Friends!

My malian brother and his friend :) Yes I am still that white...

Boat trip on the Niger River

The festival of the sheep is coming up and there are HUNDREDS of sheep in the streets. Took me a little while to put two and two together- but hey got there eventually!

Football - a national pastime

There are a lot of fried food options on the side of the road. We are cautioned against buying it off the street because the oil may have sat there for a while- but I have tasted some fried dough in my host family and it was delicious!

By the way- this is the first and last time this lady has smiled to me (I walk by every day) - I can't figure out why!!

This is how Im getting my peanut butter for the next 6 months (= 10 bucks- not too shabby!)

A lot of streets look like they haven't finished being built yet. ACI 2000 (my neighborhood) is fairly recent and still needs a lot of work

Still walking to work- the kids love to say hi and 'toubabou' (white person). But they don't speak much french so the conversations don't progress much beyond that :)

Still walking to work...

Most of the side-streets are not paved.

Roadside stalls!

Another Street Shot

This is a picture taken on my walk to work. It is on a Saturday which is why you do not see much circulation. I just wanted to give you a sense of the street to sidewalk ratio- this is not so bad because there is some separation between the two!

This is how the garbage disposal system works: some have to push the carts themselves while others have donkeys to do the work. In any event the work is not pleasant, especially under the beating sun.

And I'm off!

So here's the plan:

- Get on the plane for 7 pm

- Watch as many movies as possible.

- Land in Paris.

- Eat a pain au chocolat.

- Wait 8 hours.

- Get on the plane to Mali and land in BAMAKO!