On Mali and Azawad

I recently read an article on Mali which sums up what's been going on since it stopped being such a news attraction.  Looks like, after the Tuaregs chased off the Bamako military, a separate Islamic faction beat out the Tuaregs and now there are basically no Tuaregs anymore.  This new Islamic faction has apparently renamed Northern Mali as Azawad, and it sounds like it's being treated by locals as a new country.  The article says that Mali's heading down the same path as Somalia.  Apparently Somalia is "the most enduring failed state" in the world, but now Mali is looking to succeed that title.

I thought this was the direction that things were headed.  I think they only consider Mali to be a "failed state" because they're considering Mali and Azawad to be the same nation.  Sounds like the area outside North Mali is pretty stable at this point, and I think the researchers are saying that Mali is in a rough way, not because of the individual stability of either Mali or Azawad, but because Mali and Azawad are so separate.

I don't like the sound of the people in charge of Azawad, and there are going to be people who don't like the idea of their land's identity as a nation changing, so it will have to deal with the friction that comes with the creation of a new nation, but I'm willing to bet that it isn't the "greatest failed state" when looked at as an individual country.

I thought that the North was pretty much lost, but I'm surprised that the Tuaregs got beat out the way they did.  The takeover of North Mali came because of a sudden gain in strength by the Tuaregs.  The Islamic extremists have been out there the whole time, and to my knowledge, they haven't increased in power.  I'd think that if a greater power seized the North, and they had not been able to take control during times when it was ruled by a lesser power, than they would only be in a worse situation now.  I guess there's something that I'm not getting.

I expected the Tuaregs military might to regress over time, as it was founded on a past event with no renewable resources, and because the democratic world is on the side of Mali, but I thought that their regression would come over a long period of time.  Maybe they really did only have enough resources for the takeover, and they couldn't handle defending what they'd taken.

The news in Mali is the leading news of the entire African continent right now.

I've been writing my "unpublishable" stories about Mali on my laptop.  I have to say, you guys missed out.  These stories include such incredible things as me performing in the middle of a stadium for a politician from the North of Mali, me being credited for saving the life of a young girl and me refusing an order from the president of Mali.  There's a moment of insanity on my part in this, there's romance and danger, there are moments of heroism on my part... and even an instance of villainy.  These stories include the best things I've ever done in life, and the worst thing I've ever done.  Damn.  And it's all unpublishable.

New Residence Papers

Residence just got back to me with a request to do some paperwork.  Turns out, they sent me a package that I was supposed to fill out and then send back, but it never reached me.  Same thing happened to me in Katimavik and CWY.  I wonder what's tripping them up.

Yeah, so there's 17 pages in this thing.  I had to go to the library to get them printed out.

I hate forms... They ask me to date them, and they give these little sets of spaces, two for month, two for day, and two for year.  Most of them have indicators saying which order they go in, but some of them don't.  That wouldn't be a problem, because the assumption would be that the order is the same when it's unmarked as it is when it's marked.  Unfortunately,  some of the marked ones say that the day goes before the month, and some say the month goes before the day.  Did the same person set up this entire form?  I'll just date it in the same order as the nearest marked date space.  I'm lucky to have the birthday that I do.  If I screw up the order, hopefully they won't assume that I was born on the 21st month.


Until I'd come back to Guelph, I hadn't remembered that I have insomnia.  It has a lot to do with the air, I think.  The Northern air is really nice, as I think I've said, and it induces some really deep sleep with some really memorable dreams.  Guelph air is bad, and it induces shallow, dreamless sleep.  I'm thinking back on my travels and trying to decide if Guelph air is exceptionally bad or not.

In Mali, the air was harsh.  Everytime I think back on it, the air here becomes more bearable.  I had some really good sleep there, but I think that's just because of how exhausted I was.  Rural Quebec was fine.  I think I remember that sleeping was one of the few perks of that rotation.  Chisasibi... I lived in some pretty cramped quarters, same with Thunder Bay and PEI.  The beds were pretty terrible, too.  So when I think back on sleeping in those places, I don't think so much about air quality.  I don't think any of the locations were exceptionally bad, though.

I've managed a few dreams since coming back.  Last night I dreamt I was invisible.  It wasn't a typical invisibility dream, though, where you can write it off as "feelings of being unnoticed" and be done with it.  This dream lacked a sense of isolation, because strangely, I wasn't subjected to that foggy sort of "figurative logic" that usually comes in dreams.

