Happy New Years Eve!!! I hope 2010 gets off to a good start. This New Years Eve won’t be quite as glamorous as last year on Halong Bay, Vietnam, but I’m excited to get it started none the less
My past few weeks have been an absolute whirlwind. IST technically ended on the 19th, but I opted to stay until the 23rd for a workshop with an NGO called Right to Play. It uses sports and games to educate students on AIDS. There were about 25 of us who stayed and other sectors had field trips as well, so it turned to be most of our STAGE that stayed the extra two days and then got to take Peace Corps transport out on Wednesday. I left for San on Thursday, Christmas Eve, and had my first Malian outfit made. Christian villages have a fabric printed every year so my homologue really wanted me to wear it for the Christmas service. As it turns out, they celebrate Christmas for three days 24-26, so basically a never ending feast. They killed several pigs which was a pleasant surprise after not having seen pork in months.
While in San I was able to pick up some packages and the Christmas tree and decorations you sent mom absolutely made my Christmas. I’m sure I looked ridiculous riding back with a mountain of boxes on my bike but I wanted take everything home. I turned on my ipod and listened to Christmas music and decorated my tree while snacking on the cookies and goodies. It was very special and I even had three wrapped presents to put “under” the tree plus my stocking, all of which I saved for Christmas morning. Christmas day was reserved primarily for a 4 hour church service with tons of singing and some dancing then chatting and relaxing the rest of the day while the 26th was the all night dance party. There is no way I can keep up with those dancers so I stuck with the old ladies who were much more my speed.
Since then, things calmed down a little. It is Christmas break so all the kids are home all day which I’ve never really experienced so it’s been fun playing with them, and I’ll try to send a video or two of them singing and dancing. Most of the youth my age also returned from Bamako and other regional capitals from school so it was nice to see them and I’ve had more visitors this past week than most my time here added together. My homologue must have told our Pasteur that all my friends were in Mopti or Bamako for Christmas but I had come to site, so Daniel (Pasteur) announced it on Christmas morning to the whole village so they were all smiling at me kind of awkwardly for the rest of the day, very embarrassing.
The kids have been my constant companions as of late and I’ve had the chance to see how they entertain themselves. Two boys, Izac and Etienne, were bowling one afternoon. They each lined up 4 old D batteries and then used a ninth battery as the bowling ball. This entertained them for hours. The girls have their version of rind around the rosy as well as patty cake so it’s been fun watching them play that too. I brought a nerf football and they’ve taken to playing soccer with it which has turned out to be incredibly entertaining seeing as a football has really awkward bounces that they way over/under estimate when to kick. Whenever I’m having a bad day I just have to spend a few minutes with the kids (certain kids of course drive me absolutely crazy so I’m kind of selective who gets to play in my yard) to make me feel better.
Love,
Cait
