If you haven't heard I'm back in America! I left Mali because the university went on strike AGAIN and it doesn't look like they are even going to finish the year. So, I was tired of tooling around africa with no purpose wasting taxpayer money....so i'm back in Cali.
it's good to be home :) Now....to find a job....
Gypsy On!
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Debbie Downer the Drama Diva
Ya i was. sorry. it happens.
everything will be fine no matter what. i was being negative....
if school never starts and i go home then YAY i get to be with my family and thomas.
if school starts and i get to stay then YAY i get to teach in Africa.
good lord. somebody give me some paxil. what i really needed was a stiff drink!
loves!
gypsy on.
everything will be fine no matter what. i was being negative....
if school never starts and i go home then YAY i get to be with my family and thomas.
if school starts and i get to stay then YAY i get to teach in Africa.
good lord. somebody give me some paxil. what i really needed was a stiff drink!
loves!
gypsy on.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Well I been here before, sat on the floor in a gray gray mood
All i got is a bit of gray tune. not all hope is lost. school could begin anytime. but sometimes the world just turns gray.
Week 3 of strike begins next week. I've been here what? 7months and a couple weeks, check the turtle at the top. I've worked at the job I came to do for 4 weeks. 4.
My heart feels torn in two. Do i stay and hope? Or do i go home to people I love and (possibly) a job in a school that really needs me?
I know i'm worth more than what i'm doing here. i know that thomas is more important than sitting around waiting for a jacked up education system to MAYBE right itself so i can do something. but letting go of a dream and tossing aside a passion that led you to leave all you knew and loved is probably the most difficult thing i've ever been faced with.
ya pride is some of it. quitting, ugh. giving up? these are not words i am used to uttering. i've never quit anything...i've never given up half way through. but it seems that all the available evidence says to abandon ship.
i guess i know what it's like to be the captain of a doomed ship, to lead a labor of love, and as it sinks you just can't bring yourself to leave. you can't pull your feet from the deck because part of your soul lies within the very wood and steel that make up the boat.
so. i'm waiting. i'm waiting because i can't tear myself away, because i sacrificed so much with such high hopes. it hasn't been a complete failure; i've had some brilliant shining moments, but thats probably why this is so hard. i want more than anything to lay this down and run to thomas and my family and a new job but it takes time to complete the messy, incomplete, and impossible job of extracting your soul from your passion.
so family, thomas....patience please. i just need to make sure it's lost. i need to stay a while just in case she rights herself
Week 3 of strike begins next week. I've been here what? 7months and a couple weeks, check the turtle at the top. I've worked at the job I came to do for 4 weeks. 4.
My heart feels torn in two. Do i stay and hope? Or do i go home to people I love and (possibly) a job in a school that really needs me?
I know i'm worth more than what i'm doing here. i know that thomas is more important than sitting around waiting for a jacked up education system to MAYBE right itself so i can do something. but letting go of a dream and tossing aside a passion that led you to leave all you knew and loved is probably the most difficult thing i've ever been faced with.
ya pride is some of it. quitting, ugh. giving up? these are not words i am used to uttering. i've never quit anything...i've never given up half way through. but it seems that all the available evidence says to abandon ship.
i guess i know what it's like to be the captain of a doomed ship, to lead a labor of love, and as it sinks you just can't bring yourself to leave. you can't pull your feet from the deck because part of your soul lies within the very wood and steel that make up the boat.
so. i'm waiting. i'm waiting because i can't tear myself away, because i sacrificed so much with such high hopes. it hasn't been a complete failure; i've had some brilliant shining moments, but thats probably why this is so hard. i want more than anything to lay this down and run to thomas and my family and a new job but it takes time to complete the messy, incomplete, and impossible job of extracting your soul from your passion.
so family, thomas....patience please. i just need to make sure it's lost. i need to stay a while just in case she rights herself
Monday, February 16, 2009
Valentines Day
Had as lovely as a valentines as possible. Moms sent a nice package of goodies and gifts (thanks). Thomas and I talked on skype and AIM and watched a movie "together" - Prince Caspian. It was pretty good, i was entertained.
