Hi to all!

I'm here! In Sikasso, in the southern part of Mali.

We were met at the airport in Bamako and driven to Sikasso by our very capable, SAVE driver, Kalifa. The first part of the trip today was smooth, on a newly constructed and paved (by a Chinese company) highway. Paved shoulders and everything! All manner of transportation: buses, trucks, overburdened with their cargo of wood, a few SUVs, more small motorcycles, bicycles, donkey drawn carts and many people on foot. The second half of the journey was rougher as the road is under construction. We drove for over two hours on a very dusty ---red soil, just like PEI------road. Everything is covered in a fine, red dust. Saw two overturned tractor trailers.

At every small town there is a collection of stalls with people selling fruit, gas in quart beer bottles, some calabashes and tire repair services. The houses are small, some constructed of concrete, but many we passed were constructed of mud brick. One place, I saw the neat piles of handmade brick, drying in the sun. One thing that tells you immediately that you are in Africa is the little, round, mud brick huts with the pointed, thatched roofs. They are small grain silos where families store grains, nuts and I don’t know what else. It makes a very pretty sight to see these little collections of rectangular and round buildings with their identical thatched rooves.

The other thing that tells you that you are in Africa is the people, clothed in gorgeous bright fabrics. The women are especially beautiful, with their colourful garb and graceful gait. Those women can look amazing, just walking down the side of a dusty road, balancing an enormous basin of washing on their heads

I have to say that everyone I have met, from our Save hosts, the people at the hotel, the girls I met walking down the street, our driver, to our teachers trainees, have been amazingly friendly and gracious. The smiles, the hearty laughs, warm you from the inside.

All for now. I am doing well.

PS I have a mosquito in my room. He black and fast. I have a mosquito net and the hotel staff came and sprayed the room. If the mosquitos don't get me the spray will!