I need to find a new running path

One of the reasons I chose my apartment in the D.C. area is that it is literally a hop, skip and jump away from Georgetown – my most favorite place on the East Coast.  Moreover, there is an excellent 5 mile running path that starts at my apartment, and goes THROUGH the center of adorable Georgetown,  crossing over two bridges and through a forest.  I thought, man, I am going to this EVERY SINGLE DAY.

I tried it today.

I got over the first bridge.  And stopped.  Into Sisley.  Into J-Crew.  Into cute boutique #1.  Into cute deli #1.  Into cute boutique #2.  Into Anthropologie.  You get the gist.

I walked home in with my shoulders hunched over not as much in defeat, but because they were worn from carrying a gazillion shopping bags.  I need to find a new running path.  I think I better run on  Roosevelt Island (in the middle) next – it  doesn’t have anything but trees and paths, should be safe.

Manolos Moving On to a New Mission

I’m back!

SO sorry I’ve been MIA for the last couple of months.  I cannot even begin to describe the whirlwind that took over my life.

But I will try.

Last you heard, I was on a fight back to Chicago from Mali, on what was a planned 2 week vacation to “take care of a few work things.”

Well, the “work things” panned out and I was offered my dream job in a seperate organization based in the United States.  I decided to stay in Chicago until my start date (next week) to catch up with friends and family and plan most of my wedding details.  I’ve set the date and chosen the venue, and if you are interested in more of my wedding details, I have been and will continue to blog about it every Tuesday on Elizabeth Anne Designs.

Now that things have simmered down, and are back on track, I finally have time to write again.

And so it begins, yet again.  I am moving this weekend to……

Washington D.C!

I got my dream job, kind of out-of -the- blue, when I was working in Mali.  It is a job that I applied for over a year ago but as soon as it became evident this was for real, I flew home and dove into the paperwork making sure it would come to fruition.  Although based in D.C., I will be traveling to Africa a few times a year to view programs.  The only thing missing is my fiance, who is finishing up school in NYC then moving to Houston in the Fall.  We are trying to figure out a way to be together by Christmas, but that will become clearer once we begin our jobs.

My Manolos are no longer on a Mission in Mali, but they certainly continue to be on a mission.  Hope you stay tuned.

In-flight Air France Online

Despite my 20s passing by in a blur, one thing that I always anticipate and look forward to are long airplane rides. Since I can remember, flying in a commercial jet was often just as exciting as the vacation itself – and my excitement about the trip ending didn’t end until the last beverage was served.

When the advent of the internet as a household tool came around ten years ago, I was the first to use it to monitor my flight status or movie options.  A few years ago, I surprised my brother by ordering him a special meal without his knowledge.  I was SERIOUSLY laughing so hard I snorted, when I heard the stewardess exclaim, “34d, 34d, your Hindu meal is coming right up,” as my brother’s eyes grew wide with terror.  He was, of course, sitting in 34d (& the meal was way better than mine).

Since then, I regularly pep myself up before each plane ride by researching shops and restaurants of the airports I have layovers in, meal preferences and in-flight entertainment.

So I was psyched to discover how great Air France’s in-flight entertainment option was on their website.  Check it out yourself.  You can click on the little TV screen and learn which movies will be available on your flight, and then, you can watch previews of the movies!  I can’t decide which to watch first after 6 months without a TV: High School Musical 3, The Visitor, Rachel Getting Married, Nights in Rodanthe or W.

http://www.airfrance.fr/US/en/local/transverse/frame/genericIFrameAuto.htm?url=http://videocdn.airfrance.com/distractions/index_en.html

I also learned that I have enough time for a short layover in Paris.  Notre Dame Cathedral is right off the train line that comes from Charles de Gaulle airport so I am planning on having breakfast at a cafe nearby.  Is it ok to eat French Onion Soup and drink Perrier at breakfast?

20 degrees! Quoi!?

Holy Mary Mother of God – I forgot about the weather.  In all the excitement around going home for a couple of weeks, I totally forgot about the insane, bitter cold.

