My new home.

Yesterday I returned from my first visit to the town that I will be working and living in for the next two years. I'm about 15 hours by public transport from the capital city of Bamako, and fairly close to the Senegal border. I met all of the important people in town-- the Chief, law enforcement, school administration, Mayor, and others-- and it sounds like I'll have some interesting projects to work on once my language skills have improved. I just decided that once I permanently move to my site, in about a month, I'm going to stop studying French and focus entirely on Bambara, which will be easier and much more useful for me. I'm expecting to study continually for around six months before I begin doing any type of substantial work.

My house is great-- the structure itself is made of concrete, and I have three large rooms with a light and electrical outlet in each. I also have a personal bathroom-- detached from my house-- that is covered and enclosed by walls and a door. My house is inside of a huge walled compound and two Malian families' homes are connected to mine, which is wonderful for a few reasons-- the most important being that they seem really nice and appear to eat really good food, and will be including me in all of their meals:) They will also protect my house from the possibility of being broken into whenever I'm not around. Nice!

My town-- Bafoulabe-- seems really nice. Two rivers come together to form the Senegal River right in town, and during dry season, there are a pretty decent number of hippos and monkeys around the banks of the water. The town appears to be pretty clean, and there aren't too many people around, which is nice. I'm also about 6k from a current Peace Corps Volunteer who seems great-- he'll be a good friend and support system. He already taught me how to make ice cream, which is going to end up making my wallet a lot skinnier and my life a whole lot better:)

That's about all for now.

My new address and phone number are on the right side of the page. If you continue to use my old address, I will still receive mail, but it will take much longer to get to me-- please use the new address.

This is Africa.

A quick update: I'm currently living with a host family in a medium-sized village (about 6,000 people) and taking French classes 4 to 5 hours per day, 7 days a week-- I'll be here for another 7 weeks, at which point I'll officially become a Peace Corps volunteer and will move to my permanent work site (where I will be for the next two years). I'm learning a ton, but still can't say all that much to my family, which is unfortunate.... and difficult at times. They are amazingly generous though, and have treated me very well. Life is very different here, but I am adjusting to the Malian culture and way of life more and more each day. Overall, I'm healthy, hydrated, and experiencing some challenging but good times:)

Click the photo link on the right side of the page for many more photos.

The Niger River-- the location of my language classes.

We sit in the shade under a mango tree.

The area surrounding my village.

My brothers and sisters.
These kids LOVE the camera!

My brothers and sisters.

About half of my host family:)