Journal Lamentation, Cultural Dimensions

Before I can get back to using this blog as a motivational tool, I have to get all of my Mali talk out of the way. I never managed to maintain a proper journal in Mali. If I was outside, I was playing with the children, and when I was inside, we had no chairs, which meant I was in bed, and if I was in bed, I'd doze off before I got the chance to write anything. If my family ever saw me writing or reading, they would consider it "Work", and I don't think I ever managed to get across that this was something I was doing for pleasure.

In Canada, I was really faithful with my journal. It's just what I would do before bed every night. I filled out an entire book and stopped writing two weeks short of Mali because I thought it would be neat to have a book for Canada rotation, and a book for Mali rotation.

It really sucks that I did such a bad job with my journal in Mali, since that's the rotation I care more about.

One thing I really love about Canada is the cold. When we came back from Mali, I expected to be shocked by the temperature differences, having adapted to the Malian climate. I was right, but it was surprising how pleasant the shock was. Other people were bundled up in huge coats, but I just wore a sweater. Then I took off my sweater and went around in a T-shirt. When group members demanded if I was cold, I was like "Yeah, it hurts... It hurts so good."

I am not the only one to have trouble readapting to Canadian society. When we first got back, five days before Christmas, we were in the midst of the Christmas rush. We went into a shopping mall, and a couple participants had to leave, because it was just too overwhelming to their Malian senses.

At the end of CWY, I received two certificates, for the completion of two programs. One was Canada World Youth, and the other was Cultural Dimensions. I asked what Cultural Dimensions was, and it turns out that it was the three day orientation camp at the beginning of the program.

Wow. I get another entire certificate for sitting through a camp when I had no comprehension of what was said. I wonder if the people who dropped out after the camp got a certificate in the mail. After all, they successfully completed the Cultural Dimensions training program. Replacement participants did not receive a Cultural Dimensions certificate, because they did not attend the orientation camp.

French is a funny language. A lot of the words they use commonly are the same as words we use in English, but we only use them for particularly powerful or formal occasions. For instance, you don't move something, you transport it. You don't ask something, you demand it. You don't cross something, you traverse it. You don't watch something, you regard it. You don't guess something, you estimate it.

By the way, turns out that other guy with the same wound as me DID contract Cutaneous Leishmaniasis, so I almost certainly have it.