I had been  envisioning brunching with my friends at an outdoor cafe on Wells Street.  Or running alongside Labradors and cyclists on the lake path.  I FORGOT that instead I will be darting quickly between my garage door to the car door and will need to warm up the seats immediately to defrost from that few second trek.  Eeek!

As much as I miss Chicago, I have never missed the cold.

Out of the Blue

Life comes at you fast.

That’s what my fiance and I would exclaim as I was putting together a DVD slideshow for one of my good friend’s weddings last year.  Here they are at…. 2 years old, 5, the 10, 16, 22, and so on and so forth.  Seeing it in a rapid slideshow makes it seem all the more quicker.

I remember the days however, when life came at you sloooooowwwwllyyy.  I remember how LONG it took for summer break to finally arrive.  I remember how long those 15 days until my birthday felt.  So why does it seem like my 20s are an absolute blur of activity that cannot slow down?  Since I turned 20, I’ve lived in 8 different places, on 4 different continents,  acquired two degress, tried to learn four languages and worked at 6 jobs.

I mean, I’m engaged now.  Shouldn’t that make me “settle down” as some would say.  Yes, that was the original plan, and my plan always is to spend the rest of my life with my wonderful fiance.  And we are getting there.  But life also throws you curve balls and one dropped in my lap earlier this week.  And…that’s why he loves me

More to come later, but I am taking an impromptu trip back to the States this week to sort out some things.  I should be back within a few weeks, so I’ll have more updates then.

The ME post

I saw a post on my faithful reader AbFab Geek’s blog the other day with the rules to the following ME post.  This one is different from a MEME post since the questions are personalized to each person.  If you want to participate, please read the rules at the bottom, do as it says, and I will in return ask you 6 personalized questions that I want to know about YOU, as AbFab Geek has asked me below.  Without further I do, I will try to answer her questions as briefly as I can (because some answers could turn into novels and psycho-analytical ranting).

1. You have traveled to some amazing places. What was the most surprising thing that you found in each country?

I’ll just choose a couple recent ones, since my Facebook travel map tells me I’ve been to 44.

Mali – I was expecting the country to be dry, arid, stark and desolate, barren and void of natural resources…so I was surprised at how very rich it is in social capital (clothing, jewelry, fascinating history, mysticism, cultural traditions, music, art, etc).

China – I was surprised at all the rankings!  Everywhere I went, no matter the venue, there was a sign bloating about its ranking, similar to the following, “The 4th highest restaurant in Eastern China, south of Beijing, serving Indian cuisine, for under $20, with live music, atleast once a week…”  You get the jist.  It was unexpected comic relief.

2. What is the biggest obstacle that you had to overcome to successfully live in remote places?

Loneliness.  Learning to be happy on your own is key.

3. What different languages do you speak and when and where did you learn them?

Polish – Language I spoke at home with my family

Japanese – Studied in college, but have lost almost all of it

French – Learned it on the streets of West Africa

Wolof – First language I learned in Senegal and used it for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer there.

Serer – The language my Peace Corps village spoke in Senegal and spoke it there.  (Pretty funny- growing up in America I spoke Polish at home and English on the streets just like in Senegal I spoke Serer at home and Wolof on the streets).

Fulani – I am trying to learn this language right now.  It is one of the most useful languages to know in West Africa as the Fulani people are nomadic and can be found from the coast of Benin all the way to Chad.

4. Tell me honestly, have your parents ever expressed a desire that you stay closer to home or at least out of harm’s way?

Really, they are the ones who push me to take the offers abroad when I am on the fence.  They love what I do with my life.  Immigrants from communist Poland, they come from the line of thinking that the world is my playground, and as long as I have access to it, I should take advantage of it.  I think this also stems from their knowledge of love of traveling.  Since they’ve been to most of these places, they no longer have misconceived stereotypes about where and how I live, and that helps them relax knowing that actually, I am safe and taken care of.  Sure, my mother would be totally ok if I moved in with them and became her BFF and tagged along by her side all day, all night long.  But I am sure after 7 days she would tell me to go back to the bush

5. What do think calls you to serve and work in remote and rural places? Do you consider yourself a risk taker?

Generally, I am a risk-taker. Not so much with life or death matters, but with general life choices yes.  I really get it that we have one life to live.  And I’ve seen how much my life changes with each random decision I make.  So I know the power one choice makes.  And to me, it’s fun.