Normally on Valentines Thomas and I would have cooked a grand meal and rented a movie. Ya i know, SOOO exciting. But the thing is it's a lot cheaper than going out and to a movie. For 10 bucks get a nice bottle of wine/champagne from Trader Joes, make a delicous chicken or pasta dish and snuggle up for a night on the couch. Heaven if you ask me. Especially because i LOVE to cook. Ice cream would of course be included, sugar cookies, brownies, and some sort of delicious pancake breakfast earlier in the morning.
In order to make myself feel better at being mostly alone on Valentines, I made a spectacular dinner of pesto parmesan chicken with spaghetti. It truly was the best thing i've had in months (thanks to John Richard for the pesto parmesan crackers).
Still waiting for news on the strike....slowly losing patience. Let's just say now isn't a good time to send mail, as by the time it reaches Mali there may be no recipient on the others side.......
gypsy on.
Normally on Valentines Thomas and I would have cooked a grand meal and rented a movie. Ya i know, SOOO exciting. But the thing is it's a lot cheaper than going out and to a movie. For 10 bucks get a nice bottle of wine/champagne from Trader Joes, make a delicous chicken or pasta dish and snuggle up for a night on the couch. Heaven if you ask me. Especially because i LOVE to cook. Ice cream would of course be included, sugar cookies, brownies, and some sort of delicious pancake breakfast earlier in the morning.
In order to make myself feel better at being mostly alone on Valentines, I made a spectacular dinner of pesto parmesan chicken with spaghetti. It truly was the best thing i've had in months (thanks to John Richard for the pesto parmesan crackers).
Still waiting for news on the strike....slowly losing patience. Let's just say now isn't a good time to send mail, as by the time it reaches Mali there may be no recipient on the others side.......
gypsy on.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
and so it goes
the strike was supposed to be over today.....not so much. now they are saying classes will be back on next week. sigh. all my feelings of usefulness are beginning to dwindle.
in all honesty, however, if i were a student i would strike too. Here is the situation:
The government has restricted professors to 10 hours of overtime. Generally speaking professor work 30 to 40 hours of overtime. So that is 20-30 hours of classes that dont' have teachers. This translates to classroom full of students that don't have professors. This is also why the freshmen haven't started school.
It's a bad situation caused by the fact there are 6000 students in the English FLASH program and not even near enough teachers. I sure hope this clears up soon, though.
Gypsy On
in all honesty, however, if i were a student i would strike too. Here is the situation:
The government has restricted professors to 10 hours of overtime. Generally speaking professor work 30 to 40 hours of overtime. So that is 20-30 hours of classes that dont' have teachers. This translates to classroom full of students that don't have professors. This is also why the freshmen haven't started school.
It's a bad situation caused by the fact there are 6000 students in the English FLASH program and not even near enough teachers. I sure hope this clears up soon, though.
Gypsy On
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
For my momma
Well we had 4 weeks of class. That's a lot of work for Malians.....so the students went on strike. It is supposed to end and classes resume on thursday....we'll seeeee.
The GREAT news is that we bought Thomas' ticket today. I'm literally dancing around my room.
Momma sent me some valentine's candy and goodies. thanks mom. new valentine socks and undies. i have an unnatural obsession with holiday socks and undies. i just really enjoy the festive britches....makes me feel celebratory to have hearts/candycanes/pumpkins/four leaf clovers/etc. on my dereier. i can't spell in french...obviously. i can speak it, barely, but i can't spell. when i learned it here in Mali they only taught us orally, so we can't write in french at all. it's like being illiterate, kinda weird. Also included in said package was the prettiest apron i've ever owned. i dont' think i want to wear it in this country and ruin it!
Have i mentioned people carry goats on their motorcycles in the city? it's funny.