In my dream, I was invisible, and I could hardly believe it.  I was shocked because it was so strange and inexplicable.  I went to meet my family, and surely enough they couldn't see me.  When I spoke they were startled and looked around for where my voice was coming from.  I explained to them that I was invisible.  They could hardly believe it, either.  I told them that I didn't know why or how I was invisible, and that I would be looking for a way to reverse the process.  Then I woke up, and I wasn't invisible.  That was pleasantly surprising.

I also had a more standard dream where my I was in Residence at college and I was roommates with my two friends from elementary school.  One of them dressed up in my Mali clothes and went around telling people that he was me, and they believed it.  I told him to stop impersonating me, but he didn't.  Eventually I grabbed him and screamed at him to take off my clothes and stop pretending to be me.  He then transformed into an insect and started buzzing around my head.  I started swatting at him and told my friend that I "hate it when he turns into a bug, because I worry that I'll kill him by accident".  My friend replied "Yeah, but you never do".

My Brother's First Aid Course

My brother's getting his First Aid and CPR certificate today.  It's going to be a grade better than the one I got, which seems to be a theme in his experience when compared to mine.  Mine was a Level A, but his will be a General and Level A.  I figured Level A must be the max, because, well, that's how school papers are graded (actually, they don't mark that way around here but for some reason that system is still universally recognized).  But I guess I was wrong.  He's studying the practice for longer than I got to, too.  Honestly, I don't feel that I was deserving of my certificate.  Post-completion of the course, I did not feel confident to take someone else's life into my own hands.

Apparently my old employment counselors told my brother to tell me to attend a free yoga class downtown.  That's... odd.  I also have an invitation to volunteer at some tree place.  My brother's behind that one, too.  He actually got a tree and brought it home.  We're supposed to keep it in this plastic pot for awhile, and then plant it at some later time which my brother knows.

Stuck in the Past

Do you guys ever have a moment where, for whatever reason, you get a peek into the life of someone that was important to you for a particular life event, and it turns out that they are completely unchanged and still adamantly focused on this past event, as if it is still the focal point of their lives?

It's happened to me a couple times.  Never in a very important way, but I always find it surprising.  For instance, back when I was in grade eleven, it came time to do a group assignment, and I was put with a couple of girls that I had taken elementary school with.  All they talked about was elementary school.  The two girls were friends, so I guess that time was relevant to them for this reason, and my being there acted as a stimulant, but it was still weird.  They talked as if the events they were talking about happened just the other day.  It was casual, chatty and detailed, with an underlying tone of current relevance.  It's a little difficult to put into words what exactly about that conversation I found surprising, as it was almost a matter of tone rather than subject, but it left an impact on me.

Also, when I look at the Facebook pages of my old friends from Katimavik, I see that they are littered with messages from people of their former group, and that's all there is on them.  There's a couple people who still have their Katimavik group photos as their profile pictures. I spoke with a few old friends from Katimavik, and I got sort of the same vibe.

In one way, I'm jealous that it seems like I missed out on what appears to have been a life-encompassing experience for some people, but on the other hand, it's been two years post completion of a six month program, and when at this point it still looks to the world like you've only just finished those six months, it begins to look as if the experience is behaving as a limiter.  I left my soul in Africa, and I don't want to move away from what was for me a life-changing experience, and which could have caused me to move in a completely different life direction, but now that I'm walking the path that I am, I have to put one foot in front of the other and look toward the future.  It doesn't mean that I have to forget my experience, or cut ties, but it means that in most of my day-to-day life, I have to act as the self that is relevant to this life, and not a past one.

Some of these people who are still laser-focused on Katimavik moved on to do great things, too.  They've built careers and have moved impressively since I knew them.  But their focus is still on the past.

Oh, by the way, elephants don't laugh.  I finally got to watch those videos, and while they do smile, and they sort of rock their heads in a convulsive way similar to laughter, no sound comes out.

Trying the New Bus System

Forgot to say, the day I did that work, I got to try out the new Guelph bus system.  I hear that the new system was created by a guy who doesn't live in Guelph and who has never ridden a bus before.  Seems believable.  Apparently, even if there is no traffic, and the bus doesn't have to stop for anyone, trial runs show that it's still impossible for the buses to do their routes on time.  I've already said that it now takes three buses to make it from one side of Guelph to the other.

To get to work, I walked downtown, took a bus from the terminal, and had to go to the University of Guelph and use their terminal to get to my destination.

