Hey Friends!

Hello friends!

Sorry for the long delay between posts. We have been at our homestay villages for a few weeks and have not had access to internet. Things are going really well and I am enjoying myself fully.

Right now our group is back at our training center for two days, and we will return to our homestay villages on Wednesday.

I love my homestay village, and host family. The people in my host family that live at home right now consists of my host dad, his two wives, a host brother and sister, and a niece. My Malian name is Assita Keita. (sounds like eye-see-tah kay-tah). Up until yesterday I thought my name was Assetou, but I was wrong. I am named after my host sister, who we call Pai. She is a little troublemaker but I love her.

There are 8 trainees in my village, 6 in one close by, and 7 in one a little further away. We get together every few days for common training sessions, but most days we study language in our villages and hang out with our families. I am studying a language called Bambara which is really fun to speak. I am getting better every day but it is still hard to communicate with my host family. Most of the time I just say "N m'a faamu, Haketo" (I don't understand, sorry) and laugh.

Yesterday I went to the sugu (market) with my host mom and she helped me get my sandal fixed, and I walked around with her while she bought spices, meats, vegetables, and mangoes.

I thought I was going to have to eat meat while in Mali but my host family is super accommodating and I haven't had to eat any yet with the exception of broths mostly.

I have been fortunate so far that I have not been really sick with diarrhea, but a lot of my friends have been sick a lot. I think part of the reason I have been lucky is because my family serves me food in my own bowl, and I don't share food out of the communal bowl with my siblings, who don't wash their hands normally.

My village is awesome even though some volunteers warned us going there that it was really dirty and the kids were mean.

It is true that is is dirty, but there is no trash collection system here or plumbing, so it is to be expected. The kids are really sweet for the most part. It is sometimes overwhelming to go outside because the kids all chant "toubabu" (white or foreign person) but they really are just want our attention and stop when we wave at them or tell them our Malian names. Now a lot of kids near my house know my name and will yell my name instead of "toubabu".

There are some amazing rock formations in our village, and there is a small village nearby that the trainees in my village and I go to to climb on and look a the farmland and canal. It is really peaceful and a nice escape from the constant attention we are paid in our own village.

All in all, I am having a wonderful time. The trainees in my village all have great attitudes and are a really valuable support system to me. Really everyone in my stage class is amazing. I feel really lucky to be serving with these people.

We aren't doing any work to improve village life or starting projects right now since this period is focused on language acquisition and cultural integration and familiarity. We have had a lot of good trainings on gender development, water and sanitation, and education among others.

In around 10 days we will find out where our permanent site is. I am excited to find out, and also a little sad that our training will be over and our stage class will part ways... but that is when we can really start our service and learn our new community's needs.

I will write more later about some of the issues specific to Malian education, which is the sector in which I will be working. I will not be teaching, but rather working to improve the access and quality of education in my village.

Thanks again for all of your support! I really appreciate the messages and comments on here and facebook. It is nice to know I have support back home even though I am so far away.

I would love to receive letters and will write you back!

Ok I am going to end now because the electricity went out and I thought I lost the post... thankfully it saved!

Love you all!

~Jamie (aka Assita)