When in Mali....

It seems to be either one thing or another that happens here in Mali to make things not go quite the way you want them to go. Traveling or studying or even just talking to people on the phone from Ameriki. Take talking on the phone for example, at the training site I had all the time and power and phone credit I could use, but spotty reception. At my homestay I had perfect reception but no power. Last week I had everything but time. Just when I thought I had it all figured out for my site, I was going to buy extra phone credit and be frugal with my battery, my phone fell out of my pocket in the taxi on the way home. Well crap. I can't just stop by the nearest Target and pick one up either. Of course this is all must have happened because I made such a big deal about Meghan finally getting skype. As of now I have no phone until further notice. Sorry if you have tried to call and assumed the worst, i.e. maybe that I was eaten by a hippo. Fun fact, Mali actually means hippopotomus in Bambara, although I have yet to see one.

Now for some updates about my exciting life in Mali. Tuesday was a holiday to celebrate the end of a month long fast known as Ramadad for Muslims. It seems to be a combination of Halloween, the kids dress nicely and walk around to their neighbors who give them candy, and Thanksgiving, they eat all day long to celebrate the end of the fast. Since the holiday was on Tuesday I thought I would definately get some work done by Friday but alas there are no dice. Wednesday everyone seemed to be in a food comma, as they should be. Thursday the Mayor went to the capital, as I found out he does about 4 times a week, and of course Fridays are always half days because it is the day that most people go to Mosque. Saturday is the market day and Sunday..... well it's Sunday! Why work when you can start fresh on Monday. I gave up on finding a tutor, honestly I didn't work hard on finding one, but I have set up my own study schedule that seems to be working out for me. I also had a productive talk with my homologue and I now know where we are going to start with the women's group. My family is warming up to me. I showed off my skills tonight by "raising the tea", the literal translation for making the extremely strong, extremely sugary loose leaf green tea. The kids loved it. I also found out that Dio is the Florida of Mali. Not in the sense that it has a great view of the ocean and terrible hurricanes, but in the sense that there is a large population of "retired" people here. Retirement here is a little bit different than the 401k plans in the states. The kids in Dio go to school until they are about 13 and then after that they spend half of the year living in the capital and going to school and half of the year kicking it with the grandparents. Of course that is until they get married and then they move to Bamako and come back only for holidays. This is all great except all of the friends I have made in the last 3 weeks are going to be leaving soon. This leaves me with the grandparents, still really cool but sleep a lot, and the kids, still really cool but don't talk a lot. I'll have to change my game plan up a little. Basically I will have to talk to myself in my sleep..... wait no.

Other than the day to day life, I am helping to plan a bike trip to educate people on the importance of small enterprise development. Most of the work has already been done by an amazing PCV who has been in Mali for a year named Holly. We're also planning a trip to the wonderful waterfalls east of the capital. I promise to bring my camera this time. I can't believe it's already October!!! I hope you all are getting excited about the up coming election. We're going to have a big party here and stay up until the results are out, about 4 am Mali time. Please send me some updates. I would love to hear what you guys are up to too. I showed my family pictures that I brought and they say you are all "Tres jolie!" I must say I agree. Miss you all!