I am the most emotional girl in the world, the one that cries in commercials and the one that gets tearful when I see injustice anywhere.  Mean people do suck and it breaks my heart when people hurt.  I still cannot fathom how unfair life is to the people living here.  It’s just not fair.  So it’s hard not to dedicate your life to them when you see how they are exactly just like you, but for some reason got the short end of the stick in the game of life.  That motivates me everyday.  I had another job offer before I came to Mali that paid 3x what I make here.  The day I declined it to come out here, was a surprise to myself as well as to others.  That’s when I realized I would always need to find my work meaningful – that trumps the rest for me.

6. Where do you see yourself twenty years from now?

20 years…Well by that time I will be nearing 50.   I would like to have found a home to settle in, hopefully in Chicago, near my parents and family, married, raising 3 kids.  I would like to have already written a book, and be working at a fabulous jobs managing a campaign or perhaps my own business.

If you would like to participate in the ME interview, here are the rules.

1. If you want to be interviewed, leave me a comment that says “Interview me”.

2. I will respond by emailing you 5 questions (I get to choose the questions).

3. Update your blog with the answers to the questions and let me know when you have posted it.

4. You will include this explanation and offer to interview someone else in the same post.

5. When other comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Correction on wedding planning blog

Hi all, I accidentally gave you all the wrong link to my wedding planning blog.  The correct URL is  www.chicagowedsite.com.

Wedding planning from the Sahara

As you can see, it’s been a few days since I posted anything. Well, a funny little thing happened.  After two weeks of taking it easy after my engagement, and concentrating on telling friends personally by phone (which is hard when some live in the States and others in Australia), I decided to take the plunge and begin looking for wedding ideas and inspiration on the internet.  Within an hour I got TOTALLY SUCKED IN and then I  began drowning, drowning, drowning in all the details the ideas the costs the correspondence the blogs and only now am I coming back up for air after what must have been 50 hours of research.  During those 50 hours of research, I read that a normal bride spends about 200 hours of research on her wedding.  Given I’ve done 50, and have about 450 more days to go, I’d say that logic tells you, I’m not your normal bride.

So, yes, I am obsessing.  But at the same time, I have NO resources to help me enjoy this process here.  No printer to save the photos I like.  NO wedding magazines to peruse and cut pictures from.  No girlfriends or zinfandel to keep me company as I make excruciatingly small decisions regarding font color on the invitations.  So spare me.

I’ve realized quickly, that I need a way to organize all these ideas and research or I will go mad.  Planning a wedding from West Africa is not easy. So I am going to sort out ALL the teeny-tiny wedding details on a blog.  However, I’ve decided I want to keep Manolos as my personal blog – with stories of my life, rather than stories of linen thread count.  Also, there is so much more to say regarding Mali and West Africa, I am not finished  telling these stories to you all.  So although I will definitely be talking about the wedding, I have set up a separate BORING but TOTALLY EXCITING FOR ME blog, (www.chicagowedsite.wordpress.com)  where I can organize all the ideas that have been storming my brain a mile a minute, and use that internet blog as my wedding scrapbook – since I don’t have a scrapbook or even a book.

It’s pretty ironic that I was once THAT girl who would buy bridal magazines for fun, just to imagine what the day might be like – and now that I am engaged, not only do I NOT have ONE magazine available to me within a 2000 mile radius, or one wedding planner, but my fiance already has received a Groom’s guide to wedding planning!

One thing is for sure though – the theme: “Urban chic, African lounge, Polka party.”

Day 14: Cotonou, Benin – The End or the Beginning?

As I was showering off the kilogram of dust off of me that had accumulated on my body over the past five days at my boyfriend’s Peace Corps site, in the pristine shower of the Hotel du Lac in Cotonou, Benin, where my boyfriend and I decided to splurge it being our last night – I began feeling very anxious.  It had been 5 months since I last saw my boyfriend, and now after two fun-filled weeks, he was leaving again – and I didn’t when the next time I would see him would be.

