Sunday, August 16, 2009

1 Year Down, 1 to go!

So hard to believe that the day I flew back to the States for vacation was one year to the day that I was leaving for Mali! I gt back and had to do my mid service medical check up, which was also strange, because that means I have only about one year left here n Mali! While some of the days have maybe been a little long, it seems like the year has just flown by. Hopefully I will be able to get a lot more done this year, since I finally feel like I'm able to work in Bambara and French, but that means this year will go by even faster!
It was nice to come back to Djenne and see that they hadn't forgotten me and were really excited to see me. Also, they were excited to tell me that I was locked out of my own house! I had given my host family the key to my porch in order to watch my cats while I was gone, and apparently somehow the door handle had fallen off but they still managed to lock the door (with the handle inside). Then it finally started raining in true rainy season style, and the door warped so we couldn't get it open! My neighbor was eventually able to pry the door open and I got a new door handle, but it was still pretty funny that before I even made it to my street kids were telling me about it.
Tomorrow I head back to Djenne with the new volunteer who will be living in Senossa, about 7k from me! I hope I can make her site visit a little less traumatic than mine was (ie no mouse bites!). We'll be back in a week for the annual site visit party!