Quick edit

Greetings everyone! Sooo I realized I'm uber excited and want to share absolutely everything, but I think I'm getting carried away and am writing too much. I'll try to be more concise in the future :) I'll post soon regarding our 2 day surprise visit to a random rural community a few hours away from Bamako and will also tell you a bit about the one-week workshop on multi-functionnal platforms that we just attended. I'm leaving for Sévaré tomorrow or the following day. I can't wait to live the real Mali experience... We've been living it up here in the capital because of certain circumstances, and that's definitely not what I came here for. I need to refocus, and hopefully the 10-hour bus ride will help me do that :) Sorry about the lack of visuals... I forgot my camera this week, but I have a few good pictures to share. Cheers!

I saw this in a conference room in Bamako and thought it was really interesting. There are times when I think it's kind of tacky as well, it depends on my mood. I'll let you be the judge. It says something like: "You cannot paint white on white or black on black. Each one needs the other to reveal itself". And check out how two artists, with seemingly different backgrounds, collaborated to put it together...

Welcome to Bamako

We spent our first night at Jean-Luc and Vero’s apartment. They are a cute EWB couple and they have been in Bamako since February. They are called Long Term Overseas Volunteers (LTOV) in EWB jargon, simply because they are part of the crew that stays overseas for a year rather than four months. Jean-Luc and Vero are both working on different development projects. They are pretty well integrated already and know of good places to eat, to hang out and have fun. They know the markets, the main roads and neighborhoods. And best of all, they totally understand how we feel because they went through what we are going through just a few months ago.

When we arrived at their place, we met with Tom and Eli, two LTOVs who were just finishing up their placements. They made a quick stop in Bamako to pick up some essential eletronics we brought for them from Canada, before heading off on a crazy biking/rafting adventure down the Niger River. Don’t quote me on this, but you should be able to follow their adventures through http://www.nigercurrents.ca/. The website wasn’t yet set up when they told me this, but it was the plan at the time. Brave, brave young men, I tell you.

Vero had made us some fonio, a type of grain mixed with peanuts, with some kind of meat sauce. She said fonio is a relatively new, healthier alternative to traditional grains used in the area. We enjoyed the meal eating with our fingers the Malian way, and it was quite tasty. As I was eating I felt something land on my arm. I looked over quickly, prepared for the worst, but found the cutest baby lizard, about 3 cm long, staring at me. It is still a mystery to me how this little guy fell from the sky. I am pretty sure that lizards don’t jump, but I could be mistaken.

We tried setting up some mosquito nets and had little success, so we slathered on some 30% DEET repellent and hoped for the best. We felt like such rebels after Dr. Wise’s warnings in Toronto… It was not long before we each found a spot on the floor of the main room and went to sleep. The heat was incredible, and most of us ended up sleeping in nothing but our underwear.

We woke up with humid, sticky skin and took turns to have a shower. Jean-Luc and Vero have a very nice place with a full luxurious washroom: a toilet and a shower, nothing too rustic except for more friendly lizards. We then did our laundry by hand on the scrubbing board, after applying some SPF 55 sunscreen. I watched the neighbors and try to take hints on proper laundry washing techniques. The women here do it so gracefully. Some of them are incredibly lean and flexible, so they keep their legs straight and bend at the waist, with their rear end in the air, while they scrub the clothes on the board for long periods of time. I could definitely feel the stretch as I attempted to copy their smooth moves. Little did I know, I was overdoing it and a simple task like walking turned out to be terribly painful the next day…

In the afternoon we had our first market experience. The Bamako Medine market is absolutely huge, according to Jean-Luc and Vero. I couldn’t say because they are convinced I didn’t see a tenth of it during the hour when they let us loose. It would have felt a bit awkward for 10 foreigners to scan the market together, so the LTOVs had planned a kind of treasure hunt to get us exploring. You can find everything from fruits and vegetables to a mattress in the market. The locals try to get our attention to their booths by calling out “Toubabou! Toubabou!”, which means “white person”. Resident expert Levi, who had spent a year in Mali, told us during training week that he would reply with a simple “Farafi”, which means “black person”. He said that it would generally amuse them, and though I find it absolutely hilarious as well, I am not quite comfortable using it yet.

