Phoebe!

I got a cat! Her name is Phoebe! 

We had to bail out our courtyard today to keep our rooms from flooding!  It was a huge storm!!!!!  Thankfully we got enough water out before the ship went down, i mean the house flooded.

Gypsy on

YAY I finally finished painting my room.  It took all day.  Literally.  But it looks so much better!  It's not a great job, and i have ghetto crown molding (also known as I can't reach the top of the wall without painting the ceiling so i just stopped a couple inches short) and if one looks hard enough, one can see missed spots and blotches, but it's still better than dingy dirty white.

New Pics Up!

Okay there are some new pics up including ones of my new house, but even those aren't up to date!  I painted my room today and i'll get you some finished product pics soon :)  It looks great, well....great for Mali.

For the last days of training:

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2061025&l=161eb&id=8501838

and for swear in and the house:

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2061130&l=3b09e&id=8501838

Home is where the heart is

Well i'm settled into my new house in Bamako.  It's seems like a mansion compared to my hut in Sanakoroba.  I must admit, this is MUCH cushier living than out on Brusse (this means bush in French...well i assume in french, i actually don't even know lol).  I've got my own bathroom with running water, a shower (albeit a cold one), and even a toilet.  Now I just have to figure out how to get the mildewy smell out of the shower drain, it's gross.  I've got my own kitchen now too.  So i can start cooking food in my ghetto oven.  I even have a fridge!  

All the same i live in a city with open sewers, terrible pollution, and there is livestock meandering down the center of the road at any given time.  Life is strange in a Developing Country.  

My house is very nice, and some pictures are posted in the links below.  So check it out.  They are all before pictures, I actually moved all my stuff in today, so the house isn't so empty.  I live with two guys, Jeffrey and Alec, so I'm not all by myself like most Peace Corps volunteers.  Again, my service isn't very normal since I"m living in a capital city working at a university.

I'm very happy to have finally unpacked my bags.  It's been hell living out of a bag for 2 months without any REAL place to call home.  I love my house.  I love my neighbors.  I love that I have a Malian Market around the corner (think bazaar in a very 3rd world kind of way....i get most of my food here, among other things...i'll take pictures later).  I love the dirt roads, the cows wondering about the streets, and the life of the city.  I think I might even love the mosque down the street that wakes me up at 3:30 in the morning for call to prayer (well actually it's to tell people to eat before the sun comes up cause of Ramadan, call to prayer isn't til 5)

My address is still the same, but now I'm a PCV, not a PCT (WOOT). 

things are good, and getting better.  

Gypsy on!

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2057370&1a&id=8501838

The new pictures are after picture #30

there are more new pics, but i'm having trouble uploading, stay tuned

Swearing in 9/12/08

I, Tiffany Bailey, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

I trained for 2 months.  I learned French.  I passed my tests.  I took the oath.  And now I'm a Peace Corps Volunteer.  

Swearing in is at the US Embassy with all the hoopla of Ambassadors and Press etc. etc. etc. 

Then we party.  

Then we save the world.

Sending Fire Trucks to a Stone Village

Development Work.  I, apparently, am involved in Development Work.  I thought I was just making the individual decision to make a difference in peoples' lives, however, I've learned that I'm actually involved in Developing a Nation.  

What does that even mean?  Development from what and to what?  I'm assuming all this Developing has something to do with alleviating poverty.  That makes sense right?

So poverty.  Our guest speaker today is the director of the Millenium Challenge Project.  Google it, I don't have time to explain other than it's an NGO that wants to Develop countries.  Anyway, he asked us today to consider the following:

Country X (big hint here, X is Mali) become a democracy in 1990.  

• Every year since that time the GDP has increased 5%.  Not bad.  In fact between 1990-2008 the GDP has more than doubled. 
  
• From 1990-2008 60% of the GDP is Agricultural and originating from Rural populations
• The Urban population accounts for 20% of the total population with 80% residing in rural areas.
• From 1990-2008 the Urban Poverty rates have decreased from 27%-23%.  
• HOWEVER in the same period of time the Rural Poverty rate has Increased 76%-79%

What the hell is going on.  The economy is getting better nationally.  The majority of the GDP comes from the rural areas, but the rural populations are getting poorer. 

So what does Development look like to a Peace Corps volunteer?  Is it planting better seeds?  Getting better irrigation?  Making farmers produce more?  This is a common goal for volunteers.  But then what.  They make more, to sell it for crappy prices, to get poorer.  They sell raw cotton, which is exported, and then they buy fabric that is imported.  The farmers have no property rights because there are no land deeds.  Property is considered owned as long as you are using it...so you send your grandma out to throw some millet seeds around and farm a meager product while you (the male bread winner) go try and find a job in Bamako.  

I feel so far out of my league tackling problems of national Development.  I have no idea and I'm overwhelmed by a country, no a continent, that has basically become a welfare state.  A Welfare Continent, if you well.  Africa gets money sent to them to improve their schools, if their schools improve they stop getting money.  If the schools don't improve, they get more money.  

In fact, Mali is the darling of the Development world because it is a real democracy (sort of).  It's secular and there is universal suffarage, in theory at least.  Developed Nations like the USA are very vested in making Mali succeed.  Money is no object when the outcome is an African Nation that is Democratic and a Success.  Too bad it's not really working.

There is a village in Mali where a fire truck is sitting on blocks outside the town mayor's office.  The town is made of stone.  The fire truck was donated by some Baptist church in Southern America.  Why did they donate a fire truck?  Because the town didn't have one.  The truck has subsequently been scavenged for parts and tires, and now sits outside a lonely idol to nonsustainable Development.  

There are Malian tailors who are going out of business because American's are donating clothes to ship to Africa.  Tailors are no longer needed to make traditional clothing.

Sustainable Development.  What the hell is it?  How do I contribute to it in a University setting?  

Don't worry I'm not discouraged, just intrigued.