"Both Sides Now"

I promised I would post something more positive, so here are 5 happy things:



1) It's not bed bugs that are eating my feet, it's sand fleas! Sand fleas I can handle. Bed bugs are gross. Glad I got that cleared up.



2) A fellow PCT has a new baby brother in village. Especially in light of my previous post, this is happy news indeed for the Moribabougou crew. Unfortunately, we will have to miss his naming ceremony - which always takes place one week after the birth. Maybe we can pick him up a present during our site visits (see number 4).



3) I went to Bamako yesterday, and it turns out that there is stuff there! We took a bus full of tubabs to visit the main Peace Corps office (bureau) in the city and stopped at a nearby popular hotel. It had a restaurant and a bar and a BATHROOM and everything. It was the first toilet we'd seen in a month, so you can imagine our excitement. (Sorry, Mom, had to say it. I was not about to use the word "commode" or "thing you'd expect".) Needless to say... we're going back... VERY soon.



4) Site visit! Tomorrow morning (for me, 5:30 AM) we embark upon our respective journeys to our permanent sites for a little visit. I will be heading south and east toward Burkina Faso into the Segou region of Mali. I'll get a chance to scope out my new house (which I hear has running water! but no electricity...), open a bank account, get a permanent address, and see what's up with the cell phone situation. My banking town (PCVs who live in villages too small to have things like banks and post offices bike or take public transport to their "banking towns" to run errands and buy things) is called San and has hotels and restaurants. Based on my Bamako hotel experience, I have high hopes for many fun trips into San for some Westernization. I have a relatively short trip (about 6 hours). Some PCTs heading up North to the Gao region have two days of travel ahead of them. And THAT'S if the road didn't wash out during the storm last night...

5) I share a birthday with the United States Peace Corps. October 14th. I think that's pretty cool.


Catch you crazy kids when I make my triumphant return to Tubaniso on the 27th. TAS out.