Back in Tubaniso, after another week and a half at my homestay village. I think homestay is getting easier, both because of getting used to village living and the training routine, and as a result of the Malians getting more used to our presence. My Bambara's coming along, but I still can barely understand anything that my family says to me, and they're not always great about speaking slowly.

I found out where I will be living! My village is a "grand" village of about 1500 people, between Kita and Bamako in the Kayes region. I really don't know much about it because I am the first Peace Corps volunteer to ever live there, so there was no one to pass information along. I met the man who will be my language tutor in village, who told me that I will have 2 huts to myself and that there is a market every Monday. Based on what is written on the papers I got, I will be doing nutrition consulting and plenty of baby weighing. Too bad most babies here scream every time they look at me. Tomorrow, my homologue will be doing training here at Tubaniso. Homologues are our "counterparts" in village, basically the person who will be working closely with us and helping us integrate. Mine is the matrone of the community health center where I will be working. I believe that the dominant language in my village will be Bambara, but luckily she speaks French too. On Tuesday morning, I'll be leaving with her to go to visit my new home for a few days, meeting people in my town and setting up a bank account in Kita. I'll also get to meet other volunteers in my area.

Last week at my homestay house, there was a scorpion that was several inches long in the house! Not my room though...my sisters brought it out to show me. At Tubaniso this morning, there was a bug in the dining room that was the biggest I've ever seen. Several inches long, flying, with huge pinchers.

We changed the location of where we're holding class at our homestay village. The nyegen (latrine) at the house where we were before was almost full and full of maggots that you got to stare at every time you used it. We paid a service to have it cleaned out, which seemed to slightly improve it, but it was back to the same after it rained. So now we are at the town kindergarten, which is a lot less pretty, but the nyegens are probably the best I've seen. Clean, hardly any flies, and a door!

I think my family has decided that I need to learn how to live on my own or something, so they have been gradually teaching me how to cook and do other things. They like to have me pound the grain, as my sister Rose is doing below, mostly because they think that my ineptitude is hilarious. Luckily, I do not plan on cooking toh when I have my own kitchen. I try to draw my own water from the well when I want to take a bath, and even though I have no problem doing it, they always run over and pull the rope from me and insist on doing at least some of it. My sister showed me how to do laundry Malian style (by hand, outside). It's not hard at all and actually pretty relaxing.

That's all for now. Hopefully next week I'll have pictures of my new home for the next 2 years!