Home for the Holidays - USA 2014

 Our time in the states over the past 2 months has been really fun and really busy.  It has been especially fantastic to spend the holidays with my family and have a white Christmas!  I thought I'd post a few pictures of fun things we've done in the last few weeks.
We went to Bentleyville in Duluth.  It is a huge walk-through Christmas lighting display village.  It is free to go there, and they give out hot chocolate, cookies, marshmallows to roast, and popcorn (and we tried them all!)  We went on a night that wasn't too cold, I think it was actually just above the freezing point.  I'm glad we went when it wasn't any colder because after an hour of walking around, even being all bundled up, we were freezing.

 We took a self-guided Christmas tour of Glensheen Mansion in Duluth.  There was a tree in pretty much every room.  We walked around the grounds outside and down to the boathouse on Lake Superior after the inside tour.  JP was happy to see a lot of books in French on their many bookshelves.

 Here is JP perched upon a gigantic Belgian horse.  It was his first time ever being on a horse!  We got to go on a sleigh ride over the fields and through the woods just north of Duluth.  The horses wore jingle bells. :)

JP's first snowman

 There hasn't been a ton of snow yet, but we had some on the ground with a warm enough day for it to stick together, so JP made his first snowman!  We got to go visit some friends at their farm in the country.  The pictures look dark because it was at dusk - the sun is already setting at 4:30pm here!  We are waiting for some more snow to fall so that we can try sledding.

what we've been up to

Wow, we have been so busy that I haven't blogged since October.
So, here is a little bit of what we've been up to:
In October I worked hard to get our house and us prepared to leave the country for nearly 6 months.  If you've taken a 1 or 2 week trip you know that it can be a lot of work just to get everything together, sorted out, and organized for that.  Well, packing up and preparing for 6 months is no small task!  There are some friends staying in our house in Mali and taking care of our dog while we are gone.  So I could leave food in the fridge and not empty that out, but there were other tasks to do to make the house ready for other people to stay there.

Once we actually left the house, we went to Bamako for 3 days before we flew out.  It was a busy and stressful few days before we got on the plane.  JP had to go to the Spain embassy to see if he would get his visa so he could actually get on the plane (he got it a day and a half before we flew) and he didn't know until the last minute if he would be able to present his Master's Thesis or not.  The night before we left he got the call saying that he could present in the morning!  So 14 hours before we went to the airport we were sitting in a room at his university for him to present his thesis.  What a relief when that was done!  I had been worried that he wouldn't be able to present and that he'd have it on his mind for 6 months while we are in the states.  It is so nice to not have to think of that anymore and to just be done with it!  And of course I'm very proud of JP who now has a Master's Degree in Public Health.

This is me helping JP with his special robe that he had to wear when he presented his thesis to the jury.

 Once we were checked in at the airport we both felt amazing relief and calm.  The last few months had been very stressful with finishing school and moving and preparing our trip, and it was amazing to know that we were done with all of that and could just relax.
We spent time on vacation in Spain on the way to the USA!  It was the first real vacation that we've ever had!  I have some pictures from that on my facebook page, here's a link: SPAIN PICS

We arrived in Minnesota just in time for the first snow storm of the season.  It was JP's first time seeing snow.  He says he likes it so far, and he is staying warm with the long johns and other warm winter clothes we bought for him.

The 6 weeks that we have been in the states so far have been very busy.  There is so much to do!  We have stayed at my mom's house part of the time and at a friend's empty house part of the time, so we've been driving 30 minutes back and forth pretty often.  This week we'll be moving out of the friend's house and staying at my mom's until we leave for our big road trip in January.

Here are some of the activities we've kept ourselves busy with:
visiting family and friends
sharing about Mali in 5 groups (9 total presentations)
a short road trip to visit friends and share
seeing my new baby cousin in the hospital
shoveling snow
shopping on Black Friday
joining the Christmas choir
Christmas party
going through the things I have in storage at my mom's house (a few plastic bins)
cutting down and putting up a Christmas tree
JP learned to make wreaths and drive a backhoe (what a day!)
visting Bentleyville in Duluth
seeing the Nutcracker ballet (my mom won tickets and gave them to us!)
attending a Christmas music concert
going running to prepare for a 5k, it's hard to breathe in the cold!
dentist appointments
eye doctor appointments
chiropractor appointments (my back is feeling better now! there is no chiropractor in Mali)
sending out cards and letters and setting things up for our support raising efforts
trying to watch a few movies (but I am usually falling asleep before the end!)




