A piece of Peace Corps

Sargent Shriver & Dr. Samuel Proctor at his Peace Corps Inauguration 12/28/61(source)

On my return trip from Washington, D.C. last week I got off the train in Newport News and rolled my carry-on-sized suitcase to the Norfolk/Virginia Beach transfer bus parked in front of the Amtrak station.  A new bus driver, a woman in place of the man who always drove on my trips before, barked at me to put my carry-on under the bus.  I protested.  "The other bus driver (the one who calls Norfolk 'Nor-fowlk') always lets me bring it on," I said.  She shrugged her shoulders and pointed to the holding area as she nodded towards my bag.  I stubbornly tried to plead my case again, heard myself sounding like a child and finally relinquished my hold on the piece of red rolling luggage before clambering onto the bus with a pout on my lips. 

Tired from travel and with blisters on my feet from walking around the city (with my treasured carry-on in tow), I mumbled 'May I sit here?' to a woman sitting with her hands on a bag in her lap.  She nodded her consent and I collapsed into the seat.

We pulled out of parking lot without speaking to one another and, 20 minutes later, made eye contact for the first time since Newport News as we approached the Norfolk stop to see if the other was getting off.  "Not me," I said.  "Me either," she replied.  I do not know how our conversation started from there but start it did.

Mamie Proctor, I soon learned to be her name, was on her way back from a visit to Maryland to attend her granddaughter's 6th grade graduation.  We talked about her other grandchildren and her two daughters and what her home in Virginia Beach was like.  I talked about my own grandmother and marveled at how incredible these women are - getting around better and more nimbly than some people my age!

She asked about my visit to Washington, D.C. and I told her about WRI and apartment hunting in the city.  Then, I talked (of course!) about my Peace Corps experience in Mali and the coup d'etat that brought me back home and left millions of others in a state of uncertainty (on so many levels).  She nodded throughout my story and asked questions about my host family, what I ate, where I lived and the work I did.  It is conversations like these that are truly humbling and make me feel so proud to have lived in Mali and to have the chance to share a piece of the country I love so much.

After exhausting my Mali-centric talking points, Mamie began talking about her brother-in-law, Dr. Samuel Proctor, who she remembered as working with the Peace Corps in the 60s.  "He worked in Niger," she said.  "No, Burkina Faso!  Well - I can't remember where he worked but he was a Country Director of sorts in Africa at the beginning of the Peace Corps."  Turns out it was Nigeria and he was the associate director of Peace Corps Africa in the early stages of PC's development.  To think a piece of Peace Corps history was sitting with Mamie the whole time from Newport News to Norfolk and if we hadn't started talking - I would have never learned about her brother-in-law (and her captivating family!)

Dr. Proctor led a fascinating career as a minister and civil servant - you can read more about him and his varied career here (he passed away in 1997).  As I talked with Mamie I was not only interested to learn of another link to the Peace Corps but also so thrilled at the sweet way lives of loved ones can be remembered and their memories carried on.  

An hour and a half after leaving Newport News (it was a traffic-y Saturday night in Hampton Roads!), our bus pulled up to the stop on 19th Street and Pacific Avenue in Virginia Beach.  Flashy cars with loud music pouring out of open windows, barely containing the scantily clad tourists inside, inched by in the thick traffic as we stretched our legs and waited for our luggage to be retrieved from the holding area.  Mamie's friend, and fellow retirement home resident, Jack was waiting outside the bus stop with his trunk open, smiling and waving at Mamie.  I looked at Mamie and then looked at the bus driver.  I smiled - tickled to have met such a delightful woman who I would not have sat next to had I had a clunky carry-on with me.  The formerly surly bus driver plopped my suitcase on the sidewalk in front of me.    "Thank you," I smiled and then, with my red carry-on in tow, rolled away.  


Have you ever had a time when you thought - wow, what if I had missed this chance?  When was it?  Why was it so special?

Back to Bamako!

Less than 24 hours ago I sat on the floor of my childhood home – luggage, carry-ons, and gifts strewn about me – and, with the help of my sister Lindsay, prioritized possessions in order to make (luggage) weight for my return to trip to Mali. Every so often I would step on the scale holding one of my suitcases and Lindsay would lean over to locate the arrow teetering between dashed numbers. After unloading some lotions and body sprays, stationery, and a few other items deemed non-critical to my return, we were satisfied that we had made it close enough to the 80 pound weight limit. We zipped up my groaning suitcases and carry-ons and rolled them to the trunk of my mom's car and just like that, after four months stateside, I was ready to return to Mali.

