"Subterranean Homesick Blues"

Greetings from Segou (the city, capital of Segou the region). As I write this TAS update, I am enjoying a lovely cup of REAL (not instant) coffee at the tranquil Hotel le Djoliba just steps away from the River Niger. Though unreliable, the Djoliba has free wireless internet for guests with laptops. I am on that of a friend since my own has been long out of commission. One other PCV and I are here together for the weekend to do a little “toubab store” shopping, eat at a restaurant (I had rabbit for dinner last night!), and, of course, spend way too much time on the internet. We were to be three PCVs in Segou, but our third is being held captive in the medical office in Bamako for three rounds of rabies shots after being bitten by a cat. Sad.

Also sad is the news that The Breakfast Club stage has had to say goodbye to four more PCVs for various reasons, both voluntary and involuntary. Special notes to Romeo and Medium Mike, respectively: I will always think of you when I hear the word “Giardia” and whenever I’m forced to sit through Alkalifa’s safety and security sessions. Knife to the eye! You will be missed, my friends.

There is some good news on the horizon: I have made some progress on procuring Internet service in San (my banking town). I don’t want to count my chickens before they hatch*, but I’m keeping hope alive. Either way, I will be back in Segou for the Thanksgiving holiday in a few weeks. I’ll catch you cool kids again then. TAS out.

* Heck, I don’t want to count my chickens AFTER they hatch. We had 11 new baby chicks in our courtyard two weeks ago (pictured above), and they have been the highlight of my days in Kimparana. Now there are 9. They continue to entertain me, but it’s sad to know that 2 are missing indefinitely.

"Subterranean Homesick Alien"*

Eureka! I have found it. It being the Internet, and it's in Koutiala. My town (Kimparana) is on a paved road between two larger towns: my banking town (San) and Koutiala. It took me approximately an hour and a half to get here via bachee (aka "green box of death"). It was a long hour and a half, but there were a four goats and three children in the van for entertainment. I am still making it my goal to find a place in San (which is closer than Koutiala and has my bank, mail, and stage house) that has Internet, but it's nice to know that Kla is here if I need it.

I'm doing well, thanks for asking. I just spent two solid weeks at site without non-Malian contact, and it was fine. I even made it without my computer (which is broken) and iPod (which is dead). That may sound like a wimpy accomplishment, but... two weeks can seem like a loooong time. Baby steps, baby steps. In the interest of full disclosure, the cell tower finally went up in Kimparana, and I now have phone service. I have already made multiple plans, goals, and budgets regarding my phone usage and have already broken all of them. Maybe the novelty will wear off soon, hopefully before I go completely broke buying phone credit.

I've made some Malian friends, which is helpful when you're stuck in the same place for two weeks straight. I've been spending some time at the mayor's office getting to know the people there and the (lack of) work they're doing. I also had a nice birthday. Thank you to all those who expressed birthday greetings via email, Facebook, and snail mail. My actual birthday was on a Sunday, but I spent Monday night in San with some Segou and Sikasso region PCVs. Good times. After over one month without Internet, you can imagine I have quite a bit of email to attend to, so I'm going to sign off. Stay tuned in the coming week for pictures on Facebook and my running list of English t-shirt slogans I've seen. Hilarious.

Ala ka tile here caya! (May God increase the happiness of your day.)

*I miss OK Computer. Radiohead would not go over well here.

"I Swear"

Well now that we all have John Michael Montgomery/Boyz II Men stuck in our heads...

I literally have 14 minutes to write a final post before leaving Internet for... a long time. So here goes:

We are now PCVs! 77 of us took our oaths at the U.S. Embassy in Bamako on the 21st. The embassy is beautiful, and it has air conditioning. AMAZING. I got a HUGE kick out of swearing to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies. I also refrained from acting like a 4th grader and literally saying, "I, state your name, do solemnly swear..." If you're not proud of me for making it through stage, be proud of me for that.

We spent the rest of the day having a delicious picnic at Tubaniso and partying it up in Bamako at the "Pirate's Club". Georgetown kids, you would have loved this place. The stage before us had the task of naming our group. Each stage develops a kind of personality. The stage before is the "Belushi Stage". I don't think that one needs a lot of explanation. The Belushis, after much deliberation, have decided to call us "The Breakfast Club" due to our diverse array of personalities. Obviously, I'm Molly Ringwald.

September 22nd is Malian Independence Day. I celebrated with some friends with sleeping in, swimming in a pool, eating Chinese for lunch, and ordering two servings of ice cream. You can see a picture of my special Malian Independence Day outfit in the photo album whose link appears at the end of this post.

I am now in a hotel in the city of Segou, about to head out to my banking town. I'll spend a few days there before finally making it to my permanent site (Kimparana). At site, we have 3 months of just chilling out and getting to know our villages/towns/cities. I will love not having to work and slowing down the pace after a hectic 2 months of training.

As you probably already know, I will be gone from the Internet for QUITE a while, so I thought I would take this opportunity to make a shameless appeal for mail. You can also call my cell phone and leave me voicemails, but I can only check my phone when in my banking town. My address is:

Susan Dyer, PCV
Corps de la Paix
BP 75
San, Mali
West Africa

Thank you to all of those who have already written me letters (and there are a lot of you!). Replies have been written as well but there are no stamps around this place. It's ridiculous. Hopefully now that I will be closer to a post office I can reply to written correspondence with a bit more alacrity. Here's the link for the last batch of pictures for a while: http://georgetown.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2083305&l=dd02a&id=1404038. As always, I hope you enjoy them. Wish me luck!

TAS out.

"Stir It Up"

I'm baaack. I'm sorry for the recent dearth* of posts, but, as you might imagine, reliable Internet is hard to come by in this neck of the woods. Here's a quick update on some pressing issues:

• I was fairly surprised I didn't hear more about the recent unpleasantness up north from you people back home. In case you haven't heard, a U.S. military plane was fired upon in northeast Mali last Tuesday. You can read the full story here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/13/AR2007091300500.html Needless to say, Peace Corps (and the rest of Mali, frankly) is not really affected by Tuareg rebel activity. PCVs do not serve in the two northernmost regions of Mali for safety reasons. To quote Han Solo, "Uh, we had a slight weapons malfunction, but uh... everything's perfectly all right now. We're fine. We're all fine... here... now, thank you. How are you?"
• Homestay and training (known in PC lingo as PST or stage) has now come to a close. We spent the last few days packing our lives into rolling duffel bags and trunks to be delivered throughout the country to our respective sites. Hard to believe that we will soon be spending two years in the same place after living out of a suitcase for two months. We are all extremely excited and extremely ready to actually get out on our own and start working on what we came here to do (which is surprisingly different for each person).
• We swear in as bona fide Peace Corps Volunteers on Friday the 21st. Dressed in our Malian finest, almost 80 of us will shed that pesky "T" in our titles for the much more elegant, prestigious, and gratifying "V". After swearing in at the U.S. Embassy, we get to have a little party at the Ambassador's residence followed by a day of fun at Tubaniso and a night of... even more celebration in Bamako. However, I have determined that the best part about swearing in is the oath itself which requires a pledge to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies (foreign or domestic). As I am quite a fan of the Constitution, I'm pretty excited about that part. I think I might even pull a Sen. Robert C. Byrd and take my little pocket Constitution with me to the ceremony. Yes, I brought a pocket Constitution with me to Mali.
• I feel obligated to inform you, dear reader, that on Sunday the 23rd I will be leaving for my site in Segou region. I have been told that my village is four hours by bus from the nearest available Internet service. This is just a warning to prepare everyone for the lack of blog posts, emails, and Facebook updates that will certainly result from my geographical predicament. I will say to you what we say to each other (in French of course): courage.

I hope to post a few more times before leaving on Sunday to include some pictures from swear-in and give one little last goodbye. In the meantime, I've posted an album on Facebook of some random recent goings-on: http://georgetown.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2082828&l=53589&id=1404038 Enjoy.

* That was for you, Berkeley. Wherever you may be. It's Sleepytime time.

"Don't Panic"

I'm back from site visit! I had a fantastic trip down south and can't wait to go back. I don't have a whole lot of time to post right now, but here are some highlights:

1) Public transport. This can get ugly. I had a 6-7 hour bus ride (the buses are really old and are equipped with air conditioning which is naturally too expensive to run - also the windows don't open) to San.

