Malimalimalimali

Okay, so I had to start this post with this picture. I think it's my favorite out of the batch I took with Shannon and our dear man-friend here. Yes, I am picking his nose; we have a very special bond. We met in Knoxville after the Squirrel Nut Zippers concert that I went to with Shan on Sunday evening, and from there it was all history. I think he's planning to come visit me in Mali.

Speaking of Mali; I'm so excited/impatient for it now. I'm glad this feeling came two and a half weeks ahead of time and not two months ago. I think I would have gone insane. The good news is I'll be super busy for the next two weeks. Going up to FGC on Saturday for a week to chill with the Quakers for a week and then it's off to Washington State with the family to visit my brother and go backpacking again. Went backpacking with Shannon last week (before the momentus meeting with Mr. Right). It was a good trip. We had three days on the trail, the second being the most challenging as it involved four miles or so of straight up the mountain (plus three miles of easier terrain). Another highlight: squirrels (or some small rodent) ate through Shannon's small backpack that we had suspended high up away from the bears (including its zipper) then through a plastic container with to get to the trail mix within the first night; the second night they vandalized my sleeping back stuff sack and ate an entire payday candy bar and a half, half a granola bar, and nibbled on some bread. But in general a good trip.

Anyhoo, so preparations for Mali: mostly been buying a bunch of stuff, putting all the music I can on my ipod, trying to work a bit on language. To tell the truth, I haven't really done much with the language stuff. I have a whole textbook on Bambara that has recordings along with it and a set of lessons the PC gave us; I've gotten through the intro and the first chapter or so of the text and the first 4 PC lessons. I think I officially know how to say, morning, noon and night now (sogoma, wula, su) and I have some basic ideas of how greetings go and I've listened to the alphabet numerous times. Most of this I learned on the plane to and from TN and back when I first got the resources a month or two ago. This reminds me a bit of how we used to give drafts of the Hunger Report to Jim (vp of policy at Bread) to read on planes because any other time he wasn't likely to be able to sit down and give it the attention it needed. Maybe if I was trapped on a plane for the next two weeks. Hmm, well enough of that; I'll take a closer look in my free time next week.

Not much else to report. I'm listening to a CD I bought yesterday of two Malian musicians, Ali Farka Toure and Toumani Diabate. This is my first listen, but I recognize some of the music from one of the African compilation CDs I have. It's good. Okeedokee, I'm running out of stuff to say. Good night!