Festival

Number of hippos seen: 0 Number of people in bitten in half: 0 Pairs of pants soiled: 0


So, yesterday we had a cultural festival where a bunch of native Malians came and held a small market.  They sold clothes, and cloth and there was a tailor there to make suits and things.  They also had some delicious snacky foods.  There was also a local Malian band playing and we all danced.

I've been learning Bombara, which is the most prominent local language here, and today I was placed in a host village where I will continue learning Bombara and begin technical training.  I will be with a host family by myself, but there will be 6 or 7 others in my village with me and the next training village is only 2km away.  I was not given a minority language because I did not score high enough on my French evaluation.  I've been getting quite a few shots, but lucky for me none of the medications have been giving me too much trouble.

The environment trainees got to tour the garden here at Tubaniso, and learned the native trees around where we are now.  I've forgotten most of them, but I can recognize a few which is better than before.

Everyone is very nice here, and though we are usually pretty busy, there is still a fair amount of freetime to play soccer or some other activity.

I had my first experience washing my clothes by hand today.  That was interesting, I think most of my clothes are clean.  Bam!