I done made it.

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

I made it to Mali, Africa yesterday evening after traveling for about 48 hours.  I am quite excited.  It seemed sort of like watching a movie as I was driving in.  There were people on scooters zooming (or scooting) all over the road, and everyone either drives a diesel Mercedes or Toyota.  Some of the taxis are large vans with no windows or doors.  At least, I think they are taxis.  I'm sure I'll learn as I go on.  Everyone I've talked to is very nice, at least if I can talk to them.  My french is definitely mediocre at best.

Today we had a few "first day of school" type lessons, so was sort of slow at points.  I am completely excited still and everything is so new and exciting.  I walked down the Niger river today which is only about a quarter mile away.  Since it is the dry season most of the area is sort of dead, but down by the river there is some green grass.  We met a fisherman down there who we could not speak to at all as he did not speak french.  He did try to teach us "hello" or something in his native language.  We failed, but it was not due to lack of trying.

Our toilets are pit toilets, and we do have toilet paper though the local preferred way of "clean up" is using a tea pot to rinse and your hand to remove "debris."  I heavily debated just jumping right into it this morning, but alas I stayed with the toilet paper.  Honestly, the hand/water method might end up being more pleasant because the toilet paper isn't exactly Charmin.  One of the volunteers here in country, John, was very excited to explain to use how great it is to use the hand/water method.  But he was also described as "gone native."  Many volunteers use toilet paper the whole time.  We'll just have to see about that.

Anyways, skies are blue and the weather is warm.  I sweat a lot, but I am enjoying the company immensely.  Everyone is totally awesome, and I am making friends fast because most everyone is easy to get along with.  We played "catch phrase" tonight after dinner with a ton of people.  I had my french interview test today to test my french language level.  It was tough, but I managed to communicate...sort of.  And that is my first ever blog post.  More to come...maybe.  If the bush doesn't get me first...which it will because no one can escape the bush...ever, nearly 100% of the time.