2010

All this time we enjoyed joking about E.T.ing (early terminating of our service) on New Year’s Day 2010. That way we could say that we were in Peace Corps for 2008, 2009 and 2010. While it was sound reasoning, we had not anticipated that we would be too tired from celebrating to go through with it, nor did we think that at the end of the year we might want to stay. Much to our surprise, we actually have got some stuff to get done in the coming year. So, we will stay as volunteers a while longer yet.

So what happened during the last year? Let’s review a couple of the highlights of 2009:
-We lived in West Africa for the first (and likely last) complete year.
-We visited with rebels in Cote d’Ivoire.
-We consumed a lifetime worth of peanuts.
-We saw elephants, albino crocodiles, hippos, monkeys, baboons, and more in the wild.
-We fled from one escaped giant monitor lizard at the Dakar zoo.
-We hiked in the famous Dogon country.
-We moved from the desert to the big city.
-We compiled the biggest postcard wall in West Africa (and still growing!).
-We actually worked a little.
-We (Sam) were struck by motorcycles.
-We (Mark) witnessed African championship soccer games.
-We became an aunt and uncle for a fourth time.
-We said goodbye to old friends.
-We welcomed new friends.
-We really started to like Mali.

Tons of other great stuff (they added a huge mound of severed donkey heads to the lion exhibit at the Bamako zoo!) and not so great stuff (watched Thierry Henry dribble a soccer ball like it was a basketball, damn his heart) occurred during the course of this past year but we won’t bore you with every detail. Let us just say that it was a hell of a year, filled with trials and tribulations, of course, but also more rewarding moments than we deserve. They always seem to turn out that way.