"…but soil is a refuge for dispersed seeds."
The faint recollection of chaos sprawling lingers as the Bamako pseudo-metropolis fades into a monotony of brown on the road to San. The land is flat as Illinois, the horizon interrupted only by stocky trees, branches jagged against the cloudless, hazy sky. Villages raise literally out of the sand, as the short square homes are built exclusively from mud bricks, as has been the tradition for centuries. Continue reading →
So, I have big news! I found out my permanent site! And I met my counterpart from my village who I will be working with for the next two years. And tomorrow, I go there! Continue reading →
At age 11, I started an anti-bicycle chapter of my life that would go on to last 13 years. Continue reading →
The first time the white Peace Corps bus drove me through S New, my eyes were wide, full of anticipation, knowing many questions would soon be answered in my new home. Which house would be mine? Would my family be nice? What would my accommodations be? I quickly learned the answers to more questions than I knew I had as my days were filled with the highs and lows of cultural adjustment. After twelve days in village, I returned to Tubani So, our training center, in desperate need of some toubab time, electricity, and a break from Bambara language acquisition. However, three days were more than enough to satisfy me, especially with such luxuries as a stop at the toubab grocery store and (!) a toubab restaurant where I enjoyed a chocolate milkshake and crepes on the way back to village.
By the time the white bus delivered me to S New a second time, I was relaxed, smile wide, and content to be back. Batuma, who is 12, met me at the bus and helped carry my bag the two blocks back to our compound. All the kids gathered around as I pulled up a chair in the shade of my house, and my mom stopped her endless work to sit with me and ask about my weekend. It was good to be home, however temporary that home may be. Continue reading →
I sit in the small sliver of shade that my house provides as an escape from the midday sun. Six boys play unsupervised to my right, ranging in age from two to eight. They alternate between rough housing, actually fighting, yelling, and crying. Destruction of property comes up from times to time as well.
The two women in the compound are too busy washing clothes to focus too much on these boys. And instinctively, they gravitate to the side of the compound where no one is home. Except me. Continue reading →
Fifteen years ago, for reasons yet unknown, some of the people of S Village decided to relocate 2 kilometers to the South. They named their new village after the old, thus creating S Old and S New. The old village was nestled in the shade of Mango trees, with crooked pathways weaving around the villager’s compounds. The new village, by contrast was not yet coddled by shade and the roads were straight and wide outlining compounds in varying degrees of completion.
Time moved slowly in the new village, as it had in the old, and villagers continued with their routines until the new S didn’t seem so new anymore. This is the setting in which I became Bougourie Diarra. Continue reading →
I have made it to Mali.
It’s very surreal. I started questioning myself as we landed in Bamako, but the instant I got off the plane, the smells, the air, the sounds: it was unmistakably Mali. Continue reading →
After a rushed few weeks full of friends, family, packing, and goodbyes, I finally became a Peace Corps Trainee. My last few days in Chicago consisted of final purchases, packing, and a lovely going away party thanks to Muffin Pie, Chris, and Doug (thank you!). Last Sunday I flew to DC and had a final night with my DC friends, including one last Washington Carver milkshake from Open City (the third time I justified the expense since it would be the ‘last one til 2013.’) Monday at noon I started staging, or orientation. Continue reading →
In an effort to provide some background into my decision to join the Peace Corps, I thought I would post the essays I sent in with my application. The application is quite long and detailed, and the topics that are to be included in the essays are extensive. The first is a motivation essay, which outlines my motivations for serving. The second is an essay outlining my experience with cross cultural understanding. Continue reading →
Next week, I will become a Peace Corps trainee. After over a year of application, and many more years of casual consideration, I will finally embark on a journey so grand that it will take over two years to complete. I have put considerable energy into preparation, and research, and purchasing things I will need, and visiting those I will miss, and imagining my new life, and anticipating what I can never imagine, and yet, it is still hard to believe that by the end of next Wednesday, I will once again be on another continent.
For too long I have been living my life in the temporary, and now, I will again be rooted at a beginning. Continue reading →