Ok, so that is some of what we've been up to.

the new house: before and after painting

I've been in the new house for about 2 months now.  JP has been here sometimes, but he has been in Bamako working on school stuff some of the time, too.  We are getting ready to leave for the states in just a few weeks.  So I've had a big project of trying to get moved in and arranged in the new house and there was some painting that couldn't wait. We'll probably do a bit more when we get back from the states next spring, but here are some pictures of some of what got done already.

bathroom after painting

bathroom before

guest room before

guest room after painting

before: it really needed some cleaning and painting

ahh, so much better!  The interior doors were also all painted and look good as new.

dirty living room walls before

Our living room: come on in, have a seat!

plumber's kit

 After a few days of trying to get the plumber to come to the house, he finally showed up.  I think he would have come a lot sooner if he knew there was a problem such as a broken pipe, but I had told him that it was mainly to help me hang pictures.  I know, that doesn't sound like a job for a plumber, but it is here.  Houses are built with cement block bricks and it is all but impossible to hammer nails into the walls.  There are these tiny nails that I've found that I can hammer in, but they are only good for hanging very small or light things.  Anything heavy requires a special drill (which we don't have) to make a hole so a plastic anchor can be put in to attach a screw.
For a few weeks I've had things sitting on the floor all around the house, on the floor just below where I wanted them attached to the wall.  I had already held the items up and marked spots with a pencil, Jean-Patrick helped me with that when he was home.  So I was very happy when the plumber finally came and the walls went from being bare to being decorated and functional.  It is really nice to have a few towel bars in the bathroom, for example! (and not just IN the bathroom, but actually attached to the wall!)
Since the plumber was already here, I asked him to take a look at the toilet as well.  Each time that it was flushed it made a ridiculous amount of noise, it sounded like it was groaning, and a bit of water would leak out.  In total, between the wall drilling and the toilet repair, the plumber was here for 4 hours.  The total price for labor was $8, and this was for the plumber and his assistant.

I took pictures of the plumber's kit which he kind of dumped out on the floor when he needed to find parts or tools.  I find this mess very amusing.  The plumber seemed to think that I was a bit odd to want to take pictures of it, but he then asked me to take a picture of him digging in the mess!

One other good thing that came out of this visit from the plumber is that we now own 2 very decent quality power-strips.  I think that's what you call them in English.  In French it's a "multi-prise."   I'm talking about the thing that you can plug in and then plug a bunch of stuff in to it.  These are essential here because when there is an outlet (and there are never enough) it only allows 1 thing to be plugged in, not 2 like in America.  It seems that China sends a lot of absolute junk to be sold in Mali.  A couple weeks ago I was at my friend's house and the power-strip that she had just bought burned up and the cord separated into 2 pieces because it got so hot.  We had a power-strip that the plumber accidentally knocked down from a table, and the cheap brittle plastic that it was made of shattered into pieces.  He apologized, and I said it was no big deal, it was clearly a cheap piece of junk if it would just break like that.  I mentioned that I wished I could find some better quality power-strips to buy, and the plumber said that he had some good ones for sale in his shop.  He sent his assistant off to go get a few models to show me while he kept working.  I bought 2 since the quality did seem better, and I checked online and found that they are a brand from Morocco.  So far so good.

$4 same day delivery

It is pretty common for things here to not get done in the time frame that I would like.
You ask the plumber if he can come this morning, and he says yes but never shows up.  You call back and he says he will come tomorrow at noon.  He shows up at 4pm just as you are leaving your house to go to a meeting. (true story, happened last week)  He says he got busy but will come tomorrow at 10am... you get the idea.
But, I was really impressed when we had a bit of an emergency and things worked out perfectly!
I am home and Jean-Patrick suddenly needed some important papers sent to him in Bamako. (this is due to an embassy/visa situation that I'll write about/vent about later)  He called me at around 10:30am and needed the papers to be in Bamako that night because he had to bring them for an appointment early the next morning.  Some of the papers had to be originals, so there wasn't a possibility of scanning and emailing or faxing them.   Bamako is 6-8 hours away (depending on mode of transportation) so the only hope I had was to get the papers together and to the bus station by 1pm so that they could hopefully make the trip on an afternoon bus.  I scrambled to find the original documents that JP needed and to print and copy off the other papers.  As long as I'd be sending something, JP asked me to include a school book and a notebook that he had left behind.  I wrapped it  all up in brown paper and taped it securely.  I wrote JP's name and number on the package.  I hurried to the bus station across town and talked with a man at a bus company ticket window.  He said the price would be 2,000 francs to send my package.  That's about $4.  He gave me a receipt and I took down the number of the bus apprentice (the young guy who works on the bus but doesn't drive, he helps with baggage and crossing checkpoints and dealing with passengers.)
JP went to the bus station in Bamako and as soon as the bus arrived he got his package.  I was relieved and thankful for this system.  How much would it cost to send a same day package in the states?

the conference

We had our group's West Africa Regional Conference from September 10-15

 in Segou, Mali.  People from Ebola-stricken countries were not able to attend, but those of us who could come had a great time.  There were something like 70 adults and 25 kids.

I helped with music.  Our region of West Africa uses 3 major languages: French, English, and Portuguese.  Our conference was tri-lingual!  It is neat to come together with others to hear about their projects and encourage one another.

Here is our conference room getting set up for the last night's "Love Feast" or "Agape."  It was the highlight of the whole conference for me.  When it started, we were all sitting at the tables eating some appetizers (popcorn and those styrofoam-like prawn crackers) and the power cut.  Dozens of people immediately illuminated their cell phones, so we had a bit of light to see by.  Not quite a candlelit dinner; we are much more modern with a cellphonelit dinner!  After a while the power came back on.