At the Norfolk airport I was surrounded by an honest-to-goodness entourage. All my parents saw me off as well as my aunt Laurie, Uncle Frank, and my brother, Michael. Even one of our dogs, Levi, made the trip out to bid me farewell. My luggage came in a few pounds over (and when I say a few pounds I mean...more than a few pounds) but the generous check-in lady waved me on and wished me a safe return to Mali. I think this is the first time I have ever traveled abroad and not had to unload and relocate items in the airport lobby for exceeding the luggage weight limit. I liked the feeling.

After a puddle jumper flight to JFK, I sat near my gate and settled in for a four-hour layover. I talked with Marija and Kate on the phone and people watched metropolitan Europeans with asymmetrical haircuts, metal-buckle boots, and skinny jeans walk by with Cartier and FAO Shwartz bags in hand. Next to my gate was a nail salon with a billboard the size of two unfolded pizza boxes on the back wall. The sign read:

“You won't be able to say you had any regrets. Have you considered joining the Peace Corps?”

One of the last things I delicately crammed into my carry-on was a small stack of magazines. I chose three from the top of a towering pile on my dresser – two New Yorkers and a Vanity Fair. Once on the plane to Paris I pulled out the first New Yorker dated December 5, 2011 and opened it.

After reading a review of “The Artist,” which my dad says is a must-see (I watched it on the plane!), and a spotlight on one of the Occupy Wall Street protestors, I arrived to a Personal History essay entitled Mapping Home: Learning a new city, remembering the old by Alexandar Hemon. Hemon writes about his upbringing and home in Sarajevo and then his subsequent, and unexpected, transition to life in Chicago when he came to the United States with the International Visitor Program on March 14th^th 1992. When war broke out in Bosnia, Hemon's family urged him to stay and so he did. He applied for political asylum and then, he says, “The rest is the rest of my life.”

Hemon talks about how Chicago was nothing like his home in Sarajevo. He did not feel connected. He did not have a local butcher nor a movie theater to frequent and so he wandered and never felt quite at home. Then, one of his best-friends from Sarajevo came to visit in 1997 and he realized he did have a home in Chicago. He showed his friend his favorite coffee shop and his first apartment. He showed him where he got breakfast on the weekend and where he canvassed as a Greenpeace volunteer. He showed him the life he had built for himself in the United States.

During my four month time stateside friends and family would often ask when I was returning home. Then they would laugh and say, well, I guess Mali is your home now! It is something I think a lot about.

I am now sitting on the plane that will take me back to Bamako. The sun has just set but the sky is not yet ready for night to fall. A blood orange strip slices the horizon while a deepening blue shades upwards to a few stars that are in a rush to make their nightly appearance.

Hemon's personal essay was powerful and, while I could never imagine what it is like to be pulled from my home because of war, he makes his experience a relevant one for people like me who have more than one place they call home. He closed his piece with this statement:

“The two places had now combined to form a complicated internal landscape, a space where I could wander and feel at home, and in which stories could be generated. When I came back from my first visit to Sarajevo, in the spring of 1997, the Chicago I came back to belonged to me. Returning from home, I returned home.”

Returning to Mali with heavy luggage, a light heart, and no regrets – Alexandar Hemon captures how I feel.

Check out this link for some fun photos my friend Valerie Demo took at First Landing Park!

On my way!

I am on the train (my last ride for this trip/extended stay in the US) and heading back to Virginia Beach after three weeks spent in Boston and Vermont.  My two weeks on campus at SIT were delightful - even if they were a bit exhausting - and I am excited to get started on my course work and for the rolls of graduate school to finally be turning.

There is a lot going through my mind right now as I prepare to step into the next 'stage' of my life.  As a recently engaged graduate student picking back up with USAID/PHARE via Peace Corps Response and with some other things on the back burner - I have a few things to think about!  (then again, who doesn't?)

