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One question that keeps popping into my head is “why?” Why are things the way they are? As I sit here typing this in my room in Mali I can’t help but shudder at the flood of bugs that manage to get into my room despite the screening I put up to complement my concrete walls. There’s a large part of me that would wish for nothing more than to be back home sitting on a couch watching sports on TV with a couple of buddies drinking some ice, cold beer eating some wings or whatever the hell else I want to eat. But for all of its modern conveniences America also has its negatives. As Americans we’re always moving so fast that we forget to just BE sometimes. We as a society are defined by our actions, not who we are as a people. It’s always a question of “what have you done for me lately?” I’ve learned to slow down here. I’ve learned to just be. And yet every fiber in me screams out telling me that I need to be constantly be doing something. Maybe that’s just a defensive mechanism so that I don’t go crazy, so whether I like it or not I always AM doing something be it hanging out with people, thinking about how to help my groups, or doing some reading. It’s gotten to the point where I need to just set aside some time to veg out. That’s life I guess.

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I just finished reading Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. It’s an interesting book written by someone who was just wondering what it all really means. Is there some overarching meta-story that we’re all a part of? He looks at human history with a narrow scope to see how guns, germs, and steel have helped some of us develop and left some of us behind. One has to wonder whether or not the whole of human history can be boiled down so easily. Nonetheless he presents some interesting facts and interesting theories albeit in a prose that can be at times both obtuse and dry.

As I’ve had some time to get adjusted to life here in Mali I’ve started to wonder what kind of impact I could possibly have during my service over the next two years. I have a pretty good idea of what I’d like to accomplish. I would like to help reorganize my mobile bank into several independent savings and credit associations. I’d like to help my women’s cooperative develop a sound business strategy and organize them to make it a reality. And if I have time maybe I’ll build a library for fun. There are a lot of things I can DO but does that define who I AM? Who knows if I’ll succeed or fail? Isn’t it enough that I came here and tried to make a difference? Even if I do achieve a certain measure of success and in my wildest dreams accomplish everything I came to do does that mean anything? I hear about past volunteers and what they did here and it all seems very impressive on paper but the reality is that the more things change the more they stay the same. The game is the game. All that progress that was made before, all that was accomplished here, what of it? I see two years ahead of me but all I can do is live day by day just looking forward to the next holiday or the next vacation until I get back to America so I can figure out the rest of my life. Meanwhile my neighbors, friends, and coworkers live in blissful ignorance.

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I believe through many of my posts I have shown how Mali isn’t developed but I’d like to take some time to talk about some of the things that work in Mali and that may set it apart from other so-called “developing nations.”

1. People are generally happy and healthy

Aside from Malaria and GI issues there isn’t too much bothering people here. There is the occasional illness or cold but AIDS doesn’t affect as many people in Mali as it does other African countries for one reason or another. Most of the people I encounter are friendly and willing to help. A typical greeting will include asking how someone is doing, how their family’s doing, etc and will take several minutes. Of course people complain about different things but isn’t that what makes us human? It’s kind of crazy but in the few months I’ve been here there have been two Peace Corps countries (Guinea and Mauritania) which border Mali and have been suspended. We have a few transfers from Mauritania and I think they’re hoping a few Guinea volunteers choose to transfer to Mali as well. It seems to me that relatively speaking things have been pretty calm in Mali and in many ways Mali is the model for democracy in West Africa (as crazy as that sounds).

1. Mali is a functioning democracy

I use the word democracy very loosely here and so have chosen to describe Mali as a functioning democracy because there have been successful transitions of power from one president to the next. However, the real challenge for this untested democracy will be the succession of the next president as the powers that be choose candidates and we see whether or not someone besides ATT (the current president) can succeed.

1. Transportation is adequate

There are planes, trains, automobiles, and buses that will take you from end of Mali to the other. It might take you several days and frustrate you but it’s possible. Since Mali is a landlocked country building a solid transportation network is crucial to its economic success. There is an international airport in Bamako although it could use a major upgrade. There are several bus lines in Mali so that if you can get into Bamako you can go pretty much anywhere in Mali. There are even trains (although I hear you should pay more for first class because if the train were to derail you wouldn’t get killed).

