Wow – I can’t believe my Peace Corps service is 1/6th complete….well, complete is the wrong word, but I think you know what I mean. Since I haven’t been able to write since mid-September, I have many stories and experiences to share, far too many for one entry, so I’ll try to hit the highlights for you:

Perhaps the most significant event which I could possibly articulate is that I am now a mother. In mid-November I adopted a little girl who has become a daily joy (and frustration). I’ve named her Basi, which means both couscous and trouble depending on the context, and it’s proven to be appropriate for both, considering our diet and her precocious nature. She’s mostly white with some black patches and has become quite the mouser in the last few weeks, for which I am incredibly pleased (this was perhaps my main reason for getting her). She also curls up in my lap on a regular basis while I’m reading or writing, sleeps on my chest while I nap, and just generally gives me the affection I’ve been craving. She’s also well known throughout my village and if she happens to stray too far from my concession a small boy usually finds her and brings her straight back to me, which is unnecessary but very sweet and they always look so proud of themselves for helping me!

Other animal news: One night during my first month at site I was sitting in my concession studying after dinner when I caught motion at the edge of my lamp light. I stood up to confirm my suspicion, and, yep, there was a giant green mamba crawling across the compound. My surprise and poor language skills only allowed my to shout “Sa file!” (“Look a snake!”) to the woman in my concession who caught its fleeing tail in the beam of her flashlight as it rounded her kitchen hut. She, in turn, notified the men in the village and they set out to kill it before it got too close to small children or livestock. I, in the meantime, went into my hut to try and wrap my head around what I had just seen and only emerged after I could hear a group of people gathered outside. Shortly after I joined my village outside the dead snake was brought back on a stick, paraded a bit and then probably eaten. I’ve since then had one much smaller snake crawl through a small hole in my screen door as I watched, but it was quickly dispatched of as well. I have heard talk of many other snakes in the village, but I’m ok with only having seen the two.

I’ve taken 3 multi-day trips from my site in the last 4 months, all of which were a nice break from village life. In October I biked down to Manantali with my fellow volunteer, Brooke, which was a much more traumatizing ride than I had anticipated. The trip was just under 100 kilometers for me, more than twice as far as I’ve ever biked in one sitting before. The first 2 hours were really pleasant, with gorgeous scenery and pleasant temperatures, but the next 6 started to really suck. The weather was just getting hotter, the entire trip was upstream along the Bakoye and therefore slightly uphill the whole way, and I was just not quite prepared for that kind of endurance. Fortunately the next 4 days spent at the Peace Corps house in Manantali were run and relaxing and I definitely took a bush taxi back…
For Thanksgiving I took the train up to Kayes to meet up with a different group of volunteers at the house there. Kayes is the hottest inhabited city in the world, so I’m glad it was the cold season, but it was still significantly warmer than my village. Kayes, being so much bigger than Manantali, and on an important route, is much more of a city, so I was even able to partake in some soft-serve ice cream while there. For Christmas I met up with people again in Manantali, and, like Thanksgiving, feasted and celebrated the holiday amongst friends.