Wow! Can you believe it's already Halloween?!! Well, I guess in the States the stores are probably covered in Christmas decorations by now...I'm behind the times! But I thought I'd share some fun pics from our 2nd Annual San Halloween Party. If you remember from last year, people got pretty creative with their costumes, so we had a lot to live up to this year. And, once again, the costumes were awesome!
We began the day by carving watermelons. I think I actually prefer them to pumpkins, because you can eat the insides as you work. They turned out pretty well, too.
(Kali and me with our watermelon-jacko'lanterns)
The theme was "Superheros and Supervillians," although that was very loosely interpreted. I'll give a little background into the idea of my costume....
One sunny day in Segou, Mali, I was sitting around with Louie and Yuri. We were bored. So we decided to entertain ourselves by making Louie try on my Halloween costume from last year (I was Princess Peach from Super Mario Bros.).
He looked surprisingly good. He also reminded us of the scene in Spaceballs when the bad guys capture the stunt doubles rather than the real characters.
(the inspiration)
Thus, the idea was born to go to Halloween as the Spaceballs stunt doubles (or as best as we could go with the materials we could find in Mali). We got Emily on board as Dot, I went as Barf, Yuri was Lonestar, and Louie kept the dress on and went as Princess Vespa. I think it turned out pretty good...
(Yuri, Emily, Louie and me)
There were some other great costumes. Three of the San girls (Kali, Jamie and Nicole) went as The Incredibles.
(the Incredibles)
And then there was Kirsten (one of the new Segou volunteers) who went as Carmen Sandiego. Her costume was very impressive. And now we know where in the world she was! ;-)
(Casey, Kirstin and Rob as a mango tree, Carmen Sandiego and a DARE officer, respectively)
The night was a blast...but I had to get up at 6:30 the next morning to bus back to Segou and meet an American rep who is planning a summer study abroad program throughout Mali. I'm helping them plan the Segou leg of the trip, so I took her around to various bogolan and artisan associations that could be possible places the students go to. I was tired, but it was fun nonetheless!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
(A group of girls (plus one little boy) that swarmed me as I was watching the sunset down by the river. They really wanted to braid my hair, but speaking from prior experience, I do not look too good in corn rows!)