it's a new year!

i hope that everyone had a very good christmas, that Santa Claus was gentil avec vous and that y'all had a enjoyable New Years; mine always tend to be somewhat of a letdown =(

i just got into the bureau this afternoon. i was on a 10ish day trip up north to the countries of Burkina Faso and Mali. I went on a 4 day trek/hike to Dogon Country in Mali. It was awesome. there really is no way to fully describe it all. it was a lot of walking...in sand, under the hoooooooooooooooooooot, hot sun, climbing rocks where just feet away was a 300-500 foot drop off, getting really thristy, riding on ox or horse carts, sleeping under the stars--watching the moon, Orion's belt and the big dipper move across the sky and in the morning watching the suns rays puch away the darkness, FREEEZING cold at night, not understanding the culture or language (VERY frustrating!), watching the sun set over the plateau, getting cankles after traveling in uncomfortable mini-vans (aka tro-tros) where they manage to fit 16-20 people inside, not sweating--it just evaporated!, getting reaaaaaaaaaallllllly dirty just because it was inevitable, all that and soooooooooooo much more.

we used just one camera for the trek so as to save room in our bags. i must wait for the pics to be uploaded onto a computer so i can upload them...and in the meantime you will have to wait and wonder what this so called Dogon Country place looks like.