Determined to have a good night anyway, I blow-dried my hair, put on make-up, and met him at the beautiful restaurant overlooking the ocean – (we asked his brother to order room service this night and stay in his room and watch satellite TC.  He evidently had no problem being excluded, as was evidenced from the three bottles of beer and room service we found in his room the next morning).  After a great dinner of fruits de mer (”fruit of the sea” AKA seafood), and pizza we began to reminisce about the trip and how great it had been.  Actually, we began to reminisce about all the trips we had taken together – including Poland, Russia, Latvia, Guatemala, Lithuania, Mexico, Estonia, Finland, Belize, etc – and exclaimed how amazing each one of them had been, and how we never ever get annoyed of each other, but rather are in total sync when we travel.

I began getting teary-eyed, wondering out loud how our lives would mesh.  How were we ever going to manage to make our lives in sync when we were across the world from one another?  When would we be able to finally be together? We had dated for 3 years and I was beginning to worry about how the next year would look.  After my theatrical outburst, (Oscar-worthy I must say) my boyfriend looked at me sweetly and told me to enjoy the rest of the pizza.  So I did.

After we polished off our dinner, we walked over to the edge of the terrace on the water.  After a few minutes of gazing at the stars, I said, “I think we should go back to the hotel.  We have a long day tomorrow.”  But my boyfriend kept on walking along the terrace.  Then again I said, “Maybe its time to go back.”  But he just held on to me over the railing.  I then saw him fidgeting with his pocket, and it smacked me like a ton of bricks.  Oh my God, could this be it!? OMG, am I ready!?  What do I do?  How do I stand?  How do I look?

Before I could elaborate on that thought any more, my boyfriend got down on his knee and said all the lovely things every girl wants to hear.  Most of it is blurry but I remember, “I want to spent the rest of my life with you – I never want to be away from you again. During this trip, I didn’t like introducing you as my girlfriend – I wanted it to be more.”  Before I knew it, I think he said, “I am asking you to marry me”,  which I wasn’t able to reply too, right away, because it wasn’t in interrogative form… but then I realized he was waiting and exclaimed, “Yes, Yes, YES!”  and wrapped my arms around him and kissed him.  I think then I said, “Are you sure!?  This is forever!” to which he exclaimed, “Of course I am sure!  I’ve thought about this for a long time, and I want you to marry me!”

So that’s our engagement story!  Kind of perfect, given we met as a result of our travels in Africa.  I was given a beautiful , classy silver band with three small diamonds engraved in it, that will forever be my travel ring.  As soon as I get back to the states, he and I will pick out the real ring together – how fun is that!?  It’s going to be the best shopping trip EVER.

Needless to say, planning a wedding from Africa is a little difficult.  I will be here in Mali a few more months and then hope to fly to Chicago for a few weeks to plan and look at venues together with my fiance.  In the meantime, I will do as much as I can through the wonderful world wide web.

There are some back-stories too – a month ago, he had gone to my father’s office and asked him for his blessing.  How sweet is that?  and HOW IN THE WORLD did my mother keep this a secret, from me, but especially from my sister OHmommy! Also, my fiance told me that originally he wanted to propose on the bridge near his village – the bridge over the Niger River connecting the country of Benin to the country of Niger.  However, go figure with my luck, I had visa problems with Niger and Benin and was kind of staying in Benin not too legally, so we couldn’t risk going near the bridge ;(

The spot where my fiance proposed (photographed a day later and a little blurry)

Our first photos taken as engaged couple (the following morning).

At the museum in Oudiah, Benin

At the village where my fiance had his Peace Corps training. Check out the gorgeous lake in the background. Again, who had it harder?

On the Gulf of Benin

Days 8-13: Northern Benin

After we dropped of my brother at the airport in Niger to return home just in time for Spring semester, my boyfriend, his brother and I proceeded to Benin for one more week of adventure.

The second week differed from our first week in that we were no longer traveling long distances.  My boyfriend had been a Peace Corps volunteer in Benin so we spent the majority of the time based in his town.

