Ashley and I have been working our butts off these past few weeks. With the new year comes the beginning of our first large-scale projects.

Mine is a women’s economic empowerment and food security based project in conjunction with the local women’s association. Our village has four large community gardens that grows a variety of produce from Jan to June each year. When the weather becomes inhospitable in mid-June, it becomes much harder to find fresh food in our village. Throughout North and West Africa this time is referred to as the hungry season. My project is to construct four onion preservation houses. The women will be able to store a percentage of their onion crops well in to the hunger season. They can then sell the onions at twice the price they would have during the growing season, as well as have a source of vitamin rich onions with which they may feed their families.

Ashley’s project is also food security related, but with more of an emphasis on health. She works primarily with the children’s clinic and maternity in the village and has secured a plot of land next to the clinic for a Moringa food bank. Moringa is a small tree that can be pruned into a shrub. The leaves hold an amazing array of vitamins, amino acids and minerals. One spoon full of leaf powder with each meal provides 42% of a young child’s protein requirements, 125% of their calcium, 71% of their iron and nearly 300% of their Vitamin A. Its also a great source of other vitamins and minerals.

We have 50 trees growing in the plot that should be ready for its first harvest in May; at which time Ashley will be teaching the staff to include the powder in the porridge they provide to malnourished children. In the coming month we are hoping to plant another 500 trees throughout the village, primarily in the four women’s gardens, but also in and near to compounds.

In addition to our village-based projects, I have begun working on an updated manual for Moringa growing in West Africa. The manual will be used to teach future Peace Corps volunteers the best practices of Moringa planting and care. This will be accompanied by a graphic manual in both French and Bambara for the local population to use. Ashley is spearheading the latter.

Below is a graphic representation of what the completed onion storage houses will look like:

Luggage/Bags

• 2 day-sized backpacks (I’d recommend the JanSport Big Student Classic Series Daypack)
• 2 camping backpacks (Ashley and I both have a JanSport Trail Series Big Bear Camping Back Pack. They are comfy and can hold more than enough for multi-week long trips)
• 3 suitcases (During air travel, we put the 2 camping packs inside the suitcases)
• 2 reusable shopping bags

Clothes for Men

• Hiking Sandals
• 4-Pair Boxers or Briefs
• Sleep Shorts
• Pajama Pants
• Hiking Pants (light weight)
• Polo
• Button-up Shirt
• 1 Pair Socks
• 1 Fabric Belt
• 1 Baseball Cap
• 1 Wide-Brimmed Hat
• Casio G-Shock Watch (this is the same model watch I saw a number of IDF soldiers wearing in Israel. High-quality and will last)
• Polarized Sunglasses
• Wallet
• 3+ Tank Tops
• Swimsuit

