Saying Good-bye

Well, it's officially started. People from my group are leaving and it sucks. It's always worse to be left behind than to do the leaving!

In better news, I am almost out of here. Camilo and I are heading to Dogon Country on Friday morning with our friends Tony and Michelle. It should be fun - and I know we adore Michony (all couples have paparazzi names...yes, we are that lame) because we went to Sierra Leone with them. And apparently they don't think we are too bad since they agreed to go somewhere else with us. Everyone says Dogon is amazing - it's all these little villages where the houses are built into the cliffs. We'll spend 3 or 4 days there (with a guide it's only $30 or so a day) and then head to Djenne, site of the world's largest structure built entirely of mud. The plan is to fly to Mauritania Sunday, March 4th.

I'll try and keep posting pictures and doing blog updates during the trip. It's finally starting to seem real - the PC compound here felt like a black hole for a week or so. I just wasn't sure I'd ever get out! It's been so stressful for everyone - reading the news about Guinea, talking to our Guinean staff, trying to figure out what the hell to do with ourselves, living in huts with 2 other people, not having control over what we eat, etc.

Last night we had a big barbeque at the ex-Marine house. It was incredibly fun. There was a swing set and a rowdy game of drunk beach volleyball and a pool and cheeseburgers and dancing. The highlights are not blog-able...

Today I called Farrah to ask her to buy me a NYTimes so I can have a hard copy of the Guinea article I posted earlier. For the scrapbook I've been thinking about making since middle school and have never gotten around to. Right. More than likely I'll go visit her in NY, we'll end up bringing late night food back to her apartment and I'll spill pizza grease on it. That's why I went ahead and posted the text to the blog. Can't spill anything on it there!

All right, I'm off to work on my stupid reenrollment statement. I'd like it to read "Umm, I got evacuated after 7 months, lived with 100 other people in Mali for a month and STILL want to sign up for another 2 years. " Shouldn't that be enough???!!!