With Mogwai, comes much responsibility...

Like a gremlin in water, our postcard wall multiplies amazingly fast. We’ve consolidated them all onto one wall (except the original nine) and there they will stay until the we or the cows come home, whichever comes first.



Please note: we received many Christmas cards and truly like them so don’t be discouraged from sending those for other holidays (heck, you can slip in a $5 for old times sake), but this is a description of a postcard wall, so don’t be offended if it is not mentioned here. There is one exception: this card with cousin Mikey and Sarah’s nephews, but that is because we played an integral part in the uniform procurement.

We had some first time postcard senders this round, which is always nice.

Tara “Bright Eyes” Ferris and her hubby Shawn “Captain Moe” Ferris sent us a great card of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe on the Wind River Reservation around the turn of the twentieth century. It became one of the best cards ever when we turned it over and saw that Shawn had claimed it to be a family portrait (and the tribe grows!).

Our favorite retired ski bums finally checked in. The Sick Gnar McGnars of Raleigh, North Carolina sent us a postcard apparently before the beginning of this year’s basketball season. It reads: “Tarheels #1.”

Eric Arsenault from Bangor reminded us of the beauty of Vacationland, Maine and also threw in the popular reminder that Brian is an ass.

“Where’s Kim?” Kim Geiger, of Moribabougou fame, has relocated to Chicago. She mentioned having “good beers” with us when we return, she better not be messing with the honor of Castel, the Queen of Beers. For now, she gets to enjoy them with her recently returned and fiancé, Joel. Maybe those “good beers” will be served at the wedding.

Bev and Lloyd Kozak, of Calgary, are kind enough to stay in touch after so many years. The last time we saw them was in a McDonald’s in Beijing! We still need their well-wishes just as much as back then, maybe more.

Torey Trefz’s card finally arrived from Cleveland. He has been claiming for months that he has sent one from Aspen. Right. He even wrote, “I hope this one gets there.” Very clever. Sticking to his cover story at all costs!

PCV Jake Asher sent along some “Big Kisses from Ghana.” Not sure if those were for Sam or Mark, didn’t ask.

Our buddies Paul and Marie who were here in Bamako and have since taken off around the world sent us one from India, which they describe as infinitely better than Mali. We could have guessed that. Paul’s sister Sharon, whom they were visiting because she is stationed there for her job, sent along a card with Bhagawan Shri Satya Sai Baba. He is an Indian holy man who is acclaimed for his ability to predict and imitate the exact face that you will make when you see his postcard.

Others continue to add bricks to our wall.

Barb and John continued their Mount Desert Island theme with the Bear Island Headlight and Northeast Harbor. They are going to have to feed us chowder for a week because all the coastal scenes they have been sending are making us hungry.

Kelly Jones has settled down in Pittsburg, or at least she has moved there for now. Maybe someday her stuff from Mali will catch up with her (but we are not holding our breath).

Kevin Coughlin is a veritable hit parade of ludicrosity. He sent us cards depicting “Dutch’s (explanation: he was the good cop to Mark’s bad cop on the gondola) Low Impact Aerobics” -channel surfing with remote control- and solving the mystery of “Where Jerky Comes From” -road kill. Delicious.

Brian’s roommate Katherine seems to be something of a starlet. She is in L.A. quite a bit (more than the Traveling Campbells, who claim to live there, we suspect). The Catzilla card was truly bizarre.

The Traveling Campbells continue their unbelievable pace. They sent us a card from Key West and then they sent us one from the cruise ship that they were on in the Caribbean. Getting dizzy watching them cruise around the globe.


Andrew and Nicole Wallace continue to thrive in their culinary dreamland, France. They sent us a pretty creepy card made creepier (read: better) when they said on the back that it reminded them of us.


Speaking of creepy. Missy and Bryce sent a card from Canaan Valley West Virginia, nothing out of the ordinary there. Then, the next day, like some weird punch line came this postcard of a “Deluxe Cabin.” The very fact that this card is for sale is pretty wild, the fact that the word “deluxe“ is used is just plain awesome.


And then there was a gem from Kysa (Edsal) Crusco. Under any circumstances the “You” with the snow blower and “Me” frolicking in a bathing suit on a beach in Puerto Rico is a fantastic taunt (made even funnier by the fact that she is likely pushing her snowblower right now). The fact that she bought the postcard over ten years ago on a swim team training trip with Sam really takes the cake. Well done.

