Feb. 11, 2004

Hi Mom & Dad & Karen,

It's been a while since our last major communication, so I thought I'd give you a report
on what I've been up to as of late.  First off, my Malian name is pronounced Ee-brah-heem
Sea-say, spelled Ibrahim Cisse'.  Ibrahim is the Muslim way of spelling Abraham, and the 
Cisse's are a family that have been Islamic scholars for centuries.  Not that this reflects
my current personality very well, but it's a fine name for my current duties.

Today is February 11th; though the time passes quickly here, I feel like I've been in Mali
for much longer than that.  I've had enough significant experiences and developed enough
strong friendships that it's almost difficult to remember that just a month ago I was home
taking pictures in the -10 degree weather.

Speaking of pictures, I already have 46 on the current memory stick.  Once it is finished,
I'll probably wrap it up in something soft and send it home in a small box.  I also wonder
if you could print out some of the photos of the families in the village of residence;  the
locals here are very keen on getting pictures of themselves, and they might not understand
if I don't eventually hand them a hard copies of the photos.

Skipping around yet again, I'll tell you what I know about the site where I'll be working:
it is called Sheouba, just South of the city of Sikasso.  It has 2,000 residents and has 1
current volunteer who I replace in March.  I might be able to eat a better diet and more
vegetarian food there, because SE Mali has more trees, fruits and vegetables than the rest
of the nation.  In fact, Sheouba is known as the "Mango capital of Mali" because mangos
start getting ripe 2 months earlier than in the rest of the country.  Much of the country's
fruit comes form Sheouba or its surrounding area, and can be bought for next to nothing
in the town market.  Furthermore, I will have a kitchen and water pump in my house, so 
cooking and getting clean water will be fairly easy.  the only major downside is that the 
Sikasso region has more mosquitos than the rest of Mali combined, so I'll have to be careful
to use repellent and keep my mosquito net in good repair.  My job will be raising healthy
chickens and working with the villagers who have chickens, as well as doing school 
construction.  I have a feeling that this will be the best place in Mali for me to be, since
the food is better, the climate is slightly cooler and the region is more authentically 
African (i.e., not commercialized like Severe' and Timbuktu).

Right now, my days are divided between taking 4 types of classes (Language, agriculture,
cross-cultural issues and health), reading ( I finally finished Behold the Spirit by Alan
Watts), doing Yoga, hanging out with my host family and visiting friends at Samanko's only
bar.  It's not really much of a bar, just a picnic table outside a house that has one of 
the town's only refrigerators and a stockpile of sodas and local beer.  It's not much,
but I've had some great times there chatting with new found friends and joking with the
swarm of local children that follow me EVERYWHERE.  The bureau in Washington wasn't lying 
when they said that Mali is not an easy place for people who need privacy and like being left
alone.  I'm used to living alone at school and doing much of teh laundry and cooking myself
(as well as spending most evenings doing fairly private activities) that will be a major
adjustment.  In a way it's refreshing to be in a country where people are interested in
talking to me, getting to know me a little and following me around all the time.  It's sort
of like being a Pop Star (hence my friend Thor and I sometimes tell the kids in Samanko 
that my American name is "John Denver." :)  However, just like in the USA, being a celebrity
that everyone looks at and talks about can be daunting at times.  The only times when I 
really have any privacy here in town are when I lock the door and tune out the world outside,
sometimes having to ignore the people that are asking me to come outside just to get a few
minutes of peace.  I'm definately grateful for the portable CD player during those times
when I need to tune in to something different and be reminded of home.  Overall this has
been a positive experience thus far, but it will take some getting used to.

Another observation I've made about Mali is that this is not the miserable place that one
would expect after hearing that its the 3rd-poorest country or seeing the "Save the Children"
commercial that was filmed here.  Now, don't get me wrong, there are serious problems such
as a lack of health care facilities, underfed farm animals that don't produce nutritious
food, desertification up North, etc.  Still folks here are incredibly optimistic and 
friendly, and in amazing physical shape given the deficiencies of the local diet.  I guess
the moral of the story is that the Peace Corps has the right philosophy: work WITH the 
local people and help them to use the resources and assets they already have rather than
telling them what they need.

Other random stuff:

Everybody here drings REALLY strong green tea with lots of sugar, and they don't sleep much.
Coincidence?  I think not.

Malian Beer consists of two main brands: Flay, which tastes like an American light lager,
and Castel which is more flavorful but takes getting used to because the grains in it are 
different.  It's OK stuff, more than what I expected, but hardly worth writing home about
(didn't stop me though, hehe).

Malian dancing rules.  I love it because you just let the drum rhythm take you where it will,
and move around wildly to the beat with no actual steps.  The locals love that I'm willing 
to try dancing their way, so it works out.

This journey confirms the opinions that I formed about Islam while taking a class on it: 
Mali is quite diverse in terms of the level of Islamic religiosity, from a mix of Islam
and Animism in the South to a more fundamentalist culture in the North (Kidal and Gao).
That's a generalization, but the point is that relying on stereotypes to create a picture
of a broad topic like "Islamic society" is patently absurd.

Anyhow, I love you all.  I hope Karen had a joyous birthday celebration, and I look forward
to our next communication.