Gadgets

• iPod
• Waterproof portable speakers (We have the SonicImpact iPax Portable Speaker System, it gets around 14-20 hours of play time on one set of AA batteries and is great for music or podcasts).
• Long 3.5mm male-to-male audio cable to hook up speakers to iPod, computer or other device.
• 16-Pack AA Eneloop Rechargeable Batteries. Eneloop batteries hold a longer charge than other rechargeables.
• 4-Pack AAA Eneloop Rechargeable Batteries
• 28-Count Duracell AA Batteries
• 28-Count Duracell AAA Batteries
• Battery powered USB charger (We have this model: Tekkeon TekCharge, but if I had the extra money I would have purchased the upgraded model. Both of which work as a AA battery charger.)
• LED Headlamp (Having a hands-free light source comes in handy).
• High-quality iPod Charging Cable with wall-outlet (I’ve gone through 3 iPod chargers in 10 months; 2 Apple branded and one Chinese charger. Get a nice charger or two and it will save you a huge headache).
• Nice camera with case. I have a Nikon L100 12MP Digital Camera with 15x Zoom, Vibration Reduction and 3-Inch Display, but for the same price you can get the newer Nikon L120 14MP 21x Zoom Camera. When choosing a camera, be sure to find one with a strong optical zoom.
• Camera Storage Case. Make sure you get one with a zipper. It will keep the dust and the bugs out.
• Nice netbook/laptop with that is light weight with long battery life (6+ hours) and loud speakers. We brought a 13″ MacBook Pro with us, and it was perfect. However, it was stolen when we were in Madrid on vacation. We replaced it with a Toshiba netbook NB520-10P which is adequate.
• Neoprene Laptop Case. Always keep your laptop in the case when not using it. There is so much dirt and dust in Mali.
• At least two Reading Lamps – I’ve been really happy with the Energizer Trim Flex, great battery life and weather resistant. Don’t forget to get extra batteries! (These are great for reading, and to use as lighting for your hut or outside at the dinner table).
• Nintendo DS Lite with a R4 card. The R4 card lets you download games for free and play them on the NDS.
• 2 or 3 Low-cost Portable Flashlights or one high-quality flashlight.
• 2 Universal Travel Adapter
• PowerMonkey eXplorer Solar Charger. This solar charger is strong enough to charge a cell phone, NDS, or iPod.
• Short-wave radio for listening to the BBC. We have the American Red Cross FR-350, which doesn’t seem to be available anymore. If you come across one, get it. We use it daily and one set of batteries lasted 10 months (with accidentally leaving the flashlight option on for an entire day).
• Gerber multitool with pliers, saw, screw drivers, can opener, file and more. I use this for everything from cutting food to sharpening my gardening tools. Highly recommend!
• Basic Swiss Army Knife with Corkscrew and Scissors
• Knife sharpener, specifically the Smith’s PP1 Pocket Pal Knife Sharpener.
• 4GB or more SD card for your camera
• 4GB or more flash drive
• Toshiba Canvio 1 TB Portable Hard Drive. I had a Western Digital hard drive to begin with but it quit working after a couple months.
• Travel Alarm Clock. This is nice to have, but after ours died we started using our cell phone instead.
• Fly Swatters – Walgreens sells these year round. You can buy the electric ones in country.
• Indoor/Outdoor Thermometer with Wired Probe. I recommend getting one with a wired probe because it uses less batteries. However, the Acu-Rite Wireless Thermometer is a good wireless option.
• Bag of Silica Packets. These are the little packets of clear beads found in shoe boxes. They are very handy at saving water damaged electronics as they absorb humidity.

Our time at site went well. Cold season is upon us! The days are still hot, maxing out at 106 degrees Fahrenheit, but temperatures at night fall into the 50s and 60s. In part to the cool weather and part to do to the new post-vacation mood enhancement, we’ve accomplished much at site.

In our compound we have tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers and gourds growing. And of course tons of moringa.

The women’s garden we regularly work at is getting a facelift from a Spanish NGO. In a couple weeks, they will be digging two new wells and finishing up a plant nursery. In November, they reorganized the layout of the garden to use a grid system. Because of all the changes, we haven’t had an opportunity to plant.

Halloween:
We celebrated Halloween a day or so early with a zombie-style horror movie, Pontypool. It is a great low-budget film produced in Canada. A virus, spread by speaking in the English language, causes its victims to steal their prey’s voice (literally), go berserk and tear them limb from limb.

Thanksgiving:
Thanksgiving is quite possibly my favorite American holiday. We were not able to purchase a turkey this year, but I did slaughter a chicken. Ashley made mash potatoes and gravy and we roasted the chicken all day. It was delicious! Thanksgiving was also an action filled day this year. Our neighbor’s hut caught on fire. *Who would of thought that straw, left to sit out in the sun for a couple years, would burn so quickly?* Of course, it does burn quickly and with a lot of force. The whole village, including us, came together to fight the conflagration. It was the middle of the day and we were listening to a podcast under our awning when the calm nature of our village quickly turned. I heard what sounded like the roar of a massive rain storm or a large herd of animals running. Then a few children ran by squealing in delight, followed by grown men running. That is when I knew something was not right, children run and squeal all the time, but I never see a grown man hurry, its just not a Malian thing to do. I walked out of our inner-compound and could see the twenty-plus feet tall flames.