Well done to everybody. Keep up the good work and keep them coming. Each card we get makes us think about how soon we will see you all and it feels great.

Meetings

O.k. people. Let’s get back to Peace Corps goal #3 for a moment here. This is when we tell the folks back on the home front something about life here in Mali and how it differs from life in the states. Todays topic: meetings.

Unlike meetings in the U.S., most meetings here are not held to schedule another meeting. They are usually held to discuss who to invite to another meeting. This is an important point because before one speaks at a meeting one must formally recognize all the big wig types present. It goes something like this: “Bonjour monsieur le ministre, monsieur le prefere, monsieur le mayor, monsieur le president de conseiler du cercle, monsieur le guy in the absurdly large boubou, monsieur le buddy of the guy in the absurdly large boubou, etc…” You get the picture.

After the important people in their expensive boubous have been introduced and properly thanked and recognized, they get up and leave. Not sure if they do this because they know that the television cameras only film this opening ceremony or if the television cameras only film this opening ceremony because they know the ministers et al will be leaving right after. A real chicken or the egg mystery which we do not have the time in our service to solve. Sometimes their lackeys stay behind but usually not.

The television crews then typically swing through the room taking long, uncomfortable head shots of those involved. They often focus a quite a bit on the toubabs, a fact which has led to Mark and Sam having been on national T.V. here more times then they are in their family photo albums back home. In fact, Mark was on national t.v. just last monday. This would be impressive save for the fact that Mickey Mouse probably would not allow his name on the credits of this broadcast, it is that amateur. They are using media equipment that hasn’t been seen in the U.S. since the early eighties, in northern New England. Then they also leave.

There is typically a presentation of some sort, often a powerpoint presentation that is read word for word to the onlookers. This is frequently followed by a question and answer/observation period. In smaller villages this is not as effective as one might expect because speakers like to show their education level by presenting in French. Unfortunately, the villagers rarely have an equal level of schooling.

In the bigger cities the French thing is rarely a problem but the need to use a microphone as a flashy display. Alas, the audio quality often negates any understanding one might have gained by knowing the language. If it is a meeting in the countryside the poor audio quality matters little, since you can’t hear the speaker on the microphone over the noise of the generator needed to power said microphone. What is quite amusing at a meeting is the speakers' unfamiliarity with microphones in general, leading to a speaker talking to the group with a purely ornamental microphone infront of their face.

There are a couple of things that occur in a Malian meeting that would appall many of you, namely cell phones. We swear there must be a “Be sure your cell phone is ON AND LOUD” sign at the door. Neither of us have located it yet but it must be there!

While nodding off during an event that is not in a darkened theatre is the height of rudeness to most Americans, here it is just par for the course. “No!” you say, “it cannot be common to see a person sleeping in a high level meeting.” O.k., you are correct. It is common to see many people sleeping. Participants doze off until they are awoken by their cell phone playing a Celine Dion song loud enough to wake the dead, which they answer even louder. No problem there, you are in a Malian.

Oh, and this one is hard to get used to: the way to get someone’s attention (even if that person is a high Minister) is to snap your fingers at them. Use this move in a restaurant in the states and you get your food spit in. It is the only way to get called on here. And don’t forget to use the joking cousin trick, even in the most formal of settings, once called on. If a Traore speaks after a Diarra it is perfectly acceptable to preface the comments with, “thank you little Diarra , you may sit down now, my child” even if that Diarra is the presiding over the meeting.

"O.k. I can do that," you are thinking. Sounds easy, especially when one considers that the point of all the meetings we attend is the betterment of the community. You would think people would be eager to attend such events and you would be right. What you would not realize is that without the per diem handed out for attending these things would likely be empty. “You have to pay people to come and talk about improving their community?” you ask. Let’s just put it this way: we have been to meetings where someone made the mistake of handing out the money at lunch and its been us, the lady sweeping and the crickets for the afternoon session. We, on the other hand, are amused to death by this stuff and do it for fun. Oh, and we are Peace Corps volunteers who are always out saving the world for free anyway, right?

Incommunicado

So, why have we not been heard from lately? A combination of reasons (excuses really), but the one we will offer (because it comes with a ridiculous story) is that our computer was destroyed.


