Here are some of the pictures from the previous weeks of home-stay. They are basically in chronological order beginning with me eating breakfast inside my hut sitting on my small bed with the mosquito net.


A picture of the outside of my hut with the Peace Corps blue surrounding the windows and door frame. The paint has done nothing to slow the constant onslaught of crickets invading my personal space, so I've begun capturing geckos and letting them run amok in my room. So far the crickets are winning.


This is a picture of my host dad (N'tji Otis Diara). This is shortly after eating lunch one afternoon. Also, he's not unhappy, it's just really hard to get Malians to smile in pictures.

Next is a picture of some of the locals outside of the corner store watching a soccer game.

A picture of some of the family. There's a ton of kids running around in my concession so I'm not sure which are direct brothers and cousins, but I do know that on the left is my host mom and she's been taking care of me quite well.

My sisters making shea butter.

Some other trainees and I at a wedding in Baguineda Camp (3km from my village)
Panoramic shot of Soudougouba and surrounding area. (the sun was setting on the left side, so that's why it looks bleached.)

Sunset shortly after the panorama was taken.


Boats out on the Niger river pulling up sand for brick making.

Now for some animal life:
A cool looking grasshopper with one leg missing.
A gecko trying to escape into a crevice.

An owl. It's way bigger than the picture makes it look.


I'm still doing well in Soundougouba. We're currently about to head to our sites for the first time in 4 days. I found out this afternoon that I will be spending the next 2 years in Ganfan in the Kayes region (in the south west of the country towards Senegal). I'm really excited and will have more pictures from there to show you when I get back in a little under 3 weeks.

Also, my address is:

Corps de la Paix
BP 85
Bamako, Mali

Feel free to send stuff.

First 19 Days in Africa

I've been in Africa for just about 3 weeks now, the first week of which I spent in a place called Tubaniso which is the Peace Corps training center in Mali and has showers and Americanized cuisine. It's been the base camp for budding friendships which have started on our common interests and gastrointestinal issues. I've found the the glue that keeps the Peace Corps together is poo jokes and it's really thing that keeps you going when you realize that you're spending a significant amount of your day running to the bathroom.

My group of 66 departed from Tubaniso and went to our home-stay villages for 12 days where we began the intense language training. I'm learning Bambara, the native language in Mali. My home-stay village is named Soundougouba and is about 30 kilometers north of Bamako, the capital. The village has a population somewhere in the vicinity of 1000 people and has a farm based community. I'm there with 6 other trainees.

When we first arrived, the villagers set up a welcoming ceremony centered on native music and dancing. It was quite nice but quickly turned awkward when they made all of the toubobs (their version of gringo) dance with them. After dancing, or attempting to dance with the villagers we gave the Dugutigi (who is the chief of the village) kola nuts which in Mali is a sign of gratitude. We were then introduced to our host families.

My host father's name is N'tji Diara and he was very excited to meet me when I arried. All of the trainees were given traditional Malian names, mine is Mari Diara after my host father's father. N'tji speaks French and Bambara but our level of communication has been low due to my lack of understanding in both. However, I'm beginning to get the hang of it and gain an understanding of the sentence structure which is quite different from English. Everything seems backwards, but there is very little verb conjugation so it makes it a bit easier. It really makes me realize how hard it must be to learn English.

I live in the same concession as my host father and his family. It's one of the largest in the village. There is a pump right outside the entrance which is where I get my water for drinking and bucket baths. The villagers start pumping on it around 5 in the morning and don't stop until about 9 at night. This ends up dictating my sleeping schedule because it's really loud. I live in a small one room hut on the corner of the concession that unfortunately is very poorly ventilated. Usually it's about 95 degrees in my room and unbelievably humid. Sleeping has been the roughest part of my stay because the lack of moving air causes it to stay blazing hot into the night even when it's cool outside. The weather as a whole hasn't been that bad. It gets hot during the day and the humidity is a bit of a pain, but the nights are cool and enjoyable.

The surrounding area of Soundougouba is punctuated by large red and purple rock formations that I frequently climb around on with some of the other trainees. The views from the top are outstanding and it's a good way to escape after spending eight hours struggling to learn Bambara and another two or three sitting with my host family trying to understand what my host mom or sisters are saying to me...which usually ends in them laughing at my attempts to respond. Everyone is incredibly patient though and very helpful with my language learning, but they let me hear it when I butcher a sentence. That's all for now, I hope everyone is well back home.

