Hey, how 'bout a list!

without further delay I present ''MY STUFF: the list edition''. I felt like maybe it would be helpful if not appeasing to offer the reader a sampling of my packing list. I love a good list, though one that usually denotes status, like top ten largest cities or fattest mammels. though there is certainly an appeal in deconstructing something large and complete into incongruous bits and bobbles. so here is a detaild account of what I may bring to mali, I know I am probely forgetting something, I just hope that I dont leave the iron on.

Bag, 1 large green Gregory brand with lots of straps
Bag, 1 orange water proof roll top
Bag, 1, red for day trips
Cup, 1 blue enamel, speckled white
Tooth brush, 1 oral-B, yellow
Dentalfloss, 4 mini packs oral-b (thanks receptionist)
Essential oils, 4, rosemary, peppermint, lavander, tea tree, used in first aid, and smelling
Candles, 9, 9 hour burn time, just beacuse
Comb, 1, unbreakable
Band-aids, 24, hope not to use
Steel camp mirror, 1
Homeopathic spray, 1, for pain, et al
Guitar, 1, Classical orange
Guitar strings, 2 pack, martin hard tension
Tuning fork, 1, Emajor
Frisbee, 1, blue
Mini chess set, 1, black
Crappy sewing kit, 1, just because
Water broof box, 1, it rains there
Hohner harp, 1, Key of C
AARP travel clock, 1, thanks gramma
Clothes, assorted, numerous
Dr.Bronner soap, 2, for everything
Bungees, 6, for strappin'
Radio shack brand cassette recorder, 1, grey

count down T minus a bunch a days....

well, the day doth fast approach! I think today is the 12, or maybe the 11th, irrelevent because in less than a months time, myself and about 79 of my newest friends (i really hope i like at least a third of these people) will be boarding a jet plane bound for Paris, then onwards to bamako. I am going into the peace corps for a myrid of reasons, and some I am sure i've not even hit upon yet. I mean I have traveld, I have ''seen some stuff'' but really how often do you step this far for your happy place with such a lax tether back to the world you knew? I will be in Philadelphia on the morning of the 8th july. Ill be there for staging and so anyone who wants to call me before i drop out, thats the day to do it. before noon or after 7 pm please! the 9th of july will be spent getting vaccinations, going over last minute details like how to find your way out of the bamako airport, and the flying, oh the flying......7 hours to paris were we will have an 8 hour layover. I will do everything in my power to get to the musee d'orsey in that time, because, yeah ill rough it, but one last bit of high culture will do the body good. then...AND THEN, a five hour flight to Bamako, arriving in the dark....but thats sounds good. we get to wake up fresh and on our first real day we get to start with morning smells, and light and sleepy where the hell am I eyes.
In those moments of doubt; ''its so far'' for so long'' ''im scared'' I take comfort in the little things that humanize the scope of what it is I am about to do. To acknowledge that the flight to africa from sweet sweet Paris is shorter than the one TO Paris from the USA is to keep a wee finger on the otherwise great ideological distances being coverd here. to think that i am closer to a french bistro from the bush, than I would be sitting at home watching iron chef is some how comferting . A last note. these blog entries thus far seem regular, and a bit quixotic if not driveling, but once i am ''in the shit'' as they say, I imagine that the tone and color will change dramatically so look foward to far greater tales of adventure and heroic deeds, and stuff about eating rice every day, and heat, and mud and....

OH boy.....NEWS!

SO, yippie and hooray, it finally came. The ominous hanging chad that was my future as been punched in full. I got a big, blue attahce type contraption in the mail last week from my friends at peace corps HQ. Seems they hadnt forgotten about me and, in fact, they want to send me to MALI!! After so much talk about living in the Mauritanian desert, i think thick niger river red clay is a real boon to the psyche. July, as previously assumed, is still the jumping off point, probely from philadelphia( I dont know that much yet, did I mention they like to make you squirm) and once in mali I will go in for about 11 weeks of training. That I suppose is what makes or breaks the volunteer. Its a time to re affirm youre will and probely re-evaluate your sanity. I have been reading alot of other blogs latey and i keep reading about people, groups even, who upon arrivel in country and within the first few days just turn around and go home. I guess the more i think about it, who isnt going over there with some small voice screaming GET OUT!! YOUR CRAZY!! i mean i am commited but still, is this whole effort a little nuts? anyway, if there are those in my group who DO leave early i will thank them in advance because they will have gone back home for that little voice inside us all.

So soon, so so....not soon

here we are on the first day of me aknowledging the future. Peace Corps service fast approaches, and yet it doesnt. It looks as though ill be stateside until at least sometime in july, but then making others wait seems to be the raison d'etre for the PC, so i am supposedly content in doing so. with a vauge " maybe west africa'' as the only bit of geography i can currently pine away for, i really dont know how to feel other than joyous at the prospect, but I might as well be going to space, because i know as much about that as i do about anywere else they may send me.
Nervous? NO. although my french is coming along slowly and not speaking the local language does render me somewhat usless. I do study everyday, but my god! how many homonyms can one language have, and they certainly dont seem to care much for economy in there use of the alphabet, but its so darn purty so i plug away. these entries will be spare between now and the time i leave, maybe an update pre trip, but once abroad i hope to use this as a link to life as i knew it. for what ever it was worth.