Get this: while Sam rode back from her workplace in Bamako one day she was struck at high speed by a motorcyclist. She was thrown from her bike a remarkably long distance. So far, in fact, one marvels at the fact that she was not seriously injured. How? One reason was Sam’s apparent bike surfing capabilities. Not unlike the wake surfing she did in Sierra Leone, she rode atop the skidding bike as long as possible until, like a wave, it all crashed down around her. She was thrown from the bike, skidding and rolling the rest of the way to a stop. She was shaken, with a tasty bit of road rash on her left arm and right palm. Miraculously, she received only bruises on her legs, no cuts (or even any rips to her pants)! Truly amazing for those who are familiar with Malian cloth (which is not exactly Carhart-type stuff or even cheesecloth-type stuff, for that matter). Another reason was that a goodly part of the collision was absorbed by our computer in the side-mounted saddlebag. There are certainly other reasons that she was not hurt badly that only Allah knows (we will certainly give him all due credit for the magic pants). She is unlikely to thank Him for the discomfort of having road debris cleaned out of her skin (which she did not appreciate) but in a place of such dubious sanitation that it has rarely been more necessary to thoroughly clean a wound (which she did appreciate).

Sam is now completely healed and even has a new bike to replace her broken one (courtesy of Kelly Jones leaving hers behind and is herself healed, great to hear!) which is why this incident is safe to report, as parents will always worry no matter the age their child.

The computer has been replaced, so our list of excuses dwindles...

2010

All this time we enjoyed joking about E.T.ing (early terminating of our service) on New Year’s Day 2010. That way we could say that we were in Peace Corps for 2008, 2009 and 2010. While it was sound reasoning, we had not anticipated that we would be too tired from celebrating to go through with it, nor did we think that at the end of the year we might want to stay. Much to our surprise, we actually have got some stuff to get done in the coming year. So, we will stay as volunteers a while longer yet.

So what happened during the last year? Let’s review a couple of the highlights of 2009:
-We lived in West Africa for the first (and likely last) complete year.
-We visited with rebels in Cote d’Ivoire.
-We consumed a lifetime worth of peanuts.
-We saw elephants, albino crocodiles, hippos, monkeys, baboons, and more in the wild.
-We fled from one escaped giant monitor lizard at the Dakar zoo.
-We hiked in the famous Dogon country.
-We moved from the desert to the big city.
-We compiled the biggest postcard wall in West Africa (and still growing!).
-We actually worked a little.
-We (Sam) were struck by motorcycles.
-We (Mark) witnessed African championship soccer games.
-We became an aunt and uncle for a fourth time.
-We said goodbye to old friends.
-We welcomed new friends.
-We really started to like Mali.

Tons of other great stuff (they added a huge mound of severed donkey heads to the lion exhibit at the Bamako zoo!) and not so great stuff (watched Thierry Henry dribble a soccer ball like it was a basketball, damn his heart) occurred during the course of this past year but we won’t bore you with every detail. Let us just say that it was a hell of a year, filled with trials and tribulations, of course, but also more rewarding moments than we deserve. They always seem to turn out that way.

The Holidays

The New Year is upon us and it could not have arrived in a more different setting. Last year we spent New Year’s Eve in our mud house on the edge of the Sahara. This year we spent New Year’s Eve on the rooftop of a Bamako mansion sipping champagne and watching fireworks. Last year, New Year’s Day was a normal village day. This year it was going on a hash run (see link) followed by a double helping of the cheesy lasagna and an ice cold beer. While both of these days were great in their own ways, I think we agree that this year was better. Not because of the goings on, although they were delightfully distracting, but because they occurred a full year closer to seeing our family and friends again.

Christmas was great too. We spent Christmas Eve at our friend Bethanne’s house across town. See had a tree and lights and cookies baking. It really made us long for home. Fortunately, she had plenty of beer too, so we were distracted.

Christmas morning was spent with fellow PCVs Ryan and Ester, who came over to enjoy a fabulous breakfast that Sam cooked. She had specially set aside some of the eggs with vegetables for Ryan, as he is a vegetarian. She then threw in some bacon (a Christmas miracle!) for the rest of us. Ryan looked a bit sad and that she could put some in his too. Sam and I were confused until Ester cleared things up with a friendly, “He’s a poser.”

