tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61902152011-04-21T20:22:06.488-07:00Here Today, Gone to MaliAn update on Leslie's adventures serving in the Peace Corps in MaliLesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comBlogger531100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1136469902167244802006-01-05T05:57:00.000-08:002006-01-05T06:13:46.756-08:00Happy New Year!I hope 2006 is a great year for everyone. I'm pretty sure it will be for me--there are lots of exciting things coming up!Thank you all for the warm birthday wishes I received. It was a great birthday that did, in fact, include celebrating with ice cream and rainbow sprinkles.But just in case you thought the celebrations were over...Happy Tabaski! Tabaski is the largest Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1134557271309095312005-12-14T02:44:00.000-08:002005-12-25T06:49:40.340-08:00Merry Christmas from Mali!I'm spending the holiday in Kangaba. Tonight there will be Mass at the Catholic Church. Tomorrow the 7th Day Adventist missionaries will have a service. Then all of the English-speaking folks in Kangaba are planning to head right here to the computer lab for Christmas Skyping and IMing and e-mailing. What did we do before there was ther Internet??So, a lot of you Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1127810210417697042005-09-27T01:26:00.000-07:002005-09-27T01:36:50.483-07:00Happy Malian Independence day!OK, I'm a little late. Independence Day was Sept. 22. There were big dance parties the night before, and then lots of drumming and dancing and speeches and karate demonstrations in the morning. I biked down to Teguecoura for the festivities. A good time (and rice with peanut butter sauce) was had by all!The next day our new trainees arrived into Bamako! Welcome!Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1124647481501817192005-08-21T10:54:00.000-07:002005-08-21T11:04:41.506-07:00Hello from Kangaba!It's still raining, but we did get our radio shows broadcast on Monday and Thursday, with a bonus broadcast last night when one of my teammates came to visit.It was a busy week. We had a training for representatives from each of the local villages on the new Drs; Without Borders program. The representatives got to hear all about the new meds and the new quick blood test. Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1124035233155424672005-08-14T08:55:00.000-07:002005-08-14T09:42:29.823-07:00Hello Friends and Family!I never can figure out where all the time goes between posts...but here I am. Don't worry, you haven't missed much this past month! I'm mostly holed up inside against the rain. You've been hearing a lot about the famine conditions in Niger. Last year was a very difficult one for farmers--there just wasn't enough rain. And then the locusts moved in and wreaked havoc onLesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1121688622060285472005-07-18T05:08:00.000-07:002005-07-18T05:12:10.106-07:00Hello Friends and Family! All is well but very wet and muddy here in Kangaba. Last time I wrote I was on my way to the US Marines’ House in Bamako for a 4th of July party. It was a nice afternoon, with hot dogs and Diet Coke and a special appearance by Lady Liberty. Plus some fun music from what seems like a lifetime ago. When was the last time you heard “She Thinks my Tractor’s Sexy?” I Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1120289637651937792005-07-02T00:29:00.000-07:002005-07-02T00:59:24.320-07:00Hello Friends and Family!All is well here in Mali. How did I get so far behind in the blog updates? You must have thought I'd fallen off the end of the Sahara Desert. But here I am back at my blog and there's lots of news to catch you up on.Of course I am back in Mali after a great three week vacation to the United States. That was quite possibly the busiest three weeks of my entire life! Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1112530311005797342005-04-03T04:56:00.000-07:002005-04-03T05:11:51.006-07:00Wow, a year ago yesterday I moved to Balanzan. This has been, à la fois the fastest and the slowest year of my life. I bet this next one is just the fastest yet.Easter was nice here in Kangaba. The good news is that I was, in fact, home in Balanzan by the time the soccer riots broke out in Bamako. We heard that there were 8 PCVs who went to the soccer game (Mali vs Togo) and all 8 were Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1111563109766561782005-03-22T23:22:00.000-08:002005-03-23T23:16:51.633-08:00Hello again!There are some new pictures up here and you're probably