My older daughter, M, is a volunteer in the Peace Corps in Mali. She's in the capital for training this week, and so has access to e-mail:

It is nice to be back around English-speaking folks. I stayed up past midnight last night just chatting with friends, while at site the latest I ever make it is maybe 10 pm. L and I are hut mates again, as we were for pre-service training and in-service training. This time it is just the two of us though, so it will probably be a little quieter than with three or four. There are only 20 of us total doing this training, but there are other volunteers and staff who are either coming to the training center, or who we are going to see on field trips.

I survived my first Ramadan. I didn't try to fast, because they include drinking water as part of fasting, and there is no way I could go from sun-up to sunset without drinking. I drink at least 2 liters of water each day during daylight hours, if not three or four or five. It is really hot here. I don't know how they do it, and especially how they fasted and went out into the fields. A lot of people were more grouchy or touchy than usual, and T pointed out, and I then observed, people were much more likely to get into fights. The hardcore don't even swallow their own saliva, they spit it out. So that was lovely for a month. And people weren't mean about my not fasting, but they were definitely inquisitive. So every time I took a sip of water or ate something in public at least one person if not more would ask me why I wasn't fasting. I tried a number of answers, "I'm Christian." "I'm American." But my host sister told me to stick with "I can't." I think everyone liked that answer best because it made me seem weak and them strong, and it was the truth, so that's what I stuck with for the month.

The last day of Ramadan here is called Seli fitini, small prayer holiday. They celebrate with everyone actually going to mosque in the morning for a big prayer session, and everyone who can afford it gets new clothes, and then people go around and greet each other and give blessings. Kids roam around in big groups in a Halloween kind of jovial atmosphere. They offer blessings in exchange for coins and candy. I went to a dinner party at the doctor's house (the bowl of raw chicken in my pictures) with my host sister Djenebou. We also went to two balafon (Malian xylophone) parties the first and second night (pictures of people standing in a circle with people dancing in the middle). It wasn't actually as crazy as it had been built up to me by volunteers who had been here a year, but it was fun. And now everyone can eat again during the day, so they are back to being more mellow.

I did a lot of reading this last month, I read the biography of Latin, which I would only recommend to someone who is really interested in Latin, or has a lot of free time. The author obviously loved the topic and was excited to be sharing, but it was a little repetitive. And now I'm more than half way through the first book of the Game of Thrones, which dad sent.

I got a Bambara intermediate book which I have started studying too. I've taken away only a couple of new words so far. The format sucks, and my copy is falling apart, but I'm happy to have some new learning materials, since I definitely feel like I've plateaued. And one thing I do hate about getting together with a bunch of other volunteers, is I can't help buy compare our Bambara levels, and everyone else seems so much farther along. I make excuses for myself like I don't hear much Bambara at site, because most people speak Ghanakan when they aren't speaking directly to me, and I haven't met with a tutor in over three months. I'm more introverted naturally so I don't just start conversations with strangers.