Got Rice?

What is there to say? We are still here in Mali. Still eating more rice than we would like - at least twice a day every day. It is always covered in Na (sauce). Sometimes the na is delicious and sometimes it is gooey and horrible tasting, but always it is on top of your world wide, standard issue white rice.

Other commonly eaten items include bashi, which they compare to couscous but is nothing like the couscous we know in the states, cucumbers, corn, sweet potatos, eggs, and bread. Bread is to brekfast what rice is to lunch and dinner, standard issue, everyday. Sometimes we spice it up with eggs from our local McDonald's vendor, peanut butter or cheese. While the cheese sounds delicious the only stuff we can buy here is Laughing Cow. We love it, but recognize that it might not be classified as cheese in most countries.

We have been at our host families for 2 weeks now. We are both lucky and have very nice, accomodating families. On the two Sundays we have been at home stay we have gotten to go to Bamako. The first week we visited the National Museum - very much like other 3rd world countries we have been to. The second week we went to a pool. The pool was a top 5 day in Mali, for sure. The other 6 days a week we attend class for 8 hours a day. Sometimes it is technical training, but mostly it is language. One would think we'd be fluent by now, but as the saying goes, doni doni.

On Sunday we head back to the PC training facility for a week. If all goes according to plan our status of PCT (trainee) will be upgraded to PCV (volunteer). It's all very official!

One of these days we'll get some pictures uploaded. Maybe even of the Malian dance we held in our site!