Life and such

In the caves of Missikoro

The chief of Adeles village and me

me and Fatima's baby boy

my coworkers and me at work

opening xmas presents

with Echins kids in front of their mini petting farm

mom and will reading

will at dogon country

the fam





will and dad on a boat in mopti

mom, will; and me in a boat

it's bath time

sheep in transport



will and dad in mopti

Last Sunday, I was walking to lunch with Ben and there was chaos. There was a group of people crowded in the intersection. We were walking closer, and then everybody started running AWAY from where we were walking. We turned around, and then the gas hit us. It burned my throat, eyes, and I really thought my nose was bleeding. According to some Malians we asked on the street, a police man caused an accident. A mob then gathered and ripped down the police station and then beat up the police that caused the accident. The Malians said that the individual in the accident was killed, but the next day at work, my homologue said that was false.

This was a big week for me. We had 3 tourists come!!! And, they are from Canada so I could effectively communicate with them! They were super nice, and I do hope I was able to provide them with accurate information.

I am currently dog sitting these next few weeks. I can only imagine the conversations I have sparked. “So, I saw this tubab walking, holding a string connected to a dog! Can you believe that? How weird!” I am confident that is the first time many Malians have seen a dog on a leash. Instead of watching out for neighborhood dogs, I have to watch out for street dogs, donkeys, sheep, and goats. It’s the street dogs I am mainly concerned about because they look at little Keno like an appetizer. Keno’s a character. She eats rocks. No seriously. I think there must be a vitamin deficiency because that’s just not normal. She also likes to take rests in the shade during our walks. A lady yesterday looked at me when Keno refused to go any further (laying in the shade) and said, “Your dog is tired.” I just laughed.

I was planning on going to the Segou music festival, but I can’t because the money is due 2 days before I am going to Bamako. I am a little disappointed, but I have no doubt I will find another way to use the money.

Going to Bamako for a presentation this week!

Back to Lala Land

So, I’m back to my regular schedule. It’s weird because traveling around exhausted me, but I miss it.
It’s official: I have the best family and friends. I am the luckiest girl in the world.
I am doing a presentation in Bamako in a few weeks, so I am organizing my presentation.

Here are some pictures. I’ll try to put new ones up every week. Will explain the pictures in a few weeks.

Another Point of View

Hello. This is Katie's American mom, Cecilia, posting a capsule version of our African adventure.

We (me, my husband, our 18 y.o. son, Will) visited Katie for 2 weeks over the Christmas holiday. My favorite part was watching, in amazement, as Katie so effortlessly interacted with the Mali people. I dubbed it the "LaLa Mega" show. We would climb aboard a "bashay"--basically the back of a beat up pick-up truck with 3 benches, minimum of 15 plus people crowded in. And the show would start. Katie would introduce herself, flowing from French to Bambara and back. Then the questions would start. Who we were, where did she work, how her husband and children are (currently nonexistent but just easier to flow with "fine,") I always knew when we got to the punch line because everyone would look at me and start laughing. They have a wonderful tradition of "joking cousins" among family names ( a much kinder version of the Hatfields and McCoys!) Katie gave me the Malian name of "Mah Coulibally" while the rest of the family had the last name of "Maiga." And, as I was introduced, it was explained that since I was a "Coulibally" and not a "Maiga", that I was a donkey and ate beans. It was incredible that this line always brought the house down, everyone would laugh good naturedly. It was just fun.
The most beautiful part of our trip was our hike through the Dogon country. Our guide, Hasseim, is extremely talented (speaks English plus many other languages) and is passionate about explaining African history and customs to visitors. It was wonderful.
Minor aggravation--my luggage never did appear (thank goodness Katie could outfit me but I sure missed my own shoes) and I'm not too convinced that it will ever appear or that Air Maroc will settle a claim.
Health issues--I stuck to bottled water to try to hold those to a minimum. Bill had a "touch" of malaria (my diagnosis based on his symptoms and the Peace Corps Health Handbook) which I could easily, and cheaply, purchase medicine for in the local pharmacy. He responded within the first 36 hours which was a big relief, although I did opt to cut out our return trip through Morocco.
Other thoughts--the Malian people are friendly, beautiful and hard working. Watching those women with babies on their front and back, pulling water from wells and placing these large buckets on their heads to carry long distances was incredible. My hope is that volunteers, like Katie, can do their part, however small or large, to help ease their lives.