Also, I'll post pictures in another 12 days when I get back, I forgot to bring my camera this morning.

Peace Corps Visit in Guatemala

Since I'm leaving for the Peace Corps on the 9th of July, I figured I'd start my travel log off with a vacation I took to visit a current Peace Corps volunteer:

I spent the first ten days of June visiting one of my old college roommates, Ted, who is currently doing Eco-Tourism with the Peace Corps in Guatemala. I flew into Guatemala City on the evening of the first of June and upon arrival was easily spotted out of the crowd of Guatemalans by Ted who is also over six feet tall and thus a monster in comparison to the general Guatemalan population. (To give a quick idea of how odd we looked, when we went onto crowded buses the children that were sitting next to their mothers on the outside edges of the seats would begin to cry and duck under their mother’s arms for protection.)

We quickly left the airport on a small bus down to Antigua, which is an old colonial town and at one point the capital of Guatemala. We arrived late in the evening and after a short dinner and a quick sampling of the local beers, we headed to the hostel for some sleep.

A church in the center of town in Antigua

The next day we walked around the city as I tried to get acclimated to the new and foreign surroundings. We took a tour of a local coffee plant and met some rude 19 year old tourists who were studying for a month or so from Duke University. After meeting them we decided to keep our distance as not to be mistaken for friends of theirs and made haste for the opposite side of town where we met a tour guide that told us he’d take us up an active volcano which we were both quite excited about. The hike took place the next afternoon and over a glass of tequila and a few Gallo’s (Guatemalan equivalent to Budwiser) we became excited over the idea of getting to see some lava.

The next day we met the tour guide at which point he led us into a bus and we were off with about 6 other foreign tourists, none of which were the rude kids we met earlier at the coffee factory. After about an hour of driving through the rain and up a steep dirt road, we got to the volcano named Pacaya, and began hiking through the thick overgrowth to the summit. About halfway up a cloud rolled in and the air became really thick and difficult to see through. After another hour of hiking we made it to the lava river that poured from the top of the volcano and proceeded to throw rocks at it assuming that if we hit the bright orange lava that the rock would instantly melt or at least cause a sizable splash. It took about a dozen or so tries to hit it (as we were standing at a safe distance and I can’t throw very well) and we were incredibly disappointed with the results. Upon impact, the rock just sort of stuck there and nothing really happened. Plan B: we took one of the small sticks we had picked up in the forest on the walk up and got to poking the lava. Much more interesting results stemmed from this idea, though they were quite predictable. The stick caught on fire instantly and we quickly retreated from the river to avoid falling lava rocks and melting shoes. High fives were spread all around. The British travelers we hiked with one-upped us and brought marshmallows and when we found a spot that overlooked an opening in the rocks we gathered around and roasted the marshmallows over the lava. All in all, the volcano was a very memorable experience and we were glad to get out there and see it. It would have been impossible to get as close as we did anywhere in the states, but as I quickly found out, the rules in Guatemala are merely suggestions and even at that, there were no rules on the volcano.

Lava river running down Pacaya

On the following morning after our volcano hike we took a bus to Todos Santos, which is populated mainly by indigenous Mayans and about 8 hours from Antigua. Ted had heard about a hike from a fellow volunteer and while we were tromping around Antigua, a friend of his, Dave, was setting up the trip for us and waiting for our arrival into Todos Santos. We arrived in the late afternoon to a rainstorm which made quick work of our dry clothes and we just accepted that until we could find our guide, we were going to be soaking wet. We caught our bags as they were thrown from the top of the bus and trudged up the hill to where we were instructed to meet our guide. About 200 meters up the hill Ted asked one of the people standing outside of a local shop if he knew who Roman was and sure enough, he did –he was Roman, our Swiss tour guide for the two day hike from Todos Santos to Nebaj. He led us up the hill to his house which we were to stay in for the night and we followed him around the town picking up supplies for the long hike the next morning. Later we met up with Dave and we set a meet-up time of 5AM so we could catch the early bus out to the trail head and get started on our adventure. 5 in the morning came far too soon and the next thing I knew I was sleep-walking with my pack down to the bus stop and we were on our way.

