Orientation days at Tubaniso!

Alriiiight! So...after a 24 hour stint in DC complete with Yellow Fever vaccine and met a lot of people we flew a charming 7 hour flight to Charles de Gaulle, 4 hours in Paris and another 5 to Bamako, Mali! We got off the plane at 8:55pm to 80 degree weather; not the suffocating type that I've heard about (Annie ;) but good, warm air. The Peace Corps staff met us with water and bug spray, and through a series of buses and cars we arrived at Tubaniso, a training camp that has been on loan from the Dept of Ag (maybe) of Mali. It's amazing, just like summer camp... with a dress code. and more formal. I'm in a hut iwith two roommates. There's a really charming hole in the floor not too too far away and a super sweet clay room for our bucket baths. So far we've been doing a lot of trainings, culture, malaria and health concerns, safety... etc. 

Yesterday we had a cultural festival complete with fabric vendors and drummers. All the girls got panyes, those super sweet wrap around skirts that nearly all Malian women wear. We bought the fabric (about 2 meters long, one meter wide) and there were two tailors there that for 500 CFA (a bit more than a dollar) finished the piece and attached strings for easy tying, something I was told Malian women generally don't even bother with, their tucking skills are so advanced. (Think a towel wrapped around your waste after you shower.) 

Today we got our assignments for homestay! We'll be staying with a family for about two months and this first stint will be for 12 days. I'll be in Niamana with 7 other volunteers. Four or five of us will be learning Fulani! It's a minority language in the Mopti region so that's where I'll be placed! I don't know too much about the region yet... except they generally wear traditional clothes and drink milk. I'll know more soon though! Niamana is a small village only maybe 10 miles or so from Bamako but as Bamako is so ... little ... it's still very much rural. The other volunteers are placed in homestays around the region and we'll all meet up again after the initial 12 days. So everyday we're going to have about 8 hours of language and technical training which I'm really looking forward to. It's the downtime I've heard so much about, after training is over and we swear in that I am nervous for. 

I'll write again in a couple of weeks when I come back to Tubaniso and internet!