It was a great party!  The whole conference focused on the value of family.  The Family is value #15 of our group's 18 foundational values.  It was a fun evening to spend together as one big family, united together even though those of us there came from about 12 different countries and some could not speak the same language.

 Here are a few of our fearless leaders speaking and translating a teaching.

the varan

When I searched online, I learned that "Varan" is the name of both a fictional Godzilla-like monster and a village in Iran.  But I was looking for a lizard similar to what you see in these pictures. I learned that this "varan" is a kind of monitor lizard.  As there are 73 species of monitor lizards, I couldn't find an image of the exact one I was looking for, but you get the idea from these pictures.

My dog's great passion is lizard hunting.  And we have plenty of lizards in Mali!  In the house there are geckos, and outside there are the regular "dry" lizards that like to do push-ups while sunning on brick walls.  Though Teddy chases lizards incessantly, it is rare for him to catch one.

Yesterday I was outside and I noticed Teddy enthusiastically chasing something back and forth in this alley of dirt that is between the wall that encloses the yard and the wall of the house.  I went over to see and was disturbed to see a SNAKE!  It looked just like a snake!  It even had a long snake tongue that it was sticking in and out out at my dog!  Instead of running away or up the wall like a normal lizard, this snake was sticking it's tongue out at Teddy and staring at him like it was ready to attack.  Oh no, Teddy's going to get bit by a snake!  But then I remembered that snakes don't have legs and feet, and this thing did, so it must not be a snake after all.
Back when I first came to live in Mali, just about 5 years ago now, I lived on the base in community with other single folks.  One day I was horrified to look outside upon hearing shouting and see my now-husband and some friends stoning something to death (it was either a bush rat or a snake but I can't remember which.)  They killed it, and then if I remember right, they were laughing and giving high-fives.  I found this to be so brutal and it left me with a bad feeling.
Fast-forward 5 years and I was shooing my dog away from the snake-like-lizard so that I could hurl rocks and chunks of cement block that I had found nearby.  My rocks weren't that big and my aim wasn't that good, and after a few throws Teddy pounced in and grabbed the thing in his mouth and shook it to death.  "Yay, Teddy!  Good dog! You saved us from the scary snake-lizard!"
Teddy started chewing on the beast, but I didn't think it was a good idea to let him eat it.  I took the tree pruning tool I had been using and scooped up the limp creature with the blade end.  I carried it like that out of our front gate to where there are always a group of men either working (there is a metalsmith shop and a boutique next door) or sitting and drinking tea.  The fellows were there sitting, and they identified the dead snake-lizard as a "varan."  I carried it across the paved road across from the house and chucked it in the ditch.
Later I sent Jean-Patrick a text message saying that Teddy had killed a varan but I didn't let him eat it.  JP's response was "varans are good to eat."  I'm not sure if he meant that they are good for people to eat or for dogs to eat, maybe both. :)

the big move

I can't believe it was a month ago that we were packing up the moving truck!  The actual move went really smoothly this time, much better than when we moved to Bamako 2 years ago. (See this POST to read about the nightmare that was.)  It was a lot more expensive to hire a real moving company instead of adding our things to a truckload of millet bags, but they came the day they said they'd come and our things arrived and were unloaded that same day and weren't too scratched or banged up.  So definitely worth the extra money for me.  The moving company had 4 guys there to help load the truck, and 4 of our fantastic friends showed up to lend a hand, so it went pretty fast and I didn't have to do any heavy lifting myself thankfully!  Jean-Patrick took a bus just after the moving truck left but the moving truck got there way before JP's bus did, so the things were already unloaded by the time he got there.  I stayed in Bamako for a few extra days in our nearly empty apartment.  I needed to finish up my work with English school and then ride with a friend in a car to move myself and our pets.
In those days I was alone in the apartment, I got really sick.  I am usually pretty healthy.  But when I've gotten sick here in Mali it is a kind of sick unlike anything I can remember ever experiencing in the states.  Africa sick.  I was in bed for 2 days (or rather on a camping mattress on the floor) hardly able to get up and get myself to the bathroom.  I forced myself to eat a tiny bit of bread and drink some water.  I slept a lot.  After 2 days I could get out of bed but was still not well.  After almost 2 weeks of serious stomach issues I went to the hospital.  I waited almost 4 hours to see the doctor.  Because it was a bit late in the day already and because I encouraged the doctor to just give me an antibiotic, I didn't have to provide a sample for them to test what the problem was.  The doctor said he thought I had either typhoid, amoebas, or giardia, and he prescribed 3 different antibiotics.  As soon as I started taking them I started feeling so much better, and I am now feeling good!
Jean-Patrick was in the new house with me for 4 or 5 days and then he left for Bamako to be at school.  I went to Bamako this week to buy some things that can only be bought there and to see JP and we came back home together yesterday.  At this point all of our boxes are unpacked and things are basically where they should be, except that the living room furniture is all pushed to the middle of the room and covered because there is painting happening!  I'll post some pictures when it's all finished.
JP will be home now for about 10 days, he'll be doing schoolwork here, and then he'll have to go to Bamako again!  I'm pretty tired of all the time we've been spending apart.  We've only spent a total of 2 weeks together out of the past 8 weeks.
Below is a picture I took during my trip of moving.  We were trying to cross a bridge, but had to wait for some cows.  The weather was very nice, I love the blue and cloudy skies that we have here during the rainy season (during non-rainy moments.)

