Way to fast and yet way to slow…

So I realize that we have been a bit lax lately on updating our blog. Our internet connections have been a bit in and out and we have stayed in village a lot lately, because we took our trip to South Africa and were away for a month or so. So we apologize.

A lot has gone on since we have been back to Mali; I was accepted at the University of Arizona for a master’s in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Education. I am still on the fence as to if I am going to go or not. It is a hard decision to make, spending all the money, do I go part-time or full-time, should I wait a year gain residency and get in-state tuition….so much to think about.

Secondly, we now have two nieces and ONE nephew! My sister Aubrey and my wonderful brother-in-law Clint had a beautiful baby boy, Trace James Wright. Trace was born on April 22, 2010, weighing 8lbs.8oz and in true Wright fashion he came with chubby little cheeks! We are so excited to go home and meet Trace. Yeah for babies!

Baby Trace- 3 days old.


Trinity loving on her new baby brother.

Lastly, WE ARE COMING HOME! We got our official word from Peace Corps a few weeks ago;we will be leaving Mali on June 13th. We are so excited about going home and seeing friends and family, but have mixed emotions about leaving the people we have grown so close to and love dearly. We keep saying our two years went way to fast, but at times way to slow. We have about two more weeks in village before we depart for Bamako to do all of our Close of Service duties; language tests, physicals, exits interviews, paperwork, paperwork and more paperwork. The village is planning a big dance for us the day before we leave and we have also been told that they will send us off on May 28th with singing and gun shots (we would rather them not have the guns, but we wouldn’t want to disappoint the Chief of the Village). We miss Mali!

Our rip-off countdown calendar, I can't believe we are this close!

And what comes with leaving but buying souvenirs, here I am buying grass plates from a nomadic ethnic group called the Bella. These women live in our millet fields during hot season in a make shift house and sit under the trees all day and make grass plates to bring into market to sell. It is fascinating.

Nhkata Bay to Capetown

Today I am in Capetown, South Africa, which lies at the southern most tip of the African continent. It is a beautiful city and has allowed Ashley and I to feel almost like we are in America, which we have not felt in almost two years. I think that Capetown is like San Francisco with an African twist, it has coffee shops, wine bars, beautiful ocean views, delicious food, street artists, live music and so much more. Tomorrow we have a flight that leaves for Accra, Ghana from which we will embark on an overland voyage back to our village (this could take anywhere from three days to a week). We are sad that our trip is over.For the last ten days we have been traveling South Africa and having an amazing time with our friends Kristen and Shelli who came from the states to safari with us. We rented a car and drove from the northern end of South Africa to Capetown at the southern tip. We saw elephants, giraffes, ate sushi, I drove on the left side of the road but on the right side of the car, we laughed a ton, took one million pictures, laughed more, ate ice cream bars everyday (Magnum bars), drank fountain soda, and ate at McDonald's more than once (please don't judge us).

The Cape penguins near Simons Town.

Ashley and I on a scenic drive near Capetown.

Capetown harbor at sunset.

Ashley staring down an eel at the aquarium in Capetown.

Getting ready to leave in the morning from Jeffreys Bay, a little town on the Indian Ocean that hosts the Billabong World Surfing championship each winter.

Kruger National Park was amazing. We saw herds of elephants, tons of giraffes, zebras, wildebeests, cape buffalo, a hyena and her babies, ostrich, tons of hippos, crazy looking birds, an alligator, tortoises, lions, monkeys and baboons...etc. I would say it was a successful safari. I would like to mention that there is nothing more exhausting than driving around for twelve hours a day looking at giant African mammals.

Some of the photos we took in Kruger:

That's beautiful.

We could not get this hippo out of the water.

We needed to stretch our legs from a long morning of safariing.

The first rule of driving through national parks that have man eating animals is don't get out of your car...Kristen and Shelli would not listen to reason. You can see a male elephant in the distance.

This is the appropriate place for an amy martin joke:

Why did the elephants cross the road? Eleph I know!

love the color.




A giraffe in the rain.

Baboon with baby, now that is cute.