I will say that the new terminal is nice.  It's right where the old Greyhound station used to be.  That makes me wonder where the Greyhound station is now.  When I went to visit my dad in Toronto post-CWY, I got to take the Greyhound.  The station's temporary location was a trailor in a parking lot.  It was pretty classless.

So maybe we traded our nice Greyhound station for a nice local bus terminal, and now we've got a clumsy Greyhound meeting spot of similar quality to our old bus spot.

I've been looking for some short-term work.  I just hit up the Job Bank, and to my surprise, I got two responses.  Trouble is, I feel like a scumbag when I'm applying for long-term work and I'm planning on ditching them in a month.  I was honest with the employers, and as I suspected, they weren't interested in the one-month deal.  If I were a smart man, I would do away with my concern for the employers and look after only my own interests, but to be honest, I did the deceptive short-term bit for one month before CWY, and I still feel bad for just disappearing on all those people.  And that was just a stupid temp job, where I got abused enough that I could arguably say any neglect on my part was morally just.  I hate to think how I'd feel getting a really comfy long-term position with a decent employer, and then hightailing it outta there in the form of a premeditated scam.

I'll be hitting up the old temp agencies.  They're more likely to have short-term work.  They have those little assignments that last a day or two, or a week or two.  I feel like, if I've had trouble getting a reaction from them, though, when I was willing to do anything, for any length of time and for any pay on any shift, then putting down any kind of preference is going to cost me major points.

Granddad came over yesterday.  It was fine, but I had to break it to him that I didn't get my driver's license.  I hate breaking that news.  The general expectation is that I got my license, so I keep having to correct people.

Getting Some Work In

Well, I got to do an honest day's work.  $12 and hour, too, so it's the same as what I made in the factories.  I just work around the house, but they managed to keep me busy, even if it was at a pretty relaxed pace.  I'm glad I got $12 an hour, since, when I was a kid, they used to pay me $10 an hour.  At the time, that was really good, because I was a kid and any kind of pay seemed monumental, and it was $3 above minimum wage at that time, anyway.  Now, however, it's a scratch under minimum, and having worked for seven months at $12 an hour, it's easy to get spoiled.

Got a free meal out of it, too, I might add.

I pulled weeds, used snippers, dug things out with a shovel... Okay, I weeded.  I won't try and buff it out any more than that.  I watered, too.  But they have a pretty decent area to work with and they had enough weeds to keep me going.

Back to my Origins

I'm really going back to my roots.  I have a gig doing some light landscaping for some of, if not the first people I ever did odd jobs for.  Just yesterday, I spent dinner and caught up with them.  I told them I was going back to college and looking for some short-term work for about the month-and-a-half until then.  They mentioned that they had some work to do around the house, and I'm heading over there tomorrow, for apparently a full day of work.  Said they'd give me the instructions in the morning, and then I'd work for the rest of the day at their place.  They said they "couldn't imagine it would take more than one day, but if it takes two, it takes two."  Honestly, from their description of the work, it just sounds like gardening, and I can't imagine something like that taking a full day.  I mean, I guess I see people who work for the city, who have those landscaping jobs that I guess must fill their days, and I guess I know how a horticulturalist or an agriculturalist fills their days from my two CWY rotations, but this sounds like around-the-house type work.  Well, we'll find out how it goes.

I'm going to use the messed-up bus system for, It think, the first time.  Apparently when I was in Kenabeek, they built a bus terminal downtown.  At least that's something.  We never had one before, and the space they had was sub-par.  Mom says I can't miss it.  I'm sure I've been downtown since I got back, and I don't remember any terminal.  Guess I wasn't paying attention.

African Brewing

I think I figured out why the Bamako beer was better than what we've got.  Turns out, instead of barley and hops, they use millet, sorghum, corn and brown rice.  It's just what they have handy, and by happy coincidence, they make for good brewing.  However, I found out that the Three Horses non-alcoholic beverage that I found in Sirakorola is actually usually 5.4% alcohol and is the most popular beer in Madagascar.  It was listed under the same category of beer that I was drinking, but Three Horses was disgusting!  So... I don't know.  I guess you can't cast a judgement on the entire category.

And while we're on the subject of Africa, I'd like to say that, as someone who has lived for three months in a sub-Saharan environment, it's TOO FREAKING HOT out here!  Great White North indeed!  Apparently the previous couple weeks were even worse, so it's a good thing I was hiding out up North, although even there it was kind of grating.

