Salaamaleekum!
Here I am, once again with the wonders of the internet at my fingertips!

After many more close encounters with my eight legged enemies, comical miscommunication, and a very sad but fond farewell to my host family, I have finally finished my pre-service training! In the next few days I will be moving to my permanent site in Soma and doing my darndest to blend in. I was lucky enough to spend a few days with my future host-family and even after my feeble attempts to communicate using an interpretive dance of mimes and broken Mandinka, they were extremely warm and welcoming.  Like normal, the past few weeks have overflowed with new experiences and challenges. Here are a few,

Lessons Learned:
Of the many things Peace Corps teaches me, the hardest lesson so far seems to be saying goodbye. After extremely difficult goodbyes in the U.S. I wasn't expecting to encounter another one quite so soon. My training village host family has been absolutely wonderful and I will miss them dearly.

Happy:
Marathon March! My fellow trainees and I got to go on a 12 mile hike through the bush after a 30ish hour rainstorm! It was muddy and wet and brilliant. I felt like Bear Grylls forging a river with my pack on my head and mud in my shoes! (I will hopefully post some pictures soon)

Crappy:
Two of my host family's walls collapsed after the rainstorm. The mud walls aren't built to stand up to 30 hours of rain. This is a huge hardship to face in the rainy season, but my family handled it with grace and humor. As the walls took out a bedroom, two of the girls have been sleeping on my floor until they can get it fixed.  For the moment, corrugate and plastic is substituting for walls, but not effectively keeping the rain out. Obviously, we used this as an excuse to have a slumber party and I managed to save enough battery in my computer to watch Aladdin on my last night there.

Awkward:
I called my Dad a broom in my last language test. fiita and fiitarango are not the same. woops.

A banta. Fo naato!