Hello everyone! This is the most exciting news since I've arrived: I GOT MY SITE ANNOUNCEMENT! I finally know where I'm going. I get to visit it this week, too. I am thrilled with it. I am in the Sikasso region. I know I shouldn’t have set an expectation, but in terms of being an Environment Sector Volunteer, but living in Sikasso is like hitting the jackpot. Sikasso gets the most rain and therefore grows the greatest variety of produce and field crops. One can easily access such God-given wonders such as pineapple, avacados, and grapefruit. I’m pretty much ecstatic. I've met my homologue, and he seems nice, but we ran out of things to say in the first 30 seconds.
Chelsea: Hey! You're my homologue!
Oumar: Hello! How are you? How's your family? How's your family in America?
Chelsea: They're great! How are you? How is your family? How are your wives?
Oumar: Great!
[awkward silence, Chelsea nervous giggles]
Oumar: So, I'm going to go drink some tea.
Chelsea: Yes, me too.
Oumar: Okay bye.
My was described as having the perfect mix between being rural and urban, since I can easily access the regional capital yet still live in a village of only 870 people. I will apparently be farming cotton and working with a women’s group that wants to start gardening. I may also be working with cashew fruit/nut production. You are asking yourselves, “Does Chelsea know anything about farming cotton or growing tree nuts?” Good question, readers. I asked myself the same question. Here’s what I came up with: 1) There was a cotton gin at the plantation where my brother got married this June. I don’t really remember what it looks like, so I’m out of luck there. 2) My good friend Stephanie made me a drink she made up called a Cotton Gin. It was tasty and pink. However, I’m in a Muslim country, so that doesn’t help either. 3) Ah, yes. Once, in high school, I had a cross country race next to a cotton field in Alabama. I remember it looking like tiny patches of snow stuck on branches. I immediately felt guilty (since I’m white I guess) so I wonder what farming cotton with actual Africans is going to do to my southern pride. Eat your heart out, Robert E. Lee. As for the cashews, I have no clue how to grow them, but I know that the nut is often discarded since they’re really difficult to extract from the case that they grow. Oftentimes people don’t know that there’s even a nut in there. You can read more about them here. I am hoping to partner up with some of my Small Enterprise Development or Health Education friends because the nuts can be very lucrative and nutritious.
Also, I’ll be learning A FOURTH LANGUAGE! Yes, that’s right, I’ve won the Peace Corps lottery and I’ve been placed in a site that primarily speaks a minority language. I am actually really excited about this opportunity, but nervous, too. Senoufo is apparently unrelated to Bambara (they’re an ethnicity from northern Cote D’Ivoire, Ghana, and western Burkina Faso) but it is the most widely spoken language in my village, according to my site information. I have been assured that I will have a private language instructor, as well as one to continue my Bambara. I will use my Bambara, but apparently some men and a good portion of the women don’t speak it (because they haven’t gone to school) and I can’t really do anything without talking to women. So, I’m optimistic about it. Apparently, other volunteers in the area have picked it up, so there’s hope. I’ll write more about my site after I see it! I can’t wait.
The Other BIG news: our swear-in, when we officially become Peace Corps Volunteers, is set for mid-April at the US Embassy in Bamako. That’s cool, but the really exciting part is that our after party is going to be hosted by….wait for it….. THE MALIAN PRESIDENT AT HIS PRESIDENTIAL PALACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ATT, as he is affectionately called, has agreed to host a gigantic American party in honor of PC Mali’s 40th year anniversary and the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps. This is a big deal. This makes me feel really important, which is why I feel really cool all of the sudden.
As always, I appreciate all of your well wishes and support. (And thanks Mom, Uncle Mike, and Carolyn for the letters/package!)
Love, Chelsea
Are you allowed a +1 to the swearing in? Cause I have a few days off in April.
ReplyDeleteI've thought about what this will do to your Southern pride, as you say. I posit that it will give you something to mention to the shitkicking redneck contingent, which will surely be here when you return, about how hard it actually is to grow cotton, especially by hand. Then, as an honorary African, you'll get to call them cracker-ass honkies, and put your fist in the air like the Mexico City Olympics. I think this is the appropriate tack.
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