wondering what the heck these pictures are all about, so here's a quick guide...http://66.59.237.183/leslieinmali/Christmas are pictures from Christmas Day, which I spent in Kangaba with one of my teammates and several American (and one Canadian) missionaries. We started cooking in the morning (spaghetti, which in Mali we callLesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1111318321361231502005-03-20T03:30:00.000-08:002005-03-20T06:26:24.503-08:00Hello Friends and Family!All is well here in Mali! I've been doing some travelling and staying very busy. It's about time I caught you all up on what I've been up to.I wrote a little bit about the camps we had in February for the 7th, 8th, and 9th graders in the area. Everyone had a really good time, especially when they came here to the Kangaba computer center and got (for most of them, Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1108625114297175912005-02-16T23:16:00.000-08:002005-02-17T01:27:08.680-08:00Hello friends and family!Don't forget there are pictures posted here:http://66.59.237.183/leslieinmali/I'm hoping to add more soon.We had a great party last night to welcome the new trainees who will be posted in our region. They are halfway through training now and are on their way to visit their sites for a little while before heading back to finish training.Things have been busy in Kangaba Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1106836575242579152005-01-27T06:30:00.000-08:002005-01-27T06:53:50.270-08:00well, I am not writing from Kangaba, but the Internet connection is up and running there. woohoo! So keep the e-mails coming, and I will do the same. (Just promise you'll excuse all the times I type q instead of a--their positions are swapped on French language keyboards!) The new group of trainees is here. They arrived last Thursday night and spent a few days at the training center getting Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1105947799629611822005-01-16T23:27:00.000-08:002005-01-28T01:01:13.646-08:00Happy Anniversary to me! It's been a year now since I left--can you believe it? All is well in Mali. We had "Training of the Trainers" last week to get ready for the new group of trainees who will arrive on Thursday night. Time sure flies. I'll be back at the training center next week to present the first couple of Water/Sanitation technical training sessions--Water-Related Diseases and Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1104912648350199552005-01-05T01:07:00.000-08:002005-01-05T01:02:03.626-08:00Happy New Year! I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful holiday season! I spent Christmas in Kangaba with one of my teammates and the American 7th Day Adventist missionaries there. There was a Mass at the Catholic Church on Christmas Eve, complete with the French version of Angels we Have Heard on High (nice to have a song I knew, even if it was just the chorus). Christmas morning we went up the Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1103789799934183872004-12-23T01:06:00.000-08:002004-12-23T00:16:39.936-08:00Mali Christmas, everyone! I have returned safely to Mali and am looking forward to celebrating the holidays like I never have before. It was wonderful to see so many of you while I was visiting the States a few weeks ago. Our laughs and hugs (and line dances!) left me rejuvenated and ready to come back to work. I'll be spending Christmas in Kangaba, with my teammates and the American 7th Day Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1102548917964939192004-12-08T15:21:00.000-08:002004-12-08T15:35:17.963-08:00Hello from Ameriki! I've had two wonderful weeks of visiting and eating and shopping (and showering and flushing, thank you very much!) and line dancing and driving and enjoying lots of those things that I miss doing while in Mali. It has been so nice to see so many of you and to talk to many more of you on the phone. On Monday I visited the 6th, 7th, and 8th graders at Mesa Robles Middle Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1099938406421883892004-11-08T10:10:00.000-08:002004-12-08T16:51:51.846-08:00Hello Friends and Family! All is well here in Mali. Just in case any of you were worrying, my site in Balanzan is not near the Malian border with Cote d'Ivoire. The Peace Corps is very on top of the situation there, and if there is any possibility of any problem I'll get evacuated quicker than you can say 'mobili boli'. I'm in town for a one-night trip. I had a meeting this afternoon with an Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1099122292859801952004-10-30T01:35:00.000-07:002004-10-30T00:50:36.220-07:00Hello