The internet has arrived in San!

Well, I’m back at site (off and on), where life has continued without change for the past few months. Being away for so long, I felt like things would have changed…but people barely noticed I was gone.

Upon returning to site I had a meeting with my homologue, supervisor, a few women from the association, and my APCD (Peace Corps boss). We gave my town a deadline, the end of February, to pull things together. They have since assigned me an assistant homologue who speaks only Bambara. The plus side is that it forces me to use my Bambara, which is slowly coming along.

I was also able to read the five year development plan that the mayor’s office wrote. It was useful in getting project ideas, though overwhelming in seeing everything that needs to be done. I also find it frustrating that the budget has a section of “necessary” funds from NGOs. About 90% of the money needed to complete the goals is expected to come from outside funding. In other words, they haven’t done anything to further these goals besides wait for some tubob to hand them money.

The main project in Yangasso is the women’s garden, which is slowly coming along. The first thing the women want me to do is give them money for a new fence. I’m hesitant to hand over the money before they show me any willingness to work. However, once the garden is further developed, there are possibilities for other projects such as solar drying and new fertilizing techniques.

In other news, I just returned from the Festival sur la Niger, the music festival in Segou. It was a great experience. The festival lasted three days, with artisan and cultural dances during the day and incredible concerts at night. The stage was built on the river (as a matter of fact, one of the performers, Habib Koite, fell off the stage into the river at one point). I feel lucky to have been able to attend. Now I’m looking forward to WAIST in Senegal…we leave next week!

Sorry this is short, but there’s really not much to say. We finally have internet in San, so hopefully I’ll be able to update more often (though not too much because it’s insanely expensive). I’m trying to put pictures up today, so check them out!