Whart Hog.

Babies feeding.

Chameleon crossing the path.

King of the jungle.

In between our scuba diving coasrse at Nhkata Bay, Malawi and meeting up with Kristen and Shelli in Johannesburg, South Africa. Ashley and I spent 6 days traveling down through Mozambique where we had a chance to enjoy the beaches and even got in one dive in Tofu which has some wonderful warm water and beautiful ocean creatures to view.

The beach at Inhassoro, Mozambique. Our first time on the Indian Ocean.

Ashley beside our hut at Fatimas Nest in Tofu, Mozambique just after our first salt water dive.

Getting ready to scuba dive in Lake Malawi.

Buying chocolate ice milk on the boarder of Burkina Faso and Ghana.

Buying pineapples in Ouagadougou, Burkin Faso

Our Last Great Adventure....

I keep telling Ashley this is our last great adventure...before our next one. No but seriously, in some ways this trip will begin the end of our Peace Corps service as we hope to be coming home some time in mid-June. But it also brings to an end the last three years in which we have been living an unconventional nomadic lifestyle (at least for Ashley and I it has been, for some it is perfectly normal). And it may be our last big adventure before we have to start to bring along little ones on the adventures which will make them all the more exciting. (No, Ashley is not pregnant but we are hoping in the next year to start trying)

So, on Tuesday March 9th we departed Bandiagara, Mali and traveled east across a desolate and dusty road that took us into the country of Burkina Faso. We bought visas at the tiny boarder crossing ($20 usd - they are good for 7 days) then went onto spend three nights in Burkina. Burkina has a great feel and the people were wonderful but the weather was hot and we couldn't stop sweating. They sell frozen chocolate milk on the street for about 25 cents for a little serving in a bag so that brought a little relief from the heat (it basically tastes like chocolate ice cream). I bought about 5 a day. Guys walk around with little freezer boxes on the front of there bike or pushing them around on a cart. So you just walk around on the street until you find one of these guys and you flag them down...and buy three...because one is never enough.

After our short stop in Burkina we traveled by bus (a bus with air conditioning, something Mali does not have) down into the much greener land of Ghana. We arrived in Accra at 5am and went to hostel called the Phoenix which sits on a cliff over looking the ocean. We needed a room to rest from the bus ride and take showers before we left for our flights to Malawi so we got a room for the day which cost us around $12. If you like rasta guys everywhere and the smell of marijuana constantly you will love this place but that is not our scene so we enjoyed the views of the ocean but will probably not be coming back for a long term stay anytime soon.

We then flew from Accra, Ghana to Lilongwe, Malawi (Malawi's capital city). After the flights we proceeded onto a nine hour bus from Lilongwe to Nkhata Bay on Lake Malawi which is where we are currently at taking a four day scuba diving certification class. (Did I mention Ashley's luggage did not arrive on the flight and so she has been without her bag for four days now. Luckily we had carried our swimsuits onto the plane just in case this might happen so she has been surviving in her swimsuit and a few pieces of cloths she bought at the local market. What a good sport!)

Today we did our first dive and it was incredible. Lake Malawi is the eighth largest lake in the world and has more species of fish than any other lake in the world. Its most famous attraction are is hundreds of species of Cichlid fish which are brightly colored and make you feel as you are swimming in an aquarium. A huge blessing to us is that Malawi has the cheapest Scuba certification coarse in the world and yet our instructor Kate from Oxford, England has been absolutly world class.

I don't have an underwater camera so I grab this photo of Lake Malawi off the Internet.

Cichlid fish in Lake Malawi.

I got up at five to watch the sun rise over Lake Malawi and Ashley slept.

It rained the first morning in Nkhata Bay.

The view out from our dive center.

A view of our dive center from the water (Aqua Africa).

Ashley cutting up avocado to make guacamole (avocados are 15 for $1 usd) so we are in heaven eating fresh avocados everyday.

Ashley sitting at our hostel waiting for a taxi to take us to the airport in Accra, Ghana.