Friends and Family! We had a very successful Site Visit. The new Volunteer loves Ouelessebougou, and Ouelessebougou loves her! We had a good time running around town meeting important people (for example, the mayor, the tailor, and the guy who makes egg sandwiches in the morning). Yesterday all of the voounteers in training were back in Bamako, excited about the week they just spent at Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1098604267813614332004-10-24T01:46:00.000-07:002004-10-24T00:51:07.813-07:00Hello Friends and Family! Happy Ramadan, everyone! October 14 was the beginning of the Islamic month of fasting. From sunup to sundown the Muslim people eat nothing, drink nothing, chew nothing, smoke nothing, and don’t even swallow their own spit. Wow! I fasted last Saturday (except for the spit clause) and it’s tough. The people of Balanzan wake up early (4:00 AM) to eat rice and sauce byLesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1098518488889328482004-10-23T01:53:00.000-07:002004-10-23T08:16:34.786-07:00Hello from Bamako! I'm in town to help out with "Site Visit Week" for the new Trainees. Do you all remember back in February when I went out to Balanzan for one week, to see what it was like and make sure my house was OK (etc., etc.)? Seems like a million years ago. =) I can't tell you what a boost it was to get in from en brusse and read the e-mails and comments you had written me. Thank Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1096616485998635302004-10-01T01:38:00.000-07:002004-10-01T02:15:09.623-07:00Hello friends and family! OK, OK, I get it. Y’all didn’t think the entry by the cat was nearly as funny as I thought it was. Oh well, it's hot here (again--the rain has stopped) and maybe my brain is frying a little. I had a lot of folks tell me that they enjoyed the entry where I described what I do during the course of a day, so BY POPULAR DEMAND, I’ll do another one of those a little later Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1095710023336620192004-09-20T13:50:00.000-07:002004-09-20T12:53:43.336-07:00Hello Friends and Family!It sure has been a busy few weeks! At the end of August all of the Water and Sanitation volunteers came in to the training center to meet and exchange ideas and plan for the future. It was great to get caught up with friends and get new ideas for projects. The first full week in Septemeber was an exciting one! I was a counsellor at a camp for 20 Malian youths from all Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1093805686257706842004-08-29T11:53:00.000-07:002004-08-30T02:47:48.676-07:00Dear Fletch, I read your letter to Leslie and I asked her if I could write back to you. My name is Puma and my mom's name is Suma. Suma is your Aunt Leslie's friend and teammate . I think that means that you and I are cousins. Suma and I live in Kangaba, a town in Mali near the town where Leslie lives. In your letter you asked Leslie if there are cats in Mali, so I wanted to write to letLesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1090513058877644932004-07-22T09:14:00.000-07:002004-07-22T09:25:47.286-07:00Hello Friends and Family! Rainy season has officially started here in Mali. The road between Balanzan and Bamako is melting before our eyes. But here I am to give you an update on how things are going out en brousse. My work has begun! The Balanzan Sanitation Committee (that’s Saniya Ton in Bambara) met a few weeks ago. We’ve started treating the wells in the village (with bleach, just Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1088257230760804862004-06-26T06:27:00.000-07:002004-06-26T06:59:50.953-07:00Did you see the pictures of my house in the last posting (earlier today)? Last Wednesday (June 16) was the wedding celebration I told you about. My ja tigi, Lassine Cisse married Selimata Traore, and the wedding is celebrated on the day that the new bride moves into the husbands concession (even though the marriage had been made final/official several weeks before). Here are Lassine and Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1088253926389999512004-06-26T05:39:00.000-07:002004-06-26T06:25:54.203-07:00Would you like the tour of my house? Let's start with the part I get the most questions about. This is a photo of my nyegen. It is, as we predicted before I left, simply a hole in the ground. It's covered over by a rebar-reinforced concrete slab to keep me from falling in. You can also see the pipe that drains away the water from when I take a "shower". The wash water that comes out from Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1088100215206984052004-06-24T10:56:00.000-07:002004-06-24T11:05:08.873-07:00Hello Again! I'm back in Bamako and I've got good news--there are more pictures coming up as I type. Chez Sitan is pictures of my house in Balanzan (nope, I haven't put the dance floor in yet). More Training Pix is pictures from some of the hands on training projects we did back in February and March. Wedding is pictures from the night of my ja tigi's wedding. I'll work up a commentary on Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1086433597369834972004-06-05T04:04:00.000-07:002004-06-05T04:06:37.370-07:00Hi Everyone! I’m passing through Bamako again on my way to _Field-Based Training_ (FBT). Now that we’ve all been out at our sites for a couple of months, we get back together again to go out into the field to work on a big project to get some real hands-on experience. There are four of us leaving Sunday to spend a week in the village of Dontierebugu. There is a PCV in that village who has a Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1085905261749632932004-05-30T00:59:00.000-07:002004-05-30T01:21:01.750-07:00Hello Friends and Family! I'm back in Bamako on my way (this afternoon) back to the training center for our in-service training (IST). After a week of language training, we'll head out to different parts of the country for field-based (hands-on!) training in our different sectors (water/sanitation for me). I'm sorry to say I don't know yet where I'm going. But I'll tell you all about it when Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1083769336608376032004-05-05T08:02:00.000-07:002004-05-05T08:39:15.343-07:00Hi There! The pictures are coming up! Paris is pictures I took during our 9 hour layover in Paris. We took a quick bus to the city, had breakfast (but not at the Starbuck's) and then saw (the outside of) The Louvre. Training is pictures from the airport and from the 9 weeks we spent at the training center. Sitan's Wedding is pictures from the day my host sister got married. The party Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1083689043191063502004-05-04T09:35:00.000-07:002004-05-04T09:47:57.466-07:00OK, I think the pictures are going to work out. I can only get the computer a half hour at a time, so it might be tomorrow by the time I finish getting them all loaded in there. Thanks for your help, Hoang! OK, now nobody get in trouble at work for sitting around and scrolling through pictures instead of workin'! Here's the address: http://66.59.237.183/leslieinmali/ It'll take a little Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1083682026817546842004-05-04T07:43:00.000-07:002004-05-04T07:51:02.233-07:00I'm baaack! Hi Everyone! I hope this entry finds you well. Can you believe it's May already? I have been enjoying getting integrated into my village. The people of Balanzan greet you all! Hmm, where to start? When I arrived in Balanzan on April 2 the giant fete had already begun. (This was the family reunion, so to speak, for all of the Traores in Western Africa) That evening, the Traores Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1080852679084982592004-04-01T12:46:00.000-08:002004-04-01T12:56:06.200-08:00OK, it's not much, but here's a start: photo Thanks Hank and Judy! At least you know I'm alive now. This is a picture from the day we swore in. The five of us (Jamar, me, Suzannah, Rachel, and Peter) stayed in the same homestay village (Ouezzin Dugu) during training. We're in the picture with Oscar, one of our language profs, who stayed in Ouezzin with us as our cultural guide. Until next timeLesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1080839961433582002004-04-01T09:18:00.000-08:002004-04-01T09:23:00.106-08:00Hi again! Well, this is it. I move to Balanza tomorrow. I’m really excited! I can’t believe it’s finally here. Today was a pretty quiet day. I’ve done all of my laundry and packed up most of my stuff. And I’ve been taking advantage of the last Internet access for 4? 5? 