Post Christmas

So christmas and new years were a blast!!! I guess I should start from the top. So we went up to Manatali, which was so much fun! First, they just built this HUGE dam there. Apparently if it operates at full capacity it is large enough to power all of mali and much of west africa. And you can swim in the dam, so that was amazing to actually be around water again. One of my friends had a friend from america come visit, so she brought all of this food for us for christmas, including stuffing mix, cranberry sauce, marshmallows and graham crackers for smores, spices, brownie mix, cookie mix, pumpkin pie filling, mashed potato, and YOGURT COVERED RAISINS (my favorite, wink wink, hint hint, nudge nudge). And we had a sheep killed and several guinea fowl, all of which were absolutely amazing. And after we had a bonfire to make smores. All in all, an excellent christmas. Although I do have to say, I miss the snow. Annnnnd, there are monkeys in Manatali, and they will basically come up to you to see what you're up to. I also got to see a baboon. Luckily it was chained, because that thing looked pretty nasty and mad.

After that, we went to Bamako for New Years, which turned into an excellent evening. Malians celebrate new years, but they don't do the whole counting down and such, and don't really go out until like 1 AM. So we were the only ones at this bar, but we made them count down and then we sang auld lang syne. And then we stayed out dancing until the morning. Bamako has some amazing clubs and bars because of the large french and lebanese ex-pat population, so it turned out to be a rather westernized new years. Which was nice for a change! We met some embassy workers and NGO workers and such.

My site is going excellently. My host family has literally become like my family. We fight like brothers and sisters. Hahaha. My mom sent pictures of the family doing karate, and my family went NUTS. They made me show everyone who came into our compound. And my host brother keeps making me promise that if (when) my parents come to visit they will teach them karate. And my mom also sent a giant blow up globe, which was FANTASTIC. I showed them where NJ was in comparison to mali. And, even more importantly, that the world was round. And the kids of course loved that it was a giant blow up toy. hahaha. Annnnd, i just received light up socks from my mom, and I cant wait to show my family. Ok, thats all for now, I shall write more soon b/c i'll have internet for a while!!