my furry babies

Here are some new pictures of my dog, Teddy, and my cat, Charlie.  They are both almost 3 now, we've had them since they were tiny.  They are best buddies, you can see a video showing this HERE.  They don't just lay around all the time, but it's easier to take a picture when they are still.  In the middle picture, Teddy has finally dropped to the floor after running around fetching and tug-of-warring with his toy that you see, it is just a knotted together fabric strips.  Charlie decided that my basket makes a good cat bed.

ahh... just what I needed

I spent a beautiful Saturday at "Bamako Plage" swimming and eating and taking in some sunshine.  I had been here once or twice before, but that was about 3 years ago.  I seriously need to have days like this more often!  It is so good to have a break from regular life. This place has hotel cabin rooms, a restaurant, a pool, and it is right on the edge of the river.

about STRESS in this mission life

I think that my stress level hit a peak this week.  Not that it wasn't already high enough.  Apparently, being a foreign worker is one of the most stressful things you can do.

Here are links to 2 really interesting blog posts that you should check out:
"m stress and 95 degree living rooms"        "just how stressed are m"
The first one is a guy's personal story and it helps to get a little idea of what we sometimes face here, the second has shocking numbers from a stress study using the Holmes-Rahe stress scale.

I think most foreign workers would agree that the first year is the most stressful.  In addition to the stresses anyone would feel anywhere in just dealing with daily life and work, a first year foreign worker is trying to learn to live and work in a different culture using a foreign language.  There are so many things that come up that there are no way to prepare for.  And here in Mali, we must also learn to survive in a climate that takes some getting used to.
Minnesota folks, you know those couple of horrible summer days that might happen in August where it is swelteringly hot and so humid that you are dripping with sweat and uncomfortable all day?  Those couple of extreme days where all you want to do is get into an air-conditioned place or jump into a lake?  That is what it is like here every day for about 4 months of the year, but with no lake or air-conditioning.  You can get an idea of what the other 8 months feel like if you stick your head in the oven the next time you are baking.  I like heat, but having temps of 105-110 every day for weeks on end is a bit extreme.

During my first year, in addition to all the things other workers would deal with, I decided to get engaged and married.  Oh, and if that that wasn't enough, I decided to get engaged and married..... to someone from a different culture!  Talk about compounding the stress!!
Also in my first year I got very sick twice: once with malaria, once with typhoid.  Both times I was so sick and weak that I had to have help staying upright and walking to get in and out of the hospital to get blood tests.

Now that I've been here for nearly 5 years, things have leveled off.  But the past week has thrown some special bonus factors my way, and all added up, it has accumulated to be enough (no, too much!) to the point that I had a moment of thinking about pulling my suitcase down from the top of the armoire and hightailing it to the airport.  But then I remembered that my suitcase is surely coated with a thick layer of disgusting dust, and I don't want to deal with that.  The dust here really can not be understood unless you've experienced it.
I know running away from problems won't solve them. (And that was written to be funny, but with some grain of truth!)

So here are some of the special things/annoyances/concerns that I've been trying to deal with:

-I have a horrible head cold that left me exhausted for the first few days and now just stuffed up and dizzy.
-Jean-Patrick left on Sunday to be gone for 3 weeks in another town for an internship, leaving me home alone.
-While home alone in the next 3 weeks, I need to completely pack everything up so we will be ready to move at the end of the month.
-I needed to get my Malian visa renewed.  I had to go to the office across town 3 times because when I went to pick it up on the date and time that they told me to come, they said it wasn't ready yet.
-The garbage removal service that we pre-paid through the end of July stopped coming to collect our garbage in mid-June.  The trash has piled up and up and I've had to try to make new arrangements, which hasn't been as easy as it seems like it should be.
-A plumber finally came to fix our leaking pipe, so our water was cut for several hours for the repair, and he asked me to pay a price that I don't know whether it is a good price or not.
-I had some last minute out of town guests come to spend 2 nights here.
-My cat seems to have kitty pinkeye or some other eye problem and I can't just take him to the cat vet, because there isn't one.
-I've been to the grocery store 5 times to check if they have any chicken, but they still don't.
-We need to figure out a truck to hire for our move at the end of the month, but it is going to cost more money than we have available.
-We still have occasional power cuts, like at 4am when the power goes off and you wake up and can't sleep because it is too hot and sweaty to be able to sleep inside without a fan on.