6? weeks. We got word that the computers were delivered to the newly forming Internet center in my market town, but haven’Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1080742248244215422004-03-31T06:09:00.000-08:002004-04-01T09:25:09.950-08:00Hello Friends and Family! I hope this entry finds you well and enjoying spring. It's hot here in Mali! Hot enough that you sort of just have to sleep for an hour in the afternoons. But before I take my nap today I'll fill you in on how things are going. =) We had a great time Thursday. The swimming was great (but too short, alas) at the Ambassador's house. That's the cleanest some of us Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1080225798809994512004-03-25T06:43:00.000-08:002004-03-25T06:46:47.390-08:00Well, it's official. I swore in this morning and am now a real Peace Corps Volunteer. All of us are really excited, and not just because of the pool party at the Ambassador's house this afternoon. Every one of us who was on the airplane over successfully completed training and swore in--from what I hear that doesn't happen too often. So thank you all for your love and support from home! Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1080137808548600342004-03-24T06:16:00.000-08:002004-03-24T06:22:27.903-08:00Hello from Mali! It's Monday night as I start writing this. I'll be in Bamako with a chance to get to an Internet cafe on Wednesday. It's good to have these pre-typed, so i can post them quickly--the power is likely to go out at any time here, which is what happened the last time I posted--I had just enough time to cut-n-paste my entry before the power went out (which is why I never got Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1077963241073605032004-02-28T02:14:00.000-08:002004-02-28T02:16:54.140-08:00Hello friends! I hope this update finds you all well! I am back in Bamako (the capital city) after visiting my future home in Balanzan. I have lots to tell you, so I'm trying typing this up the night before (on an _English_ keyboard, thank you) so that I just have to cut and paste when I get to the cyber cafe (I found one that has CD drives--very chi-chi!). On Tuesday I went with another Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1077613470655325012004-02-24T01:04:00.000-08:002004-02-24T01:07:18.293-08:00Hello again from Bamako! I am passing through town on my way to what we call 'site visit.' I'll spend the next couple of days at my real Peace Corps site (in Balanzan, near Kangaba) before going back to finish training. I know you're all disappointed that i haven't had better internet access. I am too! I'll post pictures just as soon as I can (maybe April). I am sorry i havent been able to Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1075976429345721092004-02-05T02:04:00.000-08:002004-02-05T02:56:33.450-08:00Hello from Mali! I`m at an internet cafe in Bamako typing on a French keyboard, so no promises here. =) Here`s the scoop--I can't access my e-mail (no cookies at the internet cafe) there is no cd drive on this computer, so i cant upload the picures i've taken, and i can't figure out why the comments link is broken again. but i have an hour to tell you all about the last two weeks, so i'll do Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1074653160139172432004-01-20T18:37:00.000-08:002004-01-20T18:48:41.856-08:00Hello! Yikes! It's really here now. We're all oriented and last-minute shopped and filled up on pizza or whatever other food we know we're going to miss for the next two years. Tomorrow morning we get our shots (only three, it looks like) and then we check out of the hotel, load those (ahem, overweight) bags onto the bus and head for the airport. Please , please, don't be nervous, but there Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1074567996254024262004-01-19T18:54:00.000-08:002004-01-19T19:09:08.686-08:00Hi Everyone! I don't want to spoil you, since I can't imagine I'll have another chance to post three times in one day (well, I guess that second one doesn't count), but I took some quick pictures at our first meeting today and wanted to prove to you that I'm really here (and so are 47 other crazy people!). First thing was registration (turning in all of those forms!!). Then we all gathered Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1074538901709193922004-01-19T10:59:00.000-08:002004-01-19T11:03:40.420-08:00OK, If I'm really lucky, the Comments link will work again...Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1074538139149261972004-01-19T10:40:00.000-08:002004-01-19T10:50:57.200-08:00Hi Everyone! I made it to Philadelphia last night with no problems. Everything has gone very smoothly so far. I can even get an internet connection in the hotel room!! I met a few people from the group last night. We're all pretty much in the same boat. There are some people with water sanitation assignments (like me) and some with agriculture assignments. We're all a little nervous about Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1074436641183891452004-01-18T06:37:00.000-08:002004-01-18T06:39:17.763-08:00Wow! It's really here!! Yes, all my bags are packed and I'm ready