Hello from Bamako!

I'm here in Bamako, still cooling my heels waiting for some tests. I feel 100% better but they want to make sure they know what it was before they send me back. I'm quite content with a diet coke and a twix right now-doesn't take much to make me happy.

First let me say, "Issalan" (tammasheq for what's up) or "Bonjour" to Ms. Betz's french class in Pennsylvania. I'm really excited to be your pen-pal and am ready to help you in any way I can. Please check out the pictures and posts I have up that will give you an idea of what I'm doing here and where I'm living and let me know if you have any questions or ideas that you want to share.

I'm enjoying a nice respite from Malian food here in Bamako where they have all sorts of restaurants and grocery stores with things like cereal,cookies and candy bars. We made pasta and sauce last night at the med office and for not having all the ingredients you would normally expect, it was actually pretty good. The best part about being here is there is a patesserie not far away that has Cafe au lait like you would find in France. It made my week yesterday.

However, I'm making it sound like we don't have food at site when we're actually pretty lucky when it comes to variety. My town being fairly large there's almost always fruits and veggies each day at the market, usually bananas and oranges but somtimes guavas and mangoes. From what I understand they come all the way from Sikasso, the southern most region in Mali that has fruits and veggies year round. For veggies there's always sweet potatoes, onions and usually cucumbers. There's also a woman who sells salad and tomato from Gao when its available. Gao is along the Niger river so they're able to grow rice and veggies in the desert. Usually its only us and some of the fonctionaires that I've seen by the salad and tomatoes. Fruits and Veggies are expensive and hard to find up here and so they aren't a big part of the diet. There's a bunch of big gardens that surround my town too but people mainly grow onions, okra and hot pepper all to sell. Gardening up here is hard with no rain and poor soil and very labor intensive. We're growing our own little garden right now and having loads of problems with water, soil and too much sun. I can't encourage others to garden more until I've figured out how to do it myself.

When i eat with my family its always rice or eesink(called "to" in the bamabara speaking mali but eesink in tammasheq, which roughly translates to "food")which is a doughy substance made from millet. The rice of eesink is always served with a sauce that is spread ove rthe rice or that you dip the to in. Sauces vary from tomatoey ones to fakoy(sp?) which is a leafy green sauce and there's even a peanut sauce. Because there's so many of us in our family, usually there is only a little bit-size piece of meat for everyone. While the tammasheq people raise cattle, goat and camels for their livelihood they don't eat it as much as we do in the states. Its expensive and usually big pieces of meat are reserved for holidays or special occasions, when they will slaughter a goat or sheep or even more than one. Their herds of animals are like their bank accounts. When they need money, they bring in an animal to sell at the livestock market. Otherwise, they're kept out in huge herds in the bush with someone in the family or a group of the family who lives with them. The Muslim holiday of Tabaski is right around the corner (on the 20 of decemeber this year) and its traditional to slaughter a sheep or more than one to commemorate Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son for Allah. All the prices on sheep have skyrocketed (this is what i hear, i haven't exactly been out looking for one myself)in the last couple weeks, as everyone secures their sheep. Because the islamic lunar calendar is much different from our roman calendar, its a coincidence that tabaski is so close to christmas this year but its nice that we all have a holiday coming up at the same time and can celebrate together. Bess and I (if i get back in time) are going to bake cookies and cakes in our solar ovens in celebration of both holidays!

While I just made it sound like my daily life revolves around nothing but food, I do have other things I do each day.Apart from chores around the house, which take up more then you'd think (I wash my laundry by hand once or twice a week and dishes the same way when I have made myself or my family something.), I've been conducting interviews and attending meetings around town, trying to find out as much as I can before we start work on projects. I'm focusing on Biodiversity and reforestation as one project and eco-tourism as another. I won't bore you with the details now but rest assured I will get into it later on and probably won't stop talking about it. I'm also working with the Women's associations and the union with organizational stuff and teaching english with Bess and Jared. Bess and I also want to start a girl's bball team although its tough because the court is so far away from the rest of the town. We've also been kicking aruond the idea of expanding Bess' original idea of a library to a whole youth/community center type thing. more details on that too. The last couple months we've been having Tammasheq lessons at my house with our tutor and then our LCF came for a week and gave us intensive training the week after Thanksgiving. It just takes time with language but I do feel like I'm understanding more of what's said to me and learning some new phrases.

Outside of site, not too much new info. I'm spending Xmas in Gao with the other volunteers that live on teh dark side of the moon. We're having a bbq with a kiddie pool and slip and slide and we'll be exchanging gifts through white elephant. I believe we'll also be having our own version of the "dundys" (just like the office) including a best couple prize (wonder who that will go to....).After christmas and New year's, I'll be back here in Bamako at Tubaniso for two weeks of training which I'm semi-looking forward to. I don't want to be away from site for so long!

Mom Dad and Evan are coming to AFRICA! in February and I can't wait for their arrival. Al is going to love the birds and wildlife and lee will get to use her french. Evan will keep me sane. (just kidding!) They're going to see my town, Gao and maybe dogon country too over a two week span.

I hope everyone has a very happy holiday, i love and miss you all very much! Check out more pictures on facebook as well. And if anyone knows anything about skype forwarding to international cellphones let me know. i might be able to get a US skype number that's cheap to call from the us but i think its really expensive on my end to forward. Anyone know?

Evan-congratulations on the win! get dad to take more pictures at your races so i can see you in action!

Mike and Caroline, i hope you get my letters soon. I'm constantly thinking of you and hope that you're doing ok. Carla, Aunt Mims and Aunt Anne, thanks for your posts! hope you're doing ok too. You're all in my prayers. Please give all of the family my love, especially Gogo.

Ladies of cedar turret around the world, Happy Holidays! I love and miss you all terribly!