The Year Marker: the pie chart is half full

This time last year we were sitting in my Mom's backyard enjoying friends, family, onion rings(oh, those sound so good right now) and laughter. It was the night before we started our Peace Corps adventure.

As we went to the airport the next morning holding back tears and with unsettled stomachs, we both were wondering what our Peace Corps experience would bring. Well, needless to say it has brought a lot. Here are a few highlights of the past year.

We have learned:

• TIME- Who needs it? (we have learned patience with what west Africans call WAIT - West African International Time - basically slow down and hang out because most things are not worth rushing around for)
• two languages- okay they are both not perfected yet, but we still have a year left
• how to eat out of a communal bowl and with our hands
• TV is not a necessity
• how much we appreciate being from a prosperous and blessed country
• cooking with a VERY limited number of ingredients and still edible food

We have been humbled by:

• our villages hospitality
• Malian smiles
• simplistic, meager living
• support from friends and family back home

We have survived:

• without running water or electricity
• 115F temperatures
• amoebas and giardia (and feel blessed to have escaped the wrath of schistosomiasis, malaria, yellow fever, typhoid, and the list goes on....)
• eating millet toh and leftover millet toh
• non-refrigerated meat---its safe, right?
• public transport - in our opinion the most dangerous part of living in a third world nation

Things that have become normal:

• sweating constantly
• bucket baths
• carrying things on our heads
• not showing our knees
• sleeping outside every night
• hand washing ALL our clothes
• going to the bathroom in a hole
• being woken in the morning by donkeys, roosters, and woman pounding millet
• the Muslim call to prayer over a loud speaker (five times a day)

Amazing experiences:

• visiting Timbuktu
• four day river trip on the Niger
• traveling overland to Guinea and Sierra Leone
• having Bubba visit us for 6 weeks
• watching crazy African storms roll in from the distance
• watching beautiful African sunsets
• living a radically different lifestyle than the way we grew up, yet more similar to the way the majority of the world lives

Things we miss:

• CHEESE!!!!!!!!
• family and friends
• a hot shower
• being able to wear shorts
• air conditioner
• Mexican food with a margarita
• lattes/coffee shops- somewhere to relax and get away
• baking(Ashley)
• church worship and fellowship
• TJ Maxx(Ashley)
• Dairy Queen blizzard(Joe)
• major life events of our friends and family - holidays, marriages, babies...
• seeing familiar faces
• set jobs
• date nights
• Target "dollar spot" and popcorn combo

With one year down and one to go, we are still enjoying out time here. Although not everyday is fun or easy, it is a challenge we feel blessed to have as individuals and as a couple. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers as another year is upon us.