gurl-friend

me and marcy! (or marcy mouse and mary berry) we were painting a wall in a school. in mali. in july. don't judge the look.

you go into the peace corps for a variety of reasons. save the world. save yourself. adventure. cocktail conversation fodder. whatever. what happens during your service separates the boys from the men so to speak.

so, what's a girl to do?

hang on tight. and make some friends.

i didn't come to peace corps expecting to make so many friends. i don't know what i thought was going to happen to me and the people i came with. maybe i thought they'd all be crazy, hippies who wore too much tie dye and didn't shower frequently.

turns out, the Goodfellas are AMAZING.

my point. right. so. tomorrow is my last day at school for a little bit (15 days actually) because we are embarking upon IST people. IST occurs three months after being at site. It's a time to come together, talk, reconnect, sing, gab, gossip, laugh so hard you cry, drink a little wine, not sleep...basically be 23.

oh yeah, and there will be 8 hours of sessions about technical things and how to continue to not get sick. but that's just silliness because we all know the fun stuff happens around that serious stuff.

for me, today is the beginning of the fun. my dear friend, and Segou PCV, Marcy is coming into Kati. We are going to talk, talk, cook, paint our nails, talk some more, and laugh and laugh until the sun comes up again and i have to go to work. marcy will be the first one to come this week. being only 20km from bamako, i'll be hosting about half my stage between now and sunday morning. basically it's gonna be a party and i cannot wait.

for the next little bit there will be no more funk, no blues, no language barrier, no art class troubles and 7th graders who won't stay in their seats. it will be a little vacation, a get away to remember why i'm here to begin with and the people who are walking right here with me.

so may the beginning of the fun come. may we enjoy each other's company and begin to long for our sites. may we lift each other up and plan site visits. may we stay up too late and make up for it with too much tea the next morning. may we sing, dance, gab, laugh, and be exactly who we are supposed to be at this moment.

because really, this is africa, and we need to have some fun.