2) San. My banking town. This is where I will go to run errands like visiting the post office, bank, and market. Peace Corps has what is called a "stage" house there (that's the French stage, not the English stage). Forget Disneyland, people. This is the happiest place on Earth. It's got 2 bathrooms, and the house got a water heater the day we arrived. San has treated water, so you can drink it right out of the faucet! Heaven. The PCVs there gave us a very warm welcome which involved Mexican food and Jello cheesecake from a box. San is one of only 3 towns in all of Mali where Peace Corps has a stage house, so I LUCKED OUT. I must be livin' right.

3) Kimparana. This is where I'll be spending the next 2 years of my life. I have a great little apartment-type thing in a compound with two other Malian families. We share a little courtyard, but I have my own living room, bedroom, and storage room. No electricty yet, but it's coming soon! Same on the cell phone (luckily my network has coverage in San). Kimparana is a 45 minute drive from my banking town, which is not bad at all. My host family is great, and I got a great chance to meet the people with whom I'll be working and catch up on some needed rest. I'll have to include details of my future work life in another post.

So, in conclusion, site visit was a complete success for TAS. My friends up north didn't have such an easy time. Some got sick, some stranded on the side of the road with police (gotta watch out for those bandits), some forced into boats due to flooding. Those kids are real troopers. I would be remiss in my reporting duties if I did not mention my colleague Big Fat Tony. Big Fat Tony is a member of the Posh Corps. He gets a 2 bedroom, 2 full bathroom, electric ceiling fan-equipped apartment all to himself. Above a restaurant. Down the street from an Internet cafe. I have to ride 3 hours on an awful bus to get to Internet. Then again, I don't have to deal with roaming bandits. The grass is greener...

We live in a beautiful world. Yeah, we do. Yeah, we do.

"Another One Bites the Dust"

More sad news: While on site visit, a very near and dear PCT slipped and broke his ankle. Fortunately, he didn't cry! Unfortunately, he requires surgery and has (wisely) opted to fly back home to the States for his operation and 2 months of rehab. We have had to say goodbye to 5 other colleagues so far (for various reasons), but we were not expecting a medevac so early in our service. Heck, we haven't even gotten out of training yet. Way to go, Slugger. I hope you read this.

RIP Seydou Diarra

You will be sorely missed. Please come back to us in Segou soon. The chat on your toit wants you to retourner.

"Both Sides Now"

I promised I would post something more positive, so here are 5 happy things:



1) It's not bed bugs that are eating my feet, it's sand fleas! Sand fleas I can handle. Bed bugs are gross. Glad I got that cleared up.



2) A fellow PCT has a new baby brother in village. Especially in light of my previous post, this is happy news indeed for the Moribabougou crew. Unfortunately, we will have to miss his naming ceremony - which always takes place one week after the birth. Maybe we can pick him up a present during our site visits (see number 4).



3) I went to Bamako yesterday, and it turns out that there is stuff there! We took a bus full of tubabs to visit the main Peace Corps office (bureau) in the city and stopped at a nearby popular hotel. It had a restaurant and a bar and a BATHROOM and everything. It was the first toilet we'd seen in a month, so you can imagine our excitement. (Sorry, Mom, had to say it. I was not about to use the word "commode" or "thing you'd expect".) Needless to say... we're going back... VERY soon.



4) Site visit! Tomorrow morning (for me, 5:30 AM) we embark upon our respective journeys to our permanent sites for a little visit. I will be heading south and east toward Burkina Faso into the Segou region of Mali. I'll get a chance to scope out my new house (which I hear has running water! but no electricity...), open a bank account, get a permanent address, and see what's up with the cell phone situation. My banking town (PCVs who live in villages too small to have things like banks and post offices bike or take public transport to their "banking towns" to run errands and buy things) is called San and has hotels and restaurants. Based on my Bamako hotel experience, I have high hopes for many fun trips into San for some Westernization. I have a relatively short trip (about 6 hours). Some PCTs heading up North to the Gao region have two days of travel ahead of them. And THAT'S if the road didn't wash out during the storm last night...

5) I share a birthday with the United States Peace Corps. October 14th. I think that's pretty cool.


Catch you crazy kids when I make my triumphant return to Tubaniso on the 27th. TAS out.