Racism is alive and well in Mali. For instance Malians insist that only people from the ivory coast and ghana steal things, never Malians. They also make white people pay more for everything. In addition they love yelling out peoples races as a way of getting their attention examples: Hey Chinese guy (to any and all asians no matter what their nationality is), Hey White person, usually followed by "give me money," sooooo whenever i hear tubob i say "oui farofin" which means "What black person?" can you imagine saying any of that in the US? like hey mexican come here. or hey black person where are you going? Joining the peace corps made me racist hahahaha.
Other ways the peace corps has made me a degenerate:
1. i litter now without any qualms. there is no garbage service in mali, so you just throw your trash in the gutter.
2. i have little to no sympathy for most beggers. i know ME who gives money away like it's going out of style. i walk past people 100x a day who ask me for money. i had to stop paying attention. now just old blind people get money.
3. i throw rocks at roosters. they are loud and they wake me up. it's not a deal where i live now, but in sanankoroba i had no qualms about heaving objects at roosters/donkeys/goats
4. i lie. i tell malians i'm going to work all the time when really i'm not. i just don't want to have to figure out how to say wherever my real destination is in French or bambara. work is easy to say and remember
5. i may have, unwittingly, encouraged revolution in my Friday night class at the catholic center. We were discussing foreign aid and it's affect on Africa and Mali. Many of my students feel foreign aid makes it difficult for African nations to achieve independence and it actually increases their dependence. they spoke of corruption, laziness, and the need for a stronger government. the word revolution was used more than once......i let it slide with no comment since i'm not supposed to insight war as a volunteer.
Gypsy on
The GREAT news is that we bought Thomas' ticket today. I'm literally dancing around my room.
Momma sent me some valentine's candy and goodies. thanks mom. new valentine socks and undies. i have an unnatural obsession with holiday socks and undies. i just really enjoy the festive britches....makes me feel celebratory to have hearts/candycanes/pumpkins/four leaf clovers/etc. on my dereier. i can't spell in french...obviously. i can speak it, barely, but i can't spell. when i learned it here in Mali they only taught us orally, so we can't write in french at all. it's like being illiterate, kinda weird. Also included in said package was the prettiest apron i've ever owned. i dont' think i want to wear it in this country and ruin it!
Have i mentioned people carry goats on their motorcycles in the city? it's funny.
Racism is alive and well in Mali. For instance Malians insist that only people from the ivory coast and ghana steal things, never Malians. They also make white people pay more for everything. In addition they love yelling out peoples races as a way of getting their attention examples: Hey Chinese guy (to any and all asians no matter what their nationality is), Hey White person, usually followed by "give me money," sooooo whenever i hear tubob i say "oui farofin" which means "What black person?" can you imagine saying any of that in the US? like hey mexican come here. or hey black person where are you going? Joining the peace corps made me racist hahahaha.
Other ways the peace corps has made me a degenerate:
1. i litter now without any qualms. there is no garbage service in mali, so you just throw your trash in the gutter.
2. i have little to no sympathy for most beggers. i know ME who gives money away like it's going out of style. i walk past people 100x a day who ask me for money. i had to stop paying attention. now just old blind people get money.
3. i throw rocks at roosters. they are loud and they wake me up. it's not a deal where i live now, but in sanankoroba i had no qualms about heaving objects at roosters/donkeys/goats
4. i lie. i tell malians i'm going to work all the time when really i'm not. i just don't want to have to figure out how to say wherever my real destination is in French or bambara. work is easy to say and remember
5. i may have, unwittingly, encouraged revolution in my Friday night class at the catholic center. We were discussing foreign aid and it's affect on Africa and Mali. Many of my students feel foreign aid makes it difficult for African nations to achieve independence and it actually increases their dependence. they spoke of corruption, laziness, and the need for a stronger government. the word revolution was used more than once......i let it slide with no comment since i'm not supposed to insight war as a volunteer.
Gypsy on
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