Riding on the wave of conservativism

Instead of focusing on the obviously unfortunate state of my face, I have decided that a bigger problem is the way things are going here in Mali. I am not referring, however, to my and Tim's stay here, but rather the ways in which Mali's so-called 'sustainable' development is progressing. For example, the other day Tim and I are walking to the store to buy some food to cook for the next day and these school kids are walking near us... they are teenagers... anyway, they say to us, 'hey white people---- give me 5 francs!' Tim replies back in Bambara 'no' and we walk on.... the people here are so bold in terms of asking for money or your things. I have been asked several times to give someone my watch, or even my shirt. 'Hey, I like your shirt. Give it to me.'
Now in my opinion, it is not entirely the Malians' fault for thinking that it is okay to just come up and ask for your things or your money... they are given things all the time, and most especially by white people. These white people who give them things are also not entirely in the wrong. They think they are helping these poor Malians who have no safe drinking water, staggeringly high infant mortality rates, etc. Unfortunately, these white people I am referring to are from NGOs and other international organizations.
These NGO white people come in and bring with the the most high tech water pumps, engineers, construction crew and they build these people pumps with safe drinking water and the Malians are happy and thankful. They throw the white people parties with xylophones; they sacrifice goats and sheep in their honor; they dance for them, take pictures, etc. And then the white people leave believing in a job well done. What they forget is that putting a well-engineered pump in a village is not sustainable and it is not progress; it only buys time. Maybe this time is until the next group of white people come to either fix it when it breaks or build a new one when more people come to settle in the village where there is a tubab-built pump. The problem is with the mindset this type of work creates. These Malians did not have to invest a single thing into the building of this pump, and because of that do not take proper care of it. It is like saving for something you really want and buying it all on your own or your mom and dad buying it for you. There is a certain higher level of responsibility associated with investing your time and your own money into something, than getting it for free from some random group of white people that are there for 2 months, build whatever, and get the hell out. These NGO workers have bosses that need results, and big boss-man's realizing that 10 pumps have been built in the Sikasso region, instead of 5 makes for a much better showing.
That, my friends, is what is different about the peace corps. We live like they do; we speak their language; we get to know them and their children. We make them invest in their future. In order to get any kind of grant money here to help with any projects, you must raise a certain percentage of the project's cost in village. They then have a personal stake in the project. It is their money, and their time. They, along with we peace corps volunteers, can be proud of what we together accomplished, big or small. And honestly, doesn't it make more sense that something sustainable would take more time?
Here is where the title comes in: It is not like before coming here I was sold on just giving money to poor countries, or coming here and giving them things that we 1st worlders consider important--- I simply believe that you cannot truly help a country, unless it first tries to help itself. That being said, Mali is and will remain stagnant in terms of development until it figures that out for itself. 'Michele the American' can come here and do all she can, but at the end of her two years she can pretty much guarantee she will be out of here. I do not believe in international or domestic welfare; I believe in self-gratification and self-fulfillment. Welfare, NGOs, International Orgs should be more involved in that business than in the 'here's some free money' business. While I am at it I may as well criticize the IMF and World Bank. They try to help, but end up hurting the countries they supposedly try to help by charging them ridiculous interest rates on loans for supposed economy-boosting projects that only land said countries in greater debt. Why can't there be some organization, other than the peace corps (something with a better budget/more money), that can combine what is good about the IMF, World Bank, and the NGO-Intl Orgs? Who knows...

A "Lemons into Lemonade" Thanksgiving...

Unable to travel to Sikasso-ville to spend time with a mess ton of other PCVs as first planned, Michele and I were looking forward to sitting in the Peace Corps Medical Office this Thanksgiving hoping to get at least some kind of meat let alone a turkey. Then we were thrown a bone and ended up having a better Thanksgiving dinner than any other PCV in the country (and probably the continent as well). The American DCM in Mali (the person 2nd in charge just under the ambassador) extended any Peace Corps members in the area an invitation to her Thanksgiving dinner last night -- and wow was it delicious! A 20-pound turkey was flown in a few days ago on a military transport out of Germany (so the turkey most certainly originated from the US of A), stuffing, mashed potatoes, carrots and green beans, and everything else you can think of that constitutes a good Thanksgiving dinner. Then came the chocolate mousse, apple and pumpkin pies, and jalapeno cornbread followed up by a 35 year old Carribean rum...
And the company was surprisingly just as good as the food. We dined with the DCM herself, Mary-Beth, and 2 other PCVs, Jeff Kirby staying in the med office with us, and Matt in Bamako for a quick vacation; Four Army paratroopers on their last night in Mali before flying back to Stutgart, Germany where they are stationed; and a couple who have living in Mali with their 2 daughters for the past 6 years - she works for the Carter Foundation and he works (I believe) for a water and sanitation ministery in country working to bring better water to the people of Mali (despite the development here in Bamako, 60 percent of the people in this country still go without clean drinking water everyday).
All in all, the evening was delicious. Michele and I left with so much turkey and stuffing (not to mention a lot of wine) in our bellies. The couple with the daughters was kind enough to drop us off at the med office after the evening was over and the Army guys headed out to catch their plane to Germany- the man was kind enough to point out his office on the way home in case I ever needed to stop by and get some help with any kind of Water/Sanitation project, definitely a good contact to have. Michele was extremely impressed with much of the international development work that the woman took part in, yet another good contact to have.
We are both itching to get back to site yet we still have a good bit of time before we can. I know the conversation last night got me to thinking that I have been away from site too long, and have been spoiled here in Bamako for a little too long as well. Whatever monster tried to take Michele's face away won't succeed. We are going to stay in Mali and do right by these people here one way or another.

