Welcome to my Blog!

Hi!

Thanks for reading. I am writing this from comfortable and familiar Williamsburg MA. I leave for Mali this Saturday. This program is not through my school, but rather, has students from many different schools. I'll meet most of them in NYC when we fly out together. There is a brief layover in Paris and then I'll arrive in Mali Sunday evening. Once in Mali, I'll have some accesss to internet via cybercafes. I probably won't visit them more than twice a week because I've been told that it is best to immerse yourself in Malian culture and lifestyles...not hole up in a cybercafe. Fair enough. I've also been told that Mali is a "sitting culture" - to get used to lots of sitting, either with discussion or in relative silence. I think my time at Rowe Camp has prepared me rather well both for internet withdrawal and sitting in silence. I think that I got this :)

Check out the links on the right including the link to my photoalbum which I hope to be able to update from the cybercafes and the link to the SIT Mali program with more details about it.

In Mali I'll be doing a 6 week homestay in the capital, Bamako; a 1 week homestay in a more rural area; and some travelling around the country to various historical sites, and related museums and organizations etc. This is Mali:

Here is the schedule we've been given for the semester:

Mali: Health, Gender and Development
Spring 2008 Program Schedule

February 3
Students arrive

February 3-4
Orientation in Bamako

February 5-7
Orientation in Kangaba

February 8-18
Intensive French and Bambara Study, Field Study Seminars, Gender and Development Seminars and Concurrent Homestay in Bamako

February 17- 19
Excursion to Sikasso

Feb. 20 –March 5
Intensive French and Bambara Language Study, Field Study Seminars, Gender and Development Seminars, and Concurrent Homestay in Bamako

March 6- 12
Village Stay

March 13 -27
Intensive French and Bambara Language Study, Field Study Seminars, Gender and Development Seminars and Concurrent Homestay in Bamako

March 28 –April 7
Grande Excursion: Timbuktu, Sangha, Mopti, Djenné, Ségou, Markala and Dougabougou

April 10 –May 7
Independent Study Period

May 9 -16
ISP Presentations and Program Evaluation

May 17
End of Scheduled Program

This schedule is subject to significant changes based on curricular, logistical or security purposes.