After my jaw dropped and a few expletives escaped my mouth, Ashley and I joined the women in our village–grabbing buckets, filling them and bringing them to the Malian men to battle the flames. In addition to getting right up to the blaze to toss water, the men had to move all the other hut roofs to stop the spread (apparently the roof of a mud and thatch hut can be lifted off its base). It was a sight to see. The fire was contained after a half hour or less. No one was hurt.

During our two months at site, an additional holiday occurred, Ramadan. All the Malians began the three day affair with a trip to the mosque. I’m not sure how American Muslims celebrate Ramadan, but for Malians it marked by giving gifts, getting dressed up, and dancing! For the children, the holiday is celebrated like Halloween in the states, they travel around the village, stopping at all the huts asking for candy. The adults meanwhile exchange gifts as a sign of respect to their elders and to the important people in their lives. Ashley’s homologue brought us a guinea fowl, and a number of people brought us beef. We ate very well. At night all the woman go to the center of the village to dance. The men go, but few ever dance, they mostly stand around and watch.

—

These two months at site have helped us decide what we would like to focus on for the next 14 months of service. Next week, I meet with a local NGO that builds onion drying houses. It is my goal to build at least one of these facilities for the upcoming onion season. Women can deposit there harvest of onions at the house, where they will be protected from the elements and preserved throughout the year. This gives them a food source that will be low-cost and nutritional for the hunger season.

I spent last month pricing building materials and sketching up blue prints. After I pick the brains of the NGO staff, I’m going to try and secure funding from either USAID or the Embassy here in Mali; both offer partial grants to improve food security in rural villages. I say partial, because the grants stipulate that the local community must provide 33% of the cost of any project. That 33% can be through cash, in-kind materials or labor; the idea of which is to ensure the village has a stake in the overall success of the project.

—

Soon I’ll try and upload some photos of the past two months, including scans of the onion house blue prints. But for now I’ll leave you with this cavalcade:

Changing of the Guard Ceremony in Madrid

Sadly, while visiting a park, we had our bag stolen which contained our laptop and a number of other item. The laptop is insured, but it really detracted from our vacation.

We concluded our trip with three days in Toledo. Such a beautiful city.

Now that we are back, we’re planning on spending a month-and-a-half at site reintegrating and beginning to plan the rest of our service. We’re both looking forward to the cool weather and gardening again. I say cool weather, but its relative. Highs are in the mid-80s, which is 40 degrees cooler than the highs in the hot season.

Happy Halloween and Thanksgiving. We’ll be back in Kita/Bamako around the first of December.

OK!Plast bucket converted to secondary fermenter

We begin by choosing our ingredients. During mango season, this was simple. Now that fresh mango is no longer available, one must get more creative.

Mango Wine Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 kilos whole mangoes (4 large and 2 medium sized is what we used) ~750 CFA
• 1 kilo sugar ~600 CFA
• 1 gallon of purified water Free
• 1 tsp of tannin (can substitute with one bag of Lipton’s tea) ~50 CFA for tea
• 2 tsp citric acid powder (can use the juice from two oranges or a handful of small lemons, or a squirt of lemon juice) ~100 CFA for lemons
• 3 tsp peptic enzyme (this helps break down the fruit quicker and will result in a more translucent wine, not necessary and won’t effect the flavor, but makes it look better) ~$8 USD for 16 ounces (96 tsps), not available in Mali
• 1 Campden tablet (this will kill the natural yeast in the mango and help sterilize the materials listed below. Not necessary, but will ensure the quality of your wine.) ~$2 USD for 50 tablets, not available in Mali
• 1 yeast packet. Champagne or white wine yeast. You can use bread yeast from Mali, but it will taste bad. ~$1 USD for nice champagne yeast from the states

Total cost CFA for one gallon wine without optional materials: ~1500 CFA + $1 USD
Total cost USD for one gallon wine with optional materials: $4 USD (1500 CFA + $1 yeast) + $0.25 (cost of 3 tsp peptic enzyme) + $0.04 (cost of 1 campden tablet) = $4.29

