This past week has been extremely busy with different types of activities with my group and with my host family. It was our last week in La Pocatiere/ Riviere Ouelle, so every second was precious. The week seemed to go by fast and I wish I had more time here to spend with my host family and new friends. Today I leave Riviere Ouelle/ La Pocatiere, and I am not looking forward to that. I am very excited to go to Mali and start a new adventure, but I will defiantly miss my new family here. Tomorrow I head to Mali with my group, and I am gradually getting more and more nervous for the change. I have had so many thoughts run in and out of my mind lately about the uncertainties that come with leaving everything and everyone that I have come to know.
As I’ve mentioned before, I have done a lot this past week, and have been using every minute to my advantage. I did a lot of packing and unpacking, as I was having trouble deciding what I’ll actually use and what I won’t. I really don’t like packing at all, and with the pressure of time, it became somewhat of a pain. Hopefully I don’t end up forgetting something that I really need, as certain necessities are hard to come by in Mali. Some of the other activities I have been up to this past week have mostly been with my group. On Tuesday, Adrien, one of the boys on my team, organized a movie night at the Cgept for our group, family and friends. The movie was made in Mali and was spoken in Bambara, with English subtitles I may add. It was called “Yeelen”, and had to do with the Malian folklore. It was interesting, although I did not enjoy the beginning when they sacrificed a chicken. I am still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I may actually see this sort of thing in Mali on a regular basis. This will be hard for me as I absolutely love animals, but I am trying to be open minded and see it from their perspective. This is something I will have to work on within myself, so that I can fully experience the culture. Although there were some parts I did not feel comfortable watching, overall it was quite interesting learning about their culture through film and hearing some of their folklore.
This past Wednesday was really fun, as Rahama and I had the chance to go to Quebec City with our host mom and her two friends, Francine and Pierette. When we arrived in Quebec city, we went to the mall and walked around for a while. Rahama had never seen such a huge shopping centre before, so it was really neat for her. There was this one store that I was even amazed with because of its size. I am pretty sure this one store was "almost" the same size as my “big” mall back home. After we walked around for a while, we ate lunch in the food court and then left to drive around the city. We drove by the huge parliament building and beautiful homes in the older neighbourhoods. Afterwards we headed to what I and lots of people call “Old Quebec”, which is a big tourist spot. It has a huge castle, 500 year old buildings on cobblestone roads, and the authentic French look. One thing that I love about “Old Quebec” is the local people, as they interact a lot with the tourists. There are also plenty of local artists who sell beautiful artwork, and a lot of local music. It’s really a gorgeous place and it’s pretty close to being in France, without actually being in France. We hung out for the rest of the afternoon in “Old Quebec” just sightseeing and being a typical tourist. The day was really exciting as it brought back a lot of memories from when I was in Old Quebec two years ago for skating.
This past Thursday and Friday were spent with our groups at the Cgept just going over last minute information before we head to Mali. Friday was a really busy day for our group and for me. We did our group meeting all day at the Cgept and went to the company “Dynaco” for some information about agriculture. Afterwards we all headed to the city hall where we set up for our Au Revoir Party for our family and friends. During this time, Ocean and I practiced singing our song as we were singing for everyone. We sang the song “Big Yellow Taxi” and it went really well. Adrien in our group played a solo guitar piece and we presented thank you letters to our families. It was a blast hanging out with our families and friends just dancing and visiting. The night went really well and I enjoyed this last big party with our group in Canada. Later that night Rahama taught me how to tie a sarong (Kounabri in Bambara) Malian style and also taught me how to tie the traditional head dress (Misoro in Bambara) 3 different ways. It was a great way to end off our last week here.
This past Saturday and Sunday was spent doing some last minute shopping for our host families in Mali and of course packing. On Saturday night, Therese and Rogers entire family and all their friends came in from everywhere for a surprise 40th anniversary party for them. It was great and Therese had absolutely no idea. The party was in St. Roch Des Aulnaise at the old Manor that I toured a while back with Francine and Rahama. There was a lot of people and a lot of delicious food. I had a great time taking pictures and hanging out, as it was great being able to celebrate something so special with their family. On Sunday Sept. 12th we had a bunch of people come over to our home for a going away supper and the evening was spent with a lot of family and friends.
These past three months have been amazing and I wouldn’t change anything. I have had a blast while here and have learned a lot about the language and about myself. I wish I had more time to spend with the people I have come to know. Hopefully I can return sometime soon in the next year or two, to visit my family here. Today I leave my town and head for the camp with our group and the other group for the day. We spend the night at the camp and then head out tomorrow (Tuesday) for the airport to go to Mali. We will finally arrive in Mali at 8:30pm on Wednesday. I am so excited, but really nervous to leave Riviere Ouelle. Soon enough I will be in Mali exploring a completely new culture, and unfortunately with that, comes a limited amount of internet access. That will be a good thing for me though, to get away from all the technology that I am so used to. This may or may not be the last blog from me in these next 3 months. I may have the chance to upload a big summary of what I have been up to while in Mali, but I can’t guarantee anything. Check in every once in a while to see if I was able to upload anything, but if I am not able to, I will do a big summary after I return to Canada. Until then, thank you for supporting me and taking an interest in my life by reading the blog. I hope I have written enough to inform you of everything I have done during these 3 months.
Here is a schedule of my trip to Mali for those of you who are wondering what it looks like:
On Tuesday Sept. 14th--> We leave Montreal at 7:30pm (For all of you back home, there is a 2 hour difference from S’toon to Quebec. Quebec is 2 hours ahead of Sask.)
-->We arrive in Paris at 8:35am on Wednesday Sept. 15th. Yes, this is an overnight trip, which I am not looking forward to. Getting enough sleep on a airplane or at least trying to, can be very hard to do. We are in the Paris airport for 8 hours. I thought it was only going to be 6 hours, but I forgot that there was another time change from Quebec to Paris. We are not allowed to leave the airport, because the Malians do not have insurance for France, so our day will be spent walking around inside the airport and looking out at what we can see of Paris. The exciting news for when we return is we most likely will be able to leave the Paris airport on our return to Canada and explore Paris for a couple of hours. Hopefully we can do something like this, as airports are extremely boring.
-->At 4:30pm on Wednesday, we leave Paris and head to Bamako (the capital of Mali) and arrive there at 8:10pm. It appears to only be a 4 hour flight, but is actually a 6 hour flight because of the time change again.
This is my schedule for the next couple of days, so hopefully everything goes well. I wish I could upload more blogs while in Mali, but considering my village has no power, running water or any necessities such as these, it will be unlikely.
Until next time (which may be a very long time)
Au Revoir!!!!! (Mali in 2 days!!!) :D
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