I am no longer Braxton Bragg

One of the first things that happens to you when you arrive at your homestay village is you are given a Malian name. I am now known throughout Banakoro as Djigi (the d is silent) Coulibaly!
But anyway I am now back at Tubaniso after spending two weeks in village. I can honestly say it was probably the most intense two weeks I can remember. We arrived and there were women dancing and playing the drumbs and man children all gathered around us. After the music stopped we were taken into the square to meet the Chief of the Village. There was a lot of talking, but none of us knew what was going on and we just sat and smiled. Also we were introduced to our host families whom we would be living with during the duration of our training. I'm with the Coulibaly family, but Coulibaly is a very common name and there are I think 3 other volunteers with that last name.
My family has a nice house with mango trees growing in the concession (but the mango season is over). I have a small room which is usually hot so I don't spen much time in there. We have a decent sized training group 8 of us (started at 9, but one ET'd). Our days are very long and usually pretty exhausting. I get up about 6:20 and have myself a splash bath. Nobody talks to you until you are clean. After my bath my sister makes me breakfast usually consisting of eggs and bread and powdered milk. I head to school at 8:00 and we have language class under the mango trees until noon. I'm learning Bambara which is not the most difficult language, but still frustrates me. At noon I go home and have rice and some kind of sauce with maybe some fish or beef. Eating here...I could write a whole blog on eating, and maybe I will someday, but the short version is the food is in a big metal bowl and everyone sits around and eats out of the same bowl. With their hands, but only the right hand because the left hand is used in the jegen(bathroom) in conjuction with the salii daaga (which is a teapot basically that holds water). They don't use toilet paper. Do the math on your own. If you need help consult with your neighbor. DO NOT EAT WITH YOUR LEFT HAND!
After lunchmore lanuage and cross cultural. My LCF's are the best. They are teaching us well. I think I will be speaking Bamabara in no time. After school we hang out in the village or go to the butiki for a coke. I'm usually home by 6:30 and I get another splash bath. I usually eat dinner around 7:30 or 8:00. Sometimes I get macoroni or potatos or fish. after dinner I study or read or try to talk with my family, but am not having much success there.
In bed by 9:00 usually.
Now for the fun part
I seem to have picked up a bacterial intestinal infection and have had severe "Mr. D" for 6 dys now. It was pretty hard to eat and choke down rice and fish everyday. I tried to just let it run its course, but after 5 days I thought this is no longer just me getting used to the new food. So I'm on Cipro now and I think I'm close to better now. In 5 days though I lost 7 pounds. The good thing about Tubaniso though is that the food is really good and I can try and beef back up. It really wasn't that bad, and I'm fine now so nobody worry.

But I need to get going. I'll be around computers until thursday then its back out to homestay.
I'll update again if I can before I leave Tubaniso.

Sorry no pictures my camera battery died, but I'll get some up soon