Materials: These are all reusable

• 2x OK!PLAST bucket with secure fitting lid OR I-Heart-Africa bucket. These will be the primary and secondary fermenters. ~2500 CFA
• 1x Airlock bubbler. This lets the CO2 from the dying yeast escape while not letting in any non-sterilized substances (these can be purchased in the USA, or you can use an non-lubricated condom or a balloon; the latter two may effect the taste of your wine, giving it a latex-condom taste) ~$1 USD for the actual airlock
• 1x Short piece of clear hose, a meter or less will do. This is used to siphon the wine from the primary fermenter to the secondary fermenter, and to the bottles. Available at hardware stores in Mali and at shops that sell insecticides and pesticides. ~1000 CFA
• 1x Bung (rubber stopper), You can also use the black rubber straps sold in village. This is used to secure the airlock to the secondary fermenter. ~100 CFA
• 4x empty liquor bottles Free, just ask your fellow volunteers for empties

To prepare the secondary fermenter, use a hot knife to cut a hole in the center of one of the bucket’s lids. Like in the picture.

Instructions

Mango wine after first week in primary fermenter

Wash your hands with soap.
Boil water and sanitize all your materials.
Wash the mangoes with bleach water.
Peel and pit the mangoes. The peels and pits can be discarded.
Use your hands to squish and smash the mangoes.
Toss mangoes into the primary fermenter.

Bring 1 liter water to a boil.
Add 1 kilo of sugar to boiling water slowly while stirring until the mixture becomes a syrup.

Add the tannin, acid powder, peptic enzyme and a campden tablet to the fermenter.
If you are using a Lipton’s tea bag instead of tannin, brew the tea with the syrup.
If you are using oranges or lemons instead of acid powder, then juice the fruits in a bowl, remove the seeds and add to the primary fermenter.

Pour the syrup over the mangoes in the fermenter.
Pour the remaining water over the mangoes.

Seal and let sit for one day. During this time the peptic enzyme will begin to break down the mangoes. Also, the campden tablet will kill the yeast if you add it during the first day.

After one day, add a packet of yeast to warm water (we place the water in a sealed glass jar and put it in the sun, but you could also heat on a stove). Add the yeast to the primary fermenter.

Bottled Mango Wine

Reseal.
After one week, use a sterilized utensil to remove the leftover mango bits from the top of the wine.
Then use the hose to siphon the wine from the primary fermenter in to the secondary fermenter. Try to avoid transferring any of the dead yeast. Consuming to much dead yeast will give you diarrhea.

At this point the wine should be drinkable, ours tasted like a low-alcohol mango-flavored beer. It was translucent and yellow colored.

Let sit in secondary fermenter for a few weeks.

Sterilize the glass bottles with boiling water.
Siphon the wine to the bottles.
It should turn a nice golden color after about 3 weeks.
The wine ages better when in mass than in bottles, so the longer you leave it in the fermenter the better.
The older it gets, the better it tastes.

We’ve also made banana-mint wine and basil wine. The banana-mint wine is the recipe from the Discovering Country Winemaking book.

The Basil wine is based on the infused rose-petal wine from the book, but we substituted basil and used oranges instead of lemon.

Infused Basil Wine Recipe

Ingredients

• 1lb basil leafs (we filled a grocery bag full) ~Free, grows like a weed during all seasons
• 1.5 kilos sugar ~900 CFA
• 1 gallon of purified water, only need 3 liters for the first day, the rest is added 4 days later Free
• 1 tsp of tannin (can substitute with one bag of Lipton’s tea) ~50 CFA for tea
• 2 tsp citric acid powder (can use the juice from two oranges or a handful of small lemons, or a squirt of lemon juice) ~200 CFA for oranges
• 1 Campden tablet (this will kill the natural yeast in the mango and help sterilize the materials listed below. Not necessary, but will ensure the quality of your wine.) ~$2 USD for 50 tablets, not available in Mali
• 1 yeast packet. Champagne or white wine yeast. You can use bread yeast from Mali, but it will taste bad. ~$1 USD for nice champagne yeast from the states

