Hello to the two, maybe three readers of this blog. Just wanted to post a happy valentines day greeting for all of the lovers and couples out there. I flew into London from Budapest yesterday. I recommend floating nude in sulfury thermal spas with old hungarian men if you ever end up in Budapest. Today London is pretty crowded, i found myself loitering in the Tate Modern with the iPod for the day. I came across an exhibition by Seydou Keita, a self taught malian photographer. It kind of tied my whole trip together a bit, if you are into interesting black and white photography i suggest you check him out.So... How will i spend my valentines day? I plan to consume a cheap bottle of wine, and perhaps to the theatres to check out a movie by my lonesome.. ( pretty excited as i havent been in a theatre in 8 months...too long i know) .. Monday I head to the motherland aka Ireland to consume Guiness and roam Dublin for a week or so. above picture: a kooky valentine from  'frankenstein and pals valentines stickers and bubble gum' sold in the 60's ...i have way too much time on my hands i know.

In and out of cloned shops and stalls, each poorly made Count Dracula souvenir gets treated as the art it is. Today I went to Sighasoara, Transylvania to see the birthplace of Vlad 'the impaler' Tepes. The house Dracula was born in is now a restaurant. I sucked down an overpriced coffee while listening to ever so haunting 'Caribbean Queen' by Billy Ocean when it finally dawned on me that maybe vampires are not here. No fanged goons to slay, vampire bats to torch, not even a goth teen to punch in the stomach, I am left to enjoy Romania for what it is.. gothic architecture dating back centuries surrounded by sweet landscapes and mountains. Filled with friendly old men in tall furry hats and even friendlier and furrier stray dogs, Romania has grown on me like the monstrosity (I call a beard) growing on my face.

I am still living in Brasov, meeting fellow weirdo travelers and getting good rest and food. I took the last of my malaria medicine Sunday. While I am excited to put hair loss, depression and nausea behind me, my god am I going to miss those acid dreams. I have been using Brasov as a home base and venturing out to places around Romania.

Stay safe,

Jared Boone, unsuccessfully retired vampire hunter for hire.

the view from the my balcony, BrasovRomania has long spooky hallways and crazily designed stairwells everywhere. below a 'secret passage' in Bran Castle and below that a neverending outdoor stairwell to some large church. cool stuff. watch your head though

A stray dog and an ATM.

after a nice, but very long bus ride across the french countryside, south germany, austria and hungary (slept through germany and austria) i have found myself setting up in romania for a while.

i am in the little city of brasov. i plan to recooperate from africa and the eurotrip. itll be nice to sleep in and get fat for a few until i plan my next move. the town is gorgeous and the daoist hostel has a huge dvd collection and wireless internet. it is a slow time for the hostel so i have this huge place to share with just a few others. today me, an aussie(theyre everywhere!), an argentinean and a cool old man from singapore went to Bran Castle (castle Dracula) and Rasnov fortress. at Rasnov it was so foggy we couldnt see much but it dropped for just a few minutes to reveal a massive skyline. above are some pictures from the day. i have internet for a while, drop me email if you want to chat. back to watching 'hostel' with my aussie friend here. (not the best choice of movie i admit haha)

stay safe.

jared

Hey everybody! Hope everything is going well. Just wanted to give you an update on my travels once again. This time I have good internet so I have posted some of the photos i have. We had a blast. Ended up spending three days in five different cities, met cool people from all over the world, ate lots of food and consumed a lot of coffee and alcohol while desperately trying to soak in as much of each city as we could. Matt just left to take the night bus to London. I am in Paris for one more night.  Where do I go now? After living in Africa for six months and then dragging myself around big city after big city in Europe, I really want to get back to some isolation and get the hell away from hordes of people. Seeing my friend Matt and the cities was great but I was rather overwhelmed at times. So, tomorrow morning I hop on a bus for two days and make my way to Brasov, Romania. Land of massive landscapes, old gothic towns and churches, snowy mountain ranges and yes, the castle of Vlad 'the impaler' aka Count Dracula. I am just going to relax for a while, take in some Romanian culture and perhaps eliminate some creatures of the night.paris,france

amsterdam (neither of us have too many pictures from amsterdam...a good thing i am sure)

brussels

london 

berlin (my favorite city on the trip)

well, thats pretty much the photos i have on my computer now. Matt was better about having his camera on him during the trip so if you want to see more be sure to harass him plenty. well, i have some wandering to do. i dont know how much internet i can get in Romania but ill be sure to let you guys know how im living. stay safe and healthyjared boone, vampire hunter.

Hey everyone . Life is good out here, cold and exhausting but good. We are now in Berlin (which is a blast). After Brussels we went to Amsterdam for three days or so...been sleeping on night buses to save on hostel costs.. the Euro is still kicking our asses. By day we check out the cities (get lost a lot haha) and by night we hit the bars and clubs. When have we been sleeping...never ! muahaha..But yea..Sorry for the short post, I don't have much time online. Matt has been the trip's photographer for the most part...I cant load pics here anyways :/ Stay Safe.. Jared

ellO!greetings from brussels...land of chocolate and beer and waffles and what not. not like we would know we anything about that. we got off of the ferry from london at 3 am, got into brussels around 5 am, checked into a hostel and slept all day. we now head out into the city to consume chocolate and beer and waffles.

it was surreal to see matt for the first time at the airport but within minutes it was as if i had never gone off and lived in a village in africa for 6 months. o yes..we saw russell brand from 'forgetting sarah marshall' buttering up some model type in our terminal.

..after a night of catching up on life over a cheap bottle in our 'industrial-themed' hostel, we roamed london for a few days until our legs failed us. think i dug the tate modern the most, a huge, awesome and free modern art museum...

well dont want to post much. just wanted to let you guys know i am still alive and matt is here too. perhaps i post again soon yes? eh.. here are some pictures of me and matt in london. cheers!

"whats this?!, what this!?

theres white stuff everywhere"

-jack skellington

I did'nt realize my clothes and things were so dirty. I donned my freshest attire for this trip and I somehow still manage to look like Ive lived in a sewer for the past 6 months. In Mali I looked spotless. How does this happen. Am I too dirty or are all of these people just too clean?

I don't feel too changed here in the Parisian airport. Almost like the past months were a dream of some sort. Maybe everyone back home will recognize some differences. The Malians who are well off enough to fly into Paris seem to not carry the approachable,silly hospitality that those who know nothing of international travel have. They must be hardened by these cruel, poker-faced, developed lands.. or I maybe I just smell bad.