We had the most elaborate Christmas dinner either of us have been a part of for a long, long time at our friends Jim and Melissa’s house. The intentionally ambiguous “Festive attire” request on the invitation was designed to see what people would come up with and we nailed it (or at least we felt we did and that is all that matters) by commissioning matching Christmas clothes made out of commemorative baby Jesus material we got over at the cathedral. There was turkey and lamb and more wine than you could shake your Fula shepard’s stick at! It was a marathon of merry-making.

We were too poor to give each other gifts so we decided to give each other haircuts instead. We were too lazy to actually perform the task. Maybe we’ll save that gift for Valentine’s Day! Fortunately we had lots of gifts to open from our families. They have been taking care of us unconditionally from afar. We have talked for months about the need for a doormat, so we pulled a west African move and just waited and waited and finally some toubabs sent us one for free. That move really does work! Thanks uncle Tommy and aunt Kathy (he fancies himself quite clever sending us a Boston College doormat to wipe our feet on, little does he know we have a Boston University toilet seat!)

West Africa's Largest Postcard Collection Grows!

We moved to a new postcard wall! Our friends and family are so amazing that we are not only be able to decorate a part of our living room but have now moved on to what we’ll call our "solarium" (which is actually more of a sandarium). At least once a day we check them out. It is inspires us to see where you all travel. It cracks us up to see what ludicrous cards you can find. It makes us nostalgic to see where you all live. Most of all, it heartens us to know what amazing support we have.

There were some serious travelers in this batch and some great scenes from all over, on the homefront and beyond.

Our friend Kelly “Big Red” Huster from Jackson, Wyoming, touched on a little of both themes when she crossed the entire country and sent us a postcard from Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her first time to Fenway Park was almost as exciting as a mention on our blog!

The Traveling Campbells continue their amazing string of journeys, checking in from sites as far a field as Tucson and Scotland. We are starting to wonder if they are ever at home.


Kelly Jones got all the way to South Africa for some safari stew before being sent back to america. She says that she is home in Colorado now but we are not sure, having no postcard-o-graphic evidence to confirm this fact.

We do know Steve Bory and Natalie Mette-Bory made it safely home to Chesapeake Bay. They also completed a swing through the southwest states, from which our postcard wall should benefit, insh’allah.

The "Ice Queen", Liz Becker, completed a lengthy trek herself. She checked in from Utah and Saugatuck, Michigan and Washington Crossing Historic Park in Pennsylvania on her way to the east coast after her eighteen-day float down the Grand Canyon. She sent us a postcard from the bottom of “the ditch” that was carried out partly by mule, a form of transport normally only occuring on the Malian end of things!

Our friends Nicole and Andrew Wallace sent one from far away but not quite from the road. They have moved to Orleans, France. The majestic chateaux seem a bit more appealing than the mud brick huts they had been accustomed to in Mali.


RPCV Emily Doerr is killing it on the postcard front, having checked in from Seattle and Portland, Oregon and from McMinnville, Tennessee on her way to the nation's capital where she sent a ridiculous card of the first family. We expect the cards to continue coming since, at last check, she didn’t have one of those pesky job things that might inhibit postcard writing.

PCV Therese Pasichnyk sent us one from Cadiz, Spain, where she traveled with her family. They apparently wanted to go as close to Africa as possible without actually stepping foot on the Dark Continent. You can practically see Morocco from there!

Casey and Matt Stratford got all the way to Iceland. This would normally be an impressive postcard except when compared to the other two absurd cards they sent out: Sam and Mark’s wedding and on the Jackson Hole Gondola with Sam and Mark. Awesome!

We even received a card all the way from Malaysia sent by a Choong Chee Yen, who is apparently making postcard wall as well. It is a small world!

Speaking of outlandish postcards, Kevin Coughlan has really hit his stride. He has been specializing in touristy Wyoming kitsch. From the stuffed bears asking that more tourists be sent because the last ones were delicious, to the bizarre owl claiming it misses us, to the legendary fur bearing (due to the extremely cold waters) trout and the elusive Jackalope, he has been nailing it.

Ben Carlisle sent Baroque Obama. Enough said.

Brian Hannon has recently been specializing in eccentric British cards with old ads for Brylcreem and a not so subtle claim from the MG car company that their vehicle will increase your chances with the ladies.

Brian’s friend Denis Moran lives in Santa Barbara and studies Africa as part of his reference publisher gig. Judging from the picture of the area, we suggest he continue working from afar, it is much nicer.