And while my own concerns are often in my mind's foreground - Mali's civil unrest has also made its way to the front of the queue (read more news about the Tuareg rebellion here).  I have recently begun to follow a few blogs which I would like to share here since they are exactly what I have been looking for - thoughtful, well-rounded accounts of what is actually happening in Mali (and Africa) rather than abstract news articles that feel a little colder. 

Africa is a Country features a wide range of topics concerning Africa - music, politics, culture and sports.  I am excited to learn more about other countries through these lenses rather than a strictly political/NGO perspective.  Monthly Development Magazine provides "in-depth news and commentary on global trends that affect relief, refugee and development work."  Some of their recent articles have touched close to home for me with my current school and work situations.  Check out these articles about SIT in Rwanda, World Learning's partnership with USAID and taking learning out of the schoolroom.  I also fell upon the African Studies Association website which will be a great resource when I begin more focused research in Mali. 

I am grateful to Alex Thurston, a Ph.D candidate in Islam in Africa, and his Sahel Blog which linked me to a couple of the sites I listed above.  Definitely not a site to be missed if you are interested in the Sahel region!

God willing I will return to Mali in one week (yay!  I finally heard from Peace Corps that my ticket is en route!) and pick back up where I left off in October.  There are so many people I am looking forward to seeing (you know who are - I won't list you since I'm afraid I'd accidentally leave someone off!) and things to do.  I am refreshed from my time home and ready to get back to work.  I will get back on the wagon with my Africa from A-Z series and hopefully add a few new features to the blog once I get settled back in Mali - though who knows how long that will take! 

Thanks for reading!  Is there anything on your mind these days?  Do you have any other blog suggestions? 

Africa from A-Z: Benin

source

The third country in my Africa from A-Z series is Benin.  My friend Ryan was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Benin before joining us in Mali for a third year.  When I think of Benin I think of Nadine, our sweeter than sweet Peace Corps nurse turned embassy nurse who has Beninese roots, voodoo (Benin is, after all, touted as the birthplace of voodoo!) and that the country is a must-see for adventure traveling.  If you are looking to visit Benin, here are some helpful travel hints.  Unfortunately, I have not yet had the chance to visit but surfing the web for information on the country is a close second (or third to first-person experiences!).

One of Ryan's PCV friends from Benin traveled around West Africa on a motorcycle (after completing his service) with a friend of his from village to photograph people from the nomadic Fulani tribe scattered throughout the region.  Their website, found here, is a must visit - the photos will take your breath away.  Here is a link to their facebook page.

 

The man who made the video above was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Benin in the 90s and then revisited with his wife and children in 2007.  What a dream come true for a lot of volunteers!

UNICEF Benin put together this video about a standardized grading tool developed to encourage parent participation, even in the face of their own illiteracy, in their child's academic life.  I wonder how it really works??

Angelique Kidjo looks to be Benin's musical star!  Here are some more musical treasures!

One of the many top things to see and do in Benin looks to be a visit to the Pendjari National Park.  Elephants, hippos and even bats! :)


Benin from A-Z:

Awful story of a Peace Corps Volunteer, Kate Puzey, murdered in Benin.  A truly tragic story - she and her family remain in my thoughts and I hope posts like this will keep Kate, Benin and the safety and security of everyone at home and abroad in the forefront of their thoughts. 
African button earrings!
This necklace is awesome.
Looking for the movie theater in Cotonou?  Here it is!
Living National Treasures (I love anything with the word treasures in it!)
Looted treasures.
Benin highlights.

From BBC:

• President: Thomas Boni Yay
• Population: 9.1million (UN, 2011) 
• 1975 - November - Dahomey is renamed the People's Republic of Benin.
• Capital: Porto-Novo
• Major languages: French (official) Fon, Ge, Bariba, Yoruba, Dendi
• Main exports: Cotton, palm oil 

** My friend Kafui who I met at the 2010 Global Shea conference in Mali just let me know that the 2012 Global Shea conference will be held in Benin in April as well as the Cashew conference which will take place in September.  Thanks Kafui!

I'd love to hear from you - have you ever visited Benin?  Am I missing any must-see or must-dos in the country?  Next week I'll learn more about Botswana - has anyone ever been?  Anything I must learn??

Movie time!

I'm by myself for the first time in a few weeks and I think I'll snuggle into bed so I don't think about it too much.  To console myself and share with you my trips to see friends in both Phoenix and Seattle, I'll share these videos!  I hope you enjoy!

Seattle, WA with Esther & Alaric

 

Phoenix, AZ with Joe & Ashley

Got the Moves in Phoenix, Arizona!

It is the last day of my first trip to Phoenix, Arizona to visit Joe, Ashley and Mia Rose Wollersheim. I sit in the airport with a heavy, happy heart as I wait for my flight to Seattle, Washington - to visit two other dear friends - to board.  I look around the waiting area of my gate and see occupied business travelers with laptops and older couples with cowboy hats leaving and going to see their own loved ones. Airports always make me reminisce.

I remember meeting Joe and Ashley in July, 2008 during our 2-day pre-service training with the Peace Corps. We sat at large, cloth covered tables in a generic conference room full of foldable wall dividers at a Holiday Inn in downtown Philadelphia and were given 'getting to know you' worksheets as one of our icebreakers. I knew after meeting the Wollersheims that Joe was an excitable person with limited reservations and I could also tell that Ashley was a little more reserved than her gregarious husband and had a sweet look about her. What I did not know from that first meeting and what I could not tell from a getting-to-know-you worksheet was that this couple would become two of my best friends in the Peace Corps and more than that, simply two of my best-friends.

The villages where Ashley, Joe and I spent our first two years in the Peace Corps were about 5 hours apart on a good public transport day. Different in traditions but similar in their unfamiliarity we, like all volunteers do, spent a lot of time musing about our sites, Mali, West Africa, development work and the Peace Corps – among other things, of course. We would see one another every other month or so and in between those times we also went on some pretty epic adventures throughout Mali and in some neighboring countries. We climbed, along with our treasure of a friend Cassie, the highest point in Mali – Mount Hombori – and traveled in a taxi throughout Guinea, including hiking in the Fouta Djallon, and down through Sierra Leone to Freetown where we lounged on the beach and rubbed elbows with some dubious characters on the remote Banana Island.

When Joe and Ashley left Mali I knew we would stay in touch but also wondered how our friendship would evolve as they moved on with their lives in America and as I moved on with my new life in Bamako. While I was transitioning to a volunteer position with more responsibility in Mali's capital for my third-year with the Peace Corps – Joe and Ashley were transitioning to even larger life changes – a baby, buying a new home, new jobs. What would it be like when we all hung out again? Would it be the same? Would we still dream about traveling to different places together and within the same breath make goofball jokes as Ashley made popcorn?

I got my first chance to see Joe and Ashley only six months after they left Mali. In January 2011 I went out to Las Vegas with my family to celebrate my Dad's 60^th birthday. Even though Joe and Ashley had just closed on a house in Phoenix days before our trip and Ashley was about 7 months pregnant and growing seemingly by the hour, they still drove the 6 hours to Las Vegas to see me and my family (and hit the black jack tables and slots!). Like all my adventures with the Wollersheims, this one was unforgettable, too.

I knew you 7 months in the belly and 7 months out!

My second opportunity to see the Wollersheims came just a week and a ½ ago. Home for four months from Mali before I start graduate school - you could say I have some free time. I decided to come out to the West Coast – somewhere I hadn't visited since I was 12 years old and traveled with my Dad and family from Vancouver, Canada down to Tijuana, Mexico (in the days before trading drugs and trafficking people became popular – we spent most of our money in Tijuana on chicklets and trampoline jumping).

A community Christmas party

I flew out to Phoenix a few days after Thanksgiving and spent ten days living the dream à la Wollersheim. We dined at Olive and Ivy's, wowed the club with our moves like Jagger at the W hotel, watched more bad romantic comedies than should be allowed in one week, hiked Squaw Peak, ate pizza, prayed together, made Christmas cookies and homemade baby food, drank coffee with hipsters and trolled the vintage shops downtown. Family, friends, community – I could not feel more thankful to have such generous friends.

After ten days with Joe, Ashley and their baby girl Mia, I know I need not have worried about what it would be like to pick up on the relationship that we built over the course of two years in Mali. Because while I could not have known when I met Joe and Ashley how much they would mean to me later - I know now how much they do.

See more pictures from my trip here!

                                Adam Shero (who performed at the W hotel) - Moves like Jagger

Jason Mraz on Sesame Street - I'd link to all the videos we watched with Mia but I'm sure there's a limit

Living on Wollersheim Time!

Mali muso-ni

In her first complet!

 

I hopped on a flight to Phoenix yesterday and this is the good-looking family that awaited me!  Joe & Ashley were volunteers in Mali with me and I feel so blessed (along with my other treasure of PC Mali friends!!!) to call them friends.  We've had some fun adventures and lots of laughs.  And they didn't mess around when they came home - they got pregnant and had this treasure of a baby you see in these pictures - Mia Rose!  She's 7 months old now and hasn't stopped smiling since I met her (not because of me - she is just a really smiley baby!).  She also has her Dad's wiggles!  I'm looking forward to spending the next week and change with them - lucky, lucky me!!

All smiles and cheeks!

Mali and the Magic School Bus

Mrs. Frizzle

It's been a little over a month since I returned to the States and I have quickly settled into the Virginia Beach groove.  Exercise at the Rec center with Memaw, trips to TJ Maxx and Target, and visits with family and friends.  I recently stopped by my friend, Heather,'s office (a former teacher) who thought another former teacher of mine at Ocean Lakes, Mrs. Windish, currently teaching at the Global Studies & World Languages Academy, might like to hear from me, too.  She sent an email to see if Mrs. Windish would be interested in me dropping by to talk about my Peace Corps experience in Mali with her internationally-minded students.  While Mrs. Windish's reply was 'Yes!', I do not know who was more excited about the talk - me or her!

With Lady Luck and the Black Swan - OLHS grads and now VBCPS teachers!  So proud!

But before I went to visit Mrs. Windish a cherished American holiday happened- Halloween!  On October 31st, I donned a favorite complet and sat expectantly with a bowl of candy on my front porch.  After a handful of cute kids in costumes treated, a group of teenagers waltzed down the street and I darted into the front yard to unload some of our mini-size Snickers, Almond Joys and Hershey bars on them.  But I decided, since these tricksters were a bit older, to ask a few geography questions before I doled out half my bowl of treats to them.

"Where is Mali?" I ventured to this group of too-cool-for-school teens.  "West Africa!" one of the girls quickly answered.  'Impressive,' I thought.  "What is Mali's capital?" I continued, knowing I would stump the group with this one.  "Bamako!" the girl answered, almost as quickly.  'Jeesh,' I thought.   "What is a major river that runs through Mali?" I finally asked - knowing that, this time, I had them.  "The Niger?" one of the boys in the group offered.  "Goodness!" I said to them, "where do you guys go to school??"  "Plaza Middle," the girl replied.  "Tallwood," said the boy.  'Wow,' I thought - VBCPS is doing their job!

This morning I had the great pleasure of going to Tallwood High School to talk with two of Mrs. Windish's Global Studies classes about my work as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mali and to see for myself what the Global Studies Academy was like.  If trick-or-treaters can answer questions about Mali at the drop of a candy bar, VBCPS must be doing something right and my visit this morning just confirmed what I already knew - they are!

I was nervous when I started my presentation, but as I talked about Mali, Annie and Esayi and my work in Bamako, not to mention my tall, dark and handsome fiancé, I felt right at home.  I talked about Mali's ethnicities, Malick Sidibé, GIS in Mali (Mrs. Windish is starting a unit on it and asked if I could incorporate it in my presentation) and everything in between!  I loved sharing my experiences with students who were interested (for the most part!).  They posed in-depth questions about Mali on topics as diverse as ethnic divisions and religious freedom to what the stars look like and where Abdoulaye and I want to live when we get married :) 

At the end of the class the students thanked me for sharing my experiences in Mali with them.  "You're going to be a great teacher," one of the students said (she was also the most active-listener I have ever encountered - nodding her head and smiling at me during the whole presentation! - thank you!).   "You remind me of Mrs. Frizzle with your dress and they way you present," another student said.  'Mrs. Frizzle?' I thought.  I think I'll take that as a compliment! :)

                      In case you were missing village, a video from where I lived my first two years

                                      And in case you're nostalgic for the Magic School bus!

Do you want to know anything more about Mali that I haven't already shared?  What do you think is the best school at the beach? :)

(Top Image here)