The holiday season has come and gone, and it was fun while it lasted! It all kind of started as soon as I came back from America at the beginning of October, because everyone was excited to see me and hear about the wedding and my family, and has just continued on and on until now, alternating between Peace Corps/American parties and Malian ones. The next celebration was my birthday at the end of the month, which I came into Bamako for (as it was the big 25) and went out dancing until all hours of the morning. I followed that up with a Halloween party in Kita. I was a superhero, of course, and, yes, you can get red spandex tights with rhinestones in a Malian market. After that I had a short window of time back in village before leaving again for Thanksgiving. Every year Peace Corps volunteers do a sort of pilgrimage to Sikasso, otherwise known as 'the land of plenty,' for Thanksgiving, complete with turkey, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin and apple pies. This year was a little more complicated than most though. This year Tabaski, the biggest holiday of the year in Mali, was on the 28th of November, just 2 days after American Thanksgiving, which means there were a lot of volunteers (myself included) that wouldn't be able to attend. So we just moved Thanksgiving to a Monday. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and while some of you might horrified at the sacrilege, it was totally, deliciously, worth it.
After stuffing my face in Sikasso, I did my 2+ day journey back to site and arrived just in time to prepare for Tabaski, complete with henna on my feet and donning the special bezon clothing. Once again I stuffed my face and then went out and watched my village dance the night away.
After Tabaski was over I expected there to be a lull in village, like last year, but this was not the case. Mid-December we hit a week of part after party. Last year we didn't have anything like it, but first there was a party 'because the men fixed the road' and then we had a special chicken lunch to celebrate the 15-month mark of my service and then we had an engagement party for my host-neice and then we had another party 'because people are happy!' It was an exhausting week. That's right, all of that happened within a week. Talk about a lot of special food and a lot of dancing.
Finally, after all of that Malian celebration, I had a little bit of time to relax, and then I had to start getting ready for Christmas. I headed down to gorgeous Manantali and had a lovely Christmas by the river, complete with barbequed pig, cookies with rainbow chip frosting, and hot chocolate (yes, most of my delight in this holiday season involves food). After Christmas was over I headed into Bamako then the city of Koulikouro for New Year's celebrations, and met up a few friends for a lovely night of music and games with just a few people.
Now I'm getting ready to head back to village in the morning, and after all this partying, I am looking forward to a few weeks of settling into village, trying to work on some projects, and preparing for Mom and Dad's visit. Yay!