Back from home stay

Hey everyone,

So i have been living with a Malian family for the last two weeks and now enjoying a 3 day break, battery recharge, before heading back to my site on Saturday. The wonderful thing about being in training is that you are well informed on what to expect before each training session because there are current volunteers heading the sessions and you can ask them ANYthing that is on you mind. The big one before we left was the experience of home stay and what to look for. A volunteer who has been here for a year said that it is an out-of-this-world experience when you first live with your family. He said as well that home stay for the first two weeks is the hardest part of service. Point 1 to me as i have not ET(early termination) and still here writing this blog. My wave of emotions have been on a high, especially the first few days in site, to low because it is mentally and physically draining because you are working 24/7. Though we have class 6 days a week, language, culture, and technical environmental sessions, you are watched intentley and curiously by the whole community once you are in site. It has been an exhausting few weeks but the experience has been great.
I arrived two weeks ago during the afternoon and met my host family. It was so fast when they dropped me off that it still didnt hit me that i was living with a host family. They helped me with my bags, set up my room, made me lunch, and welcomed me into their home. The father is a rancher of sorts as he has 10 cows, 6 sheep, and an unknown number of chickens. He has one wife and 5 children. The wife from day one was quiet and not as welcoming to me. We were informed of gender roles in Malian society so i didnt think much of it at the time. I took a nap after lunch and was late to orientation that day. A great way to start, but all was ok and nothing came of it. That night was interesting. I ate dinner, in silence as everyones eyes were fixed on me. Kind of wierd to be honest. Right after I ate, a flood of Bambara words were thrown at me and i frantically wrote everything down phonetically. So much info in such a small amount of time. Bed time came and i went to sleep, in my 10x10 foot, blue colored room with a bed, mosquito net, straw mat, and hand fan(which is a godsend here). I took a moment to look around at my surroundings, taking it all in. That night i had no trouble falling asleep, until 4:30am when i heard pitter patter on my tin roof. Rain started and when it rains here, it rains!! they are pretty violent, with wind gusts strong enough to blow over canopies and rain that pours down like a faucet. On my tin roof i could here every drop of rain, but magnified by 100 so it was impossible to sleep while the rain started. I woke up and openned my door to find my father and his two sons running around the yard grabbing things that are blowing away. They also knocked on my door to see if i was ok and the two sons slept with me on the ground for the rest of the night. I thought this was a wonderful gester and appreciated them looking out for me. I awoke at 6am and started my first day in Mali.
Life in town has been wonderful. Malians are friendly, which is an understatement to how warm and receptive they are. They greet for 5 minutes before walking off to where ever they are going. They are always helpful when you need something and treat you like a king, which takes some getting used to. Here, foreigners are respected and treated very well so you are taken care of all the time. The kids are adorable as they are curious to meet you. They will greet you in french "bonjour" or "bonsoir", with a huge smile on their face and waving at you until you are way out of sight. they come up to you when you walk around and shake hands, then run away only to do the same thing when you walk back later in the day to do the same thing again. Some kids have never seen a creature like you before so they are terrified of you at first. They will cry and run away as soon as they see you but eventually they come around.
So some cultural things: you eat with your hand, the right one. You shovel food in your mouth. You bath out of a bucket which isnt that hard once you get the hang of it. They do bath in the nyagan (the place where you go #1 and #2) which takes a little longer to adjust to. they drink tea all the time and there is a whole ritual you do which is for another blog in the future. Joking is important in Malian culture as it has a history of peacemaking in times of war. I be sho dun (you eat beans) is a running joke that never gets old, ever. Everyone laughs at you, for being an american, for speaking the language well or poorly, or because they just want to laugh at you, but it is all in good humor and not to be taken seriously.
All in all my first two weeks have been great. More to come but my initial shock and anxiety has settled to where i can take more time to learn as much as i can. They say here DOONI DOONI which is slow slow, meaning that it takes time to adjust and to not rush yourself. Life here is simple but they do quite well though things can use change. i have found they are loving life and enjoy every day to the fullest. They are able to do things with limited resources and are happy, something that i compare to life in the states where we have everything at our disposal.

well dinner is served and i am hungry hungry hungry. see you soon and best wishes to all

Peace,
Geoff