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October 19, 2003, Hey dudes. The first week in BKO so far has been pretty excellent. I got in Monday night and Mama, the transport/id card guy, met me at the airport. Apparently his whole family works there so everything was smooth. Much more crowded and crazy than LBV airport though. Both my bags were ok and we went into town to the stage house (case). I don't know why they call it the stage house because it's not for stage, but all their other regional houses are called the same thing. Tuesday I got up and followed some people to the bureau and met my APCD, Cheryl, who is nice. She did PC Niger and then a Masters and now this. No family here. Met some other volunteers and went over to the med office, where they told me Jean Luc didn't DHL my medical file! So I can't really do anything until he does. They gave me a med kit and the handbook, and everything is the same except here we have blister beetles, that pee on you and create (duh) blisters. BKO is dusty. LBV was paved everywhere we had to go, though the smaller streets are pretty comparable. Pot holes and the like. It's a ten minute walk from the case to the bureau, past the russian ambassador's house and a nice fruit lady and about fifteen boys selling phone cards. The case is way messy and dirty and huge, there are 180 pcvs in country right now. The metal bunks all have mosquito nets and there is no ac, just a few fans per room. There is a vcr and dvd player upstairs but I was surprised to see a lot of people reading actual books. Swear in is next week so there are a lot of people around, also COSing and then for the Small Enterprise Development fair this weekend. PCVs invited local artisans to come and show their stuff for a mostly expat audience. I bought a bogolan stuffed giraffe and some xmas ornaments.I met Meg and she's super nice, though stressed out from leaving next week. Byron, the CD, is super fun and hangs out with PCVs a lot. I've already been over for dinner twice. There will be seven volunteers in Bamako - Ben, who does HIV, and is taking Meg's appartment, is really cool (and gay, see, victoria, I told you!). Marc is over across the river doing a big trash engineering project and also a computer/Geek Corps funded program with Ruth, who just moved in to BKO from out near Kayes. SHe's 40 but looks 30 and I like her a lot. Marc is nice too, reminds me of everyone I went to high school with. Dorky and smart and fun. I haven't met the other ones yet but I hear one is like Tamara, always running around working. VOLUNTEERS ACTUALLY WORK HERE! They all have NGOs in their villages and collaborate on projects and get super frustrated because the NGOs bouffe the money etc etc or they just throw money at people and walk away and don't train people to repair whatever it is they had installed. PCVs talk about work and projects all the time. I feel like we didn't do this in Gabon. Everyone and their postmate (teammate!) is working on some kind of manual or how to guide or curriculum or huge fair. Guess I won't be able to just sit on my ass like I did before! Wednesday I went out to Tubani So, the Pigeon House, a little summer camp half an hour outside the city where they have been doing stage for 35 years. They eat breakfast and lunch at the refectoire and dinner with their families in the village. THey have a big gwa (thatched pavillion) where they do sessions, a medical office, 8 cute little huts with chalkboards for language class. A lot of people don't end up using french at all, just bambara, once they get to post. Or songhai, if they're out in Gao. I sat in on a session about NGOs, and thursday i went to see my apt in Lafiabougou. It is about as far west as you can go and still be in BKO. It's nice - on the second floor of this duplex, you walk in and the kitchen is on your left, and the bigger bedroom on your right. Then the living room on your left and the second bedroom on the right. Bathroom at the end of the hall. A couple balconies and good hiking in the cliffs five minutes away. Mama (the airport guy) and Sambou (the housing guy) live nearby so I should be able to get rides to the bureau in the morning if I need to. Thursday pm I went back to Tubani So and sat in on a feedback session about training and Field Based Training. Stagiaires arrive and immediately are sent out for three days of de-myst(ification) at some random volunteers' site. Then they come back and find out their real site 10 days later (so they can start with language). Then site visit, for a week, and then FBT, where they go help a PCV with a project. Ideally they get to see three different places, but not always. These guys were complaining they did too much hands on stuff and not enough tech info sessions, but previously it had all been tech sessions and people had gotten really bored. Friday I went to visit CESAC, the HIV counseling clinic, with the stagiaires and we had lunch there, and that was my first foray into actual bamako. We took a bashee and everything was fine. Saturday was the SED fair where I bought the bogolan xmas ornaments, ensuring that I will be eating rice and sauce for 100f every day this week until I get my bank account set up. In the pm I went with the CD, Meg, Marc and Aaron to the Hash, where a bunch of expats get together and trace a route through the outskirts of BKO. You can run or walk. I ended up talking to our ambassador a good deal; she's very nice. We cleaned up and had dinner chez Byron. My hopes for next week will be to start going to PSI, get my bank account set up, and move in before Friday. I'm not sure it can be done, but posting starts next weekend and so it's now or never, since all the cars will be out of town. That's the news from Lake Wobegone.
love, |