I did get to speak what could be last my Bambara conversation with a kind old woman in the Bamako airport. We covered everything from family members to life plans and shared good laughs as we talked shit about French people who sat around us for an hour or so. As she disappeared into the mob of humans who boarded the behemoth that is Air France, I felt a bittersweetness wash over me. Bitter because I was leaving my first new language,a native tongue that served as a membership card in West Africa. Sweet because Im heading into strange,exciting adventure.

In Mali,when strangers saw me I was usually greeted with a bonjour (What does this Frenchman want?) but when I continued to confess that I speak no French and only Bambara I was welcomed with a warm (sometimes overwhelmingly warm) series of welcomes. I do miss that already. The people in the airport are robots with cold metal faces, a conversation without meaning or benefit is not one worth having i suppose.

Leaving my village the other day wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. There was a carjacking in an area close to where I was and the Nioro and Northern Koulikoro volunteers were evacuated. I was in Ghana while this all happened. When I returned military had roadblocks set up in Diema. For months I went into Diema daily, and it was a surreal sight to see the changes. The villagers associated me leaving with the military presence and rumors of problems up north instead of the real reasons I left for. It made for a smooth yet still sad goodbye.

Theres snow all over Paris. I fly across the Atlantic in a few hours. The Xbox I played here in July now costs many Euros. This is unfortunate because the children playing FIFA to the left of me need to have their hopes and dreams crushed.

By the time I post this, I should be in Philly with the sister. If not, I am submerged in the ocean, or washed up on a deserted island where I would be forced to fend for myself and perhaps befriend a volleyball.

See you soon,

Jared

Im back from my trip to the coast. I had an amazing time. Wrapping things up in Mali tommorrow. I dont know the plan from here. Stay tuned...Will write more later. Im pretty beat. More pictures coming as well. The stained glass ceiling in the Yamasoukro Cathedral(Basilica du Notre Dame). Google this place, bigger than the Vatican but sits desolate in a small town in the Ivory Coast. we had the place to ourselves. fisherman of ghana. me, jon wu and a large chilean friend, nacho helped haul in the take. i was sore for days. oceanfront property. home for a week or socape coast castle, ghana. , jared.

happy holidays from africa!here are some pics from the trip so far jon wu and theresa the danish viking

a shot from the beach the jungle book starring jon wu

happy birthday jc, the resort recently finished transforming a huge boat into a bar kids dressed up for boxing day in cape coast. me and a cocktail, christmas 08' two sassy young ghanian ladies and a fishing boat dixcove,ghana

i hope everyone had a great christmas!... all is very good here.

I had a delayed flight to Abdijan. Got into Abdijan very late at night. The police/military is quite corrupt. The Lonely Planet warns of the main bridge going into the city saying that cab robberies and hijackings are common. But the Lonely Planet was old and the bridge is now occupied by military 'gendarmes' dressed in arctic camo (think Street Fighter the movie) complete with way-too-big assault rifles. Only one of us speaks French, another volunteer named Westin. We get to the bridge, they see we have white faces in the car. They make us get out. Conversation is as follows.. Westin (volunteer on same flight): HelloGuard 1: What are you doing in Abdijan?Guard 2: (With the blank look of a locker room bully) Yea..Uh.. What are you doing in Abdijan?Westin begins to explain what we are doing here...Guard 1 : (Interrupts) You talk too much.Guard 2 : Yea....What did you bring us? The rest of the conversation is them pretending to know how to read while looking at our medical clearances and passports as they try to find something that they can get money out of us...finally we get talk in the cab. These checkpoints are everywhere and the police try to shake money out of any white face's pockets they can. Who gave these guys guns? So we ended up staying in a crappy hotel on the edge of town where there was a 24 hour porn channel and you can 'pay by the hour' ;) but it was a great deal and we got to walk around Abdijan and get some good food and lots of it.Then Tuesday, after a long bus trip along the coast and an eventfully draining border crossing, we all made it safely down to Dixcove, Ghana where we enjoyed paradise for a few days. We stayed at the 'Green Turtle Conservation Project'. We camped on the beach and enjoyed good times with other volunteers from all over the world. It did sting a bit not being home but the beaches here are gorgeous. Now we are in Cape Coast, Ghana. Tomorrow we are going to hit up some old slave castles and the beaches. I even found a place to play some basketball. Then we go to the rain forests in Kakum for a few days and then back to Green Turtle for the New Years.I wanted to wish everyone a 'happy christmas' as they say it here. Stay safe and happy,.... hope you enjoyed the pictures. markhams mac steals wireless even en afrique!

How goes it America? Im still hanging out in Bamako. Its been nice to take the time to actually check the place out this past week. There are many different places to eat, huge markets, nightlife. Life is good here en Afrique. Been online catching up with the world as well.

Plaxico Burress shot himself in the leg and people are throwing shoes at George Bush...ha

A day in the life of Sekou Coulibaly. (part two)

...In the early afternoon, I either head out into the gardens, wander around the village or just do some more reading/hang in the shade.

Another one of the dugutiki's women brings by some "to" for lunch. "To" is a less than delicious millet based sludge with green, salty slime sauce for dipping.

After ‘to’ time, I hop on my bike and enjoy a therapeutic 8 km to the closest town, a truck stop called Diema.

Diema is a sprawling pile of trash and abandoned auto parts with meat butchers, fruit vendors, and knock-off merchandise hustlers fighting over who gets to harass which passer-by as they step off of buses headed to Bamako and Kayes. I bank in Diema and get luxuries like Fanta and egg sandwiches there. Its a shame the town has such an unwelcoming exterior because you head a few miles back into the actual town of Diema and she is a subtle market town with the area's only hospital, a market, school, mosque, soccer field, seedy Nigerian bar etc. After hanging out with friends at the spots I frequent, unless a random adventure presents itself, I head back to village.

I try to stay out of the sun until it heads down. As the day closes, I bucket bathe, get dressed in warm clothes and climb onto my roof to watch the sunset. Then i grab my flashlight and my soap and walk over to the dugutiki's massive 50-something person concession for dinner which is usually tasty couscous or rice. I am usually tired or ready for bed at this point. Sometimes i will hang out with guys my age for a bit but they are usually exhausted from the day and ready for bed as well. Spontaneous dance parties, tea drinking, trash fires, and wild packs of dogs fighting are other common examples of nightlife in the village. I then climb into my bug hut, zip up and enjoy vivid mefloquine dreams that usually star you guys from home...

So that is a glimpse of how things go here. Its a lifestyle that once I became used is quite simple. It has provided me with a lot of time to reflect on my life so far, my time here, and where I am going next....

Next you ask? Well...

Working with my program director has been quite discouraging and the impact my time/work I would be doing here offering 'sustainable development' to the village doesn't look like it will keep me here any longer. Over the past months, I have been feeling out my situation here and I have come to a decision to float on and see how the rest of the world looks and lives.

