QUICK QUICK UPDATE

My new site is amazing. It is right on the Niger River! There are two very large gardens and Eaux et Poissons department (I'm going to see if I can work with the man that works there...He was pretty nice). My homologue was amazing. She speaks French and Bambara. I was so nervous the whole week that I spoke Franbara. It was still great. Nyaminakaw (the people of Nyamina) are very funny and diverse. I am going to have a great time there. As a welcoming/come back here later present they presented me with 4 live guinea fowl and dozens of eggs. A group of friends and I got to have them killed and we plucked them and made the best chicken salad Mali has ever seen!

Sorry this is short.

I'm headed back to Kabe in a few days for twenty more days so there won't be any updates there.

Hope all is well back home. Ive been able to keep up with the olympics a tiny tiny bit.

Love you miss you!

More photos!

Try this link

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2531019&l=c899f&id=13900547

it is supposed to be a public link to my facebook album so you can check out more pics

Edit: Yes it works, you do not need to be a facebook member to check out these photos.

I have been going through the pictures a bunch because I miss those kids already! It is really funny.

a video

Here is a video I took with the Camera of a storm coming through. I have a funny story about the guy behind the wall. One night him and his friend came to my concession while I was hanging out with the kids and he was asking me why I wasn't making tea and told me he hadn't eaten dinner yet. I kept telling him N ye imuso ye. Well after saying that a million times and he kept laughing and just nodding his head I realized that I forgot to negate the sentence, so I kept saying I was his wife (in really bad bambara) so I shrieked and negated the sentence and he just laughed. The next day I was walking to school and I passed him at the butigi. I just laughed/ blushed send my greetings and booked it out of there. He really is a nice kid though.

SARA ASKED FOR PICS

Here is some friends and family right outside my host dad's door!
















These are the boys on the negeso (iron horse=bicycle) Brama and Fa















This picture is from right before a storm hit. I thought the sky looked amazing! Plus my family and friends were just hanging out on the bench, PHOTO OP!

















This is a picture of my Host dad Seke and his second wife Ya. He has three wives, but this is the one that takes care of me the most. Plus she is so CUTE!










The two boys on the outside are my brothers Brama and Yaya. The boy in the middle is my friend Madou. They are sitting on the wagon.













This picture is taken right outside of my concession. In the background the orange yellow beige building is the mosque. On the right hand side of the background is the market which is open Thursdays but is empty since it is rainy season and everyone is in the fields

SOME NEWS

So it has been awhile!

Computers at Tubani So are HOT and I hate to use too much time. So like I have said before I am living in a small village of Kabe pop. 800. My host family is amazing. My host dad (Seke) sings in a xylophone band and is of the numu caste (he is a blacksmith). He has three wives (Oumu, Ya, Batoma-Batoma means name of mother) and I think five children who are my best friends (Brama, Yaya, Boi, Draman, Yi) 4 boys and 1 girl. For breakfast I usually have Kafe (lipton tea with lots of powdered milk and sugar) and bread. Lunch and dinner varies. Sometimes I have rice with peanut sauce (sometimes the peanut sauce has dried fish, fresh fish… I definitely prefer the fresh fish) or Macaroni with a red oil sauce or one of my favorites Yams/sweet potatoes with potatoes onions and bouillon cubes for flavor. Seke’s older sister always gives me fried woso (yams).

I take my bucket baths in an open air Nyegen and it is really cool to see the sky while I bathe!

At 715 pm I sometimes head to a different concession to watch the Brazillian soap Opera “Coeur du Peche” which maybe the funniest show I have seen, or everyone’s reactions to it!

I eat dinner at about 8pm followed by lantern conversations with my host brothers and their friends. Most of the kids are about 15 and really funny. One boy named Aloo had 1000 fcfa and he knows some French, and in French 1000 is mille. WELL, these kids occasionally whip out some English for me (they come up to me and say HEY NANA! Good Morning Sir! And I just laugh) and one day Aloo came up to me in a suitjacket and just shouted the word MILLIONAIRE!! I couldn’t stop laughing! He told me that night he was going to make me chicken and I would get a leg. I teased him all day the next day asking for my chicken. The following day he offered me the liver (which was actually delicious) and after class that day my host mom Ya told me Aloo had left me a present. It was definitely the Chicken leg and it was definitely delicious!

SO the kids are great. One guy Adaman tries to get me to marry him all the time, even offered me his lilac motor scooter. I tell him I don’t want a husband that has a wife already. I also showed him and his friends a picture of Nic and they ask me all of the time about my big boyfriend. It is funny. My host moms think he’s cute and are always like THIS IS YOUR BOYFRIEND… WHAT??

So that is pretty humorous

The language is coming along. I do get to speak a little bit of French with some older kids, but other people say HEY SPEAK BAMBARA! So I then try…. Very hard!

Mali had its Arbor day equivalent and it was a blast! I planted a bunch of Baobab trees!


I go to my future site on Sunday to check it out for a week. I am pretty excited!

Sorry this is short, gotta let someone else use the computer. I have tons and tons of pictures so hopefully soon.