Rambo, African Feet, and Dirty Peanuts (This one's out of order, sorry)

hey family and friends! 

how's everyone doing?  is it freezing cold there?  it's actually a
little cold here.  i never thought i'd say that, but i've been wearing
my hoodie for the past two days.  it's an african cold snap.  who knew
such a thing existed?  i sure didn't.

well i'm happy to report that i'm finally living in my permanent site
and i LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it.  i'm in the wild west of mali where there
are lots of guns and gold miners.  no, please don't worry, the guns
are for hunting game, and scaring pests out of the farmers fields.
please mama, don't be worried.  you don't have to show up with your
gun, i promise.

anyhow, i'm on the border of senegal and i am constantly having these
rasta type dudes stroll through my village singing or selling things
as they travel around africa.  my village is adorable and it's like
stepping back in time.  no electricity, no running water, everyone
cooks on open fires outside, and our staple foods are rice, millet,
corn, and peanuts.  i've actually had the opportunity to start
gardening with some women lately and it's been kicking my ass.  i see
now why african women are so ripped.  they work and work and work like
i've never seen people work.  i've been helping them by spending lots
of time pulling water from wells and carrying water to the gardens or
to the huts to wash dishes or bathe.  i love my little concession.  i
have two huts and it's definitely the coolest pad i've ever had in my
entire life.  i'm surrounded by gorgeous mountains, beautiful trees,
and the stars at night are mesmerizing.  i sit in the darkness and
stare up at them every night and feel so calm and feel i can finally
hear myself think.  i've been surrounded by a lot of noise in my life.
 a lot of chaos.  it's been very healing to be here and find a little
more of myself, even though now i'm surrounded by more chaos ever.
it's funny how that works.

life here has been mindblowing.  it's challenging.  it's hilarious.
it's dangerous.  it's engaging.  it's humbling.  it's terrifying.
it's full of joy.  it's full of sadness.  it's everything.  i'm
finding that soon i will no longer have a reference point.  anything
goes here and i'm slowly getting used to it.  i have dance parties on
a regular basis with the kids and the local women at all hours.  we
had a dance party at my house the other day before 10am.  they kicked
up so much dust i was coughing for the rest of the day, but it was so
worth it.  i'm happy to say i finally bought a guitar and that serves
as great entertainment for all involved.  i also play soccer with the
boys, and garden with the women.  my feet are slowly turning into the
typical african feet, that are cracked and dirty ALL THE TIME. when i
visit with people, i spend lots of time digging my hands into dirty
peanut piles, so i can shell peanuts and have something to do while we
sit around for hours and just chat, or not chat at all.  i find myself
not thinking twice about seeing kids playing with batteries, rusty
knives, or dead animals.  i still get a little scared when i see how
my host family prepares my meals for fear of food poisoning, but
slowly those fears are dwindling as
well.  oh life is so different these days.

my language skills are coming along and that makes me super excited.
yesterday i spoke 5 languages, ha.  or hardly spoke them, i can't tell
which. either way, i spent the morning in my community where they
speak malinke, later i came into my market town where you have to
speak bambara and french to get by.  Then i went to a fellow
volunteer's house where we spoke english, then later in the evening we
went to a birthday dinner which was thrown by a group of spaniards who
are here gold mining. it was so nice to spend the evening speaking
spanish with them and drinking delicious vino tinto de espana.  plus
it was a bit of a confidence booster because aside from my english, my
spanish is a million times better than any of the other languages i'm
learning.  :)

for the next three months i'm tasked to get to know my community, and
help them understand why this random white-ish girl has come all the
way from ameriki to live and work with them.  it's challenging i tell
you. identifying what the villagers think is needed in the community
as far as development is concerned is going to be a long process.
income generation is high on their list as far as selling fruits,
vegetables and grains, but also lack of water in the hot season is a
major concern.  i'm the first volunteer in my community and oh do i
have my work cut out for me.  i've been spending lots of time with the
kids and they know exactly where their interests lie.

the latest development has been this.  all the little boys love, love,
love rambo and ask me on a daily basis if i know him.  at first when
the little boys were saying rambo, i thought they were saying a
malinke word and i just kept saying, "no, I don't know what rambo
is?!" i was very confused as there are no televisions near my house.
it was so out of context i didn't even pick up on the fact that they
were talking about good old sylvester.  then it hit me, they had seen
an 80's rambo flick and they LOVED it!  yesterday a little boy asked
me if rambo was coming to our village to visit.  i didn't have the
heart to tell him no, so i just said, "tuma do" which means, maybe.
oh sylvester.  they wouldn't even recognize him these days.