Hey Friends!

Hello friends!

Sorry for the long delay between posts. We have been at our homestay villages for a few weeks and have not had access to internet. Things are going really well and I am enjoying myself fully.

Right now our group is back at our training center for two days, and we will return to our homestay villages on Wednesday.

I love my homestay village, and host family. The people in my host family that live at home right now consists of my host dad, his two wives, a host brother and sister, and a niece. My Malian name is Assita Keita. (sounds like eye-see-tah kay-tah). Up until yesterday I thought my name was Assetou, but I was wrong. I am named after my host sister, who we call Pai. She is a little troublemaker but I love her.

There are 8 trainees in my village, 6 in one close by, and 7 in one a little further away. We get together every few days for common training sessions, but most days we study language in our villages and hang out with our families. I am studying a language called Bambara which is really fun to speak. I am getting better every day but it is still hard to communicate with my host family. Most of the time I just say "N m'a faamu, Haketo" (I don't understand, sorry) and laugh.

Yesterday I went to the sugu (market) with my host mom and she helped me get my sandal fixed, and I walked around with her while she bought spices, meats, vegetables, and mangoes.

I thought I was going to have to eat meat while in Mali but my host family is super accommodating and I haven't had to eat any yet with the exception of broths mostly.

I have been fortunate so far that I have not been really sick with diarrhea, but a lot of my friends have been sick a lot. I think part of the reason I have been lucky is because my family serves me food in my own bowl, and I don't share food out of the communal bowl with my siblings, who don't wash their hands normally.

My village is awesome even though some volunteers warned us going there that it was really dirty and the kids were mean.

It is true that is is dirty, but there is no trash collection system here or plumbing, so it is to be expected. The kids are really sweet for the most part. It is sometimes overwhelming to go outside because the kids all chant "toubabu" (white or foreign person) but they really are just want our attention and stop when we wave at them or tell them our Malian names. Now a lot of kids near my house know my name and will yell my name instead of "toubabu".

There are some amazing rock formations in our village, and there is a small village nearby that the trainees in my village and I go to to climb on and look a the farmland and canal. It is really peaceful and a nice escape from the constant attention we are paid in our own village.

All in all, I am having a wonderful time. The trainees in my village all have great attitudes and are a really valuable support system to me. Really everyone in my stage class is amazing. I feel really lucky to be serving with these people.

We aren't doing any work to improve village life or starting projects right now since this period is focused on language acquisition and cultural integration and familiarity. We have had a lot of good trainings on gender development, water and sanitation, and education among others.

In around 10 days we will find out where our permanent site is. I am excited to find out, and also a little sad that our training will be over and our stage class will part ways... but that is when we can really start our service and learn our new community's needs.

I will write more later about some of the issues specific to Malian education, which is the sector in which I will be working. I will not be teaching, but rather working to improve the access and quality of education in my village.

Thanks again for all of your support! I really appreciate the messages and comments on here and facebook. It is nice to know I have support back home even though I am so far away.

I would love to receive letters and will write you back!

Ok I am going to end now because the electricity went out and I thought I lost the post... thankfully it saved!

Love you all!

~Jamie (aka Assita)

Waaahooooo! Africa!

I ni Sogoma my friends!

Our group of 23 made it to Mali safely! We are staying in a beautiful compound, 3 people to a hut. The weather is hot, but not unbearable. We all slept well last night after long flights
I just took my language placement test in French and failed... don't tell Miss Haan! But it is okay because I will probably be learning Bambara and I am already better at that than French.

Our stage (The people who came with me, pronounced like in French) is really cool. I couldn't be happier with the people I will be spending the next two years with. There are even some cuties ;) Our group motto is "Things are about to get real" and "Things just got real". We have some funny kids in the group.

The negens (n like in onion) or bathrooms haven't been as bad as described, but I've also had experience doing business in the woods camping, so it's not much more difficult than that.
The food they have been feeding us is very good.

Last night there was not a veggie option, so I picked around the meat... I'm scared to take a real mouthfull, but I know it is inevitable.
I love you all so much and it makes me feel really loved that some of you have followed my blog. I am so grateful for your support.

Everything is better than I imagined, and I'm sure will continue to be great... until we all get diarrhea :)

Love, Jamie.

P.S. The keyboard here is really sticky from the dust, so Lily, you are def not allowed to judge my spelling now!

On Our Way to Mali

Soooo... the adventure begins.
Right now I am in the airport in Washington DC with my fellow Peace Corps trainees waiting to be able to check in for our flight and go through security.
Yesterday we met at a hotel in DC for orientation and safety training and to turn in paperwork. Normally there are around 40 or so people in each stage, but there are 23 in ours. Around half are Water and Sanitation volunteers, and half are Education volunteers like me.
Most people are around my age, there are no married couples, and there is one woman who is older who did Peace Corps in the 60's and is back for another go at it.
Everyone is really amazing, welcoming, and nice. We all (with the exception of Renate, the previous volunteer) went our last night for dinner and drinks. Already we are bonding really well.
It is around 3:30 now and our flight leaves around 10, so we have some time to kill.
We have a layover in Paris and will then head to Bamako, the capital city of Mali.
Some volunteers are getting nervous to arrive. I feel fine now and am excited for the adventure, but maybe I'll get nervous when we get there. We shall see!
The training center we will be staying at has internet supposedly so I may post soon.

If you would like to send me letters or treats you can send them to the address below. If you send me letters I will totally send you letters back. We can be pen pals :)
If you do send a package, make sure you insure it and track it. Some people have told me that uninsured and tracked packages have a way of dissappearing.

The address is:

Jamie Casterton
Corps de la Paix
B.P. 85
Bamako, Mali West Africa

I hope you are all doing well in Minnesota, Florida, and Michigan (or wherever else)!
Love you all and thanks for your support! P.S. You are invited to come visit me in Mali!

Love, Jamie

p.s. I don't have spell check... so don't judge me!