I would like to say that although I have come to disagree with some of the PeaceCorps' ways and I will not continue volunteer work with the organization I do not have any ill feelings towards the PeaceCorps when it has helped me learn a new language and then given me the opportunity to meet great people and become friends with people from a far away land. I have cherished this rare, beautiful experience for what it is. I am carrying around a much more positive perspective on life and even though my body has taken some sickness and 'withering’, I feel refreshed mentally.

On December 21st I am taking my last adventure in the PeaceCorps with three other volunteer friends here. The ever wise and dashing Markham, my fellow Bonnarooian, Shelby, and Harlem-bred hipster Jon Wu (not to be confused with action film director Jon Woo) and I are all flying into Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire where we will stay for a bit and then make our way west to the rainforests and coasts of Ghana for Christmas and to bring in the new year. I figured if I have to be away from my family and friends for the holidays, i better be on a beach somewhere!

On January 4th, I return to Bamako, Mali and wrap up things with the PeaceCorps.(get thoroughly probed :/ by the medical office for a few days)

Then what you say? I guess you'll just have to stay tuned to my blog to find out the answer to that question!

Since I do not have time to respond to all emails the blog has been a lifesaver. I've been living in a village in the third poorest country in the world and still managed to update it every now and then so I am confident that where ever I go I can scramble something together to let you all know how I am doing and where I am at.

p.s Thanks for all of the letters and emails while I was out here, they took lonely days and filled them with the comforting thoughts of home.

I will let you know how Ivory Coast/Ghana was when I get back !

Stay safe and happy. Merry Holidays.

J Boone

o yea.... pictures!

The mosque in the village after a long night of dancing during Tabaski.

Malian streetlights.

The surrounding villages all got dressed up in thier finest attire and made thier way to Fanguone for some good convo, some good drummin', and some good goat.

Some kids learning how to 'prepare' a goat. Things got a little tough to watch after this. haha. Note the kid in the green's expression. Pssh first timer.

One of the Keita's stops by to say hi and he has on an "Experience the Fun with Virginia Beach Parks and Recreation 2004" shirt on. small world eh?

Donkey, horse and bull carts are the rides of choice in village. Here, a single donkey model. Caution, passengers will get farted on.

While wandering the markets of Bamako, I came across this cool guy who makes christmas ornaments out of old insect repellent cans and kind of looks like Dave Chapelle.

In other news: I finally have music again! Back in September, my iPod bit the dust because of well..all of the dust. I had this shipped to a volunteer's home in America who was back visiting. Life is good.

And a big Congratulations to my friend Kyle Naughton! He is newly employed and no longer spending his days alone at home playing with his 'wii'. Way to go man.

Hey everybody! ...I wish I could be there for the holidays and I miss you all very much. Thanks to everybody who helped Matt make the best video I have ever seen. There's Scorcese, Tarantino, Burton...and now Coleman. I am blessed to have people like all of you in my life. This past week the village celebrated Tabaski so we danced every night and slaughtered a good amount of goats. Didn’t eat a heart this time around but I did try an eyeball.

Here is a blog post to give you an simplified outline of how things are here for me in "farafinna" (Bambara for Africa, translates as 'land of black people)

When I first arrived in village I mentioned it being like living in a fishbowl. I am the first volunteer to ever live in Faguone Massassi and the villagers were not used to having their very own white face around. The last time people stopped by was when a Canadian organization built a dirt road on the perimeter of the village in the 1980's and decades ago when the group India-Mali built the best thing to happen to the village, the water pump. I felt like a circus exhibit for quite some time and it was quite exhausting. Well I am relieved to say, that just as a child loses interest and a once-amusing fish becomes just part of the room its in, I have become "Sekou" (seck-ooo), the white guy who speaks crappy Bambara and lives in a hut near the back of the village. A basic outline of my days..

A day in the life of Sekou Coulibaly. (part one)

Still dark out, I wake up to the sound of mans voice belting out prayers and hymns through struggling stereo speakers. My village is very religious. Seeing how people act/dance in other towns and cities I am convinced I live Mali's equilevent to Amishtown. To answer the call to prayer, some men zombie-walk to the mosque, others just rollover and pray at home. I usually just climb out of my bug hut, walk out into my nyegen, piss and/or stretch and return to sleep.

A few hours later, the roosters and donkeys call the village to life. As the sun rises, the rhythmic thuds of women pounding millet begins and the men load up the donkey carts and prepare to head into the fields. I hear a gentle knock on my plywood door from one of the dugutiki's daughters/wives and she sets a steaming hot bowl of "cere" (millet/hot water) on the bench in front of my hut. I zip up my fleece(late nights/mornings can be very chilly), grab my sack of sugar, slide on my knock- off Nike flip-flops and head outside to slurp down some Malian-style grits.

As I am eating breakfast, the villagers who pass by my hut all stop by to greet me and ask how my night went. Carts propelled by donkeys and bulls clank by, spearheaded by children who seem to be no older than 5 years old (Most Fanguone kids are too cool for school). Women head to the lakes and wells with large buckets of laundry. Men corral huge masses of goats as they squeeze through the tiny streets of the village on their way to the fields.

The sun heats up so I shed layers and head inside to read for a bit. I then strap water bottles and my wash bucket onto my bike (the Bambara for bicycle is 'negeso' which means 'iron horse' ...awesome eh) and head to the water pump. Since we haven't had rain in months, the iron horse ride is made rather difficult because the once tightly packed roads have all turned into soft sand. After walking next to my bike most of the way, I arrive to stand in a short line of young women who fill buckets the size of kiddy pools, place the buckets on their heads and casually begin the trek home. Malian women are a tough breed. I fill up, kick it with the ladies for a bit and then head back to purify my water and perhaps do some laundry.The men and boys work in the fields, the women and young girls do household chores and the old men lounge in the shade near the mosque. The village is rather serene with the exception of the very young children who spend the days terrorizing the village, eating lizards and enjoying the freest years of life....exciting stuff eh? haha I will post part two (w/ surprise ending!) in a couple of days. Enjoy some pictures!an acacia' tree..my daily iron horse trips are lined with these guys, the main tree herei had a pet chameleon for a few days. i found him on a bike ride, he was trying to blend with the pavement. i was not fooled and took him to my mud hut.here is my friend trying to blend with wood. not happening. chameleons are suprisingly mean and for some reason Malians in my village are very freaked out by them. my friend Amara gasped and for my protection chucked it over a bunch of huts. never saw him again. Amara felt guilty when he found out this was my friend and brought me a watermelon. delicious watermelon for an angry lizard? eh..fair trade this is attempt number two at having a dog. he growled at all Malians when they came near me so we become buds. after a few days he just wandered off. i like to think he went on a spiritual quest of some sort.malian transportation tip..avoid a bus with a bunch of animals on top. urine will most likely drip on your head during the trip haha.my 'moringa' trees have sprouted in the gardens. these guys will bring some much needed nutrients to Fanguone's cuisine one day. will i hang out and watch them grow? hmmm. note the dental floss fencing.

