Babies on backs, bright fabric swaying in time to the beat
of breaking millet.
Hot sweat dripping down hard work in liquid form.
Laughter and language not known but understood to mean
friendship in a metal and thread chair, shaded dirt beneath the posts.
Small ones playing with boxes on a string, pulling along a
childhood dirty, raw, sad, and beautiful.
Shouts of joy turn into pain as laughter is substituted with
tears in the stroke of a hand or the naked branch of a tree that once provided
shade to a metal and thread chair.
Sweat mango juice dripping down dirty faces, a stream of
happiness and mud, life in liquid form.
Stretched out arms to give mangoes, friendship, peanuts, acceptance,
hot corn, hugs around knees.
Ne somogo
My family.
Aw be yen, N be yan, nga An be taama nyogonfe tumabee.
You
are there, I am here, but we walk together always.
If you can’t tell, I miss Mali. I’ve been talking with my
fellow Team Leaders here in Vinton, Iowa and reliving some of my experiences in
Peace Corps, so a lot of things I haven’t been thinking of often get brought to
the forefront. I need to make a plan to go back to Mali in the future,
hopefully within the next 5 or so years. It is just such a special place full
of amazing people. Please keep up all your positive thoughts and/or prayers for
the people of Mali as they continue to face an incredible amount of challenges
to their health, well-being, and safety.
I hope you all have been enjoying this hot summer and have
been able to get to the pool or beach often. Believe it or not, Vinton Iowa has
a kick butt community pool complete with a waterslide. It is a little oasis in
a sea of corn. Some Team Leaders and I plan to go there tomorrow if the weather
is nice.
I have been in Vinton since July 23rd and
everything is going really well so far. The AmeriCorps NCCC staff at Vinton is
really great (almost as awesome as Perry Point staff), and I feel well taken
care of and that I will be prepared as best as possible to be successful when I
get my team. Our Corps Members come to Vinton around July 27th and
then real life will begin. We are enjoying our time with just us Team Leaders
before the craziness ensues. I can still remember my first day at Perry Point
in AmeriCorps NCCC Class 16 and how excited/nervous/scared I was. I remember
Dave Beach with his Harry Potter wand talking to us while we did in-processing
paperwork, ate sandwiches, and began the foundations of friendships to come.
What a start to an amazing adventure that was. I only hope that the Corps
Members of this class will have as great of an experience as I did in NCCC. The
program is what you make it, and if you are determined to put in hard work, be
open to growing as a person, and not give up, those are the ingredients to a
beautiful AmeriCorps experience.
I will keep you all updated on how life as an AmeriCorps
NCCC FEMA Corps Team Leader (our official title) goes. I am excited for this
journey and appreciate all of your support. I am lucky to have so many people
in my life that are happy for me and are supportive of me following my dreams.
Congratulations to my awesome sister Marni and her husband
Josh who welcomed my nephew Jackson Carter Clay into the world on July 25th.
I can’t wait to meet the little nugget, and hopefully in just a few weeks I’ll
be able to hold him in my arms for the first time!
Take care and thanks for checking out what’s new in my life!
Love, Jamie
The beginning could be a poem to Mali Jamie. Lovely.
ReplyDeletei love you so much, you are a beautiful person and you should be told this everyday!
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