Ex-roomie Jon Scheibel continues his subtle pitch to get us to return to western Wyoming by sending cards from Jackson Hole and Yellowstone National Park.

Laura Cuddie and John Morgan reminded us of the beautiful scenery of the Teton Range. It is fun to show pictures like that to Malians, they are always blown away.

Back on the east coast, Jay and Jenni sent us one of their new hometown Media, Pennsylvania. This was less to show the beauty of their town and more so that Jay could point out his local coffee shop in the photo. The thought of a sandwich where the egg is not deep-fried and that has bacon and cheese on it is too much for us to fathom at this point. The Hannons went international too, kind of. Jay, Jenni and Frank sent one from Quebec City.

The Lavers have moved up to New Hampshire and sent a view of the Mt. Washington Valley. It reminds us of when we were able to see Mt. Washington from the dock at Sam’s family cottage on Lake Winnipesauke, a long time ago in galaxy far, far away where it is safe to touch the water.


Norma Crichton continues her come home to Bangor, Maine campaign with a card of the Thomas Hill Standpipe. Mark could still to this day ride a bike to his childhood home blindfolded from that particular landmark if the need arose.

Tom and Cathy Hannon sent a beautiful view of Scituate harbor in Massachusetts. It makes us want to see the ocean and eat fish from water which can be smelled miles away for its saltiness and not its raw sewage.

The same goes for Cousin Cindy’s card from Rye harbor, New Hampshire. Also, considering Rhode Island’s diminutive size, the large format postcard she sent from there gave us a chuckle. Mostly, though, it is her postcard of New England fall foliage that looks quite a bit like the farm road near Sam's house that makes us miss home.




Thanks everyone for your reminders of where we’ve been, where we're going and what we should put in our hair.









Kevin Coughlan summed it up nicely:

Posh Corps

Its official, we have transferred from Peace Corps to Posh Corps. Moving to Bamako a few months ago from Yelimané has been less like moving towns and more like changing of planets. While we certainly still have challenges in our daily lives, when compared to village life it feels like we are on vacation.

Get this: there are these switches on the walls of our house that, when toggled, turn on and off lights without any batteries or matches!

There are these metal pipe things which bring water into the building itself. It comes out a shower! Not only that, but there are other pipes which take dirty water away from the toilet in our house. Granted, most wastewater eventually empties untreated into the river not far from here but at least it is not collected in a cesspool outside the concession wall for children to play in (they only have donkey poop to throw at each other, dommage).

We have a bed that is not made of bamboo, a table with chairs and a sofa. We have tiles on our floor instead of concrete and paving stones. We have fans to move the swelteringly hot air around and dry our sweat. We get the BBC on the radio, so we know a little about what happens in the world. We even have (want can only be called) an easy bake oven. Best of all, we have a little refrigerator for cold water!

Work life is different in Bamako. We hesitate to describe it because it still is not that interesting for the American reader. Suffice it to say that it exists, which is a big step up from village. While the village life was relaxing and culturally enriching it could also be torturously slow. We would often reach our limit of reading books and playing with children but the only alternative was often staring off at the horizon for hours on end. In the city the time passes faster, which is good.

We have done so many things in town that we never had the opportunity to do out on the edge of the desert. We’ve swum in pools, we’ve gone to soccer matches in stadiums, we’ve been to concerts performed by famous Malians, we meet friends once a week for drinks, we eat chicken! We are no longer out at the end of a seldom-traveled spoke of a desolate wheel but at the hub of the country, so we see people a lot more. Time goes fast enough that we actually have to manage it!

And time runs short these days. It is hard to believe that we are in single digits for months left in Mali. By way of clarification, Peace Corps is a two year service after swearing-in (front row, with shades). This means that that count only began when training finished, two months after our arrival. Those of you who expected us back in July will be surprised to hear that our technical last day of service is September 11th, 2010. That is not when we arrive home, however, as we will likely travel around for an undetermined time. Not to mention that due to administrative constraints that day could be a month before or a month later, nor is it including any extensions past that or early end dates for which might possibly be applied. Is that clear enough?

So, while we really have no idea when we will be home to the States, you will be happy to know that this place has become an acceptable home in the meantime.

(Its a sweet pad, Avril is always hangin' out at our place...)