Roman's House

We hit the trail head about 6 in the morning and started walking. The first couple miles crossed in and out of small towns around rock fences that kept livestock. The surroundings were incredible with big white glacier rocks and wide expanses of green cultivated land. We later found out that the first day consisted of 25 kilometers (~15 miles) of hiking and that we started at an elevation around 10,000 feet. I think not knowing the elevation and the distance was a good thing and it allowed us to keep our heads down and walk without consideration of how far we had gone or how high we climbed. The main challenge of the day was walking about 2000 feet down into this enormous ravine…and then up the opposite side. There was a river that separated the sides and we took a quick breather down there before heading up the steep opposing bank. We made it to the top around lunch time and decided to stop for a quick bite. Shortly after stopping we had to scramble to get our rain gear on because the looming clouds opened up and continued to dump rain on us for the remainder of the hike into Chortiz, where we would spend our first night.

The hillside we walked down and then back up

Once in Chortiz we stashed all of our packs in the local school where we were going to sleep and made a fire in the little hut outside the main school house to help dry off and warm up. After about an hour or so of sitting by the fire we were called out for dinner with one of the local families and were glad to get some warm food and coffee. On our way back to the school from the family’s house we were greeted by some of the local kids and got invited, but more like foced to join in their soccer game though we were all incredibly sore from the day’s hike. A half hour passed and we decided that was about all we could take and so we headed back to the fire and then to bed.

Me on the trail before sunrise

We hit the trail again at 5 in the morning the following day and began the descent from Chortiz into Nebaj. The first couple miles took us down about 4000 feet winding back and forth along the mountainside through tight switchbacks. When we were slightly over half way through the day we stopped at a cheese factory owned by an Italian guy and ate grilled cheese sandwiches and quesadillas. It was a much needed rest for our tired feet and we stayed there for an hour enjoying the scenery and the taste of the fresh cheese which was a blessing considering we spent the last two days eating hard boiled eggs and beans at every meal. We left the cheese factory and started on the last climb over the ridge into Nebaj.

View at breakfast

Route for Day 2 (over the furthest ridge and along the trail on the bottom)

Cheese Factory

Ted and me resting up at the cheese factory

Another hour or two had passed and we finally made it into Nebaj where we went into the hostel and took a very necessary shower. The hostel was owned by an old American named Popi who had been there for the past 15 years or so and he fixed us up a solid American meal of hamburgers, French fries and Mexican beer (though it doesn’t sound very American when you say it all together). It was perfect.

Morning came earlier than expected and we went back to Todos Santos to pick up the remaining gear we left behind and to stay one last night with Roman who had started on his way back when we got into Nebaj. Also, while in Todos Santos we arranged to go into a Mayan sauna. Basically it was a small rock walled building with a fire in the corner and a large tub of boiling water on top of it, surrounded by hot rocks. We crammed all three of us (Ted, Dave and me) into the small rock hut and relaxed our weary muscles until the coals underneath the water pot were completely out. When we got back to Roman’s house he quickly hopped out of bed and made us try the apple strudel that he had baked that afternoon. It tasted incredible and it was fantastic to have something sweet to complement the small glasses we had of this twelve year old rum Dave had picked up during previous travels in Mexico. Sleep came shortly thereafter.

Ted and I left the next morning and said our goodbyes to Dave, Roman and his family. After another 7 hours in a bus we came to Laguna Atitlan and took a boat taxi over to Santa Cruz where there was an Americanized jungle-style hotel by the name of ‘La Iguana Perdida.’ The hotel was right on the shore of the lake and we were surrounded by massive volcanoes and picturesque hillsides. On the first morning we were there we went down the shoreline a little ways to a cliff jumping spot with an Australian tourist and took the plunge off of this massive rock that was about 45-50 feet high. After a couple jumps we decided that was enough and figured we should just lie around in the sun for a little while before heading back to the hostel. We stayed at La Iguana Perdida for two nights and hung out with the other visitors and had a great time relaxing and decompressing after the countless miles of hiking we had done in the past couple days.

Panorama of Laguna Atitlan

By the time we left Laguna Atitlan I had one day left before I had to fly back to the states and instead of going all the way back to Guatemala City where the airport was, we decided to spend the last night in Antigua and head out in the morning. I left for the states that next morning incredibly happy that I was able to visit such an incredibly beautiful and diverse country.