I know my site!

Today I learned my site placement for the next two years! I am in a small village of 400 people about 20 kilometers outside of Sevare, in the Mopti region of Mali. I will be living with a host family, though I will have my own house with two rooms and a veranda (that means shade! hooray!) I am 1 kilometer away from a village with a larger market, which is on the Niger. So lots of fresh veggies and fish! My banking town will probably be Sevare though, which is also where the Peace Corps stage house is for the Mopti region. That means that I will most likely have internet access about once every two weeks or so, which is great.

I am so excited for my site though! The Mopti region is where Dogon country is - it's the part of Mali that most tourists go to because the Dogon people are famous for their masks, dancing, and art. They live on cliffs in these really neat houses. I'm glad I'm so close - it's supposed to be a great place to hike. My homologue is a 19 year old woman. I get to meet her tonight, and I'm so excited to have someone close to my age to work with.

Most of my work will involve reforestation and gardening. My homologue works for Planete Verte, a French NGO, so we will be implementing some of their programs in addition to my own ideas. As a secondary project, I have the opportunity to work with a women's association which makes leather products. They want to improve their product and then improve their business skills - expand into new markets and such. I don't know a lot about leather, but I'm excited to learn - what a cool skill that will be to have! And I'm glad I get to incorporate gender and development (GAD) and SED ideas into my service - it sounds pretty ideal for me. I'm traveling to Mopti for a site visit on Sunday for one week, so I will have a better idea of what my life will be like after that. I'm so ready to see it and finally know for certain! This whole moving every 12 days is getting a bit rough - I'm fine living almost anywhere in the world, as long as I can settle there and not move constantly. But I am so happy about my site - it's close enough to a big city that I'll have fairly regular internet access but en brousse enough that I'll still have the village experience. And I can't wait to start planting trees!

Currently listening to: Feist, Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, Other Lives
Currently reading: Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver