In this second installment, we'll give you a brief introduction to what it was like to live in a village with a host family. As part of our training and integration, we spent two months living with a local family under their roof, eating their food, and basically hanging out with them for the times we weren't in school. We'd awake early to get to school by 8:00 am each day, Monday through Saturday, break for lunch at midday, then resume at 2:30 pm to study up until 4:30-5:00 pm each day. As for language, despite Mali being a predominantly French-speaking country (colonially), the dominant language is Bambara, so most of us volunteers have been learning that.
Below are some photos from Cass's homestay situation. This first one is of a large rock, a landmark, that identified the village of Soundougouba Kora.
