goat!

a ni tile! 104 degrees in bamako, mali.

1. i have a new phrase: "where do you sleep at night?" it's a fun one. "hello little boy on the street! me hawa! where do you sleep at night? i'm going to the office. i sleep in america. where do you sleep?"

2. exploring new parts of bamako! this past monday night: malian chinese food with anna, caitlin, and george the romanian dentist. on the to-do-list: hole in the wall diner with the best north malian stew you can get (goat and cinnamon plus 20 other spices); visit to the No Stress nightclub for a little Bobaraba (malian booty-shake dance)

3. place your Fetish orders now -- carcasses? "old man" dried fish? all available in the Grand Marche of Bamako. on the bus Caitlin told a story of the time she got shipwrecked in a freighter on the way to timbuktu and spent three days with a group of desert nomads. she also told us about her internship with PTSD victims in Rwanda, which was so challenging that she needed to take off for a week-long getaway in Uganda.

4. ok. i've been incredibly happy, and pretty miserable at various points in the last couple days. work-wise.
incredible happiness: meeting with Soukeina in her home -- we get on like a house on fire. she knows so much that i never, ever could, and is sassy and opinionated in the best way. how can we find out if a mom's bugnet was pre- treated? ask her if she bought it in a sachet or in the marche! her compound is hectic and wonderful -- there are always 7 aunts and 5 babies and 2 ancient grandmothers and sister Assatou who just arrived after a 15-hour bus ride from the north, who share in greetings and tea and the work as well -- Soukeina asks their opinion in rapid-fire bambara.

frazzled frustration: yesterday sucked. in a meeting with an awesome eval expert from Duke, i found out that the survey drafts i sent out before the trip were hella unguided. three days of work back in illinois that really could have been redirected in five seconds. dangit. then we outlined everything that needed to happen after the two directors' unexpected departure -- trainings, design, consultations, evaluation, implimentation, publishing, accountability, sustainability. wait, who's supposed to do this again? wait WHAT??? then walking home that night some dude swerved to faux-run me over with his motorcycle.

BUT. refreshment came soon -- in a cool breeze on the late night walk, a lovely talk with Anna, and the friendliness of the many people still out on the street -- even after I asked them where they sleep at night.

followed by a heartening morning. soukeina said she actually preferred the newer survey draft -- quite possibly out of pity but... cool done i'll take it! so now it's a matter of reworking what i've got, translating it and other documents into bambara, setting up surveyor training and piloting and getting things rocking and rolling, while setting up our Action Fee system with the CHAG. the ever-impressive caitlin and i set out some timelines for my work this summer.

i had a great skype chat with Pop -- and i'm now feeling comfortable approaching some terrifying corvette-esque timelines as a happy ol' chuggin' rusty tractor. a lot more responsibility than i was anticipating given the last-minute loss of both directors. but like spinach, responsibility is good for you.

5. having reached this philosophical peace, when the electricity in the office died (no fan) we abandoned work for the pool. (hard knock life.) adama, a rockin' malian intern, came with us, and we coached him on his upcoming trip to America on a pre- Fulbright scholarship (ben & jerry's, hot showers, deep-dish pizza and buttery movie popcorn). our last stop was Fast Food Adonis for the best falafel sandwiches in Mali.

which leaves me here in our internet cafe -- sleepy and sunburnt and chloriney- crusty in that lovely post pool way.

tomorrow, i'm hoping Fanta will teach me to make To, one of my host sisters -- an intriguing staple that looks kinda like cement, and is liked only by mama Hawa and baby Nana in our entire compound (but they have some say). i'll head over to Soukeina's at noon to have lunch with her family -- a big feast in honor of the 7th day after her mother's passing. it should be really wonderful -- her family is endlessly warm and welcoming. on the 40th day we'll sacrifice a goat.

much love from sikoro. i'm stoked to be here.