And then there was one

There's been a lot that's happened since I last updated. First and foremost, I'm now the final PCV living in the villa. Jeff ETed this past Monday. It's strange. Living in this big house alone. Eventually, Peace Corps will move others in. It's just a matter of when. In the meantime, it's just me. But just to be clear for those who may be worried, I have no intentions of going anywhere. I still love my service and believe that I am, in fact, making at least some sort of a difference.

Other revelations. It seems that the school issues have finally been resolved! Not entirely certain how--seeing the huge list of obstacles that were in place, but I'll most certainly (and graciously) accept it. That also means that I'm finally able to teach my Freshmen American Studies class (well, I say Freshmen, but the actual term here is Deug 1). That class is going to be... interesting. Their English is not nearly as developed as the 2nd year students. That means I'll be teaching a lot of that class in French. Wish my students luck..

So all said, I've been teaching classes now 6 days per week--Monday through Saturday. This coming week will be the end of that (for a little while, at least) as my classes at the center come to an end. I'll most certainly graciously accept the breathing time.

There were also recently a group of students from Shenandoah University in Mali for Spring Break (what a way to spend Spring Break!). They came with an RPCV who did her service in Mali. I had the good fortune of showing them around the university and explaining some of the differences between the Malian and US university systems.

FLASH 1: This is FLASH, where I teach

FLASH 2: Explaining Mali University system to SU students

FLASH 3: Publicly posted grades

It hasn't been all work for me though. I've made sure to try to relax a little bit. On Sundays, I continue to play flag football with the expats, and I still run in the hashes every other Sunday. This last one was at Tubaniso (the Peace Corps training center). It was good to get back there for a moment, since I'm currently unable to do any of the ISTs that other Volunteers attend there.

Tubaniso Hash 1

Tubaniso Hash 2

Tubaniso Hash 3

I also recently went camping in Siby. We spent the night high up on the arch, which overlooks everything. It was terribly windy (and actually cold! Well, cold is, of course, relative), but extremely fun, too. The next day, we did a lot of climbing--something I always enjoy doing.

Siby Camping: Looking down at campsite

Siby Climbing: A somewhat tall climb

Otherwise, my "spare time" is spent at the bureau, occasionally with other volunteers, and constantly talking to Malians nearby. Though I find more and more of that time being eaten away by preparing lessons and grading quizzes (the latter being a task that the other teachers don't do due to the number of students that are in classes). I'm also trying to continue studying for the LSAT. Today's practice test score was 164--which would be good enough to get me into nearly any law school in the US. Nearly, obviously being the key word there (Harvard's 25th-75th percentile range for LSAT score averages among students is currently 170-175... not that I have ANY plans of trying to go there).