Just found out last week that I'll be officially done with Peace Corps on September 2!!! If anyone wants to travel around Africa for 3 weeks or so with me after I'm done, I'd love to have you. Also, I am thinking I might pop over to Spain for a couple weeks at the end of June. Anyone up for a vacation in Spain?

I miss you all! Hope you are doing great!

Ten Rules for Being Human by Cherie Carter-Scott

1. You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it's yours to keep for the entire period.
2. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called, "life."
3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial, error, and experimentation. The "failed" experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that ultimately "work."
4. Lessons are repeated until they are learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson.
5. Learning lessons does not end. There's no part of life that doesn't contain its lessons. If you're alive, that means there are still lessons to be learned.
6. "There" is no better a place than "here." When your "there" has become a "here", you will simply obtain another "there" that will again look better than "here."
7. Other people are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.
8. What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.
9. Your answers lie within you. The answers to life's questions lie within you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.
10. You will forget all this.

Alyson and Cristin Come to Hawaii!

They got Leied on their first night! And learned how to give the shaka!

We had the beach all to ourselves on this ride! My life flashed before my eyes while my pregnant horse galloped like a lightning bolt down the shore!

We conquered the waves and landed on this off shore island without capsizing.... and then...
We deserved a beer!

I know after all of our adventurous activities... snorkeling, swimming in waterfalls, and interacting with the locals at Senior Frogs, Cristin and Alyson will at least come back to Hawaii for the delicious Poi! I'm so glad you guys came to visit, I had an awesome time!

Question Game

Hmm this is a hard question game.  

I think I am more open to different ideas now, and less obnoxious when I disagree with people.  Negatively, I have completely lost all direction with my life.  But that's not completely true, because I think I never really had any direction.  So I'd say that's more neutral, but still existentially disturbing.

I am in Hawaii!! 

Ilana, if you get to read this before June, I really really miss you. I can't wait to see you back here.... especially since you're the closest one of all of us to me! ( Which means I better see you this summer :) )

Cristin and Alyson, I had no idea you two were going to Hawaii! I'm excited for you! And jealous too :) Can't wait to see the pictures!

I liked Cristin's question idea so here's my answer!!

I think I've learned to have more patience- way more than I had before. And now, I really feel like things will all work out the way they're intended to, and I kind of just roll with whatever is in front of me! I'm way more mellow.

And like Cristin, I also am cautious when meeting new people- I like making new friends but I feel now like I've got such awesome people in my life that building new friendships like those I already have will take some time!

Talk to you all soon!

pictures from mali

Hawa. I am kinda obsessed with her.

Halima.

Masa.

Didi. In a bucket.

Getting water from the pump.

The Rose Dunes (Gao). They are supposed to turn pink at sunset. Of course, we were there on a cloudy day.

hand of fatim at night.

hand of fatim by day.

This is great! Although I probably won't be contributing too regularly, since let's face it - I never have internet access. But it will be great to read through when I get the chance.

I am in Bamako right now. Was supposed to leave today for a 3 week trip to Malawi, Zambia and Botswana, only I started having chest pains last week and was brought into Bamako to see the cardiologist and get lots of blood drawn and whatnot. I am not having a heart attack. Unfortunately, since the chest pains have yet to go away, I was told no vacation. Which sucks. They are still trying to figure out exactly what it is. Could be my malaria medication (so I'm not taking that one anymore), could just be a strained muscle... I kinda don't have the greatest faith in medical personnel here anyway, so really who knows. In the meantime, I am trying to figure out what I am going to do with all the vacation days I now have to use... Christopher and I are thinking about a week in Paris in April. I also have friends leaving for Guinea next week, so if I am feeling better I might go with them. But I really wanted to see a Zebra :(

Other than that, things are ok. I am pretty much just biding my time until I can say goodbye to the Peace Corps, as are the majority of people I came in with. I have a project that will hopefully keep me busy from March until June, although that is far from a sure thing. I have become very cynical about development work. I think NGOs are doing everything wrong and ruining it for the rest of us who are trying to help. But I don't want to bitch about that here.

One of my best friends here in Peace Corps - who was my roommate at our staging in Philly and my roommate through training - got married to another Peace Corps Volunteer a few weeks ago at the Hand of Fatim. It was awesome. We got to rock climb and hike. I did not bring my camera to upload pictures, but I will post some perhaps tomorrow. And then a group of us went to see Elephants. Elephants are cool to look at, but only for maybe 20 minutes or so. They don't really do much.

Anyway, I hope all of you are fantastic. And I miss you. A lot. I'll try to write more before I head back to site.

Question Game

I think it would be fun to get the question game going again on this blog. I will start. 

What are your most positive and least positive differences between the person you are now and the one we met by the spring of 2003? 

I am a million times more confident with who I am and much less willing to allow others to treat me poorly. 

I am more cynical when meeting new people and think no one could be as cool as those who I already have in my life. 

This is great. I am so excited.  I don't really have anything fun to say.  I found a new favorite drink.  It is an extra dirty vodka martini straight up.  Every time my boyfriend Mike makes it for me he says "An extra dirty martini for an extra dirty girl".  I am not really sure how to take it when he says that.  Who are we kidding, I laugh every time. 

This is such a great idea! I don't like having to "Title" each post though, its like filling out the subject like of an e-mail. Too stressful for my taste.

Try to contain me in a summary box! Ha! I am un-containable!

I miss you guys! I don't know if everyone knew, but Cristin and I are headed to the tropical paradise of Holly'aii in about 3 weeks. Yeaahhhhh!!! I'll be sure to blog about the beach and my sunburn and you can feel like you were there with us.

XOXOXOXO
smooches
Alyson

YAY!

I'm totally in! I'm already on Blogger all the time so this is great! What a wonderful idea!

Here's a little snippet to get started....

I'm killing time until 5pm (oops) and I can get my weekend started. I found out last week that I'm going to the Lourdes Ball this year (big formal hospital fundraiser) so I have a lot of shopping and planning to do this weekend! I did get a dress though and I love it!

Who's next??

SandCastles

I wanted to post some pictures of Hawaii, but I am at work right now and don't have any. As you can tell, I have had some free time at work lately... and the other day I was googling tips on sandcastle making. It has been quite some time since I have made a sandcastle and I was thinking that it's about time to get architectural at the beach. Then, I found this picture and I'm afraid. I hope that I don't run into this little man in the midst of my sandcastle building bliss.

VIP Status

I thought that this would be a great way for us to keep in touch and share pictures, updates, and entertainment for eachother :) It will be something that will always be saved, to look back upon along the years. Will does this with his family and it has gotten to be pretty entertaining. So if any of you have embarrassing pictures of eachother... i want to see them! Plus, I really miss you guys and want us to stay in eachother's lives. So post away! It is sort of like a private VIP facebook... without everyone you've ever met stalking your profile. Feel free to change the colors and the name of the blog if you can think of anything more creative than a nonsense word made up of our initials.