Holidays Mali style

First and foremost, I finally managed to post more pictures! I haven't figured out how to get them on my blog yet, but at least if you click on the link you should be able to find them. I'll work on adding some captions, but for now most are from the hike in Dogon country, Christmas and New Year's, with some of my host family and house thrown in. Also, thank you to everyone who sent christmas cards or packages! It really made my holiday so much better.
Now, since the last post I've mostly been traveling and getting ready for in service training which starts Monday. Over Christmas we hiked in Dogon country to see the villages that have been built up into the cliffs. There are some houses not in use anymore that you can see way high up and I honestly have no idea how the people managed to get up there to live. When we asked our guide, he matter of factly said, "Because they had a sacred language that allowed them to walk like lizards". Oh. It was really interesting to hear about the Dogon and Tellam (people who lived there before the Dogons) culture because they are pretty much the last remaining animists in the area. We had to go with a guide to avoid accidentally stepping on any sacred spots. If you should do this, the price is the sacrifice of a goat or cow (incidentally not cheap). Luckily we managed to hike all around without offending anyone or ruining any sacred spots. It was really amazing to see how these people live in the cliffs though. As we were slowly making our way up the cliff, some men practically ran past us with huge baskets on their heads. Turns out they were bringing our food up to the campement! Women also manage to climb around with buckets of water on their heads. For some of the villages they have to climb all the way down the cliff to get water from a pump at the bottom. Definitely made me appreciate the spicket outside my house.
As for New Year's, I spent it with a bunch of other volunteers in a village in between Gao and Sevare. We all had a good time, but it was a little sad that for the first time I had a little bit of a hard time staying up until midnight! Way past my usual 9pm bed time.
One of the pictures I wanted to add to the blog but unfortunately couldn't get to work was of Sally, the new addition to our household. We inherited her from another volunteer that left early. She is only a year old and pretty small, so we were surprised when we got her home and only a week later she seemed to have gained a lot of weight. Lo and behold, she's pregnant! So now my mission while with other volunteers for IST is to find homes for however many kittens she ends up having. I did find out though that there is cat birth control available at some pharmacies here! I thought she was a little young to be starting that already, but clearly I was wrong. Naive parenting on our part I guess, haha.
I'll be at the training center for the next three weeks, so I'll hopefully be able to post some more and fill everyone in on what else I've been up to since thanksgiving time!