Homestay and Training

I just got back to Tubaniso(our training site), which is where we have the internet. I have been at homestay which is where we learn our language, French, and get culturally integrated and basically learn how to be a Malian. I am staying at Sanankoroba, with my host family. My dad is Abdoulaye Traore and has 2 wives and roughly 6 kids, i have a grandfather named Moussa and his wife Salle who takes care of me most days with food and water. There are multiple children around and its hard to tell which ones are family cuz they call their nieghbors, friends, cousins, and anyone who they feel like, there brothers/sisters. So i have roughly 30 or so borhters and sisters. I live in a small shack with a tin roof that is loud as crap when is decides to DOWNPOUR. My malian name was given to me by my father, i am Abou Traore. its pronouced just like the monkey in Aladin the disney film, i like it. everyone calls me Abou BA, which in Barbara means Big Abou. i was named after my dads "brother" cuz that guy is HUGE and so am i, he came in from Bamako and we talked english cuz he can speak it and worked for an NGO and has daughters that he sent to university in Canada. It was fun to meet him. Everything is going good. we all have our bad days and our good days. we complain everyday at 11.30am to 12.15pm about the food. all we wish for is american fast food. we go to language classes everyday from 8am to 12noon. then go for lunch with our families and return for more language at 2.30 till 5pm. i eat lunch in my hut with one of my dad's wives usually and eat dinner with my brother Allison. i usually have spegitti for dinner with bread. its not good spegitti and tastes ok but isnt your Mom's spegitti. i have rice with a sauce everyday for lunch. its a wet rice with a mystery meat sauce. thats a little rough. i usally just eat a few handfuls of rice and call it quits. Oh yeah we eat with our hands. sounds fun but sometimes you just want a fork and spoon. ha But everything is going good and im glad to be back at Tubaniso. More later.