Happy Thanksgiving!

I would like to wish you all a happy and wonderful Thanksgiving. I hope you have the opportunity to spend the day with loved ones.

As for me, I'll be eating at the US Ambassador's house for Thanksgiving dinner tonight. Something tells me that I will probably need to be on my best behavior for said event.

The dry season has indeed begun, we haven't received a drop of water in nearly a month--nor will we for at least another 6 or 7 months. Currently, we're in a mini hot season before cold season sets in. The high temperature for the day is supposed to reach 99º. It's currently 95º.

As for when I'll begin at the university.. Tentatively, the next term is supposed to start December 22nd--so classes will likely start the beginning of January. Still don't know exactly which classes I'll be teaching, but it'll probably be first and second year students in American and/or British Studies, Conversation/Debate, and Writing. I probably won't teach all of those (seeing class sizes are upward to 150 students and lesson planning would be a bit difficult at best), but I will probably be teaching around 4 or 5 classes this semester.

I can't believe that I've already been in country for around 4 1/2 months. The time, so far, as actually gone by fairly quickly. I've been lucky enough to remain healthy lately. I exercise regularly at my house, and I have been working on another novel.

Again, the Malians that I've been fortunate enough to get to know are all wonderful people. I miss my host family that I had in Sanankoroba for training, and will need to visit them again in the near future. The people in my current neighborhood are all equally wonderful. We have interesting conversations while speaking "Frambara" (French & Bambara).

I've finally begun to get used to the cold showers I have to take here--now that it's getting colder at night, however, they're a little more difficult, and I feel I should consider myself lucky to even have a shower. Most of the other volunteers have to take bucket baths.

Since it's Thanksgiving, I thought I'd share a cultural phenomenon about Malians. It's called Joking Cousins, and it's very important to all Malians. In Mali, there are only so many last names--it dates back to when Mali used a caste system. Every family name has certain other family names that they joke with. The jokes would be considered mean or racist at times in the US, but it's the furthest thing from it here. For example, A Traore might see a Coulibaly and say "I bɛ siyɔ dun!" Which means that the Coulibaly is a bean eater--implying that he farts. They'll say this often. They'll also call people their slaves--again, this is not meant to actually upset anyone, they simply don't have the cultural sensitivity that we have to the term. Another common joke would go something like this: "You're a Coulibaly? My dog is a Coulibaly!" Thus calling the person an animal. This is met with much laughter and hand grabbing. Any joke is subject to being repeated countless times in a day, and no joke ever becomes old.

It's a very interesting thing, and it can be used to break even the biggest tension. Someone trying to rip you off in the market? Make fun of their family name and suddenly you're friends and you're receiving a good price on the product. That's simply the way it works. Malians, while living in the 3rd poorest nation in the world, have the richest of personal lives. They don't take anything too seriously, and they always try to enjoy themselves. I think we could all learn something from that.

Take care this Thanksgiving and remember to enjoy life.