All of those things add up.  But here is the BIG one that finished me off:
-After a lot of effort was put into filling out a tedious application and collecting supporting paperwork, JP went to his USA visa interview last week.  They told him the could come back and get his passport with visa on Tuesday.  JP was already out of town on Tuesday, so I took a taxi across town to pick it up for him.  I saw that the visa they issued will expire before we need to enter the states. The embassy's response is that he needs to re-apply,  start all over again and repay the $160 fee.  This happened because they did not provide the information that his visa will be issued with only a 90 day entry period, their website in fact urges people to "apply early" and says that processing could take "several weeks or months."
After all of the energy and hope I had put into applying for this visa, I took it personally.  It felt so unfair and disappointing.  So I was at the embassy on Tuesday to get his visa, I pointed out that the dates wouldn't work for us, and they said they'd hold on to his passport and discuss it in the embassy.  Wednesday they called JP and told him to come back to get his passport because there is nothing to do but reapply.  So Wednesday I had to go again, take a taxi across town to the embassy.  I arrived feeling cheated, discouraged, and frustrated.  I got there a little early, and they directed me to sit on a bench outside.  The bench was near some sprinklers, so I thought I'd move it a little.  As I bent to pick up the bench, a sprinkler suddenly shot water in my direction and thoroughly drenched my entire backside.  Not kidding.  That was it!!  The final straw!!  I can't take anymore!!  I actually started crying like a big baby.

I'm not sure how to end this post.  I won't lie and say that I feel magically all better today.  I still have this miserable stuffed up head and ears that are making me dizzy.  JP's visa application has to be filled out again. I have a lot of packing to do.  And I have an English class to teach this afternoon.
But I think I might do something special tomorrow because I think I need some kind of break.  I could go visit the family in the village out of town.  I could go shopping at the big store on the other side of town.  I could make a visit to a swimming pool at one of the fancy hotels in the city.  Any other ideas?

American Visa Information - application, interview, timing

Here is some basic and helpful information on American visas that you might need to know.  I am writing this because this information is not clearly explained on embassy websites.  You're welcome.

If you are required to have a visa to enter the United States, the first thing you should do is check to see what length of visa your country gives to Americans.  The American visa is issued based on reciprocity, so whatever your country does for Americans, America will do for you.  Sort of.  Here is where it is tricky, and confusing, and not at all clearly explained on embassy websites.  Say you are from Chad, Africa, for example (that is where my husband is from.)  Chad will issue visas for 3 months to Americans.  So America will issue a "visa" for 3 months to Chadians.  I've been referred to this website:  travel.state.gov  but really I don't find the information that is needed there.  So find out how long of a visa your country will give Americans.  Ok, now that length is the "visa" that America will give you.  The American "visa" is different from most other visas that I have encountered, and they don't explain this well on their websites.  The visa, say it is for 3 months, gives you permission within those 3 months to travel to the USA, to arrive there.  Once you arrive you go to the Homeland Security desk and its there that they give you a stamp that says how long you can stay in the states, often this will be 6 months for a regular visitor visa.  So say your American "visa" is given to you today, July 9.  It will say that it is good from July 9 through October 9 (for 3 months starting today.)  You can travel and enter the USA on October 9, and there they will give you a 6 month "period of authorized stay" so you can stay in the states until April 9.  So technically, your American "visa" is expired as of October 10, but you get to stay in the states for the next 6 months on that expired visa.  Stupid system, right?  So even though Chadians get a 3 month "visa" they get to stay for 6 months in America.
That is not how a visa works in any country I've ever had a visa in (and I do have a fair collection of them in my passports.)  For example, my visa for Mali, I sent in my application and said I wanted to enter Mali on October 6th.  They gave me a visa with a starting date of October 6th.  And it is good for 5 years.  So starting October 6th, I can come and go in and out of Mali as I please for the next 5 years.
You need to understand the difference between the American "visa" and the "period of authorized stay" stamp thing.  Its 2 different things in America, whereas in most places it is the same thing.
If you can only get a 3 month "visa" for America, make sure to wait until 3 months or less before you want to enter the states to schedule your visa interview appointment.  Otherwise they will issue it for 3 months starting that day, and if you want to travel 4 months from now you can't.  You have to enter the states before the 3 months is finished.  Why can't they just explain this on the embassy website?

Also, to apply for an American visa, the application is all done online now.  It takes an "estimated 75 minutes" to fill out, but I found that it was more like an hour and a half, and I type fast. (yes, I filled it out for JP but it's allowed to have help.)  Its a lot of basic information about you.  Your name, parents names, family, birth dates, places lived and traveled to, schools and job histories, why you want to go to the USA.  And then there are 5 screens worth of questions that I find ridiculous at best and offensive at worst.  Basically asking you over and over if you have any connection with terrorism, drugs, prostitution, espionage, etc.  I mean, who is going to say yes???  Really... its pretty over the top.
After you finish the application, which also requires you to upload a photo that follows very specific guidelines, (the photo is the one thing that is very well explained, they are quite detailed on this!) you have to pay the visa fee of $160 at a local bank and have the receipt from that to electronically schedule your interview at the embassy.

For the interview, you need to bring your confirmation page, passport, a paper copy of the photo you uploaded, and supporting paperwork.  You have to show them that you have either the money to pay for your trip or a financial sponsor, and that you have good reason to return to your own country after the trip.  If you are a young unmarried person from a 3rd world country who doesn't own a house or a business and who doesn't have a really solid career, you shouldn't even waste your time applying.  They think that you'll just stay in America.  I know this because JP's first visa try from before we were married was denied.  Even being married to an American doesn't make it easy.  To get a visa (in 2011) he had to show all kinds of supporting paperwork and then they left him hanging for 6 weeks not knowing if he'd get it or not while they did "administrative processing."  This time was quicker because he has already been to the states once and returned to Africa, so they aren't so suspicious now I guess.  They gave him an immediate "yes" answer at the interview.  He had to go back a couple days later to collect the passport with visa. Actually it was me who went to collect the passport, anyone who has the receipt they give you can pick it up.  That's how I know what it looks like in the room.

