Merry Christmas Photorama!

At home, with state-of-the-art American internet access, I've finally posted pictures. 4 entries of pictures: my village, children pictures, cultural insight photos, and other views of the life of a volunteer. Merry Christmas!

Jumbo, me, and our country director, Mustafa Diallo (er... Chris) on the day I arrived.

My village and the gathering stormclouds before a heavy rain.

The rice fields have beautiful trees... and these also remind us of Dr. Seuss.

Here's a shot of some fields and the corner of the kiddie soccer field in our village. Pretty.

Rainy season. I thought this looked cool.

The long awaited picture of my hut! Complete with invasive goats.

Once there was a hole in my douche... then there were two. :-(

And then there was one again!

Rainy season clouds.

Rice fields well into the rainy season.

More pretty skies, this time with a cornstalk for local character.

Lightning bolt! (as per request, Katie)

Yet another pretty sky. I'm thinking of making a collection of nice sunsets. Two years should offer me quite a few.

This is the view out of my backdoor as my dad was re-fencing the backyard.
That's my watermelon plant, which I killed that day, accidentally.

There's my dad, the village chief, building me a new cornstalk fence.

This is the recently acquired nook in my backyard which I hope to decorate with flowers and other pretty things. It's the back left corner from the above picture and used to be where the manioc (bantara) plants were kept.

Uncle Caro with the snake he killed in my hut.

This is the path as I enter my village.

Schoolyard: cornstalk classroom on left, concrete classroom on right, football field front and center.

Health hut/telecenter... only available electricity in village. Enough to charge a cell phone, run the land line, and nightly power our 6-inch black and white tv.

My neighborhood, from the path in front of the school.

The mosque.