I ni ce! (Hello in Bambara)
I've successfully made it through 2 days and 2 nights in Mali! We (all 77 PC trainees) arrived at the Bamako airport Thursday evening to a full-on welcome wagon of PCMali staff and current volunteers, and, amazingly, my luggage arrived as well. We've all been learning the ropes of the nyagen (pit toilet), some language and cross-culture classes, and the proper way to combat malaria (pills, nets, and bug spray - there aren't actually as many of the little suckers as I was expecting).
All of the other trainees have been pretty great and the Malian staff are incredibly friendly and helpful. We had a friendly tarantula waiting outside our hut's door yesterday morning, and I've seen several geckos racing around. There's a ton of vegetation here at the training compound, but now there is also a fair amount of mud, as it stormed last night with a heavy downpour from about 0430-0500 this morning. It may also come as a surprise to some that our food here has been really good...and I haven't gotten sick quite yet.
All in all, I can't believe I've only been here for such a short period of time. Our days have been pretty packed, and the "camp atmosphere" feels really comfortable. I've got a couple more days here at Tubaniso (it means "dove house" in Bambara and is the training center) before I head off to my home-stay village with about 5 other volunteers, when we'll be doing a lot more cultural and language (probably Bambara) lessons with a Malian instructor. I'm so excited!!