Bala Coulibaly sporting the latest in winter fashions in Fanguone. since it has been getting cold in the mornings, kids coat themselves with a light layer of dirt. they have a blast doing it too.Bangolo Keita is probrobly my best friend in village ever since my buddy Bama got sent to Mauritania to work in October. here, Bangolo is helping my neighbor Tata build a new nyegen.thanks to yours truly, paper football has made its way to Fanguone Massassi. paper airplanes are quite a hit too.

These next five pictures are from our trip to the "Chutes de Felou" in Medine(near Kayes),Mali. The bike trip there was pretty tough and both of my flip-flops broke but it was still a decent way to spend a Saturday.

above: We passed this old man a bunch of times and he was always crouched exactly like this looking for stones. I suppose he is Mali's equivalent to the men who comb the beaches back home with metal detectors all day.

above: You can rent these boats and go up and down the Senegal River for dirt cheap.

above: Doesnt look like much I know but when you are in one of hottest inhabited cities in Africa, this is what heaven looks like. :)

above: Steve and Jared (not me, another Jared) walking around the rocks. The chutes are actually a waterfall that slopes downward over soft sandstone. There is a hydroelectric station at the bottom of the falls where locals will try to talk you into using them as a guide. Three young adventurers like us? We dont a stinkin' guide!..... we ended up lost in a bunch of shrubbery and mud for the remainder of the day. haha

very top: the comic i whipped up for emily. it basically says "is your baby skinny?!...well bring em on down this sunday!sunday!sunday! (you have to say that with the crazed monster truck madness voice) and we'll weigh those babies and then teach you how to fatten em up! just for coming you get a free box of peanut powder!" (limited quantites available)top: while im out here preaching nutritional benefits of certain plants and working on food preservation, you simply cannot preserve food better than this. in this picture my neighbor, yiri ka jan(nickname i gave him, means "tall tree", he loves it) puts millet crops on the top of his house. "if you dont want the animals to eat your food, put that shit on the roof!"-ancient malian proverb (well, should be)

middle: a bunch of crazy malian kids and a goofy white american at the festival du rail in Kayes. kudos to mark hannon for the super sweet haircut!

bottom: ink drawing of a fagoune massasi villager.

update 11/18!

all right so still in Bamako until thursday.....while online yesterday i felt an unearthly grumble that i recognized to be Giardia, my arch nemesis. this is my third time with Giardia since iv'e been. last night me and the toilet spent some serious quality time together and today im doped up and i can't leave until Thursday. so i come in to get a tooth looked at, and i end up having intenstinal problems. awesome huh? lighter news..

today while hanging out in the library i made a comic for emily, a pcv, to promote her sunday health sessions with her local villagers. between murals and comics for the health sector and being a part-time caricature artist for the kids in my village i think instead of having me play in the dirt all day and watching trees grow, the peacecorps would benefit most from parking me somewhere accessible just having me draw stuff for people. i am now working on an illustrated-how to cook "moni nafama" brochere. all of the problems with the language barriers in our attempts to educate and help different cultures can eliminated by the simplest stickmen and arrows. symbols make the world go around!

update 11/17!

ok everybody, the dentist trip was fine. no harm no foul with the tooth just needed somefiling down. luckily he filed a bit of my lip down too (ouch). so now im just hanging out in Bamako until tommorrow or the next day. i staying at the med unit and the VCR is broken so i will be online a lot prob. be online a bunch! throw me an email if you feel so inclined!

stay safe,

jared

songs to live by. 11/16

air "run"

eddie vedder "guaranteed"

kanye west "streetlights"

modest mouse "the world at large"

sigur ros "starlafur"

m.i.a "20 dollar"

very top: an afternoon soccer match in kayes..

top: when walking through the markets you meet all types of cool people who do all types of things, like this hat knitter. taken in kita

middle: i will never forget this horrifying train ride haha. after wobbling around for 8 hours or so it ended up breaking down in a tiny village in no mans land so we gave up on it and caught a van ride ride to Kita. a few days later,it crashes into a another train and kills a bunch of people. needless to say we sought other means of transportation back to kayes. our overcrowded bus ride took 26 hours because of its own technical difficulties but i think ive given up on the train for good. gotta love malian transportation.

bottom: a little post halloween hike. a picture of some fellow volunteers climbing rocks in kita.

very bottom: me standing in front of the mayors sweet digs in kita after some food shopping at the market.

so ive decided to stay in kayes city for a big artisan festival thats going on this weekend so i will have internet til saturday or so. after that, im back off of the radar for a while as i will be hanging out/working in the village. drop me an email if you like! talk to you soon. jared.

hey people. today was a very exciting visit to the internet cafe to see that we have a new president!! i see virginia is a democratic state this year by a mere smidgen! as for me. im just hanging around kayes for election and some big artisan festival this weekend. i will post a new blog here soon. i had a wild trip back from kita that involved getting stranded by a train in a small village in the middle of nowhere and taking a 24 hour bus trip from hell all for the sake of halloween. thats dedication people. hope everyone is ok. ttyl. obama/biden 2008!

jared

hey everyone.

it stinks being out here for the best holiday of the year!

just swinging by the internet cafe in kayes again.

in the morning im grabbing the train to Kita for the first time to party with the other volunteers for Halloween.

village life has been good. its pretty much like camping with a hut to keep my stuff in.

i have a lot of good stories to share with you guys.

thanks for all of the emails/updates while im out here floating around in Africa.

they really do keep me going!..hope everyone voted! it will be very interesting being out here for the election and seeing how perceptions of our country changes if at all. its exciting that good ole' virginia is going to play such big role in the outcome this time around...i will have internet on and off until sometime next week so let me know whats going on in the u.s and i will be sure to facebook stalk you all for the halloween party pictures!

talk to you soon.

jared

ps, a few pictures....

header: a recent photo of me. taken by ashley king, fellow PCV at the stage house in Kayes Ville.

top: my little buddies doing the things they do best....eating watermelon,showing off sweet karate moves and killing large dangerous lizards

middle top: some withering malian wall taken in Nioro Du Sahel..

middle :the lunch.... 'to', some little snakelike fishys,and tigadegana (peanut butter sauce), all very popular malian cuisine

bottom: a random snapshot of kayes city near the internet cafe

Hey everybody!