On the day of the interview, you go in a waiting room with all the other people getting interviewed that day. Here in Bamako they have appointments available for something like 42 people per day.  Eventually someone calls you to a window, and you talk with the person through a pane of bullet proof glass.  You hear them through a speaker system that reminds me of ordering at a drive through restaurant.  We already saw that they are very suspicious and worried about security because of those 5 pages of ridiculous questions, and this just goes to prove it.  I guess maybe they need to take drastic security measures because I know sometimes there are attacks on US embassies, but this seems kind of dehumanizing to me.  Like visiting someone in prison - you stay on your side and we'll stay on ours.  And the waiting room is after you have already passed through airport-like security.  You aren't allowed to bring a cellphone or even a USB key or mp3 player with you.

I feel like the whole system is set up to make the applicant feel like "nah, forget this, I think I'll just stay home."  It is a lot of hoops to jump through.  Compare this to my Mali visa application where I simply mailed off my passport to Washington DC with a one page simple application form with a picture and the fee.

So that's some information that I would have found good to know before we went through the process.  Any questions?  I'll answer if you write a comment.

test correcting funnies

This week I gave a little test to my level 1 English class.  It was 2 pages long, mostly writing short sentences, and they had 30 minutes to complete it.  I've found that it is very helpful for me to get an idea of what they've learned and what they haven't learned, and it helps them see what they need to study more.  I make corrections with a red pen (I love using the red pen, it makes me feel so teacher-y) and they get the tests back so they can use them to review and study.  There are always a few things I find in correcting that make me laugh!
So here are the latest finds:
In response to the question "Why is Eliza happy?" where I was looking for a reason using the word because, (Eliza is me, my middle name is Elizabeth and Erin is foreign sounding and difficult for most Malians to say) one student answered, "Eliza is happy because she is not hungry."  We are in the middle of the month of fasting of Ramadan, so I am guessing that this student was NOT happy because he WAS hungry!  Another student said that Eliza is happy "because the students are not boring."

We start the test with 5 dictation sentences.  I read each sentence 3 times and the students have to try to write what I've said.  I tell the students to try to write something, even if they don't understand the sentence they should try to write the sounds of the words I am saying.  I get some really creative spelling out of this. The best 2 from this round were:  "Diazman" for Jasmin. (one of the characters in our book is named Jasmin, so I used this name in one of the sentences, the letters "dia" make a "j" sound here!)  and "wacte" for walked, which I thought could have earned credit if only we were using a phonics program.

We are working on past tense verbs, and I gave the base form of the verb "think" and one student put it into the past tense as "thrink" and I find that somehow funny, maybe I'm just amused by creativity.  Another student put "thinked" which isn't really funny, just plain wrong.

I also got another misspelling of "chicken" this time it was "ticken." I use chicken as an example a lot when we are doing oral sentences (ie. "my favorite food is chicken") but I guess they don't see it spelled out enough.

Ahh, just a few weeks left of me teaching English before we move!  I am going to miss it so much, but I think I will teach again somewhere in the future.

plumbing woes

If you can't tell what this is, it's a patch of our bricked courtyard that has been torn apart to get to the problem pipes below.  Just 3 1/2 weeks before we move out of our apartment, we've had to pay a plumber to fix this problem!  I think in the states this is the kind of thing the landlord would take care of, but here the renter is stuck with the bill.  In the states this kind of problem might not even occur.  The plumbing parts available in Mali seem like they all come from some cheap dollar store or something.  I would gladly pay more for quality parts that would last a reasonable amount of time, but they just aren't to be found.  So in my almost 5 years in Mali, it seems like I've had way too many visits from a plumber.  Our water was only cut for a few hours, and then the problem was fixed and the water was back.  Our water bill for this last month living in the apartment should be less I think; we'd noticed that the bill kept going up and up each month and the problem was this slow leak that needed fixing.

village Sunday

I spend all day last Sunday in the village.  I left home at 7:20am and didn't get back home until around 6:30pm.  I went with them to church, you can see it in the picture above.  The newer cement church building is just a 5 minute walk from their house.  There was lots of singing.  I had my Bambara song book with me, so I could sing along to the songs that were  in there.  There were also special songs presented by a women's group, a children's group, and the youth choir group.  Those special songs are always as much about the dancing as the singing.  Visitors were made to stand up and introduce themselves, so I had to do that in Bambara but they don't expect you to say much.  The pastor preached a message in Bambara that I understood the general idea of, but didn't catch most of the details.  I remember a time that I couldn't understand some of the details in French, and I can now, so I think of that to encourage me in my Bambara learning.