I got a pair of sweatpants a couple days ago.  I guess I never really had a pair before?  These things are legit, though.  I'm using them as a replacement for pajama pants, and I can already tell that they're going to be more durable without being any less comfortable.  I can see why lazy people have a stigma of wearing these excessively.

My Northern Chipmunk Friend

As I've already explained, there was a certain chipmunk that I got along with quite well when I was up in Kenebeek.  Here's a pic of him

At first, he would only eat seeds if I gave them to him in the manner seen above, but with time, he grew to trust me enough that he would eat out of my hand.  Eventually, he would put his front two paws on my hand.  Then he would sometimes go into my hand with three paws, but keep the other one aground.  Eventually, he trusted me enough to sit on my hand with all four paws.

 And eventually, he trusted me enough to lift him off the ground, albeit not very far.  Only about four inches or so.  It might be hard to tell from the pic, but he is above ground in this one.

 He had a chipmunk friend, that I never managed to get all that close to.  Here she is.  I'm calling her a she, but I've no clue.  They used to scramble all over each other in the most mesmerizing way.  At first I wondered if they were mating, but that definitely wasn't it.  Maybe they were courting, or just playing.  They would chase each other around, too.  Here's a pic of my chipmunk's friend.

Before I had a reason to start typing "chipmunk", I always thought the "munk" part was spelled "monk", as in "the monk of chips".  The animal kingdom's furry little spiritual leader.

Eating Rice Again

I can eat rice again, I really can.  There was a girl I knew that did CWY in the Senegal, which is Mali's neighbor, and she told me that after the program, she couldn't eat rice for two years.  Some months after I finished my program, I tried eating rice, and a couple spoonfuls entirely killed my appetite.  I had thought the whole "Can't eat rice" thing was more of a joke than anything, but it really wasn't.

After the six-month mark since I'd been in Mali, I got frustrated that I hadn't got past it, so I tried again.  This time, I put down a plate and was legitimately hungry enough to go for seconds.

I tried my friend from Karadie's phone number and couldn't connect.  I expected it would be hard.  When I phoned to as far as the neighboring village I had to go all over the place to find somewhere that would connect.  I figured I'd have to be pretty lucky for m friend to be in just the right spot at just the right time.

I know a guy who has called Karadie successfully multiple times, and I've sent himj a message to see if he has a trick.  Of course, his host family was the mayor's family, and I remember that the guy who I'm trying to call had to go through the mayor for some reason, if he wanted to talk to his family.  So maybe the mayor just has a better cell phone?  No idea.

Flickr Account Used Up

Well, I'm back in Guelph.  First thing's first, let me give you a link to the new update in my Gallery blog: http://gryphonsgallery.blogspot.ca/2012/07/kenabeek-pics.html

I'd link you to my Flickr account, too, but apparently I've used up all the space on my free account.  I was pretty sure they said their space limit was a monthly thing, but I guess not.  A one year pro account is twenty five bucks.  They assure me that "Holy smokes, that's cheap!" and I guess it is fairly reasonable... But right now, I feel like I'm done with Flickr.  Cheap is fine for some people, but I like to get something for nothing, you know?

I might be able to cheat the system by getting a bunch of separate free accounts, but then I'd have to make a bunch of fake email accounts... And then I'd have to flip through accounts to see everything I wanted.  It would be a little bit awkward.

I got into Residence, although it required somebody intervening with a credit card.  This whole thing has been so messy, but at least thing are set up at this point.  A little math tells me that per year, cost of living is roughly the same whether or not you live in Residence, but that's only if you exclude the summer months which Residence doesn't cover.  I think Residence makes things a little more pricy in total, and when you couple that with their awkward management system, well... At this time, I don't know if I'll be wanting to do this twice...

CWY in Guelph

Guelph got it's own CWY group!  I'm feeling a little bit conceited now, because Guealph got Katimavik shortly after I'd completed it, and now it's got CWY relatively shortly after.  This group's going to the Ukraine, and it's an environment-focus program.  Makes sense, although an agriculture-based program would have made sense here, too, since we're a University town and one of the U of G's main focuses is with agriculture.  Everyone on the educated agriculturalist scene that I've met during my time traveling has known Guelph because of this.  We also have a fairly well established farmer's market.

The program is in it's South-North model, which means they will head out to the Ukraine on September 5th, and they will return to Canada and do their Canadian rotation afterward.  But the Canadian Project Leader has already started living in Guelph, in order to find host families and concepts for Education Activity Days among other things.

