The forecast tomorrow for Bamako: 43 degrees!

Just a quick hello! I had a great weekend. Friday night I went to a "grin" (like a 5 à 7 or happy hour) at the Canadian Embassy. There were lots of other expats, most of them from Québec. The highlight for me was meeting a few other cool Canadians who work here. We exchanged phone numbers so now I really feel tapped into the scene here :)

Saturday I spent the day with Marianne, another project supervisor here. We had some good food. I dared to eat salad! And was fine luckily! Then we treated ourselves to an afternoon at a hotel pool. So worth it! I almost felt slightly cool at one point when I was in the water and managed to catch a breeze...it was delightful!

Yesterday I took a day trip with a couple of the Canadians I met to a nearby village, Koulikoro. It was your typical village, except that an ancient king is reputed to have fled to the mountains surrounding the village, seeking refuge from prosecution (that's all the info I've got on that...). We took advantage of the mountains to do some climbing. It was great (although not the best idea to head out during the hottest part of the day...).

We went by soutrama (public transport minivan which they managed to fit 20 people into) and it was long because of the frequent stops. I had invited Baba, my field supervisor, for dinner and arrived back in Bamako just a 1/2 hour before the time we were going to meet. I quickly ran home, undressed and turned on the water to have a shower and....no water!!! I was disgusting - sticky with layers of dried sweat. So I grabbed some antibacterial gel and rubbed it under my armpits and put some clean clothes on...it was awful really. Luckily by the time I got home from dinner, there was water!!!

Today was errands around town in preparation for the arrival of my group tomorrow. I visited the hospital used by most Canadians here. It was very nice. I have no worries at all about bringing one of my volunteers there. I also bought myself a bike! It will be useful for traveling between the 3 villages where my group will be living. It cost me $70, not cheap, and it needs repairs. But Baba assured me I was getting a good deal and that it's normal that it needed to be fixed before being ready to ride...he said that's the way it works here...ok I guess....

I've posted some pictures on Facebook. If you aren't on, you can just click on this link to see them: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=125002&l=38176&id=719685270

As I mentioned, my group arrives tomorrow. We will spend another 5 days in Bamako before taking off for the villages. I'll be enjoying my shower (when there's water) until then!