Happy Halloween!

Hey everyone!  Happy Halloween and Halloween Gift all around (if you don't get that you probably don't have Oakie roots).  

Halloween in Mali is mostly uneventful.  I made pumpkin pie and then went with my military friends to the American School to help run a haunted house.  I got to scare little kids and make them cry and wet their pants.  All in all a good night.  

I'm really starting to feel at home here in Mali.  I've been spending a lot of time outdoors: running, walking, going to the market, walking to work, etc.  On these walks I almost always stopped by random malians who just want to chat.

Malians are so hospitable and nice.  The other day on my way home from work I was stopped by a group of malians i frequently walk/run past and asked to sit and chat for awhile.  So we talked in Bambara, French, and some English and just passed the time together.  They even bought me a coke.  It's so crazy how generous people are here.  The butcher at the market likes for me to come sit behind his counter with him and he teaches me new bambara words.  He also gives me free meat.  So sweet considering Malians automatically think all white people are rich.  he's basically giving to me out of his poverty, knowing i'm rich....so refreshing.

I've been working at the Catholic Relief Services office, helping their staff learn english so they can advance their careers....it's been a lot of fun.  I've gotten to know a bunch of malians pretty well and learned more bambara and french a long the way.

Walking the streets of Bamako is becoming pretty normal, and I really like life here.  If I didn't miss ya'll so much I'd be perfectly content!

Gypsy on!

Every Living Thing

I just finished reading Every Living Thing by James Herriot.  He's the British vet that writes about his experiences working with animals.

Such a heartwarming book.  I love reading about the cats, dogs, horses, cows, pigs, etc. and the relationship the animals have with other animals, their babies, and their humans.  

It's pretty amazing how attached we can become to our furry friends.  I'm already pretty attached to my little Phoebe.  She's so sweet tempered and loves to cuddle, which is nice since I don't have Thomas around!  And it's funny how much I miss my little (well huge) Sawyer (he's in good hands with Thomas, but i still miss that fat cat).  

Anyway, pick up a book by Herriot and you'll not be sorry.  I've read a couple (I think this is my second time reading this book, but I was so young the first time I hardly remembered it) and they are all great.  

And give your own little shaggy, hairy friends an extra treat today cause there's nothing like the unconditional love and trust of a devoted animal.

UPDATE (and a completely different subject):  I don't care who you are voting for come November, Orson Scott Card got it right (and I loved his books when i was a kid) The Press Sucks.  Don't be taken in.  

Sugar cookies and the Monk

The internet monk has a really interesting post here.

Linda sent me sugar cookies (among other glorious goodies).  They are delicious and prove that baked goods can make the trans-continental and trans-atlantic journey.  Thanks John and Linda :)

mmmmmmm

My absolute favorite poem

Ode to Autumn

By John Keats

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;

To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

With a sweet kernal; to set budding more,

And still more, later flowers for the bees,

Until they think warm days will never cease;

For Summer has o'erbrimm'd their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?

Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find

Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,

Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;

Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,

Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook

Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:

And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep 

Steady thy laden head across a brook;

Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,

Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours.

Where are the song of Spring?  Ay, where are they?

Think not of them, thou hast thy music too, --

While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day

And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;

Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn

Among the river-sallows, borne aloft

Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;

And full-grown lambs bleat from hilly bourn;

Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft

The redbreast whistles from garden-croft;

And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

I could write a lovely analysis of this, telling you why this poem is a masterpiece.  But I find the simple beauty of the poem enough.

Miss You Wish I Was There

Mom, Dad, Nathan, Kristi, Andrew, and Thomas all went to the pumpkin patch today.  Luckys.  First pic below is an old pic of me at the patch, and the one after is it is one of my favorite halloween pictures of all time.  Miss you guys!  Hope you ate a frito pie for me (sans the sour cream)! mmmmm fritos.

still researching...still undecided

collective shame...i don't want collective shame

but what about collective shame over what's happening in iraq or not happening in burma or not happening in the sudan or georgia or china

voting is serious business

i really like obama.  he's cool.  he's smart and eloquent.  he's like a mac and mccain is like a pc.  unfortunately i can't vote like i pick computers.  coolness doesn't count for much when you run for president.

so i'm trying to be an informed voter.  but the more informed i get the harder it is to make a decision. being moderate is harder than it looks.

i don't like war.  i don't like partial birth abortion.  i do think gay people should be allowed to get married.  i don't like the death penalty.  i do think health care needs reform.  i don't like universal health care because i think it is haphazard and shoddy at best.  i don't think people should die because they don't have adequate insurance.  i think our environment needs cleaning up.  i think we need to do something about the economy.  i don't think it's fair that rich people have to pay a higher percentage of taxes than everyone else.  i like the welfare system. i  think the welfare system needs reform.  i think peace corps needs more money.  i pretty much think palin is a retard.  i don't really like biden either.  i think mccain is a national hero.  i don't like bush.  i'm mostly quaker pacifist.  i do believe the soldiers i've talked to who say we are doing good things in iraq.  i'm glad saddam isn't in power.  i hate the patriot act.  i think jeremiah wright is a racist and his church needs to reevaluate their focus.  i don't like that obama sat under wright's tutelage for 20 years and then coped out when he was called to the floor for it.  i understand the history of oppression that produced jeremiah wright and the "black" church and i can't, in good conscience, condemn obama, wright, or his church for their views.  i think this country needs a morale booster.  i don't even understand the economy but i know it needs serious help.  i think countries that oppress their people (ie china, burma, sudan, etc.) need to be sanctioned without regard to if they have or do not have oil supply we want or trade "opportunities."  i'm afraid of abminijhad (sp).  i like israel.  i think hamas has a martyr complex.  i was bombed by hezbollah.  i'm a feminist.  and so much more inner conflict i can't even dredge up right now.

the world is topsy turvy these days.  i still don't know who to vote for.  sometimes i'm glad my vote won't really count in california, since it's rather blue.  but i can't get rid of the nagging feeling that i need to make a decision because it's an important character builder and to just cop out with a "my vote doesn't matter anyway" seems so irresponsible.

somebody give me a reason to make a stand.

yes i realize i didn't use any capitals. i didn't feel like it.