Hello Family...

Hello Family...

Bess and I have a new mailing address… it is now posted in the “Contact Bess and Jared” section of my blog… any mail and packages sent to this address will be delivered to the post office in Gao. We plan on making the trip from Gossi to Gao monthly, or Bi-monthly for mail, money, internet, and supplies. I will also post this new address at the bottom of this letter. You may still send letters and packages to the old address in Bamako, but we will only receive them when we visit Bamako or when Peace Corps divers deliver them to us at site. Probably it is best to use our Gao address… there is a girl from training in our Gao group, Kelly, who is opening two packages she just received in Gao from family in the U.S. – so the address works.

Yesterday, 9/27/2007, I wasted away the heat of the day working hard on a long letter that I was going to e-mail to family and then post on my blog… I wrote during the intense heat of midday… it was around 115 degrees F outside… and 98 degrees F inside the Peace Corps Gao Bureau where I typed on Natalie’s laptop. As I typed… I tried hard to explain to everyone back home… anyone who might care… how hot it really is here in Gao… and to explain how hard it really is to function here… or do anything active at all. Indeed… as I typed that long letter, yesterday, I was sweating profusely… like a sweat lodge… it beaded out of me… while everyone else in the Peace Corps Gao Bureau was either asleep… napping… or had passed out watching a movie… Indeed… as I typed and looked around the Bureau… I really wanted to convey to people back home… that performing work is hard here in Gao… doing anything is hard here in Gao… when it is so hot… people like us just can’t move any more… and any effort that one makes… goes into replenishing one’s food and water supply… some of the Gao volunteers who have lived here for over a year have adapted by becoming more or less nocturnal. But last night… it was still 96 degrees F outside. I am interested to see how we all adapt to the Sahara Desert. Anyway… after I typed a very long letter, yesterday, I then rode my bike through the sandy roads of Gao… looking for an Internet Café. Eventually I found it… but the Internet was down… so biked into market… bought some cold juice… and returned to the Bureau. Today, I woke up still eager to mail my long letter… so I biked back across the city of Gao to the Internet Café… so I would be there when it opened at 8:00am… after sitting outside the Internet Café for one hour in the heat of the rising sun… someone finally showed up and opened the Internet Cafe at 9:00am. Unfortunately, the computers all operate in French… so when I tried to “open” my letter in Microsoft Word, I actually saved a blank document over my long letter… because I wasn’t really “opening” I was “saving as”… so I completely lost my very long letter… as a result… I spent some time posting a few pictures on my blog… uploaded some videos onto Youtube which I then connected to my blog… and then I biked all the way back to the Peace Corps Gao Bureau where I am once again typing on Natalie’s laptop. So… the moral of all this story… is the very thing I wanted to convey in my long letter yesterday… Everything is Made Difficult for us here in Northern Mali.

Bess and Jared

Peace Corps Volunteers

B.P. 119

Gao, Mali

West Africa