Total cost CFA for one gallon wine without optional materials: ~1150 CFA + $1 USD
Total cost USD for one gallon wine with optional materials: $3.5 USD (1150 CFA + $1 yeast) + $0.04 (cost of 1 campden tablet) = $3.54

Materials: These are all reusable

• 2x OK!PLAST bucket with secure fitting lid OR I-Heart-Africa bucket. These will be the primary and secondary fermenters. ~2500 CFA
• 1x Airlock bubbler. This lets the CO2 from the dying yeast escape while not letting in any non-sterilized substances (these can be purchased in the USA, or you can use an non-lubricated condom or a balloon; the latter two may effect the taste of your wine, giving it a latex-condom taste) ~$1 USD for the actual airlock
• 1x Short piece of clear hose, a meter or less will do. This is used to siphon the wine from the primary fermenter to the secondary fermenter, and to the bottles. Available at hardware stores in Mali and at shops that sell insecticides and pesticides. ~1000 CFA
• 1x Bung (rubber stopper), You can also use the black rubber straps sold in village. This is used to secure the airlock to the secondary fermenter. ~100 CFA
• 4x empty liquor bottles Free, just ask your fellow volunteers for empties

To prepare the secondary fermenter, use a hot knife to cut a hole in the center of one of the bucket’s lids. Like in the picture.

Instructions

Wash your hands with soap.
Boil water and sanitize all your materials.

Bring 3 liter water to a boil.
Add all the basil leaves to boiling water (we placed the leaves in a bag made of loose knitted fabric so they would be easier to remove later)
Let boil for 3 minutes.
Pour basil leaves and water in to primary fermenter.
Seal and let sit for four days, during which time the water will become infused with the basil.

After four days, remove the basil leaves.
Bring one liter of water to boil.
Add the tea bag and 1.5 kilos of sugar to the water slowly while stirring. It should become a simple syrup.

Pour the syrup in to the primary fermenter.
Add the juice of two oranges (or lemons).
Add one campden tablet to kill any natural yeasts.
Reseal and let sit for a day.

After a day, add the yeast to a cup of sterilized warm water and add to the primary fermenter.
Reseal and let sit for 14 days.

Then use the hose to siphon the wine from the primary fermenter in to the secondary fermenter. Be sure that the hose is sterilized with boiling water. Try to avoid transferring any of the dead yeast. Consuming to much dead yeast will give you diarrhea.

At this point the wine should be drinkable, ours tasted strongly of basil with a low alcohol content. It was a cloudy white color with a slight yellow tint.

Let sit in secondary fermenter for a month.
The wine ages better when in mass than in bottles, so the longer you leave it in the fermenter the better.

Sterilize the glass bottles with boiling water.
Siphon the wine to the bottles.

Tips:
Be sure that everything is kept as sterile as possible. Wash everything well, and sterilize with boiling water.

Write all your steps down, that way you can reproduce the recipe or make changes if something goes wrong.

We’ve arranged to stay with people through couchsurfing.org for most of our stay. It should be a lot of fun. Wine and tapas, here we come!

Our village, which lacks fresh produce even during the rest of the year, has seen a further reduction. We have onions (most of the time), eggs, canned tomato paste, and spaghetti pasta. Even peanuts are becoming more rare. We’ve been relying on canned goods purchased in Bamako last month and dried foods sent from America (thank you friends and family!).

Needless to say, I’ve been suffering from food withdraws. I even had a two night recurring dream of shopping for junk foods in Walmart–specifically Velveeta cheese and corn tortilla chips (***HINT*** We would love a care package stuffed with Velveeta cheese blocks).

On Wednesday, our village butchered a cow. It was a 1000CFA (around $2 USD) buy-in for a kilo or so of meat, and well worth it. Ashley made pot roast. Amazing. A welcomed change from the norm.