Well, been living in the village for some weeks now. I travelled to our consolidation house in Kayes City for the weekend to chill under ceiling fans, get some junk food and speak some English with the volunteers here. I’m finally getting on a routine in village and the dugutiki(village chief) and me have the food situation down to a science. I eat “to” (toe) everyday for lunch, a millet/water sugar concoction (“cere”) along with cous cous for breakfast and they mix it up for dinner. Im eating a ton of starches. If I get hungry other than that I just walk into someone’s concession and chow down on whatever they are eating. My bambara is to the point where I can understand the things that are going on and it changes everything. I still sound like a barbarian to them I’m sure but I can say everything I need to for the most part and hold conversations on random topics like geography, 50 Cent and the favorite topic of the villagers, American women. haha My hut is still a dump but ive got it under control as long as it doesn’t rain. I have a one man bug hut so I keep my wooden bed frame outside (my neighbor built it for 3000cfa out of sticks and wire and it has a slight incline for the head!) and every night I put my foam pad(bought it in Nioro, au revoir village ass chair!) on it and sleep in my nyegen next to my poo hole. It is about 20 degrees cooler outside at night than inside and has made life better and eliminated a nasty case of heat rash. I have tons of mice, tons of spiders, lizards and other small critters in my hut, most residing in the thatched roof. Some live there permanently, some just stop by. I check on the spiders regularly to make sure none are of a venomous, scary sort..... they eat the mosquitoes so they’re cool for now. As long as the snakes do not come looking for the mice, we're golden.

After speaking only bambara/francais "frambara" for two weeks and then coming here and eating and sleeping a ton/watching the complete series of “Firefly” my brain is really shot but I want to get this blog up…must…go…on….must ..type..! Being the only American/white dude to come through my village in a long time I feel as if I am living in a fishbowl at times. I was expecting it but it is hard to get a minute alone. Everyone wants to stop by and say hi at all times so I find myself “lonely but never alone” as the PeaceCorps wellness handbook describes it. The kids are plastered against the screen on my wooden inner door(locks still backwards ofcourse haha) all day long, most just swinging by to say hi, hoping I chase them off or say something funny.

Now that Ramadan is over most everyone is back to work. Ive already made a ton of friends at the new village. I play soccer with the guys from my village run along the large road when it gets cool every night to burn off stress and get off my ass.

Mali has the craziest stickers plastered all over its vehicles so Ive started a collection that includes but is not limited to Sly Stallone as “Cobra” in retro pinks and greens. American pop culture has infiltrated in a weird way here. Celine Dion and former action stars like Steven Seagal and Chuck Norris are huge here.

My Ipod is broken, must have been all of the dust. My laptop is hidden away for safekeeping in Ilana’s luxurious (by Malian standards) apartment in Nioro so that will survive this experience.

Ramadan ending was quite the party. Two nights before the fast ended our village had a huge celebration. A huge fire next to the mosque, drummers pounded gatskin drums until they zere destroyed, the women all sang and clapped, men held hands and strut across the opening, kids run amok and danced. I am convinced that every teenager in my village can do a backflip. The party lasted well into the night. The next day the party resumed for the younger villagers throughout the daytime while the older villagers prepared their annual feast of meat to end Ramadan. Both were quite a sight. They killed three bulls and a bunch of goats and that night we ate sooo much meat. As we were munching away on tasty meat parts of all textures,a few elders walk up to me with a bowl and have ear to ear smiles on their faces. I flashlight inside, a goat heart. Never one to turn away a free goat heart I ofcourse chomped right in and everyone was elated. It was soaked in the sauce everything was cooked in so it didn’t taste at all bad but it did leave a funny film on the roof of my mouth for a while but it didn’t matter because I felt like a bad ass. Not to worry anybody back home, I don’t go around on a naïve mission to do everything (everyone) that is offered to me haha. So basically I am just walking around learning about the people in my village, staying out of the sun when I can, playing soccer, making new friends, attending each and every Malian dance party and just enjoying this rare cultural experience living in the village of Fanguone Massassi!!! Im safe and alive and I hopefully will be able to post again sometime soon.

Must go watch American movies and eat things like eggs and corn flakes while I still can! See you all soon enough!

Stay safe and happy, Jared.p.s. enjoy these pictures.

very top:.. my new pad...these donkeys love hanging out in my front yard...even the animals long to hang out with the villages new attraction...if you look closely you can also see my shower...well..bucket next to the door

top: proof that i am still breathing for anyone worried...this is me hanging in my dojo...if you look on the left you can my shotty rain defenses and bug hut..this chiar is the best 15000cfa ive ever spent.

middle: a shot of a mid day dance party the day after ramadan...yay we can eat food again! i am yet to show Malians the robots....but sooon.

bottom: the beginnings of my Malian sticker collection. a strong start but i have work to do..

very bottom: my new lunchmate unteri and a post ramadan feast

current location: tubaniso, bamako current activity: binge-eating bananas like its my job.

