Skewed Sense of Normalcy

It’s so important to write down your FIRST impressions of a place as soon as you arrive;  the disbelief, the shock, the bliss, the wonder.  Because before you know it, you’re all settled in, and the allure and intrigue that brought you there in the first place has turned into a sense of normalcy. 
It [...]

Sharing the holidays through Skype

As my nephew explains in  detail, Christmas Eve is a much bigger holiday for our Polish family than Christmas itself.  In addition to a host of traditions we continue to honor during our Christmas Eve dinner  (including putting hay under the tablecloth, setting an extra place setting for a stranger in need who might come [...]

Big Love in Mali

Despite having lived amongst a polygamous family for over two years, my heart fluttered to a halt  when I noticed the double rings on my colleague’s hand last week.
I believe in love.  I believe in monogamy.  I do, I do, I do.  This will never change.
However, from the time I could remember I feasted in [...]

Gym Membership at the Radisson

It will have been five months next week since I’ve seen my boyfriend.  It’s been incredibly difficult to be apart but I think both of us do a really good job staying connected, and frankly, I talk to him more than I did when we lived in NYC, thanks to modern technology.
One benefit of living [...]

The reason I’ve been away…Dengue Fever

Waking up in the still of the night to the scent of myself in a dingy hospital bed with [someone else’s?] bloodstained sheets was not a pleasant experience.  It had been 48 hours since I last bathed, 48 hours since I had kicked Malaria’s butt (or so I thought), 48 hours since my body began [...]

Massaging away Malaria

It took me 72 hours to kick Malaria’s ugly butt, but I finally feel better. Being sick is never fun, but being sick in a place where  access to health providers is shoddy to none, is downright scary. After 24 hours of feeling like I was on my deathbed, I went back to [...]

I have malaria

Good thing I learned where the clinic was last week! After a night of chills followed by heat flashes, I went to the clinic first thing today to take a bloodtest. Low and behold, I caught Malaria so I will be resting these next couple of days. I caught it early so [...]

How to buy a holiday meal in Mali

MY. CAMERA. BROKE.
Yes, it is devastating, but in the meantime I’ll just have to share more videos from my Flip until I get a replacement.
In light of today’s holiday, Tabaski, or Feast of the Ram, here is a short video of my boss picking up to sheep for the slaughter on our way to Bamako [...]

Do they know it’s Christmastime?

The answer is yes, Malians know it’s Christmas time, BUT the real question is do YOU know it’s Eid ul-Adha time?
Also known as the Festival of Sacrifice, Eid falls 70 days after the end of Ramadan and is celebrated in honor of Abraham’s sacrifice of his son as a proof of his loyalty to God. [...]

Too close to home

Remember that Thanksgiving dinner I went to, the one with pork, pie and Typhoid?  Well, I forgot to mention that I met nearly twenty other Americans living in the region.  Among them was a woman my age that first worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mali, but was working at this point on a large [...]

If you travel, don’t use Mastercard

It’s ironic that after all the priceless things Mastercard has portrayed as made possible by the use of its card, there is NOT one ATM in Mali at this moment, that recognizes the card.  In other words, Mastercard will NEVER portray a lifetime dream of traveling to Timbuktu as priceless in one of its commercials.
Contrary [...]

Holding Grudges

“Kash, we have a problem,” my colleague exclaimed an hour after we reached a village to conduct surveys to 50 of its residents.
He elaborated, “Turns out there are two parts to this village.  The family that originally settled here got into a fight and broke off into two parts, and since then they’ve lived only [...]