It's the Holiday Season!

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I haven't blogged in awhile, partly because so much has been going on and it's really quite hard to keep this up. However, I will try to give a rundown of life since the last time I posted.

After Tabaski, I spent Thanksgiving at the American Ambassador's home. It was really nice to get a little taste of home. There was tons of turkey, stuffing, green beans, salad and pumkin pies with real whip cream! And after our meal, my table went round-robin and said what we were thankful for. This is the same tradition that my family has, so it was really nice to share this among my new friends.

A week after Thanksgiving, I had one week in village and then I was off for my In-Service Training for two-weeks. The IST was very informative, but overwhelming because we received all the tools we could possibly need to start our respective projects. For my village, I want to create a library, a literacy center, organize a "Career Day" and coordinate a mentorship program. I'm also helping the cyber cafe in my town generate more revenue through better advertisement. Do I feel confident enough to successfully start these projects now that I'm done with IST?........A weak "Yes," but only because my language is still shaky. Stronger language skills will come with time, but everyone in village says that I'm very courageous, so I feel confident in knowing that they believe in me.

So, after training, I arrived home and my family told me that there were three new baby girls born while I was gone! I left knowing that Adama was pregnant. However, I wasn't sure for a long time. When I left she was obviously showing, but I didn't know she was ready to pop any day now! And then this other woman in our concession had twin baby girls on the same day that Adama had hers! Ahhhh! This can only happen in Mali! So, on Christmas Day, they're going to have a baptism of the babies and I'm not going to be there because I'm celebrating Christmas in Bamako :(

I got into Bamako on Christmas Eve and I had reserved a massage appointment at the spa. It was my first full body massage and it was AMAZING and there was ice cream! Then that night, me and some other volunteers made cheese and broccoli soup and bread and began planning our meal for Christmas day. We made bacon, potato, and corn chowder, sausage, green beans, stuffing, wheat berry salad with lettuce, berries, apples, and feta cheese, baked apple crisp and chocolate lava cake with whip cream. I gotta say, it's one of the best Christmas meals I'd ever had! We ended the night with a showing of the Macy's Thanksgiving parade and "Elf."For a little while, I felt like I was back in America.

Merry Christmas to everyone! I love and miss you alllllll!