Homestay a bana!

Hi all!

Again, I am back at Tubani So. Homestay is over (a bana in Bambara) and while I am sad to leave my family, I couldn't be happier to be done with it. I am not only happy to be leaving the village I was in, but very happy to be getting ready to swear in and go to my site! Later today I will take my CORE test, which covers the sessions we had on safety and security, administrative issues, personal health and sector specific topics. Tomorrow I will have my final language test. I am a little bit nervous for that but I feel pretty prepared.

This last week, in our homestay village, we had a baby weighing session where we weighed a total of 135 babies. A lot of them were underweight and even severely malnourished. I was actually surprised at how many babies fell into the severely malnourished category. The next day, we made ameliorated porridge for those babies who were in the yellow (malnourished) and red (severely malnourished) categories. We had a HUGE pot full of porridge and ran out! We got to try some of the porridge, and it was really pretty good.

Later in the week we built a soak pit which is a catch all for run off from things like wash areas and negens. We made our soak pit at the CSCOM in our village. First we built a wash area, a concrete slab with a surrounding wall for the women to wash clothing at. Then we built a sump and laid the pipe for the run off, which went to the soak pit. Finally, we constructed the soak pit, a giant hole filled with giant rocks that will help the water and run off to seep into the ground AWAY from any drinking water sources.

Last Sunday, we went to the National Museum in Bamako. It was very interesting, seeing the artifacts that have been found in Mali. Or at least I think that is what I was seeing. I think you learn something new every day and that day I learned that I like museums better when I can understand what I am looking at. All of the labels and information about each exhibit were in French. Later we went to a restaurant called Broadway Cafe that served American-type food. Lots of good breakfast food, hamburgers, ice cream, milk shakes, pizza... I am sure I gained a good 10 pounds eating there. It was so good that we (I went with a group of about 5 people) had breakfast and coffee (the first mocha I have had in two months!) and then stayed for lunch. For breakfast, I had banana pancakes, which were AMAZING and then for lunch a turkey sandwich, which was so-so. The highlight though was that I split desert with my friend Brad. He ordered us a banana split and I ordered us a mint chocolate chip milk shake and we finished them both, every last bit.

I have still been running, but I have taken a couple of days off and gone bike riding instead. Te road is REALLY bumpy, but the scenery is great. The other day during my run, I took a spill onto the rocky ground. After I finished falling and skidding along the round, I got up and luckily no one was around. Or maybe they had all ducked behind the bushes so as to help me avoid the embarrassment. I have a couple of sweet bruises and scratches, but other than that, no biggie.

Time for a test! Wish me luck!

Hugs, Kisses and Loves,

Holly