Lots of News from Lisa in Mali!
Hot season, still in Bamako, Mali. Today it's 106 degrees, and we're just beginning hot season. The extreme dry heat continues just until the rainy season starts and kills off the heat which usually happens sometime around the end of May, but some optimistic Maliens have sworn that sometimes it starts as early as mid-April.
So, last I left off I was still writing regular emails from the Peace Corps training center, Tubaniso, located just south of Bamako, where all 106 Guinea volunteers were evacuated late January. After nearly 6 weeks and lots of goodbyes to friends who went all over the world to travel, work and live, Me and 11 other Guinea volunteers are now temporary Mali volunteers working on various Peace Corps projects. I'm still a small enterprise development volunteer, and I got a job doing business consulting for two companies, one is Mali's 3rd largest yogurt and juice producer called Mam Cocktail.
Mam Cocktail is one of Bamako's small enterprise's greatest success stories. It was started as a very small business project by a group of about 10 women, and their yogurt and juice was so popular (especially during hot season) that they sold out rapidly every day. So they kept increasing production until they outgrew traditional cooking methods and got help from an American aid organization in buying big professional yogurt and juice processing and distribution machines. Now they've even out- grown their first big machines and have been selling so much that they have a 3-truck fleet of refridgerated trucks that goes around delivering their products all over Bamako every day. They have a night and day production team, and the whole enterprise is headed by the president Madame Diallo, one of the original founders. The company is still very women friendly and employs women on both production and management levels, including several of the original founders. Mam Cocktail requested a peace corps volunteer because they'd like help with production management, marketing, and getting themselves export ready for both neighboring countries, and eventually the states. Madame Diallo is currently in Shanghai as I type this, buying replacement parts for the machines and will be headed to Germany to pick up more European made packaging next week. She is very well traveled, she was in the import/export business before and has seen more countries than I have. So far I've helped Mam Cocktail set up excel sheets to help track inventory and sales day by day, and to eventually start monitoring the sales of their biggest clients. Two weeks ago, I helped them set up a story board for a commercial that sells one of their best selling products- Degue (pronounced De-gay) which is a traditional Malien dessert of cold sweetened yogurt mixed with sweetened steamed millet that has kind of a natural cinammon taste- it's kind of like a much tastier rice pudding. We even wrote a jingle. But they mostly need help with production growth management, which is a long tedious process.
The other business that I visit once a week is a leather artisan named Sorroca Diakite, who makes beautiful leather purses, shoes, and accessories from goat leather and bogolon (painted mud cloth- much prettier than it sounds) Actually, I'm in the middle of trying to get his pictures up on the internet and if you want to see what I've got so far, go to lisa.justfree.com. There's still a lot of work to be done. For him our main goals are to hook him up with people that can help him export, and to help him brand his craftsmenship and market his brand.
All of this work takes place in this crazy third world cosmopolitan setting. Bamako is, as I believe I mentioned, more developed than Conakry. Most all of the city roads are paved, they have sidewalks on major roads, and even started covering some of their open sewers in nice parts of town. There are working traffic lights, cars that aren't in nearly the same state of disrepair as in Guinea, and a large international ex-pat community. There's a big tourism industry here, so I can't be assured that every white person I spot is someone I know like in Guinea. Even Maliens don't act that surprised when I hop on their morning bache (pronounced bash-ay) to work, although I do get the occassional whispered "toubaboo" and unashamed stares of children. Bashes are the more common system of transport in Bamako, because taxis are expensive for either tourists or patrones. Bashes are gutted mini vans or regular vans all painted green on the exterior with bench seating all around the walls of the van. They usually stuff about 14 people into one and people get on and off at different points on a pre-known route. There is always a driver seperated by a thin plywood wall, and his apprentice, a guy usually ranging in age between 13 and 30 who sits hanging out the open or removed sliding van door banging signals on the van to stop or keep going, yelling at all passing pedestrians in rapid Bambara (the local language here) if they want a ride to the market or where ever they're going. Only 125 CFA a ride, which is about 25 cents. That's what I can afford on my Peace Corps stipen. Although it's an expensive treat, I can buy things like real cheese, pizza or icecream any day of the week here. And there are really nice Italian, American, Chinese and Lebanese restaurants. I'm officially addicted to Fallaffel. Don't know what it is? Visit a pita pit.
I'm well situated in a second story 4-bedroom apartment in a nice area of town, Lafia Bougou. I have a guardian and a nice downstairs neighbor from Cote D'Ivoire who speaks immaculant french. I have a balcony, cieling fan and running shower and flush toilet, and a guardien who looks over the building. But for those of you worried that I don't seem to be roughing it any more, I do not have an air conditioner, nor a refridgerator, and I don't make enough money to put furniture in all my 4 rooms, so I bought some cheap bamboo chairs and a wicker coffee table and bed. And I still cook my meals over a gas powered camp stove with 3 small burners, although with the heat I prefer to eat out at a rice bar (200 CFA a plate) readily prepared.
I keep in regular contact with Dinguiraye, and I'm still waiting on word on whether or not I should expect to go back in June. I might get an extension in Mali. But I'm happy and well, coping with the heat and keeping very busy with work. Nine other Guinea volunteers also accepted temp positions in Bamako, so we all get together at least once or twice a week.
a la prochain!
