I ni fama....(it's been a while)

I'm surprised that it's been so long since I have written something here. I have had internet on multiple occasions, and a lot has transpired over the last 4 months.

Following the festivities of the holidays, I sequestered myself in village for about a month to try and get some things accomplished, and to prepare myself, my hut, and my village for my parents' visit. The most notable thing about this time was that I was able to start a Water and Sanitation committee with help from my Director. Since then (for the most part) we've been having bi-weekly meetings to try and improve conditions in Dramétou.

As for my parents' visit: They came to Mali for 2 weeks in February and I am so proud of them! I came into Bamako to meet them and they were just thrown into West African craziness from the very beginning. One of the things I convinced them to do on their very first day in Africa was go to a market and pick out some wax print cloth to have made into traditional complets (outfits). I think Mom was more into it than Dad (big surprise!), but he was a trooper nonetheless. We walked around the part of town that I am most familiar with, met a lot of people in the Peace Corps office here that I work with, and adjusted to being in Mali together. It was certainly more of an adjustment for them than for me, but, well, you know how in middle school when you saw your teacher at the grocery store it threw you for a loop? That's a little bit what it was like for me seeing my parents in Mali.

After 2 nights and 1 day in the most westernized city in Mali, I once again pulled the rug out from under them and we left Bamako to head to site. Since Peace Corps was sending a car that way already, we were able to hop in and make the trip a little less foreign. We had an overnight stop in Manantali, which made me very happy since it is probably my favorite place in country, and then headed further north the next morning. In true Malian fashion, even though we were in arguably the most timely, safe, and reliable transport in Mali, with a great driver to boot, we ran into an extended delay merely 9 km away from Dramétou: the infamous ferry. As some of you may remember, I've run into problems with the ferry in the past, but this was possibly the most frustrating encounter, and amplified by the fact that I was feeling responsible for the well-being of Mom and Dad as well. Basically the ferry engine was broken, and had been for some time. However, they were still able to use it by having half a dozen guys with bamboo poles pull it across the river. Very very slowly. If only that were the only problem here....but no, it was also windy which meant that it was going to be even harder and slower. We ended up waiting for about 6 hours before the driver started to get nervous about being able to reach his final destination and I made a bit of a fuss as a result. (Talk to Mom and Dad if you need details....) We finally got across, got to Dramétou, and Mom and Dad got a taste of my little African life! We had a little dance party, some thatching of huts, some celebratory slaughtering of animals, some cooking of my favorite Malian foods and a few of my Mali-ized American ones, some sleeping under the stars and some long awaited time just hanging out with my parents. There were definitely stressful moments, since I was the only translator between them and the village and 3 people inevitably have more needs than I alone do, but I think it went really well and I am so happy that I was able to share Dramétou with them.

The trip back to Bamako was no more or less eventful than the trip up, but certainly different. It started out with a 9km donkey cart ride to the river, since there's really no other transportation option available for multiple people, then my friend Mori was waiting to take us across the river in his pirogue. We got the car the next 6km to Mahina with no problems, got our train tickets no problem, and, for the first time ever, the train was on time and we boarded for our 10 hour trip back to the city. Phew. If the return was any more difficult than the trip out it was the exhausting nature of 10 straight hours of being en route, and I know we were all really happy when we finally arrived safely in Bamako.

I allowed no time for them to catch their breath before we were on the road again in the morning, this time with a hired driver and headed east. The rest of the trip was up into Dogon country with side trips to Djenne to see the famous mosque and Mopti to get a slightly different glimpse of the bustle that is Malian commerce. For Dogon itself we had a great guide and a great group of people and then it came to an end and we headed back, once again, to Bamako.

So, I give myself, but especially Mom and Dad a big pat on the back for a good 2 weeks. We saw a lot of different aspects of the country, took a lot of different types of transport, met a lot of different fantastic people, and did a lot of catching up. Yay! And then we were exhausted...

After Mom and Dad took off to go back to the states, I took off to go back to village. Another month of the normal day to day life was enhanced by these committee meetings, and we put together a project to improve the situation. There's still some stuff that we need to hammer out, and there have been a few problems recently, but I'm *hoping* that we'll be able to pick it up in mid-June when I head back from........Ghana!
Yep, I'm going to Ghana next week for 3 weeks. I'm really excited because I haven't taken a real vacation since last September. Yes, I've left site for breaks many times, but this trip should include lounging on the beach, visiting my old site mate in bustling Kumasi and going on a mini safari to look at elephants. Woohoo!