Moving Right Along!

It's my last night in TubaniSo before going to my host village. We leave here at 8am tomorrow... got med kits, a bike, a helmet, and a mosquito net. Apparently there is a trunk waiting at my homestay site filled with all sorts of goodies. Oh yea, the bike is wicked nice cause it's a trek. I am charging my ipod now so i can bring some tunes with me to help fall asleep at night. My days are going to be real busy... about 6 hours of language training 7 days a week. The village that I am going to is a fishing village, so I figure I am going to lose a lot of weight real fast! I can't stand fish, but I have cliff bars and beef jerkey to eat! I should have brought more M&Ms.

I am really excited to get to my homestay village just north of Bamako and start learning Fulfulde. Fulfulde, also known as Fulani, will be very beneficial to learn because it is spoken throughout Western Africa in different dialects. Because I am an Agroculture volunteer, I will be living in a very small rural village (basically, out in the sticks!) so I will not really have the opportunity to learn French until later... and that's if someone in my village speaks any French. I'm bummed out about that, but excited for the Fulfulde and over experience, nevertheless. I met a representative from my homestay village today and we were trying to communicate with each other, but it was so hard! She has laughing and repeating things while I was drawing pictures and pointing. I drew all sorts of musical instruments hoping they would have them. She gave me the names for them and put her thumb up... we'll see if anyone plays them! After the 9 weeks of homestay are up I will most likely be moving north to the Mopti region.. I have sand in my future! I can't wait for it though. It is the Sahel region that comes up towards Timbukto and Gao... not quite desert, but close. I really hope there aren't as many flies and mosquitoes there because they are insane here! Sleeping in my mosquito net tent is just like camping. We've been calling this place summer camp or africa-light haha. I can't wait to get out into the real world by moving to my village! Look for more posts in a few weeks, as I will be without internet for 2 1/2 weeks.


Dave

I made it!

After about 30 hours of travel, I have finally made it to the training center in Mali known as TubaniSo (too-bawn-ee-so) and it is awesome. I am staying in a little hut with two other guys. There are actually 81 of us here... we're the biggest volunteer class ever! I am having a great time and learning tons and I will move into a village with a host family on the 25th. I'll live with them for 9 weeks until I am ready to go out on my own! Woohoo!

Hey I'm famous!

Cool... someone found my blog and put it up on www.peacecorpsjournals.com. That's pretty awesome. People can find me now.

I guess that means I should put up some info so people that don't know me can have a little bit of an idea of who I am.

My name is Dave, I'm 22 years old, and I graduated from Syracuse University in May 2007. In just under two weeks I will be heading to Mali to volunteer with the Peace Corps as an Agriculture/Gardening Extension Agent (the "Agent" part is definitely the coolest aspect of the title) for the next 27 months. I was originally set to volunteer in Tanzania, but something happened with the Peace Corps (not exactly sure what...) and half the program was cut, so I was moved to Mali and have had an extra month at home to see family, friends and make some money before I go. It has been great to be home for this extra time, but I am real antzy to get going and start the next big chapter in my life. Look for more updates once I get to Mali after July 20.