homestay

Hello,
Sorry I haven't been writing much, I haven't had very much e-mail access.
Things are going really well with me. I have been at the Peace Corps training center for the past three days, but prior to that I was in my homestay village for 12 days.
My homestay village has 400 people. It is the rainy season right now and most people in the village are farmers, so they're busy a lot of the time. The first few days in my village were really rough. I was barely eating because I couldn't stand the food, I didn't feel that great, I suddenly became homesick, and in retrospect I was overwhelmed. But after a few days my teachers spoke with my host family and they started cooking me pasta (makoroni in Bambara). They also started supplementing my diet with mangoes, peanuts, bread and "furu furu" which to my delight is deeply fried snacks . . . . of what I forget. Once those days passed everything has been going well.
Most of the day I am in Bambara class, and then usually an hour or so a day of cross culture. My average day is like, wake up at 5:30 by the sound of roosters and donkeys outside my hut. Then I fall back asleep for an hour, wake up, bring my family my bucket, they give me ji (water) for my bucket bath which I take outside in the nugen (outdoor bathroom/hole). Believe it or not the bucket baths are really great. Sometimes the water is even so hot I have to ask for more cold. And it is nice showering outside. Then I have breakfast with my host brother (who I think is like 25ish), Zumana. Breakfast is seri, porridge, Lipton, and sometimes a baguette. Then I pick up my terimuso (female friend, other PCT Stacey) and walk to the school. A lot of days we have class outside, underneath a big tree with a portable blackboard. A lot of kids usually hang out, stare and laugh at us, run around while we're in class. My class is me and three other PCT girls, and then our two Malian women teachers who live in the village with us.
I go home for lunch, eat with Zumana or my host dad, who feels more like my grandpa, I love him. He is adorable and really patient. He looks ancient but my teachers say he is probably only 60 years old. He is really skinny and looks very wise. Sometimes he says things to me which I assume are profound but I can't understand (yet). He also teaches me things all the time in Bambara, like animal names (we have goats, chickens, donkeys, cows, dogs in our concession) and has me count up to a hundred with him in Bambara every night. For lunch (EVERY DAY) I have rice with peanut sauce, which, per the culture, I eat with my right hand. In the beginning I had to sit on my left hand to avoid using it, but I am getting a lot better. When I forget my family gently says, "C'est taboo" (my brothers speak some French).
After lunch, back to class, then sometimes I hang out with my terimusow for a while or I try to call home at specific spots in the field, if i stay in a specific position. At night I take another bucket bath, eat dinner with my host brother, and hang out with my family, outside, looking at the stars. And the lightning! Which are both INSANE here. My family asked me if there was even lightning in Ameriki (the us) as I get so excited about it.
My hut is comfortable. I have my own. It has a concrete floor, a straw roof, a mosquito net and a trunk. The village has no electricity or running water, but its really not as bad as you'd think. I don't usually miss it that much (at least yet). At night I read in bed for a bit with my headlamp, but I usually pass out after like 30 minutes. I also bought a radio because I can get BBC.
My family gave me a Malian name, Numuso Samake, which is my host mother's (n ba, my mother in Bambara) name. Everyone in the village yells it out all the time. In Mali greetings are a big deal, so everyone you see you ask, how are you? How is your family? How is your husband? And then you say some blessings. I have finally gotten them down and get excited to say them to everyone.
I found out about my permanent site today and I am really excited about it. It is only three hours outside of Bamako (that is very close, relatively speaking) and no PC volunteer has ever been there before, but that's what I wanted so its good. The village is 4,000 people, which as Maura and Allie both immediately pointed out, is not that different in size from Medina. I will be doing the usual health stuff, pre-natal consultations, nutrition, baby weighing, sanitation stuff, etc. but I will also be doing some HIV/AIDS stuff which is really cool, and rare to be doing in Mali as HIV/AIDS is not that prevalent here. The midwife I am paired with speaks Bambara and French, which is also good, what I wanted so I can work on my French. There will be cell phone service and two restaurants!!! I am going there for a week in a little over a week. Very excited.
All right, I have tons more to tell but I need to go pack because I go back to homestay tomorrow. Thinking about everyone, I'll try to put up some pictures next week!