2 weeks I have been back in Mali... geeze it seems like ages all over again!

I was really dreading coming back, but I know myself and had to have things lined up to come back to and keep my busy. I came back to meetings and presentations and swear in! Congrats to the new stage, Peace Corps Mali 2010-2012, Team America! Swear in was a good time as usual, and it was back to village.

It has been raining A LOT more this year than it did last year. When I got home I could definitely tell that my house had been sitting, unopened for a month in humid, humid Africa. It smelled gross! Most people like the smell after it rains... I have always hated it, so it was that smell mixed with a musky, mildewy smell! haha! I noticed that there is still two spots in my tin roof that leak after it being "fixed" twice and the rain basically just seeps in through the walls. Weird! I spend my first week back at site cleaning. For such a humid place there was so much friggin dust! I tuned fans on in all the rooms to dry them out, took all the linens and mattresses outside to dry/air out in the blazing hot sun and febreezed the heck out of everything else. It's all good, and smells clean now!

The damn rain has also brought many more transport issues, and it has been pretty rough. Today on my way into Bamako we actually had to get out of the bashe and walk because the road was way to bad to pass! All the men got out to help push the bus, that was spinning out of control, and almost hit a biker nearby. Little by little they would push the bus it would inch forward then slide deeper in the mud. It was sad to watch because all of our stuff was still in the the bus... my laptop included! Which I should have taken out of the car with me but I didn't know what was going on, the bus stopped and the driver told everyone to get out, so I along with everyone else just climbed out and began walking! Its funny how we humans just follow what everyone else is doing... I should probably work on that! After a while the car finally got through the mud and came back to pick us up, to continue on our way to Bamako.

This should be a short trip into town. I came to say a sad goodbye to an esteemed member of VADG... Daniella Allum :(

*PEACE OUT YELLA! MALI WILL MISS YOU!*

Mali is in a a whole 50th year celebration craze! Saturday there was a free concert in the middle of the street, the lanes were lined in blinking lights and there were hundreds of people standing around waiting for a concert that was supposed to start at 8pm... more like around 12:30am it started and apparently ran until after 4 am! Sunday there was a marathon, which was run throughout the city by Malians, which is great, except that all the roads were randomly blocked off and made for a hellish ride through town to the Formi. The actual celebration starts today and ends on Wednesday, which is the actual anniversary. I am going to try to get back to fight the traffic and head back to Dioila today... wish me luck!