"Don't Panic"

I'm back from site visit! I had a fantastic trip down south and can't wait to go back. I don't have a whole lot of time to post right now, but here are some highlights:

1) Public transport. This can get ugly. I had a 6-7 hour bus ride (the buses are really old and are equipped with air conditioning which is naturally too expensive to run - also the windows don't open) to San.

2) San. My banking town. This is where I will go to run errands like visiting the post office, bank, and market. Peace Corps has what is called a "stage" house there (that's the French stage, not the English stage). Forget Disneyland, people. This is the happiest place on Earth. It's got 2 bathrooms, and the house got a water heater the day we arrived. San has treated water, so you can drink it right out of the faucet! Heaven. The PCVs there gave us a very warm welcome which involved Mexican food and Jello cheesecake from a box. San is one of only 3 towns in all of Mali where Peace Corps has a stage house, so I LUCKED OUT. I must be livin' right.

3) Kimparana. This is where I'll be spending the next 2 years of my life. I have a great little apartment-type thing in a compound with two other Malian families. We share a little courtyard, but I have my own living room, bedroom, and storage room. No electricty yet, but it's coming soon! Same on the cell phone (luckily my network has coverage in San). Kimparana is a 45 minute drive from my banking town, which is not bad at all. My host family is great, and I got a great chance to meet the people with whom I'll be working and catch up on some needed rest. I'll have to include details of my future work life in another post.

So, in conclusion, site visit was a complete success for TAS. My friends up north didn't have such an easy time. Some got sick, some stranded on the side of the road with police (gotta watch out for those bandits), some forced into boats due to flooding. Those kids are real troopers. I would be remiss in my reporting duties if I did not mention my colleague Big Fat Tony. Big Fat Tony is a member of the Posh Corps. He gets a 2 bedroom, 2 full bathroom, electric ceiling fan-equipped apartment all to himself. Above a restaurant. Down the street from an Internet cafe. I have to ride 3 hours on an awful bus to get to Internet. Then again, I don't have to deal with roaming bandits. The grass is greener...

We live in a beautiful world. Yeah, we do. Yeah, we do.