The Beginning of the End…

Well, I’m officially a Volunteer now. I’m struggling with what to talk about because a lot has happened since I last wrote, but not much of it seems rather exceptional. The novelty of being here has worn off and nothing seems to be too surprising.

Swear-in went without incident. We got to the US embassy in the morning, took a bunch of pictures of eachother, and then began the ceremony. Some Malian officials spoke, the PC Mali Country Director said a few things, the US Ambassador gave a speech, and then several newly sworn in Volunteers gave short speeches in several of the languages found in Mali. The whole thing took less than two hours. Aside from the ceremony, one of the coolest parts of the morning was being able to see the inside of a US embassy. I’ve always wanted to go in one.

The rest of swear-in day was filled with food, fun, and dancing. We spent several hours at the American Club for lunch, the pool, and movies. After that we went to a hotel on the other side of town, had dinner, and then went to a bar for a few hours… finally finishing off the night at a dance club. We didn’t get back to the hotel until after 3 am!

There was a bit of unexpected commotion at the conclusion of the evening when the car taking me back to the hotel was stopped by the police. The officer wanted to see the ids of everyone in the car. Then he wouldn’t let us go without paying a bribe. Lame!

While at the bar we fulfilled a PC Mali tradition… The naming of the stage. Every year the new group of Volunteers (a stage) is given a name by the previous year’s stage. Our stage was given the name “Risky Business” because when we first got to Mali everyone was concerned with doing things by the book, but as the training period progressed, people started taking risks and doing things that would be out of the comfort zone for most. Therefore, the previous stage decided that we were all about business… just risky about it. It’s a great name. Everyone loves it.

Now I’m in Segou waiting to be installed at my site in a few days. Until then I’ve been forced to stay in a nice hotel, eat good food, and do nothing but read and go shopping for things I’ll need at site. It’s been rough. I don’t know how much more of this I can take.

In the last day or so I’ve been taken around by a PC staff worker and been introduced to many different officials in charge of various offices for the Segou region. We met the governor, commandant of the gendarmes, commandant of the police, head of the regional health center, head of the Office du Riz regional office, the guy in charge of the Malian equivalent of the EPA for the region, among several others. Now I just need to meet all the people in charge of similar duties at the local level for my village.

I did some grocery shopping this afternoon in preparation for my move to site. I was able to scratch up macaroni, oatmeal, Nutella, honey, powdered milk, oranges, grapefruit, cucumbers, spaghetti, and a few other things. You can find almost any sort of food that is common or familiar in the US… you just have to be willing to pay the price. The other problem is not having refrigeration. I could buy a dozen eggs… but I’d have to eat them all in a few days. Same thing with things like jelly, butter, cheese, fruits, meat, etc. Everything has to be purchased and consumed the same day. This becomes challenging when all the things I want to eat are in Segou… and I live 80 km away. Most things won’t survive the trip. When I go to site I’m going to do a little experiment and see how long different kinds of fruits last before they spoil. Then I’ll be able to shop more wisely.

I was finally able to get some pictures onto Flickr. Follow the link to check them out!