I bought some local fabric with the intention of getting a traditional suit made. People here give a lot of importance to clothing, and they get their outfits custom made in beautiful, brightly colored fabrics that don’t necessarily match but make for such a lively scene. There are bright colors everywhere, and walking around the market I couldn’t help but think about how conservative we are at home with our boring choice of colors. Of course, this is coming from the girl who only wears strictly brown, green or neutral colours. But my point was that I like the market, I like it a lot…

The Never-ending Journey to Mali

Whoever came up with the expression “It’s a small world” is clearly not a Canadian who has traveled to Africa. It was quite the lengthy journey. Picture five of us Junior Fellows sleeping on the floor in the middle of a Charles de Gaule terminal in Paris. If you can’t do that, check out the actual picture. We must have miscalculated our nap, because we woke up 45 minutes before our flight to Bamako, the capital of Mali. At this point we still needed to find a banking machine to take out some euros for certain expenses in Mali, for instance extending our visas that are currently valid for 30 days only. Yikes! To access this machine we had to run around the airport, go through customs, find the machine, take out the money, go through customs again, go through security, and finally meet back up with Emily who was getting antsy. We must have been lucky despite all the line-ups, because we made it back on time for our flight.

“What would you like to drink? We have champagne, red or white wine…”, asked the steward. Hello, guilt trip! It is somewhat ironic that I was on my way to a developing country with the best intentions, and that I was still offered my peche mignon. I allowed myself one last taste of alcohol before four months of “drought”. “Could I please try some of your red wine?” Yum.

I slept for most of the way, but woke up in time to see the sun setting. Alex, staring in awe outside his window, called me over so that I could have a look at the scenery below. There were sand dunes as far as the eye could see, until the red sun met with the horizon far away. I couldn’t help but smile at the thought of these vast territories that have not yet been abused by entire cities of inconsiderate humans. The desert seems like such a peaceful place. I hope that I will have the opportunity to meet some Touaregs to find out more about this mystical place. From what I understand, Touaregs are the people who basically own the desert. They live a nomadic lifestyle and travel the desert on their camels. I could go on about things I have heard, but I will wait a while longer before I make the mistake of listing stereotypes that may not represent their reality whatsoever.

We finally arrived in Bamako, about 24 hours after leaving Toronto. My heart was pounding faster than that time George pulled a front flip. I stepped outside the plane and got a first taste of this 30-something degree heat I had been expecting. I took a deep breath and let myself be completely absorbed by this new atmosphere. There were so many people at the bottom of the steps, it crossed my mind that maybe our flight was filled with important people that I simply did not recognize. But I guess I will never know.

I went through customs with a shy smile as I tried out my first salutation in Bambara, the main dialect in Mali. I handed the man my passport with my right hand. I have been warned during pre-departure training that eating or passing anything with the right hand is extremely disrespectful. The left hand is reserved almost exclusively for going to the washroom. Toilet paper is overrated, inaccessible, or unnecessary perhaps? I will have to get back to you on that. But apparently all you need is what looks like a teapot of water and a good scrub with the left hand. Anywho, the man returned my passport with a smile and complimented me on my name. It was somewhat of an awkward interaction. It seems like he thought I knew more Bambara than I actually do. I smiled and said “N’Se”, which is, from what I understood during training, the equivalent of a smile and nod in Canada. I have the feeling I will be using this method a fair bit…

