Song: The Strokes - Hard to Explain

So, I've been sick. By sick, I mean I just spent the last 48 hours with a fever over 102.5. It was not fun. The highest it went was 103. Again, 48 hours. Actually, a couple of hours over 48, but who's counting. The point is, I'm alive and feeling much better now (and fever free, too!). Still a little wonky, but I'll take wonky. The biggest downfall of being extremely high feverish for over 2 days straight is that when the fever comes down, the crazy heat of where I live these days actually feels kinda chilly. That disturbs me just a little. The inability to really eat during that period also disturbs me (mostly today, when I finally had the strength to try a shower and I saw how gaunt I've truly become. Frightening, it is).

My mind has been a haze the last few days (for obvious reasons), so I don't actually remember what my last post was. I guess I could have looked. I guess I *can* look.

Song: U2 - One

Okay, after looking, I see that I have, in fact posted since arriving at my home. I remember that one now. More on that, it's a nice home. I like it here, and it's mostly put together now. I have to put up my mosquito net tonight though (I had been using my mosquito net tent, which doesn't really fit on my bed, but now I have the proper netting to use for this bed. Now then, where can I find a hammer).

It's a good neighborhood, too. The people are all extremely friendly. I talk to them in French and occasionally, use Bambara greetings--but that seems to make them think I know Bambara, which I don't. I know French. I only know basic greetings in Bambara. Eventually, I hope to also learn Bambara, I think it would allow me to integrate much more deeply into the community.

More on the neighborhood. There are a lot of Tubabs here. I'm a Tubab, my roommates are Tubabs. But every time I walk down the street I see one or two Tubabs (Tubab is not a volunteer. Tubab basically means foreigner. It's used, particularly, for white people--and was traditionally for the French). There's even a Tubab grocery store in walking distance to me. Very strange. It's weird to see other foreigners. They stick out, and I find myself saying to myself "you don't belong here" in a "you really stand out" kind of way. Unfortunately for me, these other Tubabs aren't poor, which makes it even more difficult for me to haggle and get fair prices at the market.

Song: INXS - Devil's Party

So, it rained really hard today. When I say really hard, I mean my roommates and I were feverishly (pun not really intended, but why not) working to stop our bedrooms from flooding. We each had buckets and were bailing out the water. It was actually kind of amusing. It also means that we're going to have to do something to ensure that our rooms don't flood if it ever rains like this when we're not home. Luckily, the rainy season is almost over (I say luckily now, because I haven't experienced the 7 month dry season yet where we won't receive a single drop of rain).

Song: Ben Lee - Light

In non PC news, I was finally able to watch the last few episodes of Doctor Who season 4. A lot of words come to mind. Amazing, Excitable, Heart Breaking, Awestruck. Those are just a few. It was good to see the true return of Rose. I absolutely cannot believe what happened to Donna. Poor girl. She had finally truly grown on me, too. I did like the inclusiveness of the finally--drawing in Torchwood and Sarah Jane. I truly wondered for a moment if they were going to kill SJ, as a matter of fact. I'm very interested in seeing how the next season turns out. Of course, we won't see that until 2010.

Oh, I did post new pictures this week on my flickr and facebook (pretty much the same pictures on each, I think). That's all I have for you for now.

Stay well, and for those of my friends in Ohio, I hope that you have power back on now (or get it back on soon!!). I'll talk to you all later.

Final Song: Ben Lee - We're All In This Together

Oh! A quick PS!

Just ONE Question
Source: www.one.org
Only two questions about global poverty have been asked in the history of modern presidential debates - a shockingly low figure. In 2008, voters need to know what Barack Obama and John McCain will do to end the most extreme suffering in our increasingly interconnected world.

Anyone who knows me, should know that the issue of global poverty is extremely important to me (obviously). I feel it's extremely important that our presidential candidates be asked at least one question on the topic (I'd really like more than one). Living here in the 3rd poorest nation in the world shows certain things that you just can't see on TV. There's more we can do to help. We can make a difference, but we also need a leader who's willing to make a difference (and know how that person intends to do it).

We're all in this together.

Wholesome, but a little nutty

So, here I am. I really reals Peace Corps Volunteer. It's kinda crazy, but also kinda neat. The service was good. We went to the US Embassy, and it was the picture of efficiency--something I've not been used to in the last couple of months. The ceremony started at 10am and was over before 11am. I had to do that silly oath thing that's required of all government officials when they're sworn in (that same one that the president must take when taking office).

After the swear-in ceremony, we were driven to the America Club, which was quite posh. It had a great pool, a sand volley ball court, a basketball court, tennis courts and a ping pong table. I received just a bit of sun. Oh, it also had all you can eat hamburgers, hot dogs and various other goodies (the hot dogs, in particular, were amazing). Also, while at the America Club, my laptop was delivered to me. This excited me beyond all else (interesting that I received my laptop on the same day that I became an actual volunteer).

After that, we hung out at the hotels for a few hours before making our way to the night clubs. First on the agenda was Pirate's Club. This place was neat, and had some interesting music, lots of Tubabs (their word for foreigners, aka Americans, French people, etc.), too much alcohol, hookah, pool tables (btw, pool is free everywhere I've seen a pool table in this country). It was here, at this club, that we learned our stage name.

We're to be known as Honey Bunches of Oats, because in all we're wholesome, but a little nutty. That's fair.

After Pirate's Club, buses took volunteers to No Stress (another club), but I and a few others opted to stay behind. It was already around midnight, and I was enjoying the atmosphere at the Pirate's Club.

