June 3rd

Last night was a horrible night. I probably slept about 40 minutes. Chicken wasn't served until almost 10 o clock and we woke up early to go to the high school to help in the English review session. Is sleeping on the floor bad for your health? Like in terms of exposure to bugs? I'm not that high off the ground and I worry about the bugs I see, crawling under the mosquito net and getting on me. My hands and one knee has developed some kind of "issue". Could be heat rash, but really, who knows... The high school was pretty interesting. They have cut-out windows in a concrete building. The teacher had some good exercises for them to practice but Jade says they have trouble coming up with their own sentences. It's all route memorization.

I liked the teacher and Jade's headmaster. We had some interesting conversation about what Malians like in women. I told them I had heard African men like big women because it supposedly shows they are rich enough to eat well. They said it depends on the man of course, but that there are men who favor that. He however, thinks slimmer women can take better care of themselves and avoid "fat" diseases like diabetes. lol. He also talked about how people in Mali learn french in school but after leaving school, they don't speak it anymore because people will think they are 'bougie" basically. Same for English. the local language is preferred. I can understand both sdes of that because I think it's good to have pride in what's yours but you can't deny that speaking only Bambara will not get you anywhere outside of Mali.

We tried to go to the internet cafe but it was soooo ridiculous and slow that he ended up canceling my session and saying no charge. The owner's name is Papa, he is one of Jade's friends. He invited us to a concert later that night griot music. He came to get us with one of his friends who ended up being a total douche. Apparently, the place we went for the concert doubles as a brothel... (these were the first women I'd seen who were showing sooo much leg. here in mali, you must cover down to at least your knees). This guy proceeded to try to buy a prostitute right in front of us! It was low-down.

We didn't stay long cause i wasn't feeling well and when I woke up the next morning, I realized I officially had traveler's sickness. :( It's been pretty awful all day and I can barely eat. Today is now June 6th and it's more first full day over the sickness. We think it was caused by a bad mango I ate. This week, Thursday, we will leave to visit Dogon country in the north and a city called Djenne. We are going with a group of about 6 PC volunteers. It should be nice! But I suppose you won't hear from me for a while cause internet is hard to come by!