Surprise, surprise, all of our luggage made it to Bamako! There are tons of men fighting to carry our bags, and I cannot tell the difference between who works at the airport and who doesn’t. There are no uniforms to help us make the distinction. They were so insisting, and so was I. I can carry all my luggage on my own. I spent a few days just figuring out how to fit everything in my one backpack for this specific reason. With all this help I could have brought a few suitcases, after all! The hard part followed. They asked for a tip, and started telling us that they need to feed their family, and so on. They are obviously used to manipulating tourists, and quite frankly, the airport is the best place to do that, I’ll give them that much. The problem was that I had absolutely no idea of the money’s worth and did not know how much to give. Noemie and I looked at each other, completely puzzled. Then we heard Jean-Luc calling our names from the other side of the fence. Alex, the little messenger bird, brought a few Francs CFA that Jean-Luc gave him and paid our new friends to help us move on.

Pre-departure Training… Or How to Become a Change Agent in One Week

The Engineers Without Borders (EWB) National Office team had planned an intense training session prior to the departure of the Junior Fellows. I met all of the Junior Fellows last January at the EWB’s National Conference in Ottawa, but only met up with half of them for my training. The other half had had their training session the week before and they were all gone for Ghana by the time we arrived to the training house in Toronto.

Training was absolutely wonderful, challenging and exhausting. We’re talking six long yet amazing days of workshops from about nine to nine. Our training session was a bit more diversified, in the sense that we were not all headed in the same direction. Eight francophones were heading to French West Africa, more specifically Burkina Faso and Mali. The other 12 were headed to Zambia and the Philippines.

For the first time in EWB history, the training sessions were held in French for the francophone group, thanks to a few incredible and daring trainers facilitating the workshops in their second language. No need to say we were all delighted, and this allowed for much more participation from the Quebecois. What a treat!

It’s rather difficult to summarize all our activities since our busy schedule allowed us to cover so much ground. Some highlights include presentations about our NGOs to our peers, a facilitation session with a nutrition theme, a live case study, a culture choc session, a session on impact, integration 101, individual one-on-one check-ins and check-outs with National Office staff, an Ethiopian dinner, lunch with country representatives, a photography lesson, the legendary late night Q&A session with the EWB CEOs, and the list goes on…

On the very last day of training there was a graduation session, where we were asked to share with the group our favorite moment of the week and one lesson learned. One of the many lessons I learned is that there are no good answers to international development problems, but that the best way to stay on track is to ask the right questions. My favorite moment was a combination of all the energizers we did throughout the week. We played games, sang songs and danced, were lead through a few yoga poses, made a human pyramid but one energizer out of them all was hard to beat. My heart was left pounding for the next few minutes, ridiculing the many doses of caffeine I took throughout the week that never really did the job anyways...

First I need to introduce George, who is co-CEO and co-founder of EWB. I also need to introduce Levi, who was an all-star trainer for the francophone group. So our young, small and daring Levi decides to show off his back flip. Impressive, I imagine, but I missed it because of a poorly timed bathroom break. I made it back on time to hear not-so-young, not-so-small but oh-so-daring George tell us about the front flips he used to do. I got a good laugh out of this, but before I knew it George had pushed some desks aside and was running for it. I thought he would stop, laugh, and tell us “I got you good, eh?”, but instead we all watched him jump in the air into a ball – and land on his bum! I am apparently still amused two weeks later.

Somehow I think that training week allowed me to relive Katimavik again over the course of a few days. And it was more than the numerous workshops and energizers that did it. Training sessions were held at the University of Toronto daily, but the small house where we stayed at night was a Katima-house at its best: four bunk beds crammed in each room, house rules, a shower schedule, stuff everywhere, no privacy… I loved every minute of it, probably because I had survived nine months of this and I knew it would take more than a few days to drive me crazy!

Junior Fellow, eh?

The program I am participating in is called the Junior Fellowship Program, which is where the funny title comes from. There is a total of about 40 short term overseas volunteers from various universities across Canada going to Africa or the Philippines this summer for four months. The participants spend this journey working in a local non-government organization to get an idea of the challenges involved with being a development agent.

