Amadu paints the world

Other than my Dr. Phil rants things went really at site this past month.

I’ve begun sleeping outside because of the heat. I love it. I’m even used to all the animal noises that used to scare me.

My school took an almost two week vacation after the second semester for what they seemed to think was Easter.

So, my closest site mate, Katharine, who is also an education volunteer decided she was bored. We had talked about doing World Maps at some point and this seemed like the perfect time for it.

She, first, made the trip up to Dialafara. We painted our first map on one of the walls in my new library.

Now, painting a map may seem like an easy enough activity. I can assure you it is just a little more complicated than it should be.

First, we painted a huge blue rectangle, which I must admit, actually is that easy.

Next though came the difficult and tedious part. Our map was pretty large (about 10 ft wide), and our next step was to create a grid of boxes 5 cm large (or small). We probably rushed through it a little bit in order to just be done with it. As a result, our grid was a little bit off.

As we then traced the outlines of the countries, we realized that because our grid was off, in turn a few of our countries were a bit off. India, China, and Thailand ended up being a little bit larger than they should have been.

We finally painted all the countries (the fun part), and it actually turned out pretty well. It wasn’t perfect and we discussed how to make the next one go even better.

-our map in Dialafara

For most of these kids, they really have no concept of anything outside of Dialafara. They’ve never even heard of Thailand! So, hopefully, this helps at least a little bit with that lack of knowledge.

It was really nice to have a visitor at my site and someone to talk to in English. Although the fact that she was a female visitor certainly did raise a million questions. I cannot count the number of times I have been offered wives, so maybe at least that will stop now that people think I already have a wife.

We finished the first map in a few days and headed back down to Katharine’s site (Kenieba).

We did our second map in the 6th grade’s classroom at the school where she works. For some reason her homologue and the school principal seemed to have nothing better to do. So, in spite of our best efforts to subtly hint that they really didn’t need to stay around, we had an audience for the whole time.

Luckily, this didn’t stop us from rocking out as we worked.

I can’t imagine how boring it must’ve been to watch us draw tiny rectangles.

We really took our time, and we spent a day and a half on the grid alone. The principal seemed to be getting a little bit antsy wondering when we were going to finish, or at least start to actually paint.

But, we stayed patient, despite his best wishes, and we ended up with an absolutely perfect grid, and as a result, a perfect map. I was incredibly proud of the way this map turned out. It really looks amazing.

-Our map in Kenieba

We also ate really well in Kenieba. Katharine’s host family spoiled us, and the street food in Kenieba is amazing. I love my beans!

One night after a great meal I sat there and wondered what could possibly make this moment any better.

That’s when I heard Katherine’s host sister’s phone playing Justin Bieber! Yes! Bieber fever has finally reached Mali. You simply cannot stop the power of the Biebs. I was incredibly happy.

In that moment I thought about Senegal.

During the Spring of 2007 I studied abroad in Dakar for the semester.

I had an absolutely amazing host family. I got along really well with everyone in my group. I had TVs, amazing food, and a somewhat modern city. Still, I couldn’t wait to go home and away from Africa. Not until it was much too late, maybe a few weeks left, did I finally begin to really enjoy myself.

Now, I wonder, have a really changed that much in a few years? Am I older? More mature? I really don’t know.

Since I’ve been living here in Mali, I’ve been back to Senegal several times. Dakar has become quite possibly my all-time favorite city. It is as close I’ve seen to a perfectly happy medium. It is still friendly enough to have the hospitality that is distinct to the area, and yet it has a decent amount of amenities that you would normally associate with the Western World.

I’ve also seen my host family several times since I’ve been back in the region. I’ve tried as best I can to let them know how much I appreciate all they did for me. They are greatly responsible for this path that my life has taken.

Maybe, I have changed. I can definitely appreciate the values that Senegalese and Malians seem to pride themselves on, and will try to apply those same values as I move forward in my life.

I don’t know if I am any more wiser, or more mature. I do know that I took a lot of extra pleasure in painting Senegal and Mali onto our map.