Mount Hombori (Hombori Tondo)

Ashley and I with our friends Jenny and Cassie climbed the highest point in Mali over the last few days. Hombori Tondo is the name of the point and it was exhausting but a very epic journey. We climbed to the top, slept ontop and then descended the next day. We each took as much water as we could carry (more than 6 liters each) and yet we still had a very hot waterless hike from the base of the mountain back to the village of Hombori.

A view of Hombori Tondo as we hiked to the base where we would begin to climb.

Ashley told me before we began the climb she might want to take up climbing as a regular hobby but she changed her mind quickly

A view of the sourounding rock formations from the base of Hombori Tondo.

Ashley was a Rock star!

Our friend Cassie in a tough spot on the mountain.

Jenny staying positive even when the climb was more difficult than we had thought.

Ashley looking like a pro.

I was happy as we descended the mountain that Ashley still had a smile on her face.

This was a photo we took on top of the mountain as we prepared to descent. We were glad we have good friends like Jenny and Cassie to share such an epic adventure with.

The President Comes to Town

General (ret.) Amadou Toumani Toure or ATT (born November 4. 1948 in Mopti, Mali) is the president of Mali. He over threw a military ruler in 1991, then handed power to civilian authorities the next year. He won the presidential elections in 2002, with a broad coalition of support and was easily re-elected in 2007.

ATT came to Bandiagara, a city of about 10,000 people, and about 5K from our village to speak to the people. Locals came from all of the surrounding villages in their best Dogon fabric, to sport their pride in their culture, came to see ATT speak. Joe and I were among them. Although, we didn't actually see ATT or hear him speak because the stadium where the event was held, was...let's say a bit chaotic, it was 105 outside, and the sun was slowly descending and we needed to get back to village before night fall. But it was still awesome to see a country come together with pride to support their president.

Killing two birds with one stone-girls walking from our village to see ATT, but also making the most of their walk into town, with wood in tow to sell.

I LOVE THIS PICTURE!!!!!! No matter what your thoughts are on our current president, he is a hero over here. These girls from our village had on their Obama shirts and Dogon cloth skirts, all geared up and ready for ATT.

The Dogons are the ethnic group in Mali, known for their culture. Here is a Dogon Mask Dancer. They preformed for the president and also helped to keep the crowd under control. (see the whip in his hand, yeah that's right, he would go after people with the whip) Third-world secret service ROCKS!

A shift in topics:

As most of you know, we got a new camera for Christmas. So Joe has been trying to learn how to use it and it's different features. Here are a few of his latest shots.

1st picture-Reading by headlamp, 2nd picture-making dinner by headlamp

This is part of our nightly routine, making dinner, reading, going over to visit the chief and then showering all by headlamp. I can't wait to toss that thing out when I get home. I want electricity back!

A boat to Djenne

Our friend Katie was turning 30 and decided to hire a boat to take us on a trip from Mopti to Djenne. The traditional tourist boat we hired fit the eight of us comfortably. The trip took about 12 hours in which we hung out, ate good food, played card games and slept.

The party boat was relaxing.

Our boat guides pulled up to a fishing boat in mid-morning and bought these four fish they prepared for themselves for lunch.

VIEWS FROM OUR BOAT:

Woman and children bathing in the river.

It was nice to see a little wildlife along the way.

Woman heading to market.

A Shepperd with his cattle.

WE ARRIVED IN DJENNE FOR MARKET DAY:

Rabayah and Ashley shopping for accessories.

This man was very content to watch Ashley and Rabayah buy accessories.

The great Mosque of Djenne in the background.

In market most things are sold in piles. This pile of oranges costs around 100 cfa (25 cents).

Guava saleswoman.

A giant pile of kola nuts. Kola nuts are bitter and contain caffeine. I buy one dollar worth of kola nuts about once a week to give as a gift to the chief of our village (who is also my host dad). When you enter a village in much of Muslim West Africa you present ten kola nuts to the Chief of the Village as a sign of respect. Chewing kola nuts eases hunger pains. I don't like chewing them but I love giving them as gifts.

Dried hot peppers for sale at market.