After church the older daughters in the family started to cook lunch, so we ate quite late.  It was rice with peanut sauce - my favorite!  I was given my own plate and a spoon, but you can see the boys gathered around a big bowl of food eating with their (right) hands.
I spent the whole afternoon sitting in the shade and listening and chatting.  Several different visitors came by to greet the family.  Sunday is the only day that the dad doesn't go to his gardens to work, but after church he went to the next town over to check on a friend who had just had surgery, so he wasn't home most of the time.  The mom was there to chat with me, and you can see in the picture that she kept her hands busy, too.  She was unbraiding Zaena's hair.  The old braids were pretty tiny, so this took a long time.
When it was around 5pm and I said I was thinking about heading home, I was offered a ride on the back of a visiting friend's motorcycle from the village to the edge of Bamako, a trip of about 40 minutes.  Knowing that there is a lot of traffic on Sunday evening, and that traffic heading into Bamako can be scary to face on a motorcycle, I declined and took the Sotrama (a public minibus.)  The family sent me off with a bag of mangoes, fruit from their trees.  Oh, and a sunburned back and neck.  Even though I was in the shade under trees all day, the top of my back that my Malian top left exposed had turned a deep red.  By the time I got home my face and chest were looking pink too, but the next morning it had all changed to normal colors again.

hanging out in the village

I love this boy's smile!  You can see a green cloth wrapped around Samuel's right forearm because he broke his arm several weeks back when he fell out of a mango tree when he was picking mangoes.  The cloth is doing nothing, except maybe reminding people that this arm shouldn't be used.  At first it was wrapped in a splint made of wood and cloth, but I think its almost better by now.  The little girl is his niece, Masitan. These 2 are my favorites in the village where I go to visit each week.

This is Fatoumata, a friend of the older daughters.  One of the older daughters does foot henna as a way to make a little money.  Women often get their feet decorated to go to a wedding.  The traditional style involves cutting bandaging tape into thin strips and using it to make intricate designs.  When all the tape is stuck on, they mix some kind of leaves with mud or something and apply that.  Then some nasty chemical that smells like perm solution and burns goes on.  The untaped part turns black. The whole process takes several hours.  I did this once, it was with my mom when she visited in 2011.  That once was probably enough for me.  There is another style, a painting of flowers that is done with black hair dye.  That is much quicker and easier, and I'll try that sometime if I get a chance.

study break with Moussa

Our little neighbor Moussa is pretty cute when he isn't screaming and crying.  He lives with his mom and dad in a magasin (like a storage room) about 10 feet from my window, and spends much of his day hanging out and playing and mostly crying about 5 feet from my living room and kitchen windows.  I am seriously ready to have our own private peaceful courtyard again!  I blame the crying on a lack of parenting skills- he has clearly learned that if he fusses and screams enough he will get whatever it is that he wants.  Moussa and our dog Teddy are buddies, and I am impressed by how good Teddy is with this little one who is not always gentle.  Sometimes Moussa comes in the house to visit.  He has gone pee-pee on my floor a couple times since he doesn't wear diapers.  But usually he just hangs out for a while and checks out all of the interesting things in our house.  He is especially interested in our water filter- its amazing how you can turn a knob and water comes out and keeps coming out.  That was another wet puddle I had to clean up.  He is at a stage where he is trying to talk a lot, but most of what comes out of his mouth is just sounds.  A few weeks ago he started trying to repeat the "cou-cou!" I would greet him with when I saw him peeking into my kitchen window.  At first he was saying "tou-tou!" but he finally got the "k" sound down, and now he will come to my window and shout "cou-cou!" before I even notice him there.
In the picture you can see JP taking a little study break to visit with Moussa.

it's rainy season!

Here are a couple pictures of us after we got caught in a sudden downpour while out on the motorcycle.  We got soaking wet and couldn't help but laugh.  There's nothing you can do about it, so why not laugh?  We thought back to another memorable time that a big rain caught us off guard: A few weeks after we were married we made a trip to the local outdoor market to buy some household supplies.  I wound up wearing a huge clothes washing basin on my head and trying to hang on to a long broom while JP did his best to see as he drove home.  It doesn't make much sense to try to wait it out because the rain could continue for hours during rainy season.  We will be very thankful to have a car one day!

kids' program

The big event during our week in the village was a kids' program that we put on.  The day before the program we went to check with the teachers at the tiny village school to make sure of the time that the school kids would be free the following afternoon.  We also needed to get permission to use what looked like a public piece of land that is shaded by trees to do the program.  That evening, when it was time for the weekly market, we went down to a spot next to the market and played some music over a speaker.  A crowd started to gather and made a circle.  Some of the people in our team did a funny skit with a lesson about obeying your parents and one of the guys explained it in Bambara with a microphone so that everyone could hear.  When the skit was done everyone was invited to the program that would be held the next day at 3:30pm.  