well, i am officially a peace corps volunteer. this past friday we swore in at the american embassy (i wore a pink tie, awww yea) and then we were treated to day of celebratory lounging and partying. we went to the american club where wealthy malian folk, marines who have embassy duties, other government officials and ex-pats go to unwind. they have a pool, bar and air-conditioned room with couches/ping-pong table and other things none of us have seen in a while. we all got fat and sunburnt and then headed back into the city to celebrate at the pirates club(not as cool as it sounds but had hookah andamerican hip-hop!) and then we were shuttled to "no stress", which is west africa's newest, biggest nightclub where we stumbled around and danced and drank until the wee hours. volunteers from mauritania, burkina faso and other surrounding countries made the pilgrimage to come party. i had not been up late let alone do any of these awesome things in so long that the day was a blur. the malian bartenders did not help make this night any less blurry. the language barrier stepped in every now and then and instead of a sprite/vodka you would get a tall glass of tequila or an off the wall fanta/tonic concoction. it was a russian roulette every time with those guys. nevertheless, it was great time and we all jumped around and tore apart the place while the finest romanian techno (numa numa yay!) provided a fitting backdrop. the endless supply of bouncers sported confused glares as i am sure they will never see that many offbeat americans gyrate drunkenly before them again(until next year perhaps!). throughout this experience us volunteers have grown pretty close... especially those who have been in the same homestay villages and this night had a certain "last night of summer camp" build to it. it was truly one for the books. well journals, blogs whatever. there has been a lot of that the past 4 months or so. the inevitable parting of friends as they head into post college relationships, careers and seek out a place in this mad, mad world. the next day we all headed back to the training center in bamako to corral our belongings and head out to our different sites. most volunteers left on sunday, others went by two or threes out to there sites. i leave saturday or sunday. it is nice having this entire place practically to myself. i get some last minute bambara tutoring with my malian friend oscar, enjoy electricity and internet and eat tons of food. they have a basketball hoop here and while there is no one to play with, its been quite therapeutic to play against my shadow and touch the rock one last time before i disappear into the bushes. when i get out there, i plan on getting on a routine to keep me going at first. as soon as the sun begins to pound the village, men ages 6/7ish and up head into the fields. they swing by for food in the afternoon and then its back out until dusk. this leaves the tiny village of fangoune massassi rather desolate. the exceptions are the crazy little kids who run around and enjoy the few years of youthful spontaneity before they two hop into the malian workforce. the week i was there, most of my daytime conversations were with elders lounging in the shade by the mosque, women doing chores in the shade, or lunchtime with the men in the, you guessed it, shade. in the fields the men wear long sleeves and pants and head wraps despite the blazing heat to avoid the sun and random dust storms. as they say in bambara "tile ka farin kosebe!", which translates to "the sun is very mean". most of my days are spent in the shade. one hour in the sun out here and you can feel and smell yourself cooking. i wanted to post to basically let everyone back home know i am safe and breathing. i am enjoying this experience and i look forward to all of the things to come. i reserved flight tickets to ivory coast/ghana for x mas and new years on the african beaches so while i am pretty set on being here until then, rest assured that if at any time things get too rough or i dont want to be here, i shall seek out adventure elsewhere. thanks for all of the emails and letters, they have taken lonely days and filled them with warm thoughts of home. i leave you with a quote from a wise and dashing man who has been emailing me while im out here. before i tell you it,why this quote hit home.... being out here in a new place leaves a lot of time for self reflection and it can it sometimes can turn into self-loathing. these harsh criticisms could stem from the ample alone time, the regular use of mefloquine(larium) as a preventative for malaria, or me wrestling the ideas that brought me to pursue volunteer work in africa and the ways in which these ideas have changed or remained the same since i have been here. whateverthe reasons may be, when you have no one but yourself, no question is left unanswered...what was it that brought me here? still not able to single out one particular reason, these are just a few of the things that commonly bring others like myself here and might just have brought me here ...a naive attempt at making the world better? ... to take an honest shot at providing sustainable development for a "underdeveloped" country? ....a want to suffer a tad for a self induced/made middle-class guilt? ....a chance to visit africa on the u.s government's tab and meet people from around the world? ...an aesthetic voyage/photo hunt?... to learn africa and to learn the limits of myself when placed in a simplified setting that lacks the common comforts and luxuries of day to day american life? ...i could go on and on ... thoughts like these swish around in my head and get spat onto the pages of my journal while i am alone out here.. o yea...the quote from the email.... "sometimes i go about in pity for myself, and all the while a great wind is bearing me across the sky" ...... the saying reminds me that no matter how deep the self examinations get out here. while i spend my days searching for myself and witness this different country unravel itself to me.... there is a common connection amongst us that reminds that we are in this world together and yes, anonymous emailer, we all will cross paths again!... enough ranting. now comes the part i hate, stopping. but alas my journal will pick up where the blog leaves off! i sure do talk to myself a lot out here wow. ok, i will see you soon! keep sending emails and writing!love and peace ,sekou coulibaly out.

p.s go cowboys. this is the year!wizards, stay healthy.

pictures, click for larger: (top) my hut at tubaniso where we would come for 2-3 days every few weeks or so during homestay....its where i get online and beg the internet to work. i get good sleep here but only for two more days :((middle/left) my buddy here at tubaniso who i will miss at much as my hut. the rim is crooked so that when you takes shots from the front, your confidence skyrockets(bottom/right) being a fan of eggs, i went to bamako's largest egg incubator's warehouse. trespassing is not encouraged in mali

hey everyone, well its been about two months and training is coming to a close. sunday i head back to the tiny village of fanguone massassi for good. i will lose most contact but do not worry i will be fine! i will somehow find a way to update my blog or check my email i am sure. the internet in bamako allowed me to load two pictures before it went back to its normal ways so thats good. back in banankoro, i had to say goodbye to my host family. i had some great times there and made some new friends. i got to paint a mural on the side of the local hospital the day before we left! we whipped it up pretty fast with some auto paints. it shows the most commonly offered food in the village and what each offers a young malian lad, "strength, energy,protection". it was hard to get colors we wanted out of red, yellow and green and our malian is many shades of black but we had to make do.... the medical ladies had me paint our malian and american names on the wall afterwards so we got to leave our mark on the town!.... this week wraps up training. tests, workshops, field trips...bleh. friday we swear in at the american embassy and have a big ole' celebration afterwards. o yea! we got our hands on a bootleg copy of dark knight.... pretty awesome! many thanks to everyone who sends me emails, letters and packages while im out here! i will try to post again this week before i head out!

(top) my lunch mate apu samake and me chowing down like usual

(middle top) the mural (we did writing/names the next day) i did for the health sector in banankoro and one of my many posses...these guys love kung fu.. shelby balanced two of them on the ledge to increase aesthetic quality of the photo...orange shirt was fearing for his life haha

(middle bottom) just another malian sunset (taken from my nyegen)

(bottom) the environment sector took a day off and went to the waterfalls in siby

these are some pictures from the first weeks in mali (i don't have the cable on me to load the ones taken since early july :/):(very top) nouhom mc'ing the "culturalfest" at tubani so the first week we arrived(top) a cool tree/my first african sunset, pretty weak compared to sunsets since but hey, it was my first! (middle)me on the niger river, you can hear the prayers blaring out of the mosques across the river at night(bottom)just a few of the kids in my host family in banankoro, papa samake in the middle is the cutest little man on the planet

