A day off for the busy Beaver

Yesterday was a long day. I took the day off and went with my Peace Corps friends to visit Djenne, where one can see a traditional mosque, which is both a part of the world’s historical heritage and the world’s largest mud structure (see the above header?).

We sat under a straw hut and had drinks with other Peace Corps girls, talked about Mali, and the world, and relationships. It was a good day, but I am exhausted.

I have been procrastinating for the last 2 days my work on the Mali report. This is my chance to shine, and I am about to blow it if I don’t do something soon. I guess I was a bit over ambitious – I also think the stifling heat and my overall fatigue are getting in the way. Hopefully, my boss’ arrival this evening will put a bit of pressure on and I will be ready to give him stuff by working overnight and stuff.

I’ve taken here the habit of wearing my hair up in a loose turban. It has several advantages: it hides my hair (which is somewhat gross at the moment since I ran out of shampoo), shields it from the dust and protects my head from the sun. It also makes me look like a hippy, not a negligible asset if you ask me.

This stay in Mali has many of the qualities of my Senegal experience (the hippy friends, the friendly locals, the scant accommodations) but none of its bad sides (I have money, a nice landlord and no boss.) The difficulties in managing communications are the main problem for me. If I had reasonable internet access and if phones worked, this could be heaven for me. Oh yeah – if I wasn’t procrastinating, also.

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way

Life in the boonies

Life in the boonies is doing me good, actually. There is no internet in the office and at the hotel. Forces me to do everything in a few hours. Not a bad thing : I both work more and sleep more.

So here is the deal : I wake up at 7 am, take a hot shower (ultimate luxury here in the boonies), have breakfast (nescafe and french bread, and some mango or papaya).

At 8AM the driver picks me up in the white 4x4 5 (like in the movies) and drives me to the office where I spend the next 9 hours interviewing staff, preparing system analyses and preparing my report.

At 5PM I get kicked out of the room they assigned me because a Peace Corps volunteer uses it to teach the staff english (Mali is french speaking) and I go back to the hotel.

I hang out with the locals at the hotel for a bit, work on my laptop on the terrasse, and around 7 I walk over the cyber cafe to pîck up my email and sate my addiction a little.

Then I go back home to the hotel, order a salad, and go to bed with a book (I'm current re-reading Anne Rice's Mummy).

Then it starts all over again.

I'll be going to villages and distribution sites next week so there will be more to tell soon....

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

Mopti !

Made it safe and sound in Mopti, many beautiful sceneries on the way and the Malians, like their neighbours in Burkina, are lovely people.

More to come soon.

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

Gone to the boonies

Hey y'all - I'll be in the boonies for the next 3 weeks and probably won't have much internet access, so my posting will be erratic. I'll try and stop by every few days to check in on my PMs and on the blog.

Cheers,

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !