My very sick Birthday

Written July 27, 2011
So I'm 23 now... This was my second birthday in country (July 18th) and I have to say it wasn't too bad. I did happen to be quite sick but overall it was a better birthday than last year where I spent the day getting my hair done all alone with none of my friends to celebrate with me. Three days before my birthday (the 15th) I woke up feeling like I was going to throw up. All I wanted to do was stay in bed, but I had to go to Sikasso that day because we were having a Site Visit party for the PCTs (Peace Corps Trainees) new to the Sikasso Region. I didn't actually throw up until halfway into my 8k bike ride out of village, and then from then on I pretty much couldn't stop throwing up. I never really stopped biking either, I just kept pedalling and whenever I felt a heave coming on I just stuck my head over my arm and let it all out. It was probably my most miserable bike ride ever. I managed to hold off throwing up again until after the bus ride to Sikasso where about 30 minutes after arriving I threw up all the water I had just tried to drink. From that point on I threw up on average about once an hour. The really unfortunate thing was that we were having a Mexican food night complete with guacamole, mango salsa, taco meat and velveeta for the new kids. The thought of missing out on that was completely unacceptable to me so of course I forced myself to eat a giant burrito. I'm sure you can guess what happened abouit 2 minutes after I shoved the last bite in my mouth... I stayed sick for the next 4 days (the 16th, the 17th, my birthday, and the 19th) but as those days passed I got progressively better- On my birthday I only threw up twice! Besides my sickness my birthday was actually really fun. Several of my friends in country left their sites to come down to Sikasso to celebrate with me. On the night of the 17th we made loaded nachos (salsa, guac, spicy cheese sauce, and taco meat) and then went out to a bar that had a dance floor. We danced and danced to an awesome playlist that myfriend had previously made and that the DJ let us play for most of the night. At midnight I kept hearing this little jingle go off and I thought it was someone else's phone because it wasn't my ringtone, but then it turned out that the sound was coming from my bag. I took my phone out and then noticed that it was a set notification that was making my phone sound. The message, "Happy BIrthday to me!", literally made me laugh out loud because I have no memory of ever entering that in my phone. Overall it was a great night and I especially enjoyed singing "Go girl it's your birthday!" along with Trey Songz to his song "Say Ahh." The next morning we woke up early to get ready to go to the Woroni Waterfalls. After a quick vom in the bathroom I was ready to go. Before heading to the falls we picked up schwarmas for lunch and then began the long drive (2 hours) to Woroni. I had yet to go to the waterfalls, so when I finally saw them I found them to be quite breathtaking, seriously one of the coolest things I've ever seen. After fully taking in the falls we all took out pagnes to spread out on the ground to take naps (we were all still very tired from the night before). I got about 2 hours of sleep in waterside before it started to rain. We had planned on staying at the falls all day, but the weather cut this trip quite short. Suprisingly we were all okay with this and were all ready to leave. We all just wanted to crash on a comfy matress. Once we returned to Sikasso and once we all took even longer naps, we cooked pancakes, bacon and eggs for dinner ( Thanks to my mom for sending all the essential items of this dinner!) and then red velvet cake for dessert!! It was DELICIOUS!! All in all this was a pretty decent birthday.
As for village life things have been going pretty well lately. My homologue and I are making progress on the library plans (we just completed our 2nd try at coming up with an acceptable and affordable building plan) as well as on my garden (we've planted mint, cilantro, basil, okra, tomatoes and bell peppers). When it comes to my homologue I feel genuinely blessed to have gotten him selected to help me in my village. My homologue is always willing and ready to do anything I need him to do, and he usually goes above and beyond my expectations. He is incredibley motivated to improve his village and to learn just about anything. He also has the most infectious laugh ( I call it a cartoon laugh because it seriously sounds fake and something that could only come from an animated animal).Besides his laugh, the thing I like best about my homologue are his story telling skills. He always has some story to tell me, whether it be about his childhood or something that happened in the fields, and it always comes complete with sound effects and hand gestures! There is almost never a story telling moment where he doesn't have me cracking up and where he isn't laughing himself! My homologue is a key factor in my enjoying my time in village.
Here are two random mini-stories:
1.The other day I went to see an English teacher who is back in my village for vacation and who has offered to tutor some of the 7th graders. I sat in on his tutoring session where he asked me to look over all of his writing and then proceeded to have one of the longest conversations I've ever had with a non-Peace Corps staff Malian. One of the things he told me was that he wants to practice his English with me so I told him that he can come over to my house any time to chat and to that he gave me a confused look and then explained that he had been warned to never go to my house. He told me that people in my village had told him that no one is to go to my house because an American lives there and they don't like when people bother them. I was shocked to hear this! I honestly have no idea where he heard this. I made sure to ask around and find out if other people had heard the same warning. No one confirmed what the English teacher said, so my homologue and I figure that he must've just imagined the whole thing out of some misconception he has about white people (he kept calling me white regardless of how many times I pointed to my skin to prove I'm not white).
2. Today has been a day of gifts. This morning my homologue and his son came over with a chicken for me. He said that his mother had given it to him to give to me. I was pretty confused by this because normally chickens are given to newcomers and strangers to the village, and since I've lived here for an entire year, I have no idea why I was presented with this gift. I didn't however question it and had no problem graciously accepting this large source of protein! My next gift of the day was money to go buy a soda in market from the Mayor. Again this was another unprecedented gift that I had no problem accepting. My final gift of the day was one of my few female friends in village asked me to go with her to the photo studio to have a picture taken with her baby. She originally wanted just me and her son in the picture, but then I convinced her and her older daughter to sit next to me and the baby. She is going to have a copy of this picture printed out for me. People really are incredible nice in my village and I feel so grateful that I am able to live with these people during my time in Mali.