So, last I left off I was still writing regular emails from the Peace Corps training center, Tubaniso, located just south of Bamako, where all 106 Guinea volunteers were evacuated late January. After nearly 6 weeks and lots of goodbyes to friends who went all over the world to travel, work and live, Me and 11 other Guinea volunteers are now temporary Mali volunteers working on various Peace Corps projects. I'm still a small enterprise development volunteer, and I got a job doing business consulting for two companies, one is Mali's 3rd largest yogurt and juice producer called Mam Cocktail.
Mam Cocktail is one of Bamako's small enterprise's greatest success stories. It was started as a very small business project by a group of about 10 women, and their yogurt and juice was so popular (especially during hot season) that they sold out rapidly every day. So they kept increasing production until they outgrew traditional cooking methods and got help from an American aid organization in buying big professional yogurt and juice processing and distribution machines. Now they've even out- grown their first big machines and have been selling so much that they have a 3-truck fleet of refridgerated trucks that goes around delivering their products all over Bamako every day. They have a night and day production team, and the whole enterprise is headed by the president Madame Diallo, one of the original founders. The company is still very women friendly and employs women on both production and management levels, including several of the original founders. Mam Cocktail requested a peace corps volunteer because they'd like help with production management, marketing, and getting themselves export ready for both neighboring countries, and eventually the states. Madame Diallo is currently in Shanghai as I type this, buying replacement parts for the machines and will be headed to Germany to pick up more European made packaging next week. She is very well traveled, she was in the import/export business before and has seen more countries than I have. So far I've helped Mam Cocktail set up excel sheets to help track inventory and sales day by day, and to eventually start monitoring the sales of their biggest clients. Two weeks ago, I helped them set up a story board for a commercial that sells one of their best selling products- Degue (pronounced De-gay) which is a traditional Malien dessert of cold sweetened yogurt mixed with sweetened steamed millet that has kind of a natural cinammon taste- it's kind of like a much tastier rice pudding. We even wrote a jingle. But they mostly need help with production growth management, which is a long tedious process.
The other business that I visit once a week is a leather artisan named Sorroca Diakite, who makes beautiful leather purses, shoes, and accessories from goat leather and bogolon (painted mud cloth- much prettier than it sounds) Actually, I'm in the middle of trying to get his pictures up on the internet and if you want to see what I've got so far, go to lisa.justfree.com. There's still a lot of work to be done. For him our main goals are to hook him up with people that can help him export, and to help him brand his craftsmenship and market his brand.
All of this work takes place in this crazy third world cosmopolitan setting. Bamako is, as I believe I mentioned, more developed than Conakry. Most all of the city roads are paved, they have sidewalks on major roads, and even started covering some of their open sewers in nice parts of town. There are working traffic lights, cars that aren't in nearly the same state of disrepair as in Guinea, and a large international ex-pat community. There's a big tourism industry here, so I can't be assured that every white person I spot is someone I know like in Guinea. Even Maliens don't act that surprised when I hop on their morning bache (pronounced bash-ay) to work, although I do get the occassional whispered "toubaboo" and unashamed stares of children. Bashes are the more common system of transport in Bamako, because taxis are expensive for either tourists or patrones. Bashes are gutted mini vans or regular vans all painted green on the exterior with bench seating all around the walls of the van. They usually stuff about 14 people into one and people get on and off at different points on a pre-known route. There is always a driver seperated by a thin plywood wall, and his apprentice, a guy usually ranging in age between 13 and 30 who sits hanging out the open or removed sliding van door banging signals on the van to stop or keep going, yelling at all passing pedestrians in rapid Bambara (the local language here) if they want a ride to the market or where ever they're going. Only 125 CFA a ride, which is about 25 cents. That's what I can afford on my Peace Corps stipen. Although it's an expensive treat, I can buy things like real cheese, pizza or icecream any day of the week here. And there are really nice Italian, American, Chinese and Lebanese restaurants. I'm officially addicted to Fallaffel. Don't know what it is? Visit a pita pit.
I'm well situated in a second story 4-bedroom apartment in a nice area of town, Lafia Bougou. I have a guardian and a nice downstairs neighbor from Cote D'Ivoire who speaks immaculant french. I have a balcony, cieling fan and running shower and flush toilet, and a guardien who looks over the building. But for those of you worried that I don't seem to be roughing it any more, I do not have an air conditioner, nor a refridgerator, and I don't make enough money to put furniture in all my 4 rooms, so I bought some cheap bamboo chairs and a wicker coffee table and bed. And I still cook my meals over a gas powered camp stove with 3 small burners, although with the heat I prefer to eat out at a rice bar (200 CFA a plate) readily prepared.
I keep in regular contact with Dinguiraye, and I'm still waiting on word on whether or not I should expect to go back in June. I might get an extension in Mali. But I'm happy and well, coping with the heat and keeping very busy with work. Nine other Guinea volunteers also accepted temp positions in Bamako, so we all get together at least once or twice a week.
a la prochain!
-Lisa
posted by NancyW @ 12:12 PM
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