Some of you have been begging me to update the blog, so here it is.
...I'm still in Mali. That much hasn't changed.
I'm still trying to build a school. There've been a lot of twists and turns and grovelling and promises of NGO partnerships and setbacks and developments, and the latest is that we've raised over $15,000 so far, which is substantial, and thanks to all of you who had a part in that. It also seems like we're going to able to work with BuildOn to fund the rest of the project and help with its construction. So that's great news! But because of the Malian climate, it looks like we won't be starting construction until January 2010! So I've decided to stay a third year to finish the project through to the very last brick.
In the meantime, class has resumed in Tongo, the cold season has come and gone, and it's HOT. The well has been dug, and is 99% complete. The only thing it lacks is a lid. We plan to start building the latrines for the school in another month, and we just put up a real fence around the women's garden so the ckickens can't get in and eat all the good stuff.
I also helped Kyle, my closest volunteer, paint a world map in his village. We quickly realized that most of the kids (and even the adults) couldn't even locate Mali on a map, much less America or other countries, so we held a couple mini-geography lessons.
We also realized that Malians go nuts over marshmellows, which they pronounce as marshymellons. We had a great time teaching them how to make smores. If anyone's looking for good ideas for care packages, send marshmellows, grahm crackers, and chocolate!
That's the update so far. I'm heading off to Paris in two weeks to kiss Seth under the Eiffel tower, and then rumor has it that I might be making a guest appearance in the US in April............ Keep your fingers crossed.
In the meantime, here's a picture of a 2 year old driving a motorcycle:
