We swore in as PCVs on September 12. It was a nice ceremony. The Charge d’Affairs, who is currently running the US Embassy in Mali has a wonderful French accent and I understood a lot of what she said. Malian French, still not so much understanding. After the ceremony we went to the American Club and swam in the pool for our Peace Corps party, and then after that we went out for the party the current volunteers organized for us. We decided it was a party for them, and we were just the excuse. Which was fine. We tore up the dance floor and then stayed in an air conditioned hotel and watched CNN. Which was great.
So now I am in Kita waiting to be installed. There is, of course, protocol to go through with every volunteer at every village, and then there is so much stuff that we all have, that they only can do a couple a day (in each region), and my teammate and I are being installed on Friday. So we have a few days to get our shopping done, catch up on our several month old copies of People and US Weekly, and get prepared for site. I bought a solar oven, which I’m particularly excited about, and I am going to see what kind of wonderful things I can concoct in it. I was thinking originally just along Dutch oven lines, but my APCD recommended going for more crock-potty recipes, which I hadn’t even thought of. So if anybody has any experience with a solar oven or any great ideas, just let me know, and I’ll tell you if it works or not.
I did almost miss the bus to Kita this morning. No, I almost missed the bus to the bus station this morning. I set my alarm wrong last night (because I don’t know why, but when you get before five or six o’clock in the morning it things get really confusing. So I set it an hour late), and was having weird dreams this morning that woke me up and I realized I was supposed to be up and breakfasted already. Butt luckily for me, I wasn’t the only one who slept through his or her wake up time. So we made it. And my bus, at least, didn’t leave for many many hours after we got there, so we got to watch French cartoons. I’ll tell you what, I didn’t know I was going to come to Mali and eat so much ice cream, swim in so many pools, and watch so many cartoons.
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