Africa!

So it has been 2 months since I last updated my blog, and a lot has happened since then. I am currently living in a small village called Karadje, which is about 2 hours from the capital Bamako. Our village has no electricity, no running water and only about 15 families. Although this is a low number for families, the families are rather large and there are a lot of children. When we first arrived in our village, there were huge fields of corn and mill separating each home. Now that it is November, most of the mill and corn has been cut down. I can now see family homes of my team members across the field. My family is pretty great and the kids in my home love to play cards. I think I have played enough card games to last me a lifetime! In my family, there is only one mom and dad, where in some of the other homes, there are more than one wife for the dad. Its really great for me, as it is easier to remember the names, as there is less. Speaking of names, I had recieved a Malian name from my host family. My entire group recieved one as well. My new name is Awa Coulibaly, Awa meaning Eve, and Coulibaly is the last name of my host family and almost all the families in my village. It is neat just walking around, and having children shout my Malian name. Us Toubabous feel kind of famous, as everyone knows who we are. Toubabou if you are wondering, is a term used for a white person. This term is frequently used as well, and I find it ammusing.

While I have been here, my group and I have cut down a huge field of grass, dug up all the dirt, made garden beds with the dirt and are now growing vegetables for the village. I am really stoked for this, as this will be a great thing for the villagers to have. I have also finished and presented my educational day to my group, which was on the problems with water. It was great, and I did it all in French, which I was also stoked about. Another thing that our group has been up to is going to Sirakorola, which is the village 5 km from ours, where we go every thursday for the public market and to hangout with the other group who lives there. We also have been going there for Bilaphone nights, which is full of traditional african music and dancing. This is one of my favourite things about the culture, because it is so vibrant and exciting.

Since our group was in Karadje for Halloween, our group wanted to do something for the holiday. Instead of buying a bunch of candy for ourselves, we decided to buy a bunch for the kids around the village. During the afternoon on Halloween, my group walked around the village passing out candy to our host families and any child. We brought some of the Malians from our group with us to explain in Bambara why we were doing it. It was such a great expeience, because we had fun making other kids happy. That is the reason for Halloween of course.
Health wise, I have been pretty strong and have only seemed to catch a cold the first couple of weeks we were here. Over half of my group has managed to catch malaria as it is a strong season for it. Hopefully I dont catch it and stay strong and healthy. As for everything else, it has been great and I cant wait to get home to tell you all about my experience and show you all the pictures.
As we say in Mali,
Gumbay, which means see you soon.
Shelby