I am learning the language of the touregs, the nomadic people of northern mali, sort of a ethnic mix of black african, and arab and apparantly me and three other volunteers are the first americans to learn it. its like arabic except some of the sounds are different and i physically cant make them.. i had six hours of lang today and its overwhelming. my brain is the fried egg from the dont do drugs commercials.

I will most liekly be stationed in the north of mali and my assignment area thus far sounds pretty cool and im excited to do it. ill let you know more about it soon. Although i still cant imagine myself communicating well enough in this lang, it will be worthwhile to learn it.

ive been eating nothing but rice and meat and sleeping at night is hard because its a gazillion degrees here. fun parts tho- The natural resource management stuff im going to learn will be amazing. Ive already planted a tree.

My host family is so sweet and caring, although they wont let me speak french, only tammashek. They are artists who male jewelery and pillow in their tradional custom. our yard is their work room;
i have to go im out of time but ill write more soon.