Gnamanto...GNAMANTOOOOO

It’s been two weeks since I have blogged/had Internet. In two weeks the following things have happened:

1)Libya?

2)It is official, 36 days after arriving in Mali I cried. We had a “midterm” test that basically set where our language level was. It just told us where we were and if we needed more tutoring or what not. I scared novice high. Normally, at this stage, we all should be between novice mid and intermediate, which means I scored right in the middle. I guess I should be happy. In reality, every other person in my home stay scored higher than me. I was so upset and mad at myself…so I cried. Sounds pretty stupid eh? I mean, I have been in Mali and learning Bambara for 4 weeks. I know how to say hi, describe my family, tell directions, talk about food, health stuff (peace corps), my wants, likes, dislikes, the past, present, future, all that jazz. Still, I keep on thinking, why am I not better? Anyhow, the whole funny part about it was that we were having movie night in my room so I couldn’t be that secretive with my crying, so I went outside. LITERALLY in like 10 minutes all these women are coming up to me asking me why I am crying and if I am ok. THE WHOLE VILLAGE KNEW. And I am talking like a village of like 5,000 people. “The random tubab is crying”! I mean seriously, everyone else cried their eyes out the first week and I have a mealy 15 minutes of tears and it’s like the apocalypse happened. My host bro, the next day took aside of my friends and was like “why was Gnamanto crying?” she kept saying “she’s fine, no worries” but no matter what she said he was so concerned about me. And then I hear out my window “SHAKA SERIOUSLY WANTS YOUR BABIES”…awk

3)It’s hot here. Mali needs to invest in some pools and put one in our town, and have a no peeing rule, because I am melting. Like actually melting. It’s hot. REALLY HOT. Shit. It’s hot. AND IT’S NOT EVEN HOT SEASON YET!

4)AWESOME thing happened at the bar the other day. So yeah, we have a bar. Its not in our village, but one 7 k from us. We normally hitch hike there, and if we are feeling really good about ourselves we bike. Anyhow, since it is SOOOO FING HOT OUTSIDE, we decided to go to the bar in our village and see if we could get a ride from the jeep that was parked out in front. Turns out, this snazzy shiteeee jeep owner is a Malian police officer who knows ALL OF Mali. Like no joke. His mom’s uncle is the president, YES THE PRESIDENT OF Mali. His dad is a colonel in the army, and he is the chief of police for a branch of the army. Along with this, the bar we were going to is owned by his best friends dad, who just turns up to be the mayor of Gao. Like really people, the mayor of gao. Which for all y’all non-Malians is like a region within Mali up north. Apparently he is liked this international most wanted person who is an arms dealer but who cares, he bought us a couple round of beers. And then gave us his card. Yep his card. Anyhow, can’t go to Gao because it is too dangerous, but it is the thought that counts right?

So I have been in Mali for, as I said, a little over 30 days now. Tonight, we find out where we will be living for the next 2 years. I am SOOO excited. All I know is that I needed to bring my bike back to T-S0, which means I will probs be biking everywhere. Watch out athletes, I will be backkkkk. Other than that my life is not that interesting. I go to school every day and sleep like literally 14 hours a day. And then eat and try and speak Bambara. I really do like it here though. Other than the spiders, and cockroaches. I guess I could tell you about my family and that I have become absolutely obsessed with Lipton tea, but that is not really interesting. My rooms awesome, its hot in Mali, I hate peeing in a hole so I have an “emergency” cup in my room, which I use at night or whenever I am too lazy to go to the bathroom. Sounds gross, but hey what can you do. I like in a third world country, some people even have EMERGENCY BUCKETS, yes people, BUCKETS. I have opted for the cup, but I guess I could upgrade at some point. Also, my hair is even whiter than before, and my roots are growing in so I look pretty much HOT all the time.

So I guess I could write about this hiking adventure that I went on with some of the other trainees a weekend ago. I am getting lazy though so it’s not too exciting. We just hiked this mountain…in Mali. It was like out of the lion king, which apparently is an old folk legend, which took place in Mali. We took pictures, climbed rocks, almost feel into caves, the ugsh. It was nice and windy up there so we stayed for a bit, and then went to eat food. That’s about it. I guess I could be more elaborate, but as my mom always said, I am a terrible writer. I guess its both the “bad at English” thing and also “I get bored REALLY easy” thing. Right now I’m leaning on the bored easy. Plus I want a pool. And im sorry mom that this blog has misspellings. I can give you my sign in password so you can go back and edit. Uggggghh the Internet is being a little bitch right now.