So after that, I enjoyed some late, late food at Adonis (a falafel sandwich) and walked back to the hotel with friends.

The next day was rough. And by rough, I mean hangovers with little sleep in a foreign country that sucks all the moisture out of you as it is because of how hot it is at all times are not exactly enjoyable. Luckily, I packed Excedrin, Migraine Strength, which can conquer any hangover.

I spent much of Saturday buying things for the apartment (specifically, my roomies and I bought a new fridge, a used stove and some mattresses), which used up a lot of time and a whole lot of money.

I opted to stay at Tubani-So Saturday night so that I could enjoy the company of my fellow volunteers one last night before making the trek to site (everyone else left for site this morning, it seemed only fair that I do the same--even if I didn't have to). Technically, I could still be at Tubani-So, enjoying free food, but I've decided to come to my house, which is where I am.

I've walked to the market twice today, to the store twice as well. I have internet, I have my laptop, I have a lot of things I still need to install on said laptop, but that's coming along, and I have my own really real home as a really real volunteer. I do not, however, yet have my bank card, so all the money that I'm supposed to live on for the next three months is, as of this moment, inaccessible to me. Hopefully, that will change this week. In the meantime, some supplies have been bought, including Nido (which is a brand of powdered milk that's very common here) and cereal.

I've also discovered a firefox addon that I'm testing out with this post. I'm posting using the program "Deepest Sender." So far, I like it. We'll see how I feel about it later. Most of my posts will likely continue to be through the normal means of actually going to livejournal--as I enjoy perusing lj.

I've also posted a heckuva lot of pictures over on facebook. If I have time in the near future, I'll try to post some on flickr for you non facebook people.

In other tech news, I also downloaded a mac program, Senuti, that enabled me to copy my iPod songs from my iPod to iTunes. This was a godsend, since I had wondered how I was going to get all those songs back--especially the ones that I'd simply bought off of iTunes.

a very quick update

It's 8am, local time. In a little over 2 hours (or probably by the time you read this), I'll officially be a Peace Corps Volunteer. Then, we celebrate. I'll move into my villa either this weekend or at the beginning of the week. The general plan is: Swear-In Ceremony at the Embassy from 10-11, Lunch/Party at the American Club from 11-5, then a stop by the hotels and dinner and such later (including drinks at the Pirates Club and No Stress much, much later).

Also, I successfully finished the 1st draft of a novel in under 3 weeks. The first draft isn't anything great, but I wrote it in 3 weeks, it shouldn't be anything great. I'll say this much more about the story: it's entirely in 1st person except for the last chapter. I'm torn about whether I want to keep it that way or make the whole thing 3rd person to include more perspectives (the way it's written, it's literally impossible for the final chapter to be in 1st person).

I'll write more at some point. For now, I need to pack up and get ready for the Embassy.

Surprisingly, I'm still in Mali

and I'm back in Tubani-So. Crazy to think that, in 5 days, I'll be sworn in as an official Peace Corps Volunteer. Crazy to think I've been in this country for 2 months (only 24 to go!). Crazy to think that I've almost written a novel in just over 2 weeks (17 hand written pages to go until I reach my goal).

A note about my host family, and living with them. They've shown me what it is to truly be a good person. To accept others exactly how they are and to not expect people to be anything that they're not. They were indeed my family for the first 2 months here, and I will continue to visit them from time to time because they are truly good people.

The food, however, wore on me. I ate spaghetti in an oil sauce (almost everything is oil based here) nearly every night, ate potatoes/yams in a red, oil sauce nearly everday for lunch, and could probably count the amount of times I actually ate meat on my hands. So, the food, I will not miss. There were gems, however. One day, they gave me fish. I raved over how wonderful this was, which made them happy (but they didn't give it to me again, regardless). And there were a couple of times that they gave me cucumber salad (cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, and bread). They gave the latter to me for my final meal, as well (along with prawn chips). Then, I ate "to" with them (pronounced like "toe" or "toh"), which is this thick creamy texture stuff that really has no taste and is a little thicker than refried beans. The strangest texture ever, and if you're one of those eaters that can get grossed out by certain types of textures, stay away from "to." They normally dip it in a sauce. The most common sauce is a green, leafy, slimy sauce that is really and truly disgusting (but it does have nutrients in it). So, I ate this with them last night for the first time ever. They were amused.

In news that shouldn't be all together unexpected, I've lost a little bit of weight since arriving here 2 months ago. More so than my last report. Currently, I'm somewhere between 143 & 148 (depending on the scale I use), where as I was between 170 & 175 when I arrived. I believe I was between 150 & 155 the last time I reported on this. I'm thinking (hoping) that I've probably lost about as much as I can lose, and should be leveling out now. Especially since I'll be moving to Bamako next week and will thus be able to cook for myself for a change.

My laptop is en route. My dad mailed it off this past Monday or Tuesday and said it should have arrived in Virginia Thursday or Friday (it's being sent via diplomatic pouch, which has a Virginia address). So, with any luck, I'll have it in another week or two. He also said that he bought me another 160 gig flash drive so I could make sure I have back ups of my files. My dad rules.

As mentioned earlier, I swear in as a PCV on Friday. It'll be at the Embassy, which is pretty nice--I've been there for meetings. What I don't know yet, however, is if I'll be able to take pictures (since it'll be at the embassy and all).

Anywho, that's all I've got for you right now. I was actually going to mention something more about swear in (perhaps the after swear-in celebration? I dunno), but it slipped my mind. Such is the way of things.

I'll try to upload more pictures sometime soonish.