So come one, come all to the land of opportunity in West Africa!

The King James version says this- it is when Jehovah has asked Cain why he is angry. Jehovah says, ‘If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.’ It was the ‘thou shalt’ that struck me, because it was a promise that Cain would conquer sin.”……….”Then I got a copy of the American Standard Bible. It was very new then. And it was different in this passage. It says, ‘Do thou rule over him.’ Now this is very different. This is not a promise, it is an order. And I began to stew about it. I wondered what the original word of the original writer had been that these very different translations could be made.”…….”After two years we felt that we could approach your sixteen verses of the fourth chapter of Genesis. My old gentlemen felt that these words were very important too – ‘Thou shalt’ and ‘Do thou.’ And this was the gold from our mining: ‘Thou mayest.’ ‘Thou mayest rule over sin.’……”The American Standard translation orders men to triumph over sin, and you can call sin ignorance. The King James translation makes a promise in ‘Thou shalt,’ meaning that men will surely triumph over sin. But the Hebrew word, the word timshel – ‘Thou mayest’ – that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if ‘Thou mayest’ – it is also true that ‘Thou mayest not.’ Don’t you see?”

For better or worse I’ve had a lot of time to sit and think and read. I picked up John Steinbeck’s “East of Eden” not really knowing what it was about, but having heard that it was a good book decided to tackle it. Steinbeck’s style isn’t something you can just pick up but once you get used to it it’s like a fine wine, getting better with each page. Cover to cover it’s a very interesting web of stories that weave so flawlessly you wonder which story you should be paying attention to until you realize they’re all great stories. It’s got me to thinking about life, death, and the choices we make in between. In America many of us are sheltered from the realities of life and death. We insulate ourselves with television, the internet, busy schedules, and countless other distractions. By constantly doing something, going somewhere, working towards one of many goals we feed our desire to be useful. We come to forget that life is a losing battle where no one gets out alive. Even amidst tragedies both foreign and domestic we believe that we’ll live forever. That is not the case here. Things are a lot slower here. Most people aren’t so caught up with getting things done so much as they want to know how your family is doing. Most women, young and old, walk around with babies strapped on their babies because what else would they be doing? Constantly you’re bombarded with babies walking around, crying, and peeing all over you, so much to make one wonder where they’re all coming from. But then you hear about a friend’s child not doing well or someone’s father passing away just to remind you that our time here isn’t very long at all and that we should do well to make the most of it. I really like this passage from “East of Eden” because it gets down to the very essence of man’s purpose in life. We’re not told that our actions are meaningless nor are we told what to do. Instead we’re each of us given a choice, to sin or not to sin. And so we must live, not as puppets or misbehaved children, but as free men choosing the path which suits us, be it heaven or hell.

When you look at why developed nations are developed and why developing nations are still developing it comes down to a simple matter of incentives.  For example in America most people go to school so they can get a job so they can raise a family, etc, etc.
Here in Mali most people have several “jobs” depending on the season and time of day.  Most people might sell a certain product for a portion of the day then go work somewhere for another part of the day, and then go home to make something to sell the next day.  Most jobs are informal and don’t make very much money, but then again most people here live on less than a dollar anyway.  If most people are just going to have an informal job anyway what’s the point in going to school and getting educated (unless of course you’re a genius, at which point you’ll probably study abroad and never come back, or if you do you’ll end up getting a cushy government job perpetuating the very system that keeps the status quo).
In the US a person can buy land and a house and see that property appreciate in value over time (hopefully).  Here it seems land rights aren’t as enforceable as they are in the US so even if someone bought a piece of land a) there’s no guarantee the land will appreciate and b) if a person did decide to sell land does he have any claim to the land?
Most people in Mali will end up having children whether they like it or not (people don’t really practice birth control here at all).  The concept of the nuclear family is foreign here where many families will include several wives and countless children.  Ironically my experience has been that children raised in “traditional” are more well-behaved than children in western families.
Meanwhile all the West does is come in to Mali and determine that “hm, let’s just throw more money at the problem.”  Instead of understanding what the needs are and addressing them, we westerners tend to focus more on “doing things” instead of taking the time to understand what the situation is and help people help themselves.  I think of most of us here would much rather go back to America saying we built a school than saying we spent our time sitting around, drinking tea, and talking to people about issues our neighbors and friends here are facing.  I even find myself thinking not in terms of names and faces, but in terms of projects, resources, and completion times.  Maybe it’s just a difference in the way we’re educated but add that to the list of obstacles Africans face in dealing with the West.  It’s like trying to teach someone Calculus when they’re still having trouble adding and subtracting.  So yeah, ultimately for me it becomes a question of how badly I want to succeed.

