It's Millet Time

Well things are really starting to take off and grow around here: the sesame in the fields, the water in the streams, the ideas in my head, the parasites in my intestines. Ahhhh it is a glorious time of year. It is breathtakingly beautiful in my village at the moment; the millet is taller that me now, so I can just barely see the witch-capped roofs of my neighbors’ granaries when I take a shower each morning. Other that that it is just green, green, green. The cows are fat and happy, and shitting all over my front yard, and the Fula women come to my door by the dozens to sell milk each morning. Clouds roll in almost once a day now to shower us with the assurance of enough food for next year. I take regular trips down to the spring so I can stick my head under the waterfalls and look for the big lizard that lives there. And I have finally figured out how to make my house rainproof. It involved covering half of my windows with black plastic on the outside (so if there was any doubt where the white lady lived, there isn’t anymore), and the surprise benefit is that now I even sleep later because sunlight is having a very difficult time sneaking her way into my room. But as I mentioned, it is not just the plants that are blooming around here. There are so many insects!!!! I see at least 5 3-inch long millipedes every day. And unfortunately the reason that I am in town to write this little ditty is because I can’t seem to shake my two new best friends, amoebas and giardia. I find them a bit too clingy, and they keep eating all of my food. So it’s back to big city life for a few days until they get the hint that they are not wanted. But the plus side is that I also have time to write up my project proposal for my village. I met with the village elders and the women to discuss the results of my survey, and to tell them the ideas that I had for potential projects. They were very supportive and excited, and really asked some good questions. So I think I am almost ready to submit a proposal. I still need to find out a bunch of budget details, but I am hoping to get most of that done while I am here, so that I can submit the completed proposal when I am in Bamako at the end of September. It is really exciting (and nerve-wracking). I knew that as soon as I let the ideas leave my brain via my mouth, that I would get a little anxious about it, because now it is something Real that could Really Happen. So of course I will keep you posted, whether you want to be or not. I’m not going to tell you the project ideas though, until after they have been submitted – I don’t want to jinx anything!!