I heart pygmy goats! They are (so far) my favorite thing about Mali. I just completed my first two weeks at my homestay site of Sinsina living with a Malian family and taking Bambara language and Malian culture classes with 4 other Peace Corps Trainees. Sinsina is a town of about 2000 people, which is deceptive, because about 1200 of them are children under 15 and the families are big, so there are probably less than 100 families. My family is one of the big ones: I haven't totally deciphered how I am related to some of the members, but I do know I have 3 moms and 14 known siblings. Normally I get up in the morning, make (instant) coffee for my dad and I, eat breakfast and go to class. We have about 4 hours of language instruction from our really amazing teacher, Salifou, with a break for tea and then I return to my concession for lunch. I usually eat lunch with the women (and girls) in my family and spend some time attempting to communicate with them through my broken Bambara and pantomime before returning for 3 or so hours of class in the afternoon, which is usually a combination of language and culture. After class, we (the PCTs) have started to either take a walk on this path towards another village or play frisbee before we head back to our concession. I then have dinner with the men (and boys) in my family and then continue with the same Bambara/pantomime accompanied with sketching and (thanks to the genius of my fellow PCT Audra) some singing. The name song (Karmen, Karmen-bo-barmen, banana-fanna-fo-farmen.....) and the kissing frog song (mm-ah went the little Mr. Bullfrog....) are popular due to repetition and hand movement, and I'm currently in the process of translating The Itsy-bitsy Spider into Bambara.
All in all I am enjoying my stay in Mali. I genuinely feel as though Mali, Sinsina, and my host family are exactly where I am supposed to be at this point in time. Although I am happy to be back at Tubaniso right now, able to check email, visit PCTs from other homestay villages and having food that resembles what I'm used to (eaten with utensils instead of hands), I'm also excited to return to Sinsina tomorrow!
***I apologise for my lack of photos, hopefully I will have some worth posting on my next trip in to Tubaniso***