sunday august 17,2008 ok so this week i made my trip out to the small village of fagoune massassi. i got there and my place was in shambles. door portals were an inch off of the mud walls and the locks were backwards (it was hilarious/twilght zone-ish because so matter how much i tried to explain they were backwards nobody was grasping the concept), i had no bed, the windows didnt close, and my nyegen wasnt ready for use (not paved hole/wasn't opened yet) whatever, it was still morning and i wanted to check this place out. so me and my counterpart, baba coulibaly head to the center of the village to meet the dugutiki of the village, who is also a coulibaly, then i meet the man i would be hanging out with most of the time, basire coulibaly. i come to realize that the whole village is a coulibaly with the exception of a few kantes(who i molded steel tools with their outdoor workshop!) and jaras and jaoras.... so i arrive and meet everyone and i am immediately stunned as i realize my village is into scarifcation. basire has deep gnarly scars from his hairline to his chin on both sides and carvings in his forehead. the dugutiki has the same lines but they are thin and delicate, some of the more tasteful facial mutilation i got to see this week. the practice is fading out as the youth have only minor scaring on the arms. all coulibalys have these scars....my new name here is sekou coulibaly but fear not, it seems they have no urge to turn yours truly into a jack-o-lantern just yet.funny but gross story... when i sat down to converse with the dugutiki, the children(some nude ofcourse) scattered from a colorful lawnchair to give me a seat(respect for elders is taken very seriously here). i sat ate catfish heads and spoke mangled bambara with everyone and afterwards decided i needed to sort out my living situation. the elders of the village decided to honor me with the finest bedding in the village, and voila! its the naked african child ass ridden village colorful lawnchair is all mine... first thought o hell no, second thought (looking at the state of my hut floor)...is there any other option.. i then needed bedding so i was given my homologues blanket from his personal hut given to me. i try not think about where this bedding has been (baba has many children), i head out to walk around check the place out. the village is super tiny and there is no way that 600 people live here. the village is about the size of one city block and i know each face and name after a week. my guess would be 300 people max. the fields are absolutely beautiful and the further you get from town the more wildlife you can catch. the womens farming association that i was said to be working with has not formed yet (they are seasonal) so i basically just walk around and do crazy things(make tools/watch basire shoot birds) and talk to all of the villagers all day. when the african sun starts to melt me, i find shade and read or write in the journal... or try to seek out food (sardines and peanuts) which is also proven to be quite the task. later in the week, a huge thunderstorm hit and brought tons of much needed rain to our village. the storm was the most intense i had seen yet and i got some good video of early lighting from the storm. i head back to the hut and boommmm! another bomb gets dropped on my head, my roof doesnt hold back water. it rushes in and soaks my filthy ass mattress(unwanted, but still a much needed rinse i am sure) and my blankets and all of my stuff. my homologue is rushing around trying to think of what to do and where to put me for the night. he runs over to the boarded up abandoned hut i share a complex with. (earlier in the day i found that this is where the dugutikis main lady used to live before she died. who knows if she is still there, creepy). baba peeled back the boards and shot me a look like come here!....i shot back a look that said hell no in many many different ways. so when the rain died down. my shithole out back was all mud, the hut was soaked and the windows wont close to defend round 2 which seemed to be getting closer. at this point i needed to call the peacecorps and give them an idea of what was going down with my shelter(being the first volunteer no one knows what to expect)...and voila! no cell phone service anywhere in the villages limits!... so i rung out my bed. and laid there less than happy and then well into the night i heard loud music and commotion. ofcourse i throw on clothes and follow the noise. after the rain hits the town, they party. the dance music blasts, the tea is poured. everyone is smoking cigarettes and laughing and ofcourse i had to get all over the dance floor and watch the show..the kids cleared out seating for me. to have such a bummer of a day followed by a night that had a smile plastered to my face until i passed out.. put this week in perspective. the lows were low and the highs were higher. thursday, since i could not reach them, peacecorps swung by to check out my place, and to no surprise , removed me from the dump that is my home. i said goodbye to all of my new friends and head up to nioro,on the border of mauritania to stay with a pcv in a beautiful apartment with showers and tvs and all of that nonsense. it was a great relief. we then head to kayes city in the morning for two days to hang out with other volunteers at our consolidation house, which is also pretty impressive. the site has to make living conditions more sanitary and i need to meet with directors about lack of communication and transportation. im sure everything will get sorted out in time. i swear in september 12th and until then i am back in banankoro with my homestay family, heading to the school everyday to learn more bambara and agriculture training. we will see how things play out when i head back to site after that. while globalization has everyone wearing clothes and singing 50 cent here... things can still be pretty raw out here whether im in the village or traveling. peacecorps monitors blogs so i tend to water them down which i dont like to do. i think i am going to use the blog at lot less because of this and the fact it is hard to keep up and find time to get online. i am keeping up with my journal so that has been a good honest outlet for me. i will still try to post occasional updates to let everyone know i am still breathing but it would be great if you could email me on jaredboone08@gmail.com it very easy to use even if im at internet cafes with funky french keyboards. that way i can also get news of what is going on back home!until then..godspeed."ka su here caya"may you have a peaceful night..jared

thursday august 7th,2008 since my old college email address is going to expire here soon, ive set up a google account...

jaredboone08@gmail.com... send me email updates on everyone back home/random stuff/anything!...i look forward to hearing from you all!jared

date: tuesday july 29th 2008 location: tubani so, bamako morale:high note: if you look to the left you can find my address. if you want to send me packages. send it there, if you do want to send me packages, you should be ashamed of yourselves. kidding

we got our site placements today! we all met in a hangar and came to the front as they called our name and posted our names on the huge map of mali. the post-its were mostly near other post its on the large map but when i went to place mine i found that i am in the middle no mans land. i am in the village of Fangoune Massassi in the Kayes Region of Mali. i am in a small village of 662 people (i have more facebook friends than that...my high school graduating class was 400 and some change....wild eh?) at first i thought the peace corps was performing some kind of human isolation experiment. second immediate thought, loin cloth time! awwyeahhh. the only road leading to my village is not even built i am told. into the wild we go. i am 60 kilometers away from any other PeaceCorps folk. going into the whole placement thing i wanted to be close to a larger city where i can play some soccer, get online, and hang with americans every now and then. as we have toured the villages i really wanted a small village where the trash is rare and people get to know me and vice versa. the small villages we visited we so relaxing and calming. i think i can really get some good living out there. the village isnt even on a map and it is the first time a volunteer has been at this site. no pressure jared. hahathe organization i am working with is the Association des femmes de Fangoune Massassi.the women of the village are organized in a large association of more than 80 members who work in one large community garden. i will be hanging out with the queen of this posse, Aya Fofana, the president of the association. me and 80 women working in a garden everyday. (picture ace ventura:when nature calls meets the divine secrets of the ya-ya sisterhood/joy luck club/fried green tomatoes...i can go on.) it will be interesting ...im sure hilarity will ensue.the village is home to mali wildest of wildlife including monkeys and if i head south about 100 kilometers there are areas that are rumored to be some of the most beautiful spots in mali i am told(lions included!). the cons that come up in my mind are that the area is dry and hot as hell. infact, the capital city of the Kayes region is the hottest place on the planet. yes, the planet. an upside is that the air is not humid and there are far fewer mosquitos than here in bamako/banankoro. i will not be able to get online that much and some times i will not be in contact for months. i will do my best but i will do my best to find a way to get my blogs up. i plan on doing a ton of traveling to outlying countries so i can post there and update every chance i get. i visit for a few weeks in two weeks. as for now, back to language training and avoiding skeetos and disease in my lovely trash encircled compound in banankoro!still cant upload photos :( slow internet.. you will see them soon enough.until then, k'an ben ko fe! (see you later),jared

time. 1 32am date. tuesday july 29,2008.location. tubani so (home of the doves), mali alas! internet!bambara lesson for the day: nt'a fe ka aw neni, nga n te bamanakan caman mentranslation: i don't want to offend you all but i don't speak bambara well.