to go. It won't surprise you that these last few days have been hectic, but everything has come together. Now it's time to rise and shine, have donuts with rainbow sprinkles for breakfast with my family, and then go shine in a new place. I promise to stay very safe, to take lots and lots of pictures, and to write as often as ILesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1073976706595104592004-01-12T22:28:00.000-08:002004-01-13T23:29:35.606-08:00Hi everyone! I'm sorry to report that the tool I use to let you all make smart alecky comments (BlogSpeak) is not working while the owner/hoster works out some troubles. You'll have to hold your tongues 'til it's back. And I promise to get better at uploading pictures with more convenient dimensions. I met the sixth graders today. They were really great kids, but of course I expected nothingLesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1073895858787224252004-01-11T23:46:00.000-08:002004-01-12T00:24:39.593-08:00OK, new rule: No crying, except for the "I laughed so hard I cried" variety. I tried this rule out on all of the people I saw today--thank you everyone for playing along. I'm having a blast seeing all of you who I can see before I take off. I love all of you and I love these squeezed in dances, games of Cranium, coffees, bad puns (well, maybe not), margaritas, chats, songs, and prayers. I Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1073808678717922942004-01-10T23:59:00.000-08:002004-01-14T10:50:31.950-08:00Hi! Wow, there's just a week to go now. Things are coming together slowly but surely. Mad, mad props to Hoang who has helped me solve one of my lingering problems by providing a place for me to upload my pictures. Now I can link in pics so you can see (instead of just read) what I'm up to. So first order of business: I'm still trying to sell my couch and table/chairs Is anybody else Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1073548864798201002004-01-07T23:40:00.000-08:002004-01-14T11:06:00.186-08:00Hi Everyone, Just a quick one tonight. By request I'm posting the poem Tom wrote and read on Sunday. I can't believe Hallmark or American Greetings hasn't snapped Tom up--he is well-known and well-loved (well, unless you got roasted) in the linedance community for his birthday poems. Tom, thank you so much for writing this one for me. Solid to the Corps by Tom Araujo You've been a mover andLesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1073452618253372102004-01-06T21:16:00.000-08:002004-01-06T21:18:25.220-08:00Happy Tuesday! Did everyone enjoy their first day back at work / school after the long holiday break? Just so you don't think I'm getting cocky about not going to work I'll let you know that I spent the morning at the dentist's office. Heheheh, work and school don't sound so bad anymore, do they? It was rough going, but you'll all be glad to know my teeth are set to stay nice 'n healthy for Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1073285445288200702004-01-04T22:23:00.000-08:002004-01-05T16:00:12.086-08:00Happy New Year, Everyone! Wow--it's getting down to the wire now! I leave for Philadelphia in exactly two weeks. I'm sure these next two weeks are going to whiz by. What do you pack to prepare for two years? The Peace Corps provides a packing list, sure, but they forgot to list my stuffed giraffe (his name is Longly). Plus my friend John (serving in the Peace Corps in Kazakhstan) says I Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1071210357241021162003-12-11T21:25:00.000-08:002003-12-11T22:26:09.826-08:00Hi Everyone, Lots of you have asked me questions about Mali and about what my life is going to be like there. This seems like a good place to collect links to some of the websites I've found helpful while I'm getting ready to go. If you have questions or think I'm missing something, let me know. The Peace Corps website: Peace Corps Careful though, if you look at this link, we might end up Lesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190215.post-1071078945592833972003-12-10T09:55:00.000-08:002003-12-10T09:55:57.370-08:00Hi Everyone! My departure day is getting close! According to the latest information, I'll be leaving on Sunday, January 18 to meet the rest of my Peace Corps group in Philadelphia for three days of vaccinations and training before we head for Africa. A big thank you to all of you for your support and your good wishes as I've been working through the long Peace Corps application process. ThisLesliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04584019202754967989noreply@blogger.com