Nevertheless, it was very exciting…mostly because my boyfriend is a rockstar.  The amount of attention showered on him was unbelievable.  Everyone knew his name.  Everyone wanted to give him a present.  Everyone wanted to conduct a public speech on how much he helped them.  By the third day, his brother and I were endearingly rolling our eyes at him as another person came by to bow down to him.  By the time the mayor inaugurated an orchard my boyfriend had planted five years ago to be named, “The Forest of [his name],” his brother and I nearly lost it, but loved it.

I learned another very important thing about my boyfriend here….he is a liar   My boyfriend and I met through a mutual friend in Chicago three years ago and hit it off immediately because we had both just finished Peace Corps service in West Africa.  For the last three years, we have argued over “Who had it more difficult” a number of times.

It is OBVIOUS to all now, that this discussion was a joke.    CLEARLY I had it more difficult.  My boyfriend lived in a town with electricity, bars, restaurants, an INTERNET CAFE, plus…he lived with the KING of a tribe! and the KING had a car.  Even though I lived in a mud hut with a thatched roof, in a village with no running water or vegetables, my boyfriend still thinks that because I had a cell phone that only worked in cities 4 hours from my village, the argument is still on….even though I found out there is a landline in his Peace Corps house….with a connection to internet.

Ok, but despite this, really he kicked butt and built a basketball court for the high school (a court still functioning), planted a gazillion trees, and obviously affected the lives of a hundred others.  It was wonderful to see how much they love him and how much he loves them.

Here are some pictures of us around town.

Greeting the King with the Prince of the Dendi people

Visiting the school my BF worked with

My BF kicking butt during the B-Ball game the town had in his honor on the court he built

Leaving the village

The Niger River Trip – Video

Below is a short video taken on our journey to Bamako, Mopti, Dogon and Timbuktu Mali with a dash of Niamey, Niger at the end. We had so much fun throughout the trip and I think that’s evident if you watch this.  Enjoy!

Days 6-7: Niamey, Niger

We had planned driving from Gao, Mali to Niamey, Niger months ago  My brother purchased his return ticket to the States from Niamey so we had a limited amount of time to make it there by Saturday, January 10th.  For months, I researched the road extensively online through people’s blogs and in person, inquiring about its safety.  What I found was that it is, physically, extremely safe.  It had just been paved a year ago and the trip, without stops, should only take 4 hours.  However,  just  weeks before we were to drive that road, a Canadian diplomat’s car was hijacked and he  kidnapped by Tuareg rebels on the same road.   In addition, there were heightened security alerts the embassy had been sending out since December regarding random grenade attacks in Gao.  Needless to say, I was worried.

After a team meeting, it was decided we would take the road anyway (instead of going through Burkina Faso).  From what we could decipher, tourists were not being targeted by Tuaregs…. rather it was military officials or diplomats that worked with Tuareg conflict resolution.  We took our chances and  fortunately,  got to Niamey (the capital of Niger) unscathed, albeit it took us 8 hours instead of the estimated 4.  Upon arrival, however, I thanked God for delivering us there safely.

Niamey was lovely.  Although still West African in ambiance (hustle and bustle, hundreds of scents, poverty, etc), it was much more maneagable and calm.  We saw several gorgeous sunsets on the banks of the Niger River and galloped with wild giraffes just an hour outside town.  It was sad to see my brother go, as it symbolized the end of one journey, but my boyfriend and I still had a week ahead of us in Benin.  A week that would result in one of the biggest surprises of my life!

Regarding safety on the Gao-Niamey road, it came to my attention this week, that four European tourists were kidnapped just a couple of weeks after we were there! Believe me, the news knocked the wind out of me.  I would like to pay it forward and inform all those planning on traveling this road to take the Burkina Faso road instead.  Although I found the road safe and the military personnel at the checkpoints very friendly, the stretches between villages were vast and long without seeing another car in sight. So be careful and if you can, go through Burkina instead.

Without further ado, some pictures of Niamey, Niger.

Getting close to the giraffes

Peek-a-boo

Sunset in Niamey