Pictures and the Name Ninja

I think I have figured out a better way to post pictures; one that doesn't involve secret handshakes, long e-mail chains, or having to mortgage my kidney. Please let me know if this doesn't work. And if you didn't get the giant e-mail with the secret handshake code that lets you access my homestay pictures, please let me know that too.

http://picasaweb.google.com/home?tab=mq

I'm going to go with the whole 'a pictures worth a thousand words' thing and not write much.

The climbing porn pictures are to taunt all the climbers I know and hopefully sucker a few of them into visiting. I didn't take those pictures and haven't been there yet.

The Bandiagara b-day was a night of tubob (white person) fun with a bunch of Peace Corps people and some local aid workers. We had great food (kabobs, fries, salad and cake), good drinks, and bad dancing.

Swear in is when I took the oath and became an offical volunteer. The pictures shows what great clothes you can get made here. There is one picture in this group that does require a little back story. If your are bored with my rambling at this point just check out the pictures. If not, keep reading and I will explain what a name ninja is.

The Name Ninja

During training I lived in a town with a population of about 7,000 Malians and 8 Peace Corps trainees. The children here find us tubobs to be a bit of a spectical so there is shouting, crowding around and handshaking when they see you. Mark, a fellow trainee, lived as far away from the school as you can get and still be in the same town. He got to meet a lot of kids on his way to and from school every day. One girl did not have the standard reaction to him. Instead of jumping and shouting, she would come tiptoeing up, crouched like a cat buggler, with a finger to her lips like she had just shhhed you, (the pictures explains it better than I can) and in a whisper ask, "comment t'appelle tu?" ('what's your name') If Mark crouched down to meet her, she would get nose to nose with him. If he backed up, she backed up. If he moved forward, she moved forward. Never breaking eye contact of course. How do I know this you may ask yourself. Well by week 6 of our 8 weeks in this town, Mark could get her to follow him across town and into school, in the crouched position. They would then go around and ask all of us are names. And that is how I got to know Iassata Djarra, a.k.a. the Name Ninja.