hey everyone! this week i moved in with my host family in banankoro. i had many ups and downs my first week with in my african family. living with some of the funniest, craziest little kids, being a celebrity , and seeing the most beautiful skies ever has been awesome. for tonight, i am back at the training center outside of bamako once again. tonight a bunch of us boogied on down to the local dance discotheque/bar place. (a large garage with chairs, beer, light and loud malian house music) it somehow evolved into a massive dance off and i laughed/sweated very much. tomorrow i head back home to banankoro. i find out where i will be posted for my two years in the next couple of weeks. we have been doing a lot of traveling to outlying villages and cities with the folks from my agriculture sector. as for my new home... i live in the compound of my host father abdoulaye samake. they have given me my "malian" name which is sekou. people in the village are remembering me and the other 7 of us by these names. every morning i step outside my door i am swarmed with little malian kids yelling sekou sekou! i now know what is like to be a celebrity.... draining. everywhere you are the kids want to touch/play with the white guy and the elders and adults want to talk to you. the love in this town is amazing. the mangos are awesome too.the move has been quite a culture shock. i was expecting it and it still hit me pretty hard. my american comforts have been traded for bucket baths and fish head dinners. malian practices, beliefs and daily living are from anything i could imagine in the states. at my host home we have donkeys, chickens, pigeons, starving dogs, and the most annoying roosters all packed inside of a tiny compound that houses about 15 kids, and other small samake families. i walk a mile or so to school every morning where we practice our bambara. at night, the car batteries charge the 12 inch tv's to the neighborhood as we all watch a terrible french soap opera from which i have gained my other alias, paco. paco is currently framed for murder and in prison(i think) and while he is a horrendous actor, having the neighborhood kids chant paco!paco! is quite flattering because he is quite the studly bearded frenchman. i will allow it for now. since i live in a somewhat crowded part of the city, the street in front of our compound is entirely trash. i have finally cracked and now i just throw my trash on the ground like everyone else. ive met a few zambians who speak english so that is also good. the sky here is amazing at night and the other day in the field we got caught in the craziest looking thunderstorm i think i might have ever seen. overall i am still just soaking it all in. im focusing on cherishing this experience and remembering now matter how bad it burns, the dark knight, mozzarella sticks, cheeseburgers and all of the other things that sound sooooo damn good right now will still exist when i return. a few of us cut our hair into mohawks, and im pretty excited to see what the kids think. please keep writing me on facebook/email/wherever. i have a cell phone here but the credits are hard to come by. if i get posted somewhere near a cell phone boutique i will post my number on the blog. i have a big day tomorrow and its late... so once again i must go! and once again i feel like i could just keep writing forever about what is going on over here! i will hopefully post again in the next couple of weeks, until then,

stay safe and happy."ka su here' caya"(may you have a peaceful night),

jared

Voila! No worries everybody, for I have arrived safely after a long triP!  This is my first post and so much has happened since I have last seen everybody! We have been language/cultural and job training with the Malians here at the Tubaniso training facility in the Koulikoro region right outside of Bamako. O yea ... I got to say whats up to Bill Murray. He was on our flight from Paris to Bamako. We made eye contact!!! as I enjoyed a much needed mojito in the terminal in the Kennedy airport....Me: Bill?Bill Murray: (head nod and smile)...awesome i knowLater in the line to get on the plane,Me: (head nod)Bill Murray: (smile and continues to talk to charm some stewardess)...yea... be jealous The flight overseas was long and tiring and I think my shampoo bottle exploded and ruined a ton of stuff. I also cant find my favorite dvds that I thought I packed..arrrrghh....But it was nice and whipped up on some little French kids on PS3 (NBA 2k8)in the airport.....We have been in training sessions from 8 to 5 usually followed by some recess ... very prison-like and quite draining workshops schedule but once we get out of this facility I it will do me good. After some akward cultural training, morale was slipping, so me some fellow PCT'S (Peace Corps Trainees, there is an acronym for everything here) headed out of the complex and walked to the Niger to look at Bamako across the river. We could hear the prayers of the people across the lake...Sunday, we had a cultural festival in our complex where vendors and dancers and musicians came and put on shows ate food with us. I bought this deliciously tacky fabric and had it woven into a traditional Malian man suit for cheap. As far as the dancing, you know I had to get out there and show them how we do it back home!!! haha... The dance moves are very intense but there is not contact like in America... Malian music is amazing and Im sure I have only skimmed the surface!... On a lighter note, we shower/shit in these things called "nyegens"(sp?) which are dirty mud shed-like places where we poo in a deep, dark hole. We shower by wetting down, lathering/shampooing and then pouring a bucket of water of ourselves. It is rather effective actually. My French is still terrible but I am learning a lot Bambara, the native tongue in most areas of Mali... "I ni ce'" -(ee nee chey) Hello/ Thank you The Malian people are very funny and easy going... Tomorrow in the morning, I head out to live alone with a host family in Barankoro. This experience will let me know whether or not I can do this for 2 years. Living with people I cannot even communicate with will be interesting to say the least. From what i hear, the children follow you around the villages as if you were rock star and when you wake up you see the bright eyes and teeth of a little Malian staring you in the face. PeaceCorps believes that it will greatly improve my Bambara and French....If it doesn't there is no hope. haha Today me and the village guide of Barankoro enjoyed some beef and potatoish and rice foods on a mat in our hangar to further prepare me for my trip. I am learning many of the customs before I go into most situations so I don't do anything too stupid or offensive. The weather here has been everything from extreme heat to thunderstorm to resort-'like. We have been getting introduced to our Malaria medicine and getting shots everyday. The malaria medicine has some pretty wild side effects including acid dreams,insomnia, dizziness and diarrhea...awesome i know... but i hear Malaria is no fun so I try to keep up my doses. In job training, I havent broke into anything quite yet but i have a billion books to read... I did learn how to harvest corn and got to help plant a Bonboa father tree..This blog is racking my brain because so much has happened since we have arrived. The other 73 PeaceCorps folks are a quite dynamic bunch. I already made some good friends of all ages/shapes/sizesand the laughs are plentiful.I am doing good here and feeling everything out one day at a time. I will try to remember more for my next post as well!Until Then, remember "no news is good news" and I love everyone very much! Stay Safe,Jared.