When a kid arrives we ask their name and write it on a piece of masking tape that we stick on their shirt.  This assures that each kid had at least a moment of personal connection with us, and it shows that we value each one individually.  Once they have their tape-name they can go play at a station. Our team made different stations with fun activities to do like soccer, sack races, jump rope, or coloring for the little ones.  After 20-30 minutes, once the crowd has gotten pretty big, they kids are moved into a big semi-circle shape with girls on one side and boys on the other.  There are 3 rules to learn (I stay in my place, I listen, we're here to have fun) and 4 important things.  My job was to present the 4 important things in Bambara.  There was a little sign that went with each thing (in the picture I am holding the thumbs up sign) so I mostly just read the important thing and got them to repeat it several times.  There were somewhere around 350 kids there, plus quite a few adults.

There were silly songs, competitive games with boys vs. girls (the middle photo shows them playing musical hats,) something to memorize, and a short lesson.   It was really a fun time!
Most of the kids in this village have probably never been more than a couple miles away from home.  A lot of them don't even go to the one tiny school that is there in the village.  Most of them don't have a tv.  For there to be a big kids' program like this in their village put on by some visitors was a BIG deal to them.  At the end everyone got a piece of candy, so that made it even better!
I was happy that we could be part of continuing to build a good relationship between the village people and the project that has been started there.

jigine roof

I was in the right place at the right time to witness the attachment of a jigine (grainery/silo) roof.  It made me think of a good old fashioned barn raising where all the neighbors would show up and pitch in to get a big job done quickly together.  They had rolls of straw that went around a wooden frame.  There were 2 guys inside to help "sew" the thatch on with strips of tree bark.  They bound the top tight, and then it was time to pick it up.  The 2 guys inside played a joke and hung on to the inside frame when the outside guys were trying to pick the roof up, so it seemed awfully heavy until the 2 pranksters let go.  The jigine will be filled with a crop come harvest time - maybe millet, corn, or beans.  It doesn't have a regular door, usually just a smallish hole kind of high up.  This prevents rats from getting in, but a child can get in to retrieve some of the food.  I asked and was told that a roof like this can last for several years.

new baby!

I spent last week in a village with a team from my organization.  There is a couple (they're in the 2nd picture) that lives at the base there and they take care of it.  When we arrived, the wife, Sali, was working to cook food for us on an outside wood fire, the cooking pot resting on 3 rocks.  Her huge belly didn't seem to slow her down too much.  It was clear that she was toward the end of her pregnancy, but I was surprised on Wednesday morning to learn that she had given birth overnight.  She had walked into the village to deliver in the little maternity clinic.  The baby was born at 4am, and the top picture was taken at about 10am that same morning!  I got to hold the new little girl and help introduce her to her big brother, Cekoroba.  One of our leaders was asked to choose a name for the baby, so the little girl is now called Nyagali. ("Joy")

As I was holding the newborn and checking her out, it was evident that she hadn't been washed yet.  I'm not sure how it happened exactly, but somehow I wound up being the one to give the baby her first bath.  I guess it had to do with there being no one else who admitted to having ever washed a newborn.  We cleaned out a plastic basin and got some water and soap.  The baby seemed to love being in the water!  I've watched Malian women wash small babies before, and I've seen them SCRUB the baby clean.  So maybe the people watching me gently wash the baby thought I wasn't being rough enough, but I just don't think it's necessary to make 'em cry.

Then the second day the mom wanted me to wash the baby again because she claimed to not know how to do it.  Huh?!  This didn't make sense to me, especially considering that she has a 6 year old.  But I learned that normally an older woman would come and help the new mom take care of the new baby for a while after the birth. (I'm not really sure why there wasn't someone there to help her this time. Maybe because she doesn't live near her old village anymore?  or the helper woman only comes for the first baby?)  So this mom really had never washed a new baby, and she was nervous to try.  I said I'd wash the baby again, but this time the mom needed to sit next to me to watch/help.  This is the 2nd picture.  Next to the washing basin is a white pail filled with natural shea butter.  It's not quite Johnson's baby lotion, and really not what I'd want my baby to smell like, but this is what is slathered all over babies here after a bath.  There is also a blue thing of powder (this smells much nicer than the shea butter!) which I applied to her neck and other areas to help prevent some of the often seen consequences of temperatures up near 110 every day in this season.
Some of our teammates were amazed that I would know how to wash a newborn. (so amazed that I sort of thought they were mocking me at first, I was a little confused by how impressed they were)  I explained that when I was junior high age my aunt and uncle lived in the other side of our duplex, and I had 2 baby cousins born that I was crazy about and I was glad to help take care of them.  I also spent many evenings and weekends babysitting throughout high school, and finally, I worked as a professional nanny for 2 years - my final year nannying it was for 2 babies.  So I guess you never know when your skills will prove useful!

Washing the baby was an unusual but practical way that I could show love to Sali, the mom.
I was able to visit Sali and baby Nyagali several times when they were resting in their room.  I talked with Sali in Bambara because she doesn't speak French.
The baby never had clothes on while I was there, she was just wrapped in cloth.  Sali said they didn't have any newborn clothes, but the dad would buy something to dress her in when he went to the market in the nearby village.  Really, its hot enough that clothes aren't necessary, but I just wished I had a cute onesie to put on the baby.  I am hoping to find some tiny girl clothes in the piles of clothes we have in our markets here and if I can't go to visit Sali again soon, at least I can send a present to her with a colleague.