Of course, participants are encouraged to live a humble lifestyle during their stay and plunge into the local culture to understand the realities of the developing world. Besides doing our best to have impact overseas despite our short stay, our most important role is to share our experience with chapter members, friends and family back home. Upon our return, our role is to continue sharing and educating the public on the complexities of international development. Together, all of us Junior Fellows will reach out to thousands of people and get them thinking about small actions we can take collectively in Canada to make a big difference in the lives of our cousins abroad.

Intro...

English will follow... Man, this feels like a government document! Sorry about that ;) For you curious folks, the following message in French is just an apology, or rather a special request for my francophone friends and family to be patient and understanding since they will have to read my stories in English :)


Bonjour et bienvenue à tous et chacun,

Si vous ne le saviez toujours pas, je passerai tout mon été 2006 en Afrique de l'Ouest sur un placement bénévole à participer à des projets de développement international avec Ingénieurs Sans Frontières (ISF). Je vous invite personnellement à lire mes observations, mes péripéties, mes défis, mes joies et mes peines au Mali lors de cette merveilleuse aventure.

Le blog que je vous propose est écrit entièrement en anglais et, mes chers amis francophones, je m'en excuse. Vous comprenez, j'en dois énormément aux membres de ma section d'ISF à l'Université de Waterloo, qui est, j'en ai bien peur, presque exclusivement anglophone. Sans leur support lors de mes préparatifs et de la levée de fonds, je n'aurais jamais eu la chance de participer à un tel programme. Chaque minute devant un écran d'ordinateur se fait rare et est bien sûr compete ici au Mali. La traduction de mes textes ne me permettrait jamais d'en partager autant avec vous, alors, je me fie sur vos talents en anglais et sur votre patience quand vous souhaiterez avoir de mes nouvelles pour vous aventurer malgré tout dans mon blog. Il est remarquable tout de même que tous mes amis et toute ma famille avec qui je souhaite partager ce blog a une bonne maîtrise de l'anglais. Ca me rend tellement fière... Vous savez comme moi que demander le contraire à mes amis anglophones ne serait malheureusement pas possible, mais ainsi va la vie!

Enfin, merci mille fois de votre compréhension, et soyez sans craintes, nous trouverons un moment à mon retour pour aller prendre un verre et discuter les parties qui vous seront moins claires. A défaut d'un anglais raboteux, je vous suggère au moins de faire semblant d'en avoir manqué des bouts, quitte à nous donner un prétexte de partager les histoires de notre été dans un pub quelconque ou dans un bon resto de la belle province. Je vous promet d'afficher des nouvelles aussi souvent que je pourrai. Je vous encourage évidemment à afficher vos commentaires, ou bien à m'envoyer de longs e-mails si vous ressentez le besoin de vous videz le cœur à n'importe quel moment.

Finalement, je vous souhaite à tous un bel été, et je vous assure que j'ai déjà bien hâte de vous voir à mon retour en septembre!

Gros bisous,

CaT



Ladies and gents, welcome!

It is a true pleasure for me to share with you my experience in French West Africa this summer. For those of you who did not know yet, I am spending the entire summer in Mali on an internship with Engineers Without Borders working on an international development project.

I only ask that you accept to be patient and understanding with me, as my English may slowly disintegrate as the summer progresses and I slowly switch back into what I like to call my "French mode". English is my second language and as a result it is sometimes more difficult to express myself. In other words, don't expect anything poetic or literary, but don't worry, I can usually get my message across!

I promise to post as often as possible to keep you informed. I also want to take this opportunity to encourage you to reply with as many comments as you wish. Of course, don't hesitate to write me long e-mails, it will be a true pleasure to hear from you!

I want to send a special thank you to my Engineers Without Borders chapter at the University of Waterloo for making this possible: your support means the world to me and I couldn’t be here without you!

I wish you a wonderful summer, and I can't wait to see you all in September :) For now, take care and enjoy!

CaT