Birthdays, Hashes, and Thanksgiving

Hey Everyone

I had a great Birthday! I spent the day out with my friend Joost marking a trail for the Hash. Then, after the hash we had delicious food (pizza and pasta salad) with about 60 people! I have pictures!!!! Click Here

I also got SIX packages earlier this week (so my birthday basically is lasting all month hehehe). Thanks to my mom for all the awesome stuff and thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for sending me such great care packages!

The holidays are getting closer and I'm starting to make some pretty fun plans to celebrate. Thanksgiving I'll be travelling south to Sikasso to celebrate American style with a bunch of other Peace Corps Volunteers. Then for Christmas I'll probably go to the Dogon country, again to meet up with lots of other volunteers. If Thomas comes, he and I will probably spend Christmas here in Bamako though.

In local news:

While walking to the store the other day, I passed a small girl seated on a stool with another stool in front of her on which she had put several small bowls. In the bowls was a mixture of water and dirt. The child was happily mixing the dirt and water together and pulling assorted rocks and debris from another large bowl behind her and adding them to the smaller concoctions in front of her. At first I was confused at what she was doing, but I slowly realized the scene was very familiar. Every street corner in Bamako has a woman selling assorted fried food, rice and sauce, etc. This little girl was pretending. She was "cooking" food and pretending to be a street vendor. It reminded me of kids in the US with their plastic food toys, lemonade stands, and all their assorted games of pretend. Sometimes it's nice, in this crazy mixed up world, to know kids are kids are kids.

Gypsy on

oh ya, my cat is pregnant. the hussy.