A Dogon Christmas

I know it's the end of February and I am just now posting Christmas pictures, but better late than never right?
For Christmas we went to the Dogon region of Mali . We did a hike to see the villages in the cliffs! Enjoy

Captions to come

Big Project

So here is the biggest project I will do for my whole service. If you would like to donate please do! Here is a link to the website describing the project and how to contribute.

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=688-317

Thank you!!

Update!

I am doing a lot of work now! We finally got moving on building a production center for the women. It is going to be a huge project, but I really believe the women in my village will be able to make it all come together. I have turned in a proposal for funding which will be on a website for people in the states to donate to. I am asking for a total of $6330. I will post the link to the site when I get it. It will explain the project a little more eloquently and explain how to donate.
I am also working with my friend Emily to make mango drying tables so that when we do mango drying training it will be more successful.
The last project is another big one, "Take Our Daughter's to Work" day. The basic idea behind it is to bring girls from the village to bigger cities to be paired with a professional women for a day. We will also have life skills workshops and trips to local higher level education facilities. Hunter and I are going to first plan and implement this for Kati, a large town, and Bamako, the capital. Then we will make a template for the rest of the regions in Mali so other volunteers can do them in their regional capitals as well.
So I am definitely keeping busy with proposals, meetings and planning!
Of course I'm also having fun too. In a couple of weeks I will be meeting up with other volunteers to celebrate Halloween and visit the most northern part of Mali that safety and security of the Peace Corps will let me.
Here are some pictures I took recently.
This first one is with my coworker's family during their ramadan celebration.

The boys were practicing their karate moves for the camera.

This my best friends daughter, ma, that used to be petrified of me and now she's one of my favorites.

The girls and I took a hike to the hill, mostly just to take pictures. We're doing donkey ears, not bunny ears by the way.

The rainy season makes for some awesome cloud formations.

These are my host family's kids, they're happy I swear.

And the new baby that was born a month before Seth so I think of Seth everytime I play with the littlest prince.

This is Ma again, she now loves the camera. Here she's eating peanuts and hanging out.

This girl works at my coworker's house and is a really good friend. She about 5'8" and look how tall the grass is in the rainy season!

Just some normal images from Mali, they're drying out the matress because it's really humid.

I'm going, going, back, back to Cali, Cali

I'm coming home!! Well for 2 weeks anyway. For all of you that I will be unable to see while I'm there, I'm sorry! But feel free to write me an email and I'll call you from where ever I am. For those of you I will see, there are a few Malian habits I have acquired which will be hard for me to shake in my limited time in Ameriki. And, that my friends, is an example of the first, Mali-yfing words and phrases. Other weird habits include, but are not limited to, the following:
Using only my right hand for everything from shaking (normal in the US) to almost dropping everything to switch money to my right hand to give to a merchant (not normal in the US)
Eating with my hands and generally lacking table manners
Making very childish jokes about bodily functions (Farts, burps, that's what she said jokes)
Eating in small portions
Cringing at wasted food
Littering
Being a bad dancer (only because I've been in Africa, I swear)
Not wearing makeup or looking at myself in mirrors
Going to bed at 9pm (hard to stay up late without lights)
Getting sick from eating dairy products or meat
Saying "Uh-huh" every 3rd word (how else would you know I'm still listening?)
Forgetting words in English
Avoiding eye contact during conversation
Holding hands for longer than is comfortable or culturally appropriate
Miss matching clothes, or just having bad fashion tastes in general
Also I'm sure I'm going to be pretty awkward in general. I'm really excited to see you all, but try not to make fun of me too much! I will try not to be too weird, promise.

Just an Island in the Sun

I took a much needed and long over due trip to the Hawaii of west Africa, Cape Verde. Unfortunately the rains had not started yet so it was not in fact a green cape, but beautiful none the less. We took a couple of hikes and laid by the ocean a lot. We also went to, count it, one historical landmark. It was a concentration camp during WW2. That's the picture of the yellow building with red flowers. Enjoy!