But don’t worry, we’ll survive. But, if anyone is considering shipping a care package, here is a list of our most craved:

Beef summer sausage
Butterfingers and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
Velveeta cheese blocks
Cheese powder from instant mac and cheese
Beef jerky
Beef Bullion
Chicken Bullion
Sunflower seeds
Dried fruit (prunes, pineapple, banana chips, raisins, etc)

Thank you!

Ashley and I began our daily classes with our new language tutor when we returned to site. The Bambara classes are going alright, better than previous teachers but as with any Malian led course it has its stumbling blocks. The Malian education system is very different from its American counterpart. Students are taught to memorize, not interpret. Children can recite memorized lines in French and English, but if you ask them the meaning of the words, they are usually lost.

We have also begun studying for our GRE exam–its only six months away–and we started learning French (again). We alternate classes daily, each an hour-and-a-half. I teach the GRE prep and Ashley the French.

Oh, in case you are wondering, both of us are healthy.

Last Saturday, a Peace Corps land cruiser brought us from Kita to Bamako. The night prior, Ashley had started running a high temperature and was experiencing pain in her lower back. The symptoms worsened over the night.

When we arrived at the medical office in Bamako, the doctors determined that Ashley had a bacterial infection in both her kidneys. For most of the week, the antibiotic regime seemed to have little affect. The bacteria was refusing to die, and she was having a tough time keeping the pain medications down. Then on the fifth day they brought her to the hospital and put her on an iv to deliver both pain meds and antibiotics.

I’m happy to say she is feeling a lot better. She is still running a slight fever, and has mild soreness, but nothing compared to the pain she was in. Next week they are bringing her back in for followup exams and to have a closer look at some anomalies that came up during a few of her tests. But as of this moment, she is walking around, smiling, laughing, and eating solid foods again. Not 100%, but close.

I’ve always been told that I am not invincible, but one never ‘truly’ thinks that they will be harmed–and that applies to their loved ones too. This week was rough both for Ashley, physically, and me emotionally. The Peace Corps doctors are great, checking in every few hours to make sure we were doing alright–and even driving back to the office in the middle of the night when we needed them.

I would hate to think what the monetary cost of this week would have been for us if we were in America, instead of with the Peace Corps in a developing country. Not to mention the level of service we received. The cause of Ashley’s infection is not Mali specific, one can easily contract the same bacteria in Kansas–or any other place.

It was a tough week, an emotional week, but a week of spiritual and personal growth.

For those wondering, the facility we’re staying in has electricity, A/C, orthopedic beds, bath tub with hot water, and pizza delivery. Now that Ashley is feeling better and able to eat solid foods again, we made sure to make use of the delivery service–we had olive mushroom pizza last night!

This week we are back at the Peace Corps training compound for further training. The women at the women’s garden in my village have been telling me how great it would be to have a pump in the garden. Why an electric or gas powered pump is not feasible, this rope pump sounds promising. Combine this pump with the cisterns and we have a highly functional water distribution plan. Each of four gardens in my village has two wells and two cisterns. By building one pump per garden and connecting the cisterns with pipe, each pump will be able to efficiently provide enough water for each garden. Each pump costs around 80,000 FCFA, roughly $160 USD, making it one of the least expensive pumps available for the type of wells we have.

More photos of the pump: https://picasaweb.google.com/dbrentarnold.com/RopePumpIrrigationTrainingISTTubaniso02

While Malians don’t celebrate birthdays, us Americans in Mali do. Ashley’s birthday was June 14 and we had the pleasure to be back at Tubaniso (Peace Corps training facility in Bamako) with a bunch of Americans eager to celebrate. Paper crowns, happy birthday banner, and of course cake! Happy birthday wifey: https://picasaweb.google.com/dbrentarnold.com/Ashleys25thBday

In case you are wondering what our living space in village looks like, I took a few snapshots of our compound. We have two mud huts and a gwa (covered patio). We have both a front and back yard, and an outdoor latrine. Here are the photos of the exterior of our huts: https://picasaweb.google.com/dbrentarnold.com/OurHutBeginingOfRainySeasonJun2011

