Thursday
Around four in the afternoon about 60 of my closest Mali volunteer friends got together inside the civil center of Sikasso to sit down for thanksgiving dinner. There was a cooler of salad, a tub of green beans, a bucket of mashed potatoes and five turkeys! Now if that wasn't enough (and it was enough but it's thanksgiving) so there were apple pies and pumpkin pies!!! Now i'm sure most people wouldn't think this is possible for 60 people to finish all that food, but we sure tried and came close to finishing.
It wasn't the same as being at Aunt Bettys house with family but it was really nice to see some old faces and meet tons of new ones. Not having gone threw training in Mali, i'm not as close with some of the volunteers but being able to spend a major holiday weekend with them sure was nice.
Friday
Friday afternoon we had rented out a pool and got to enjoy the fun in the sun. No black friday shopping for me. (Well i think i went and bought an avocado in the market but there was no pushing or sales so i don't think that counts.) The pool was a funny color so few people went in, but i enjoyed sitting in the sun.
There were also donkey races. Two volunteers at a time would race donkeys. Sounds easy but from what i saw, not the case. I didn't race but people were struggling to make the donkey go in the right direction or even go at all.
For dinner the volunteers of Sikasso cooked up burritos! There was rice and beans and guac and everything. So taisty.
Now needless to say, I eat well those two days!
Saturday
Saturday morning a group of about 14 of us meet up to go out to the water falls just outside of Sikasso. We filled two taxis and left. Most of the trip was on a nice paved road but the last 3 miles was on a dirt trail barley wide enough for the car. Then the path got too narrow for the car. We had to get out and walk maybe the last mile. There were dirt cliffs we had to climb down, and otherones we had to climb up. And worst of all there was a bamboo bridge we had to cross. It wasn't high at all but to keep your balance with a back pack can be tricky. But we all made it across just fine. Once we finally got to the falls it was increadable.
This was one of the prettiest places i've seen, so instead of me trying to explain it, i'll just put up some photos.
After playing around in the falls a group of us climbed up to the top part of the falls. The climb was a bit interesting. There is no path up so we just went in the general direction. Climbed over rocks and forged threw sholder high grass. The climb was well worth it because on top of the falls was even prettier than below. There were also pools you could swim in, Mark and I made tree leafs into boats and tried to race them over the falls and then just relaxed in the sun.
We were spending the night out there so before the sun set we had to climb down and set up camp, make a fire and make dinner. Another car of volunteers ended up showing up so there were a lot of us spending the night. There were pop up bug nets everywhere. I didn't have a sleeping pad so i had to sleep inside my bug net on the rocks. Between the rocks and the rushing sound of the falls i had a hard night sleeping. But watching the sun rise over the falls was breathtaking.
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