Tiffany's last weekend

This should be starting our second week of not being on strike (again). I truly hope that's true. I enjoy teaching, and I know that my students seem to enjoy being in class. So, hopefully, there won't be another strike.

There are rumblings though. Students whisper that another strike is a certainty, which makes the possibility of it becoming a white year even more real. With much of my conversation classes, the focus has actually now turned to the strikes. They've been discussing what they believe needs to happen. It's very interesting to hear what they say should happen.

In very related news, Tiffany ETed. She started her paperwork on Thursday, and she flew out of Bamako last night. It's going to be really weird now that she's gone. She was the only other PCV working at the university. She finally decided that the constant strikes and uncertainty of teaching combined with having a fiancé back home was too much (in the nearly 8 months we've been in country, we've taught only 5 weeks). She has a couple of job interviews coming up in L.A., so I really do wish her the best.

During her last weekend in country, however, there was a lot of fun. First, we had a volleyball tournament on Saturday. Neither of our teams won, but it was still quite enjoyable. All together, there were somewhere around 14 teams. We had friends on at least 6 of the teams.

Volleyball 1

Volleyball 2: Peace Corps game prep

Volleyball 3: Tiffany digging for the play

And Sunday, we, of course played football at the embassy in the morning. Below, you can see me running with the ball and several people coming toward me.

Football: Me running with the ball

That night we went to an italian restaurant (where I had some amazing lasagna and tiramasu) that was far, far, far too expensive. Great food, but I doubt I'll eat there again anytime soon (the lasagna was on the less expensive side at 5500CFA, the tiramasu was 2500CFA--which combined is more than I like to spend on food in a week). Then, we went to the amusement park in Bamako (there were 6 of us total, Me, Tiff & Jeff along with some expat friends), where we enjoyed bumper cars, the boat that goes back and forth, and the ferris wheel. In all, it was a great night, and no one died--which is also always a plus.

Amusement Park 1: Bumper Cars!Amusement Park 2: The Boat!Amusement Park 3: The Ferris Wheel!Amusement Park 4: Getting on the Ferris Wheel!

Then, of course, last night, after I taught my class at the center, we all just sort of hung out at the house and waited for Peace Corps to come and pick up Tiffany. It was kinda weird watching this person who I've come to know as a really good friend leave. I've had roommates many times before, but this was different because Tiffany, Jeffrey and I were all PCVs. It was mostly just us for each other's company every day--sort of an "us against everything else" situation a lot of times, and now a part of that is gone.