Good thing there's a shower in Sevare

In hopes of filling out my absentee ballot this weekend, I came to Sevare, but alas, no ballots to be found. It's still always nice to use the internet and eat good food though, and coming into town worked out especially well for another reason. At my new house, I share a yard with three other families, and in the middle of our yard is the faucet we all use to get water. The payment system for said faucet usually just rotates, so one family pays this month, another the next, and so on. I had noticed that there seemed to be something going on between the families because there was more yelling at night and people seemed to be angry, but of course, with my limited Bambara I pretty much had no idea what was going on. On my way to get water this morning I found out. Apparently, whoever was supposed to have paid the bill this month (I'm assuming not me because no one ever presented me with any sort of bill or mentioned anything about water) decided that it was way to high and something must be wrong, but instead of doing something about it, the decision was made to simply not pay it at all. So this morning, when I went to get water, there was a little box with a lock over the faucet. Thankfully I was planning to shower upon arrival in Sevare (public transport is usually a sweaty, dusty process) so it wasn't that big of a deal, but I do hope it gets turned on by the time I get back! I'm not all that optimistic though because when I was leaving I noticed some of the people in my concession waiting in line to get water from a public faucet where you just pay 25CFA to get water. I hope they aren't just planning on doing this indefinitely, but it wouldn't really surprise me. Soon I too may be waiting in line to get my bucket bath water. At least the public fountain is right outside the door to my yard!
I've adjusted pretty well to life in the city, and I think I am really going to like living there, despite the children constantly asking for my water bottle. Peace Corps sent a tutor to do a week of language training in French so that it would be easier for me to work with my local tutor, and I think I've really improved a lot. Learning two languages at once is a little confusing, but I think it will work out because I'll probably be speaking more French in my work, but I practice Bambara a lot with my host family as well. As for work, I am still going to help out in my old village once a week, and I hope to paint a mural there next week, which I think will help prove to them that I am not totally abandoning them! Things with the Mission Culturelle are also starting to get underway, so that should keep me busy for a while and help me practice French. The Mission Culturelle recently received a grant from the US Embassy, because of the World Heritage Site, to try and promote education about the importance of protecting the city's heritage as well as stopping pillaging. There is an architectural site right outside the city that has lost a lot of interesting artifacts due to pillaging, so hopefully this project will help explain why people should protect these areas instead of stealing things and selling them. I think most of our work (Kate and Elizabeth and I are working together on it) will be with the schools and potentially going to different villages to talk about it. It's not exactly health related, but definitely very interesting, so it should be fun!
In other news, we are all anxiously awaiting election day! I've been listening to the BBC world news most mornings, so we get some updates about the debates and such, but it would be really nice to actually watch the results come in on TV! There are a couple of potential watch-party sites, so hopefully we will be able to work something out, even though it will probably have to be a sleep over because the results won't be in until 3 or 4am here! That's a little past my usual 9pm bed time, but worth it I think!