What the hell is Bell's Palsy? (and why do I have it?)

Let me preface this post with a thought: I think God might hate me.

Moving on.... Bell's Palsy is some weakening or complete paralysis of the facial nerve (usually on one side) that controls most facial expressions and can also affect taste, hearing, and speech. It is caused by any random virus, or in other words no one is really quite sure of the etiology. Naturally that sucks because if any of you really know me, you know that I ask way too many questions entirely too often. I like to be in the know. Anyway, so supposedly I have a mild case of this, which is really hard for me to believe seeing as I can't fully close my right eye; I cannot purse my lips together; I cannot taste anything on the right side of my mouth (and if I can it tastes very metallicy); oh------ and the big one for me is not being able to smile. I can only half smile, which just looks kind of creepy so I do my best to avoid it. Needless to say it has been a pretty depressing week. The doctors here keep trying to reassure me that everything is going to be ok, but there is no sure time frame on when it will go away, no certainty that it will, in fact, go away. All of the literature I have read says that I have a good chance at a full recovery, but nothing promises it. Apparently, the only real way of telling what will happen is time. I must say that this has been the longest week of my life.

1 Day and 7 Kilometres at a Time...

Here are some of the long awaited pictures of what Michele and I have been going thru the last few weeks since the last group of pictures. Enjoy!!

Me and my bike, the day of the first flat tire. I bike 7km whenever I go into Kassoumbougou to meet up with my African counterpart Dramane Sangare. 7 kilometres through the Malian countryside... it makes you happy to be alive and even happier to be a part of the planet Earth in all its beauty; to think that this is a place so few Americans will ever step foot- it really makes me glad to be me.

They say that the gorillas of Africa will be extinct in 20 years... the snows of Kilimanjaro will be melted in 10 years... these are tragedies that will stop our hearts, but not actually do much to affect the continent of Africa; but if even a single species of termite goes extinct (Mali has several hundred species of termite), most animal and plant life in the African savannah will cease to exist. Termites are that important to the eco-system here by basically acting as Nature's garbage-men, cleaning up dead grasses that would otherwise choke the savannah floor. No need to worry yet, since Africa has plenty of termites. This is actually one of the smallish sized termite mounds that I have found off the paths of southern Sikasso.
I had just walked by this tree when I noticed something in it; I zoomed in with my camera to get a look - I was too scared to actually walk closer. The tree was full of hornets crawling all over their nests. Good thing I saw them first, I high_tailed it out of there soon after.



I took this picture to show that there was no one anywhere nearby to help when I got a flat (this was on a different road than to my homologue's so I was a good 10Km from the nearest person. But no worries, I had my tire patches with me and I fixed it up in a few minutes.



They have been controlling the growth in the fields by burning them- in order to prevent wildfires from starting and becoming out of control. This field was burnt just a few weeks ago and already new life and the next generation of plants are beginning to spring up. Green of new and black of the dead together, it is quite a site seeing whole fields of this.



One of the nights I talked Michele into coming outside with me to do some star-gazing. You seriously can see thousands all across the night sky when the moon isn't out. Michele is wrapped up in our wonderful new blanket bought off of an Arabic man in the Niena market. Cold season (a misnomer) is upon us as it gets cool enough at night to use a blanket (there is no difference in temperature during the day- it is still hot a anything)

Meat! This is one of my new favorite purchases here in Mali; the grill! Mustard (from Sikasso) and Mrs. Dash spice (from America) make some delicious marinades. That is, until a few minutes after I took this picture the neighborhood chicken walked up to the grill and yoinked a kabob full of meat and ran off. I threw a hammer (AKA the tenderizer) at it in a fit of revenge-seeking.

alt="" /> The Sikasso sunset and the dusty and smoggy horizon.

Michele cooking at night.