ATT

Written April 19, 2011
I've been in village now for almost a week since I got back from Bamako where I attended the New Stage's Swearing In Ceremony. This bunch of new kids, I think there are 60-something of them, has been lucky from the beginning. Their Staging was held in Washington DC where they got to meet Aaron Williams, the Director of the Peace Corps, and their Swearing In Ceremony was held at the President of Mali's house with the President himself giving one of the speeches! I am supremely jealous of the new kids and all of their luck! Anyway... the ceremony itself was awesome! The President's mansion, called Kouluba (big hill in Bambara), is this huge compound on the top of the big hill in the middle of Bamako. Kouluba is the prettiest place in Bamako for sure! The ceremony was held in the banquet hall and after the ceremony the were refreshments served at the front of the palace. Amadou Toumani Toure (ATT), the President of Mali, is surprisingly nice! In his speech he made several jokes and talked about how much he appreciates the Peace Corps. After the ceremony and on his way to the refreshments table, ATT shook my hand and asked me "Ca va?"!! It was great! I think I probably said 'ca va' back, but who knows! I got to meet the President!! A few minutes later everyone and their mother was trying to get a picture with ATT. This all started after one of my best friends here, Melissa, was brave enough to be the first to ask his Excellency for a picture! Because I get really nervous around famous people (the reason I was never able to get an autograph from Tim Tebow even though I saw him almost everyday on the University of Florida campus!), I decided to stay away from the crowd. I reallllllyyyy wanted a picture with ATT, especially after Melissa was able to do it, but I couldn't bring myself out of my state of nervousness long enough to ask for one. Lucky for me ATT asked me for one instead! Well sort of... Amadou Toumani Toure, the President of Mali, saw me standing near him and waved me over to come and get in a picture with him and some other people! How many of you can say a President waved them into a picture??
So that's probably the most exciting thing that has happened to me in Mali and probably the most exciting thing that will ever happen to me while I'm here. Besides that my life has been slow and uneventful, as usual. One thing that has severely disappointed me is that my house is still not done yet. It is completely built and pretty much ready to be used, except that it has no doors and windows. Because Peace Corps promised to pay for and deliver the doors and windows, there is nothing my homologue or I can do except for wait. To pass the time my homologue dug out and bordered a garden plot for me within my enclosed yard and he also put up my hammock. For the past couple of days I have been going to my new house in the afternoons to hangout by myself. I figure that since my house is basically done, why shouldn't I make use of it? It is super breezy and shaded over there, so I really enjoy laying in my hammock with a good book for a couple hours. Someone else has noticed how comfortable it is at my new house and has decided to hangout there in the afternoons as well, a big fat pig! I find this stupid pig right under my hammock every time I enter my yard! Luckily it listens to me when I yell GET OUT! because I have no desire to spend the afternoons with him. My homologue tells me we will be eating him for Easter, so I guess I will only be having this unwanted house guest for a short while longer...
Today was a nice day because after hanging out with my homologue and some of his friends, my homologue and I explored the hill behind my new house. This is going to sound dumb, but I had no idea that there was even a hill there! My excuse is that it is sort of hidden by tall trees, but I guess I never really looked close enough. Anyway it is basically awesome up there. You can see all of my village and all of the fields, hills and plateaus past it. This hill behind my new house is actually a plateau as well. As we climbed up, my homologue pointed out all of these different fruits I had never seen before in my life. Most of them tasted gross, but it was really cool to discover new things! The top of the plateau was really cool looking. There were all of these boulders everywhere, and it was fairly barren which was a cool contrast to all of the trees and shrubs that populate the sides of the plateau. The landscape of my village is so diverse and beautiful, I really love it here and can't wait to go exploring some more!