Sunday afternoon I was in the stage house and was about to head home but suddenly I felt  a blinding pain in my stomach.  I tried lying down for a while but it didn’t really help.  So then I called up Dr. Dawn and she sent a Peace Corps transport for me.  I ended up getting into Bamako around 3 am.  It turns out the blinding abdominal pain was caused by giardia which led to wonder how I could have possibly gotten it.  I’ve been so careful about what I eat.  I eat with a spoon when I’m with my host mom and I’ve also started to cook a lot of my own meals.  When I’m in town I just go to Chez Issou and get a bowl of zame.  I think I got it from my neighbors.  Before I got sick I ate some corn and I think that may be the reason.  Evidently if people here grow corn they usually grow it in human feces, so the thought of me getting giardia from eating corn seems very likely.  After spending a few days I’m back in Kita.  Huzzah.

I read that Barack Obama was recently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on nuclear proliferation and Muslim relations with the Western world. It’s amazing to think that he would be considered for such an honor after being President for less than a year, but that he actually won is unbelievable. After all this time it’s still hard to believe that Barack Hussein Obama was indeed elected 44th President of our United States of America. But it happened, and the fact that it did is not only a testament to Barack Obama and his accomplishments, but also to how far we’ve come as a country. I was speaking to my language teacher and we got into a discussion about it. It’s one thing to personally believe the world’s perception of the US changed virtually over night but it’s another to hear it from someone in a small town in Africa. According to my teacher many Malians had a negative perception of the US, mostly because of Bush. Bush’s war-mongering and divisive policies, especially on religion made him particularly unpopular around these parts. But with the election of Barack Obama a new day dawned, one in which Africans had one of their sons popularly elected to the most powerful office in the world. A country they despised for its isolationist became a country each African had a personal stake in (since of course Obama is everyone’s brother). In fact I can, with great certainty, say that if Barack Obama were not elected I wouldn’t be here writing from Africa today. His election served as confirmation of my desire to join The Peace Corps.

Republicans and critics will argue that Barack Obama hasn’t done enough to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. But what he’s done is given us a tangible HOPE. Despite how his presidency turns out his story will be told for generations to come. What he’s done is given us a sense of “we.” Alone America can’t solve all its problems, and neither can Mali. But together maybe, just maybe, WE CAN. Barack Obama has shown the world that “Yes we can” and that with some hard work, determination, and a little bit of luck anything is possible.

As Peace Corps volunteers we’re also allotted a blank slate. If I had been a volunteer a year ago I would have received the scorn of many Africans (thanks to Bush) but now everywhere I go I either see Obama-ware in the form of sandals and t-shirts. If I even mention his name people are instantly turned on. With all this goodwill it will be interesting to see what I accomplish over the next two years. Perhaps I’ll use Obama as a way to motivate the people at my services. I know that people may criticize him, but the fact of the matter is that the US is still here, the economy is starting to recover, and there have been no terrorist attacks on US soil. So I believe that President Obama has been successful. If there was anything I’d ask him, it would be to continue to spread more goodwill. The Peace Corps is a powerful instrument of peace such that even though people here may hear of Obama we’re here to reinforce the positive image of America and provide many with a concrete example of how many Americans are making a difference in the lives of people all around the world.

