Tuesday May 31st

Today was a difficult day. We started by going to the Peace Corps office and Jade's stage house (transient house for Peace Corps volunteers to recoup). We took this "taxi"-like transportation called Bashees or Soutremans. They are big hollowed out old vans where they've rimmed the inside with benches. They probably fit about a maximum of 20 folks. They are much cheaper than taxis, like 125 cfa (~25 cents). These buses are crazy! We had to make a transfer through the market at the busiest time and hottest time ever. And the trafffic here is sooo crazy. Cars and moto-bikes stop for no one.

Finally we got to Jade's stage house and I met some other PC folks. Some were nice but it's a pretty transient house, so people just come there for a bit, get what they need and leave. They are only allowed to stay there about 2 days/month. We then went to the Peace Corps office. It was pretty nice and ran by mostly Malians, not Americans, so it's more sustainable. We were def on a nicer side of town. There were actual buildings! We ate lunch at this Senegalese restaurant and I had a chicken sandwich, jus de bissap (juice of bissap, this dark sugary plant juice that was sweet with a touch of mint) and the best fried plantains ever. We then took the soutreman's back to the hostel to get our stuff and attempted to bargain down several taxi drivers. A ride from where we were should have cost 5000 cfa (~$12.50) and these drivers wanted 10k (~$25). Finally, someone at the hostel said he had a friend with a taxi. But this taxi driver was soooo unmoving. He started at 7500 and really refused to budge. Even the hostel guy was like man, you know it should be 5000, and she's PC man, she helps our country. Jade was ready to walk away but I just didn't see how we would find anywhere cheaper, since all the other taxi drivers wanted to gouge us as well so even though she wanted to settle at 6500, we settled at 7000. And the driver was pissed the whole way back! So ridiculous. It's so much easier to bargain in China. Everyone expects to move a little bit and it's good-natured. Here was so annoying. Finally, we got to Jade's village site and I was introduced. They seem to like me. They think I'm pretty because of my "long" pressed hair and "light" skin. :-/ It gets cooler at night (thank goodness!) so we watched tv with them outside and ate dinner. Jade is lucky to have electricty here, because not all PC volunteers are placed with families like hers. She has no running water and her house is made of concrete with a tin roof, but at least she has electricity.

Dinner was ceri. Ceri is essentially like porridge. It's made w/milk and you can put sugar in it. Jade really likes it. I think it's alright. I'm def going to lose weight. Oh I also had my first nyegen experience. The nyegen is your outdoor bathroom. It's a concreted enclosure with an open top and a hole in the middle for going to the bathroom. It wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be but I do miss running water :-(. Hopefully I won't have to go at night cause cockroaches live there.

My name is Aminata Coulibaly. My last name is tied to bean cakes so the Malians joke to me about eating beans. Tomorrow we are going to buy chickens for my welcome party. They've been asking where their gifts are...