The art of making art is putting it together

Hello friends!

I know it's been a while since I last blogged, but nothing much was happening for about a month aside from it being really ridiculously hot. It is 110 degrees every single day now. I have dreams about drinking cold water. Sandstorms happen constantly. Everything I own is covered in probably an inch of dust. I sleep outside at night and wake up everything morning coated in dust. Lovely weather!

I had regional training a couple weeks ago, which I helped to plan along with another PCV. It went well, but it was very frustrating at the same time. I did learn how to dry fruit by making my own solar dryer and how to make a solar oven though! So that was exciting at least. After regional training, I went back to site for a week, then headed to Bamako to work on my community garden project proposal. I turned it in (finally!!!) and a week later I got the call from my supervisor that the project was approved! So inshallah in a week I will recieve the funding for the garden from Peace Corps!

I held a meeting yesterday with the women's association to finalize timelines and such, and they were so excited to hear that the project was approved. When I told them, they all started applauding! It felt like I had actually accomplished something. It's a nice feeling after 9 months of being here. So we've been working on determining who will help build the fence, when the well be dug, and all of those sorts of things. The best part of the meeting (aside from the general feeling of excitment since the project was approved) was that when I was finished with my schpeal and questions, one lady said, "You really do speak Fulfulde now!" And while I had spent an hour the day before writing out my script and agenda for the meeting, so it was anything but spontaneous talking, I was also answering questions spontaneously and creating new ones. It just meant a lot to hear that people in my village think that I'm improving. So little by little, the project is getting put together. Piece by piece. What I've learned so far is that things move very slowly in Mali, and so I'm taking it slow in the hopes that this project will get done correctly and in a sustainable manner. If all goes according to plan (and I'm expecting it not to) the fence and well will both be built by the end of May, just in time for farmers to begin planting! Keep your fingers crossed... :)