mali specifically. The U.S. Peace Corps is a federal government agency started in 1961, and has served 138 countries. The three main goals of Peace Corps are:

• To help the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.


• To promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of peoples served.


• To promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.
  

That’s where you come in! I know there’s a lot of work to be done on the third goal just by the questions I’ve already gotten about “Africa” (which, by the way, is quite a large continent with over 50 different countries), “Muslims” (who number over a billion globally), etc. Just as a general reminder and disclaimer: I can speak only about my personal experiences within Mali and cannot answer questions about stupid and/or fictional things like Blood Diamond, the conflict in Sudan, or zebras. There are no zebras in Mali.

Mali is a French-speaking country in West Africa and is, depending on when/where you look, the 3rd or 4th poorest state in the world. Statistics vary from source to source and year to year. Let’s just say there’s general room for improvement. Economically, most Malians (around 80%) are involved in agriculture with many simply farming at the subsistence level. Most people are illiterate and speak a local language called Bambara. There are over 10 major ethnic groups represented in Mali, many with their own languages and/or dialects of Bambara (also known in some places as Bamana or Bamanakan). On the bright side, Mali is a major center for West African music and dance and is home to the oft-mentioned ancient city of Timbuktu (which, as a sidenote, I am not allowed to visit due to State Department restrictions – fantastic). I refuse to refer people to Wikipedia, but you can read up on Peace Corps in Mali here: http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=learn.wherepc.africa.mali.

Now the fun stuff! As it takes a VERY long time to upload photos here, I will periodically post links to my Facebook photo albums. You can check out the first one here: http://georgetown.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2073716&l=8dccc&id=1404038. This album details our arrival in Bamako and a tour of the Peace Corps training center, Tubaniso. It also contains photos of the now-famous Tubaniso tortoise seen above. More posts to follow about life in Mali and all the food, bathroom, disease, and wild insect and animal questions I’ve already heard from many of you. TAS out.