It's all good

What a first two weeks! I have so much to say, and am kind of overwhelmed with the task of putting it all into words. First and foremost, all is well and life is still interesting, frustrating, insane, etc.

Secondly, I want to tell my Dad that I understand his letter now and everything's cool.

Ok... so as of recently I have been doing a lot of thinking. Mostly because we have had a lot of time to ourselves, trying to figure out how to live while being here. Throughout the past two weeks I have decided that the food problem is not the end of the world, and if I concentrate on it then everything is all about me. I have moved on. The food might suck; I may have lost 30-ish lbs, and we may have the same three things over and over every week-------- BUT we have food. We have money. We are not starving, or suffering. We are fine and well, and are probably spoiled/selfish americans used to cuisine like pizza rolls and hot pockets. (yes, I said cuisine) Anyway, if I really want to help these people I need to get my head out of my ass and realize that it is not about me. It is about living like them, getting by the way they do------ eating, surviving, sleeping, breathing Malian. With all of that in mind, I want to make some kind of difference here, small or fitini. AND I don't think that there is anything they can dish out that I can't handle.

So I went to my first big day on the job.... as of right now I will be working at the local CS-COM, which is a very small community health center. It has one doctor, two midwives, a nurse, a dude that gives vaccinations, and now---I guess, me and who the hell knows what my role will be. So my first big day on the job I was surrounded by vaginas, about 50 vaginas to be more precise. I was in the room with the midwives, and one-by-one the ladies would come in for their monthly 'check-ups', so naturally there were vaginas everywhere. So the first fun; big event was with this woman whose vagina was bothering her on the inside... musoya kono... so we took her into this room and took a look. Well, I decided the safest place to be was closest to the door, so I stood there looking at the cieling, waiting for the midwives to take the the pap-smear vagina-separator out of this poor woman... when all of the suddent they beckoned me over to them. I was still looking at the cieling when they asked me to look inside this woman at the plaiea (en francais, but i dont know how to spell it) or wound inside her. It was awful. I was already nervous and freaking out about the polio shot I watched the vaccinator jam into some woman's arm, but this----- oh my god. Then there were about 20 women who were in their 11th month of pregnancy, which is apparently normal here. The Women I saw that were 9 months along had flatter stomachs than me! not that i should necessarily be suprised by that, but it was still kind of shiocking that at 9mo they would be so small. It was sad. Then I saw two 16 year old girls come in.... they were pregnant and had just been married off... they were both smaller than gary gene... and one of them... her name is achaitu... her eyes were completely dead.
Since being here there has been this subconscious thing I do when speaking with the women here. I want to see if being a malian woman has killed their spirit, and usually you can see it in their eyes. I dont want to pretend i know what they are going through or that i really know if something in them is dead or gone, but when you see these eyes it just feels like they are already a banna. She brought her mother in with her, but wouldnt look at her. i dont know the whole story, but I am sure they were poor and getting their daughter married off was probably a really good thing for their family. I wish I could do primarily self-esteem work with women. >I really want to start a soccer team with the few girls they actually send to school, so they can feel the comradery of other girls their age and so they can have something of ther own that doesnt involve being subservient to someone or cleaning or cooking. Even the women here that are more educated and asseritve lose their confidence when in the company of men. It's as if they have separate personalities, because when they are with these men even their mannerisms and facial expressions change. They are different people. I wish i could start some kind of anything-you-can-do-i-can-do-better camp for women to help them maintain their voice with whatever company present, whatever situation arises.
Enough with the sad-africa bit. Random things taht have happened: I have experimented with the food they have available here and have figured out how to make alfredo sauce from powdered milk! taht may not ound like much, but wow seriously guys, i felt like a genius. Mostly b/c it was something new to eat. I have also made from scratch spaghetti sauce, chicken (hard to explain, but trust me i am allowed to say 'from scratch'), lime-onade, 'hamburger helper', dad's old favorite of eggs, noodles and cabbage (without the cabbage)... I must say that i owe all of my cooking expertise to dad... a little to mom... but mostly dad. Tim cant really cook yet., but he's getting there and eventually he will be there. So I do like 98% of the cooking. Oh my gosh MOM------- I made cookies the other night, and they were awesome! (i cant do this at my house bc we have no oven or anything like that, but we are in the city now so i did it and they were a huge success! ) I guess all the cooking you guys let me help with has really given me some great advantages here... so thanks!
Oh---- I wanted to address some of the concern over my health. Hakuna matata. When I write on here about all the fun parasites i am accruing, it's fine. I am not dead, I just some fun explosive diarrhea some times and its all good. Whatever i get, I still get up, go to work, study, read, whatever. nothing has been that bad, but i definitely appreciate all of the concern.
Hey Uncle Tim! I hope you keep a job open for me when i get back! Just thought i would throw that in there for good measure--- you know, in case you forgot.

here are some fun pics:





Here are my two good buddies after the pool party swearing-in party. I was drunk. It was awesome. I'm so sad you are gone Hilary!


This is Kyle/Fadibe and Amanda: both total badasses that had too much to drink at our swearing in party.


This is the other Michele with one L and I. We are cool.


These are the lovely people of the health sector. We are the health volunteers here and the woman in the middle is Claudine. She is from Cote d'ivoire, and is an awesome health leader! woo! claudine!


This is the tree behind our house in blendio... this old man is always sitting under it. he is such a nice and friendly man... he is always quizzing us on our bambara.