introduction

what to write...

I like it here, but I don't think I've processed things enough to have a that sort of feeling. so I'll stay factual.

malaria prophylaxis kicked my ass the first week. i was depressed and the doc said if it didn't turn around then I should consider ETing (early termination). I was fine the next day. the meds gave me wicked dreams too, quite a treat that's been. one was about meeting missing links to monkeys, bugs, fish and flowers, another was about a slime princess at the foot of an ancient s. american civilization. and they're all so vivid. once we were out at homestay everything was gravy. my new name is tumani (two mon ee) sidibe but the streets call me cekaceka. It means big boss or womanizer or the one who speaks about nothing. I didn't take more than a day to get used to the food and lack of amenities. breakfast is always instant coffee or tea, french bread and seri (like oatmeal or cream of wheat). they put lots of sugar in their hot drinks, it took a few mornings to get my uncle to put the sugar for my coffee into the seri. i told him black unsweetened coffee and sweet warm cereal is breakfast ameriki. once a week I get about a dozen hard boiled eggs. lunch is usually rice with sauce and some type of meat. the best is a red garlic and onion sauce with hot peppers and beef. I always look forward to lunch. morning language session is a drag... school's halfway around the world and I'll still hate it. I prefer to do my learning during nighttime chats around the village. after second session I'll get together with other PCTs and kill time. we go to baguineda camp for cold drinks or we climb the rock ridges around town. It's pretty up there... we can see our whole village of soundougouba, the treeline along the river and a whole lotta sky. it's just bigger here, like the earth inverted. I'm usually back with my family around dusk for dinner and chatting. dinner's been lots of things... toh, macaroni (mali fast food), meat and potatoes, cucumber and tomato salad. most of this isn't what they eat, we get hooked up because the PC pays them to feed us. after dinner I study with my uncle or walk around town with a local friend and talk it up with other concessions. we'll play mali cards or drink tea or just work on bambara. a few times we've made it to the bar in b camp, but it only serves malty beer. the bar down the street from the training site has pocket gin shots, which are more conducive to my good night. but the good thing about walking home from b camp is misi sogo for 4th meal - smoked and chopped beef leg tossed with powdered salt and onions.

now food aside and onto the juicy stuff... there are countless firsts you experience when living en brousse, many of which are easy subjects for nasty bathroom humor. the first first that comes to mind is happening to see someone relieve himself while I was eating lunch. not quite the old in n out. there is no toilet paper, so it will be the first time you wipe your ass with your hand. i hope. if your concession doesn't differentiate, you'll shower in the same unroofed area that you shit. and you'll shake hands with people who don't wash their hands after... you get the idea. I guess my water sanitation sector has a broader range of issues to address than I initially anticipated. soap, along with frogs and having your picture taken, are considered bad luck around most parts of mali. there's also lots of boobies and naked kids, which is all good. the first day at homestay some lady pushing 100 walked up shirtless and shook my hand with this wiry toothless grin. it only takes once to get used to these things, I got broken in to that one pretty quickly. the wake up calls are a different story. if I manage to sleep through the 5 am loudspeaker call to prayer (mali is mostly muslim) and then half an hour later the retarded rooster crowing right outside my door, I have to put up with my uncle making sure I have all the time in the god forsaken early morning to get ready for the day. whatever at least I can sleep at night, many others struggle with the heat still. I guess I have my arizona junior year landlord to thank for that. you guys know, a year and a half of 100+ degrees with no a/c. even though you fuckers pussied out and got personal window units. all in preparation...

the women are gradually becoming beautiful. full figured and amazingly graceful, and if you smile they smile. but I'm digging blonde hair and fair skin. and getting hit by everything here. I should've guessed it would take more than myself to take this in as best I can.

soso likes you because you smell so sweet.

more to come people.