The list they sent me of ways that I can help are, like when Katimavik sent me their list, just a little out of reach for me.  They request for me to become a host family, and some aid in finances and material-type stuff.

I got accepted into Residence, but they put me on a really harsh time crunch and I don't know if I can make it.  They said that they need payment by this monday.  On their website, their due date is the 15th, and this Monday is the 9th.  I called them up to confirm that this is what they meant, and they confirmed that yes, the 9th is the deadline.  I was on the waitlist, and I guess people on the waitlist get 6 days less than other people to pay their fee.

I've been paying through a trust fund, and by certified cheque.  That's... not an immediate way to send money, especially since two of the four days I have to get them payment are weekend days!  They said that they accept payment by credit card, due to the time issue, but that's not viable for me.

I've done everything I can, and we'll hope that the money gets to them or not.  If I hadn't checked my email that day, I wouldn't have had a chance.  And even having got it almost at the time they sent it, the only two methods of payment that are guaranteed to get there in time are credit card or OSAP.

It's funny, I was on a time crunch for applying to Residence when I came up her, and now I got a time crunch though the Residence application just as I'm leaving.  I'm heading back to Guelph this coming Monday.

Driver's Test

Well, I did my driver's test.  We went in today to inquire about a date that I could take it on, and the woman said that there was an opening in 40 minutes.

Unfortunately, I failed the test.  The woman said that I had a general hesitance and lack of observation.  She said that I didn't do any one thing that disqualified me, but that it was an accumulation of small errors.   She said that I aced my parallel parking, which is what trips up most people on their first try.  She said that I just need more experience driving and I should improve naturally.

So it wasn't the worst rejection I could have gotten.  I may even have been in a grey area in terms of whether or not I was qualified for the license.  But it's still disappointing.  The next opening is at the end of the month, and unfortunately I have to get back to Guelph, because Residence has been unresponsive to me and I think I should be looking for other means of student housing.  I guess I'll be looking toward other people who have cars, or maybe taking a few lessons, and then doing the test again in Guelph.

CWY Anniversary

Fun observation.  Today when I logged in, this blog had 11111 views.  That's a fun number.

Yesterday was Canada Day, which marks my anniversary for when I started CWY, and I guess that means it's been six months since I've come back from Africa.  That means I've lived in Canada for twice as I did in Mali, just counting the time since I came back.  Doesn't feel like it.

There was a guy who did the program, who came to do an information session before we left for Mali.  We saw him again during reintegration camp.  It was pretty clear that his experience had not moved far from the forefront of his mind.  There was another guy who did the program last year, who actually returned to Mali during the time that we were there.  It seems like it's an experience that will take years to work down mentally.

It's too bad, you know?  There's a perception in the 1st World that we were born in the best place, and, on the polar opposite, you've got Africa, home of the most 3rd of the 3rd World countries.  Because of that, I very rarely tell people the negative aspects of the culture there, because people are so spring-loaded to jump all over them and condemn the nation as vile, and they ignore all the good stuff I'd said, and won't listen to anything positive I say after that.  I really have to cram the positivity down their throats.  People just want to look down on Africa so badly.

1st World media is very unfair to Africa.  I don't know if I got landed in a good place and there are places that are more akin to the 1st World image of Africa, but Mali itself is a fairly bad location even by Africa standards when looked at through 1st World media.  It's in the bottom 20 impoverished nations, and bottom 10 for quality of life for women, which I'm going to call bull on.

I've written a lot of my positive stories on here, but I'm going to have to write my negative ones somewhere separate, not for the public.  It's kind of funny.  Many positive stories I have, I can't put on here, because I can't explain why something was positive without going through a negative experience, whether it's negative because of a Malian or Canadian influence.  I also don't write stories where I come out looking too amazing, because I consider it bragging. I've written a number of stories in that vein, just to delete it before posting.

Oh, by the way, elephants do laugh.  I thought the Malians may have considered the elephants trumpeting to be a form of laughter, but it turns out elephants do straight-up laugh.  There's a number of videos of it that I can't watch on dial-up.

There are blueberries developing on the bushes out here.  When I was a kid, I'd spend hours at a time picking blueberries, which Grandma would bake into pies.  I've always considered blueberries to be a major aspect of my experience up here, and until this visit, I was ignorant to the fact that blueberry season only lasts a couple weeks per year!