celebrating Malian independence

ok can someone tell me how to rotate photos on here? I'll try to fix them.
So the 22nd was Mali's independence day so there was lots of partying. I was in village and two of my friends and I pulled our resources together to have a yummy feast of greasy macaroni, beef, and some guinea fowl- it was one of the best meals in Mali. I made some popcorn and banana bread to share. I stayed up the lastest ever in village almost 2:30, just chatting, drinking tea and playing cards. Lots of fun, there's a pic of my homologue's wife Alima making macaroni with papa, the nephew of my homologue. There's another pic of her in I in our fete clothing (notice my cool Mali shirt). Then there's a pic of my homologue posing by his papaya tree. After a one too many rounds of tea things got a little crazy and my friend Ousmane wanted a pic of him with the lantern hanging out of his mouth. The last pic is my buddy Dibri, in my yard.

Still, nothing too new going on. The other day I rode about 40 km to go to a different market, with some friends from village it was a really nice and clean market and the bike ride was great I got kinnda burnt but it was fun to see a new village with Malian friends. It's ramadan nad people are still fasting- not me. I tried last year, but it's too hard to give up water all day when it's so hot, and there's no point in doing the fast if I'm going to do it half-ass.

Bamako was fun, I saw some cool movies that other PCVs had (my favorite being The Departed and the scariest being Jesus Camp), read Harry Potter- excellent and experienced the Bamako nightlife, good times; I think it's better that we only go out once every few months, Bamako can get CRAZY.

The new volunteers are here and I've been helping them out in the city, we have 7 new PCVs in the surrounding area and one new PCV in the city, welcome to Sikasso girls! I'm back to village tomorrow, inshallah!