Site = Awesome

Getting to Sevare from Bamako was quite the experience! All 18 PCTs going to the Mopti region traveled with our homologues by public bus. It was an adventure and a half. First, we blew a tire just outside of Bamako - right at my homestay village, actually. So after we fixed the tire, about 4 hours later we stopped in Segou for lunch...and the bus broke down. Initially we tried pushing the bus Little Miss Sunshine-style, but we failed. So we had to wait at Segou for about 2 hours while they found a replacement part and fixed it. The next nine hours to San and then Sevare were relatively uneventful, but forty-five minutes out of Sevare we literally hit a cow! We drove over it with one tire but then swerved so it avoided the back tire. Luckily the bus didn't flip. It was hardcore storming then too, so we could barely see in front of us. Headlights and windshield wipers are for wimps, haha. So funny though, we ran over a cow. Total travel time: 14 hours.

When we got to Sevare, the PCVs were waiting to greet us and took us to an awesome hotel. It's run by a former American missionary named Mac. For breakfast, he made us French toast, pancakes, yogurt, and fruit and granola - so yummy. The next day in Sevare we set up our banking accounts, went to the PC Bureau, and basically familiarized ourselves with the city. Finally, it was just me, Ali (the vol 1K from me - she's super nice, I'm so glad we're so close), and Katie, the PCV who was our site visit buddy. We biked the 9K to Ali's village, met with the mayor, and then we biked 1K to my village.

My village is beautiful! We don't have electricity, which is absolutely fine, because at night the stars are GORGEOUS. I have stairs to my roof too, so in the hot season I can sleep up there in my bug hut. Super excited about that! My nyegen is huge too - I'm going to put some rice sack gardens out there I think, so that way the goats won't eat my tomatoes, basil, lettuce, and onions. It's going to be awesome. When we got to my village, there was a wonderful celebration waiting for us. Representatives of the surrounding village's women's groups were there, and all the kids in my village, plus the amiiri (village chief). There was a tom-tom, and Katie, Ali, and I all danced with the villagers for a while. I'm sure it amused them, and it was a lot of fun.
My supervisor's name is Moussa, and he is super motivated and very excited to begin our reforestation work. I saw the tree plantations, and they're huge! After that, I planted an entire field of millet - quite the adventure. He also wants to plan an Earth Day-esque festival of sorts, where all the villagers will plant a tree and we'll hold sessions on environmental sensibilation and awareness - like why it's important to replace the trees that are cut down for firewood. My big project will be ecotourism though - it almost seems like more of a SED site than an environment one, so I'm going to have to do some fun reading on business/marketing/finance stuff. The women's association also wants to start a garden, and I'm very excited to work with them on it. The president of the women's association, Kumbari, is my host mom, and she is so hilarious. She's going to be fun to work with for the next two years.

On the whole, I really enjoyed site visit. We had been warned by current volunteers that it would be absolutely horrible - it's the first time that you are truly by yourself, without any other PC peeps around. But I had a lot of fun, and didn't feel alone or abandoned at all - probably because Ali was so close, but also because the people in my village were so welcoming and eager to talk to me. My Fulfulde is still a bit rough (and will be for at least the next year), but I was able to have some good conversations, and Kumbari understands my pronunciation and translates to everyone else what I'm trying to say. We had some good times together. So hooray for a good site visit, and only 2 1/2 weeks left in training!