Of the interior: https://picasaweb.google.com/dbrentarnold.com/InsideOurHutJun7

And under the gwa: https://picasaweb.google.com/dbrentarnold.com/OurHutUnderTheGwaJune6

No house is complete without artwork on the walls. Thank you to PresenTense Jerusalem for the house blessing: https://picasaweb.google.com/dbrentarnold.com/HutArtWork

 

Mali is a moslem country. Alcohol is not something that is commonly consumed or produced. For those that know us well, you will know that we enjoy that glass of wine on Friday nights. It is a three hour bush taxi ride to the nearest alcohol store, and the booze is cheap quality and high priced. What’s not expensive is mangos. So with the help of my parents in the states who mailed us packets of yeast and a few other supplies (thank you mom and dad!), we were able to brew our own wine. Our first batch of kosher mango wine, bottled and waiting to be consumed: https://picasaweb.google.com/dbrentarnold.com/MangoWineMaking8Jun2011

The wine is super sweet, reminiscent of a good dessert wine. The mango flavor adds that touch of Africa. It’s delicious!

 

On May 22, we set off on our bikes to one of the many kourous (mountains) that give Kourouninkoto its name. We ascended the hill to its peak and took in the gorgeous views. The photos feature two subjects I find are so beautiful here, trees and birds. The giant tree in the photos, the one where the bright green birds are pirched, is the African Baobob tree. The pods hanging from the branches are its fruit—a fuzzy hard-shelled fruit that is a delicacy here. On first glance, one might mistake the fruits as monkeys hanging by their tails. The green birds are one of a few brightly colored tropical birds that live in our village. There is a similar species that is baby blue.

Photos of our trek at: https://picasaweb.google.com/dbrentarnold.com/MountainClimbingMay22

Ever wonder what a sunset in Mali looks like from the mud huts you live in? It will make you fall in love with Mali: https://picasaweb.google.com/dbrentarnold.com/HutsAtSunsetApr28

My brother has asked for more photos of wild life. However, where we live there aren’t any wild mammals. No tigers, lions, giraffes or hippos. However we do have birds, toads and lizards. Here is one of the common variety of reptiles that calls our hut home: https://picasaweb.google.com/dbrentarnold.com/LizardInDishesMay10

As you might be catching on, it’s not all work at our site—this of course is by design. Our goal for the first three months in village is to integrate with our community, learn the language, find out what the community truly needs and identify possible partners for projects.

Every morning we wake up at sunrise and ride our bikes to the women’s garden. [https://picasaweb.google.com/dbrentarnold.com/LeavingTheWomensGardenOnBikeMay6]

At the garden, we have a 200 sq ft plot where we are growing cucumbers, squash, watermelon, and other veggies.
Above is a picture of our garden in April. More at: https://picasaweb.google.com/dbrentarnold.com/OurFirstGardenInMaliApr28

Here it is in June. More pics at: https://picasaweb.google.com/dbrentarnold.com/OurGardenPlotJune6

We are planning to spend some of our time in village to help with sanitation. Poorly built latrines cause runoff to flood the streets where children play and animals scavenge for food.
More images at: https://picasaweb.google.com/dbrentarnold.com/TrashPitsAndRunOff

While I’m partnered with the women’s garden, Ashley is partnered with the local CSCOM (under-five children’s clinic). The CSCOM does more than just vaccinates children, it offers family-planning services, has a pharmacy and maternity ward. Everyday women from Kourouninkoto and the surrounding villages visit the clinic with their children. Two weeks ago, we saw a child that almost made me cry. Only a few weeks old, the baby was sick and not eating. Its an image I doubt will ever leave me. However, the clinic also sees hundreds of children that are healthy and happy. Like the baby below.

—

This is from April, before finishing pre-service training. We ran in to a group of nomads riding across Mali on camels. Our trainer spoke with them and they let us go for a ride. These camels were about twice the size of the one I rode in Israel. The photos of me were snapped by a fellow Peace Corps volunteer: https://picasaweb.google.com/dbrentarnold.com/CamelRiding7Apr2011