Almost April

Well, I know that my title isn't all that interesting but I really am running out of ideas for what to label each entry and I figure that telling I write them is good enough. Anyway, the last few weeks have been pretty much the usual at site. As far as work goes, I finished my project proposal for a millet machine that the womens group wants and I am working on a cow embouch project write up for the mens group. I also am planning to do a compost formation with the womens garden this week, although it is somewhat ironic that my homologue is just now agreeing to do this formation since he knows that in three months when the compost is ready the gardens revert to the men. Anyway, besides that I spent a couple of weeks rebuilding my walls around my house which was well fun I suppose. All the bricks are made of mud and you have to soak the ground in order to make more mud that acts as cement. It is pretty fun actually since you get to stomp around in these huge mud pits. As usual, my village thought it was hilarious everytime I did anything, especially stomp around in the mud and told me that I had socks when I got out since I had so much mud on my legs. It also was probably the first time that I have worn shorts in village and my legs got a little burned. I have also been playing soccer every day as usual in the afternoon, it is a good time and although frustrating to play with people who have never played an organized game, it still helps pass the time. This past weekend we went to Siby for St Patricks day which was a lot of fun. Siby is this small village about an hour south of Bamako on the road to Guinea. Its pretty famous among peace corps volunteers because it offers a lot of good hiking and mountain climbing. We ended up going on a hike up this one mountain to an arch that overhung it. Instead of following the path however, we decided to just start toward the mountain and continue up, which probably wasn't the best idea, but it was a lot of fun. Once we reached a certain point two malian kids showed up and proceeded to be our tour guides for the rest of the ascent which was good since you had to go a particular way and none of us new exactly how to get up.

Besides that I am pretty much up to the same old stuff. It is getting really hot here and is even uncomfortable to sleep outside these days, however, it is also mango season which is awesome and mangos are everywhere. You get to just walk around during the day and pick them off trees. it is definitely a silver lining. Besides that, I am going to try to figure out how to put pictures online although I am not confident that I will get any up. I miss everyone a bunch, take care.