So I know I haven’t really been updating but I really haven’t had a chance to get onto the internet too often lately. I’ve been writing. I just haven’t had a chance to upload anything because the internet here is so slow. More to come!

Yesterday my plans were to get my compost pile set up and walk to where they sell vegetables near my house, very modest plans I think. Little did I know what would transpire.

I told my host mom I wanted to find someone who could move some rocks for me. There is a small building in my concession that I want to convert into a chicken coop. The only problem is there are a bunch of heavy boulders piled up in front of the entrance to the building. If I want to convert the building into a chicken coop I would have to move the rocks. Since I also wanted to start a compost pile I figured I would kill two birds with one stone and use the rocks to create “bins” for my compost pile. I diagrammed what it would look like and designed so it would be three squares next to each other building up to about 3 or 4 feet tall. I have it in direct sunlight to make sure the compost piles get enough heat. I decided to make three piles so that the first would be newly added scraps, the second would be stuff that’s started to decompose while the third pile would be finished compost. I showed it to the boy my host mom hired. His name is Haruna. I told him exactly what to do and he started on the job. He finished laying out the design of the squares and then all of a sudden he stopped. I asked him why and he said he was done. He thought I hired him to build a garden. When I told him I hired him to move the boulders over to form the piles he said they were too heavy and refused to do any more work. Then he has the nerve to ask me for money. We wait until my host mom Bintu arrives at which point she tells me there’s been a misunderstanding and that in order for them to complete the job it would cost more money than we agreed upon. At this point I’m furious because I know these guys are trying to hustle me. I end up just giving them a keme, which translates to a dollar and they leave with the work unfinished. Thankfully my host mom found another guy, Alou, who ended up finishing the job. It cost me four keme but he did the job and he’s someone I met before and had a feeling I could trust. So now the path to my future chicken coop is clear, aside from a giant pile of dirt in the middle of my yard….

On top of that I also got my furniture delivered. I had a desk, table for my kitchen, and a coffee table made. I wanted two shelves made but unfortunately again, he wanted more money than we agreed upon and I am trying to find someone who will make shelves for me for a decent price. It’s times like these when I really miss craigslist and IKEA. Instead, I have to go through the trouble of looking for carpenters, drawing out designs for furniture, waiting for my furniture to be finished, and then getting screwed over on the price anyway. C’est la vie.

As the sun started to set I went with my host mom and we walked to a place I hadn’t been before. Not too far from my house there is a person who sells vegetables, pretty much everything I would want like cucumbers, peppers, onions, garlic, etc. As I was perusing the vendor’s wares my host mom called me over as she wandered back to the family concession. The vendor had a dog and the dog had three puppies. My host mom told her that Americans like dogs and so she offered one to me. I tell my host mom I want to think about it but before I know it I have this little puppy who I have to take care of even though I have no clue where to start. The dog’s a girl so I’ve thought of a couple of different names for her: (Pablo) Honey because I love Radiohead, Caramel because she looks like the color of caramel, and Kaniye because in Mandingo “kani ye” roughly translates to “it’s good.” She’s really cute right now but that’s only because she’s small. My friend Ryan tells me that no matter what happens all Malian dogs end up the same, bitchy and only wanting to bite people. I want to think that my dog will be different but I know that it’s more of an inevitability than something I have any control over no matter how well I treat my dog. I don’t even know if I want to keep it. I might end up just leaving it at the stage house and asking our guard Konti to take care of it. It’s not that I don’t want to take care of it. I’m just thinking of what will happen to Kaniye when I leave to go visit people in Mopti or Segou? I guess I can ask my host family to take care of her but Malians don’t like dogs. They’re not seen as pets here like they are in the US. We’ll see…..to be continued……

For simplicity I’ve created a Picasa album where I’ll be uploading pics time to time.  You can check it out here.  It includes some pics of my pad.  Unfortunately I don’t have a pic of my sweet hammock.  Enjoy.  Can someone send me some bugspray with tons of DEET?  I’m running low.