Things Falling Apart

COS conference was last week. It was my last chance to see everyone from my group (the HBOs/the 2008-2010 Peace Corps Mali volunteers, your pick). It was a great time where we were all able to enjoy air conditioning, a fancy swimming pool, lots of food, and long conferences. In all, I'd say that the conference went quite well. Some of my fellow volunteers have already left, which seems somewhat strange. One left on the last day of the conference. Two left that Saturday. One is leaving tonight. Two more are leaving tomorrow night.

As for me, I'll depart Mali on July 10th and make my way to the UK to vacation with my brother before starting law school. July 10, it still hasn't quite sunk in. But it's getting there. At this point, I have less than a month before I leave. It doesn't quite seem real.

For hashes, we recently had a going away hash for a whole lot of expatriots. Many of them, I consider good friends. It was a great run with a lot of people and some amazing food (lasagna!!!). I, myself, have one more hash to run (assuming I'm able to run. See below). Hopefully, it'll be a good one.

Hash 1: Overlooking the river

Hash 2: During the "down downs" at the end

The world cup has also begun (as I'm assuming most of you who read my blog are aware). I've been traveling between bars/restaurants and friends houses in order to watch the game. The most important of the games that I've seen so far was obviously the England vs. USA game. For the game, I found myself in a former (as of last year) Peace Corps volunteer's house watching the game on his TV with a bunch of friends. The game was pretty epic. But just after the US scored a tying goal in the 40th minute, the power on our floor went out. We fixed it. It went out again. This time, I found myself standing on a vertical cinder block in order to reach the fuse box and flip the power back on. Just as I was pushing the button, the cinder block completely crumbled underneath me causing me to crash painfully on the ground below. This crash and onset of pain brought about some foot and leg injuries. Overall, I'll be okay (and I was, in fact, able to get the power restored). But I think the lesson learned here is don't trust cinder blocks here in Mali. Especially if they're vertical and you have to stand on them.

Soccer: Watching the games

Another bit of tragedy ocurred this weekend a well. I was working on my laptop the other morning, and as I worked, our cleaning guy came in to get copies of some photos from me. As he handed the flash drive to me, my cup of juice (which was sitting directly next to my laptop) completely spilt over my laptop! I tried to react quickly, but it was sadly not fast enough. My laptop shut down and now refuses to turn on. I'm assuming something short-circuited, which is disheartening, but I also believe that the hard drive is likely fine, which is less disheartening. I'm just glad that this happened now, at the end and not midway through my service (plus, I had always assumed that the laptop would not be sufficient for use after finishing my service). The next question on that front will be what should I get next? I really want a macbook pro, but I don't know if I can justify the cost just yet (but maybe). Regardless, I'll at least need a computer that can run windows for law school (also possible on a mac--using programs like bootcamp).

So, this week, I was originally going to travel a little; but as I'm somewhat sequestered, I've decided to get a jump on all my COS paperwork--by taking care of my medical work this week (hopefully, I'll finish that up on Wednesday). I've also begun to return all the things that I need to return. There's a huge checklist of things.