Homologue Day

Tonight is the last night I'll be at Tubaniso before I go back to my homestay village for the next few weeks. Today was "Homologue Day," where each of our respective homologues (i.e. our counterpart organization) came to do technical training with us. My homologue is Madame Coumare, who heads up the Segou region of the CRPA (Centre Regionale de la Promotion de l'Artisanat). She is an incredible woman, and I am very excited to work with her and the CRPA. She spent two years in Russia and is a former Russian high school teacher. She is very involved in women's associations and in her community. I cannot wait until I master French so I can actually communicate freely with her, because she is very motivated to get to work. I bought fabric for my "swearing in" outfit on Monday in Bamako. We went into town, and I ate french fries, chocolate cake, and ice cream. Such a treat! Then we went to the artisan sector of town, where I negotiated with a vendor (in French...booya!) for the fabric. Once I get back to my homestay village I'll have a tailor make my outfit. I'm not sure what I'm going to make it look like yet, but I'll be sure to take pictures. I won't have Internet access for the next 18 days, so until then take care!