Our Firsts

Things we have done:

I just finished my first load of laundry, by hand, with two buckets and a bar of soap. It was basically a "sweat fest." And I am not sure if our clothing is even clean.

Yesterday at lunch we at out of the tradational communal bowl, with our hands. No silverware is used in Mali, along with no napkins. We also did all of this while sitting on the floor. We started with a salad and then moved to rice, meat and potatoes. Yes, all with our hands.

We have successfully used the "negen," a tradational Malian bathroom, or outhouse. The negen consists of a hole in the ground with four walls surrounding it for privacy. And we have not experienced MR.D yet, which refers to diarrhea, which apparently all new volunteers get in the first two weeks.

I(Ashley) had a skirt and a phene(a wrap used after the shower)made out of tradational Malian cloth. Super cool!

Watched Malian dancers preform for us. Also super cool!

Ate lots of carbs....rice, potatoes, millet, couscous, bread. And tasted the delicious Malian Mango!!!!!!!

Drank hibiscus flower juice.

Experienced a rainy season storm, during the night, and our roof did not leak. (check out the picture of our previous post of the roof, this statement will mean more)

We are learning Bambara, a Malian dialect, and Joe and I can utter a few words to Malian staff, in which they love. It goes a little something like this. A and B will be the people talking.
A---i ni sogoma.
B---n'se, i ni sogoma
A---y ka kene?
B---torro te.
A---sogomo ka kene?
B---torra t ula.

And this is all in just 3 days since we have been here....I can't believe there will be more!

We are in Africa - Mali - Bamako

These are our digs...we are currently at the Peace Corps compound outside of the Capitol City of Bamako.

Waiting in Paris....

After a long bus ride up to NY, we hopped on our plane to Paris. Somethings we observed:

1. Bill Murray was on our flight, and Joe managed to utter some "profound" words to him.

2. Our flight crew was immaculate, of course they were french.

3. Free red wine and good food- again, only on a french flight.

4. We are jet lagged.

5. We have another 5 ours in the Paris airport and 5 more hours on another airplane to Bamako....stink.

Keepin' it real, or at least trying to,

The Wollersheims

Peace Corps Orientation - Philadelphia, PA

3 day orientation in Philadelphia's historic district at the Holiday Inn Express (one block from the liberty bell)

78 new Peace Corps volunteers going to Mali with us

4 married couples

Lots of fun and many new friends...

We leave out of NYC for Bamako, Mali tomorrow after our Yellow Fever shots in the morning.

After MANY tears and good-byes (I hate good-byyyyyyyes...shhhh, just go!).

Our Final Days Before Send Off

My sister Joanna taking ownership of our Honda Accord

Tailgating at Miller Park in Milwaukee

At the Brewer game

Visiting Friends

While in DC we had the chance to hang out with a lot of great friends.




Here we are at our old neighbors house in DC, cookin' BBQ and enjoying their new baby Olyvia.


Ashley and Anjelica, one of her former students.


In North Carolina, at the Hamer's house, lovin' on baby Kathleen.

The Jersey Shore

Ashley and I are doing a bit of R&R on the Jersey Shore (Ocean City). We decided to do a little crabbing...

We also took a day and went to Atlantic City which is 10 miles up the coast from where we are staying. We walked the "famous" boardwalk and spent some time playing slot machines at Ceasars. Being high rollers we decided that our play limit was $30. At one point we were down to $3...but with a little patients and Ashley's PENNY slot skills she brought us back to $20 which means we walked away only losing $10. I would say a loss of only $10 is a winning day at the casino...