Random Updates

Thursday night, I went to sleep with a headache. Sleep is a wonderful, natural medicine, but unfortunately, I still woke up with a headache. It progressively got worse (despite the migraine medicine), so last night, I ended up going to Bamako. I spent the night in the medical office. They were super nice, and I got a quiet, dark room. The clock was REALLY loud (for all you non-migraine sufferers, sound is magnified), so I took it off the wall. I slept for a good 11 hours or so. I woke up at 4 amish, with my head still pounding, and I was sad thinking about a classmate in high school who had a 2 week migraine!! But, at 8:30, I was feeling better, not 100%. I felt good enough to deal with my airplane ticket. The Malian travel agency does not accept credit cards, so I had to go to the bank 4 times, 4 different days!! Today, they gave me a price about 20 dollars cheaper, so I was happy about that. The rest of the day was spent napping, I got a shot (God knows what for, I have been shot so many times, I stopped asking what for), and gchatting.
Oh, the highlight about staying at the med office? A hot shower:)
This week and last week has blended together. Sometime during the past two weeks, a language tutor found a black cobra in the library! No joke! So that was exciting to say the least.
Also, we had 2 really good guest speakers. One guy was an apprentice for a fetish seller (a guy that sells random animal parts such as monkey heads, elephant nails, etc.). His dad is way up on the ladder for protecting animals, but this guy is working on his Ph.D. in anthropology, and it just worked out that he would be this main fetish sellers apprentice. The guy who he was working for may even be into sorcery. It's like real life HP! He wanted to experience first hand to better understand why people kill animals. I found it extremely interesting and eye opening that they use the entire animal. They eat the meal, sell the fur, perhaps sell different parts of the body for medicinal or religious reasons.
The other guest speaker whom I thoroughly enjoyed listening to was an extremely passionate individual who inspired me all over again of why I'm here. He started a small non-profit organization called African Sky. Check it out when you have some time.
http://africansky.org/

I thought I could remember more, but apparently, I can't. I went alot of meetings, ate a lot of rice and sauce, and enjoyed talking to my roomies once again.
Tomorrow, I am going back home for a field trip! I'm excited to go home for a little bit, and then the rest of our field trip is in Segou. I love going to new places!!

Side note: I apologize for not posting pictures. I love pictures too, but I'm having difficulties with my camera. When I go to the States in April, I will take the camera to the repair shop, and if that doesn't work, I will purchase a new one (or even a used one). I gave my camera to a Malian coworker during the Balafone Festival (see post beginning of November), and it hasn't been the same since. Things that make you go ummm. I could find pictures from the internet if you would perfer for me to spice my blogs up until April.