Ben in Mali: Back in Mali

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Back in Mali

Just got back from vacation in Senegal, Ghana, and the Cote d'Ivoire. I promise I'll write a blog about it, but I won't post it until I can get some pictures from Laura's camera - my camera disappeared about three days before we left for vacation. Although I'm very upset about this, at least all the pictures that were on it - I had a 2-gig memory card, so about 3 months of pictures including all my Timbuktu and Dogon pictures - didn't get lost, as I backed them up to my computer a couple weeks ago. So now I just have to make sure my computer survives the last couple months here...

Anyway I'm back in Mali and living in Bamako for the swim project, which begins in less than two weeks. I hope to keep regular postings on it for the duration, but wish I had my camera (it was waterproof among other things) to document it.

Hope to update soon

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Books I've read during my service

Graham Greene, "The Quiet American"
J.R.R. Tolkien, "The Silmarilion"
Michael Pollan, "The Omnivore's Dilemma"
Howard Zinn, "A People's History of the United States"
Sun Tsu, "The Art of War"
Thomas L. Friedman, "The World Is Flat"
Dorothy L. Cheney and Robert M. Seyfarth, "Baboon Metaphysics: the Evolution of a Social Mind"
Paul W. Glimcher, "Decisions, Uncertainty, and the Brain: The Science of Neuroeconomics" (re-read)
John Steinbeck, "East of Eden"
Tracy Kidder, "Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World"
Paul Collier, "The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It"
Philip Pullman, "The Amber Spyglass"
Ann Patchett, "Bel Canto"
Sam Harris, "Letter to a Christian Nation"
Philip Pullman, "The Subtle Knife"
Erik Larson, "Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America"
William Easterly, "The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good"
Philip Pullman, "The Golden Compass"
Stephen Hawking, "A Brief History of Time"
C. S. Lewis, "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Last Battle"
C. S. Lewis, "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair"
C. S. Lewis, "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader"
C. S. Lewis, "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian"
C. S. Lewis, "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Horse and His Boy"
Jon Krakauer, "Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster"
C. S. Lewis, "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe"
C. S. Lewis, "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician's Nephiew"
Khaled Hosseini, "A Thousand Splendid Suns"
Steve Coll, "Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001"
Jeffrey D. Sachs, "The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time"
David Fromkin, "A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East"
Oliver Sacks, "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: and Other Clinical Tales"
J.R.R. Tolkien, "The Return of the King"
Jared Diamond, "Guns, Germs, and Steel: the Fates of Human Societies"
Bruce Rosenblum and Fred Kuttner, "Quantum Enigma: Physics Encounters Consciousness"
J.R.R. Tolkien, "The Two Towers"
Paul Glimcher, "Decisions, Uncertainty, and the Brain: The Science of Neuroeconomics"
J.R.R. Tolkien, "The Fellowship of the Ring"
Daniel Quinn, "Ishmael"
William Shakespeare, "The Comedy of Errors"
William Shakespeare, "Titus Andronicus"
Atul Gawande, "Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance"
Anne Fadiman, "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down"
Alan Lightman, "Einstein's Dreams"
J. K. Rowling, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"
J. K. Rowling, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince"
C. S. Lewis, "The Screwtape Letters"
William Shakespeare, "King Richard the Third"
J. K. Rowling, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"
Philip Zimbardo, "The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil"
Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything"
J.R.R. Tolkien, "The Hobbit"
Unknown, "Beowulf: A Verse Translation"
William Shakespeare, "King Henry the Fourth Part III"
Jack Kerouac, "On The Road"
J. K. Rowling, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"
Yann Martel, "Life of Pie"
J. K. Rowling, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban"
William Shakespeare, "King Henry the Fourth Part II"
J. K. Rowling, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"
Wiliam Shakespeare, "King Henry the Fourth Part I"
J. K. Rowling, "Harry Potter and the Sourceror's Stone"
Elizabeth Kostova, "The Historian"
Richard Dawkins, "The Selfish Gene"
Ishmael Beah, "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier"

Glossary of Peace Corps terms

brousse - "brush" in English, refers to the wilderness, countryside, etc.
COS - Close of Service
CSCOM - Centre de Santé Communautaire = Community Health Center
ET - Early Termination (when a PCV chooses to leave early)
formation - "workshop" or "training" in English
homologue - "counterpart" in English, a local Malian villager with whom the PCV works closely
IST - In-Service Training
nyegen - pit latrine. Nicer word for "shithole," which is exactly what it is
PC - Peace Corps
PCT - Peace Corps Trainee
PCV - Peace Corps Volunteer
PST - Pre-Service Training
salidaga - watering-can like replacement for toilet paper