(See Christmas Picasa album here: http://picasaweb.google.com/veroniquelporter/Christmas# )
I know you’re prob thinking I’m wasn’t able to celebrate Christmas here. Mali is a mostly Muslim country but there are some Christians here.
In-service training was the first two weeks of December. The idea is that I’ve gotten used to being in country and village, so in service training helps teach me to become an effective volunteer (I hope :-#). All the trainees decided to have a Christmas party during training. We made paper decorations, projected a movie, and someone graciously donated a big container of hot chocolate and marshmallows their parents sent them for everyone to enjoy. We even had a white elephant gift exchange; I got soap, stickers and a candy bar.
After training, I stayed in the big city (Bamako) to celebrate Christmas at a Peace Corps house with other volunteers. We planned to cook lots of food and really get in the Christmas spirit. A PC staff member gave us a tree for the house, so we have more paper decorations and a real, decorated Christmas tree. We’ve have a mini ginger bread village, watched loads of movies. We did all our shopping together and we eat meals family style. It’s an awesome group of people and its soooo much fun! Christmas brunch consisted of quiche and French toast and sausage. After breakfast was secret Santa; I got leather handcrafted sandals, with Malian colored beading. We baked cookies and had a big Christmas dinner! We even went Caroling to all the ex-pat and embassy workers’ houses in the area. It was both awkward and fun. Overall, I think the caroling was well received and enjoyed.
I miss snow and cold weather, because I’ve NEVER had a holiday season without it. Every time I watch a movie here, I get my Care Bear blanket, although its def not weather appropriate. But I then heard about the ridiculously cold weather and the 47inches of snow in Iowa. I take it back. LOL.
My homesickness level was def at a high for the holidays. I’m both happy and missing home. I miss my family and friends, IC roommates and my job(s)/bosses/co-workers. But my Peace Corps family is feeling similarly about the holidays and we are making the best of it together.
I couldn’t decided what I wanted to do for New years. I knew I’d be away from site but not exactly where I’d be and who I’d be with. I wanted to be in the big city because I’m a city girl. So I went and visited a friend in a city right outside of the big city. It was just like being in a suburb because they have all the amenities of the city but its smaller and feels villagey just a little bit.
I had two options in the suburb: go back to the city or stay for a volunteer’s barbeque. Play it safe or live large. Go with the planned out route or figure it as I go in the city. Well, playing it safe always seems smart, but I’m in Africa, with the Peace Corps. That’s not playing it ‘safe’ to say the least. And is that how I what to bring the New Year in? I’m not going to be able to play it safe this next year; I’m going to have to put myself out there and figure life out as I go.
On the 30th, we decided to get up at 5am to climb their small mountain, and watch the sun rise. The sun was a little late, but it was so beautiful. It was then that I decided for sure to go to the big city for New Years Eve. Even if it’s not the best night of my life, it’ll be with good people, and I’ll bring in the New Year the way I want t. I need to make more decisions that way: at sunrise. :-)
The next day, my PCV friend and I left for the city in the morning, headed to the marche; we needed outfits of course. We found a really nice store with clothes but it was super expensive (based on our stipends now, not American expensive). We bargained for a long time to get a decent price. The market is really big and there are always a lot of people. But because of the holiday (Malians also celebrate trente et un- 31st in French), there were even more people out and loads of traffic. The market was mad crazy. I got tapped by a moto and someone tried to steal from my book bag. But the market was relatively successful. We handled the rest of our business and went to a house party. We had good music and fireworks at countdown time, and there were a lot of volunteers in town to celebrate with. We ended up leaving at 4am!
At dinner, a friend of mine wanted to do a ritual of hers. She likes to write all the bad things of the past year on one piece of paper. On another sheet, she writes the good things of the past year and what she hopes will happen in the next year. She burns the bad list and lets go of all those things before entering the new year. I thought this was an awesome idea and we decided to do it over dinner. Looking back on 2009 made me realize half of it was spent in Mali. That’s crazy I’ve been here a half of year! And that 2009 was a really good year. I really believe 2010 will be even better as I develop myself as a good and active volunteer.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment