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.