Running out of steam

I have to say that the initial excitement of learning the date that I am leaving has worn off. Now I am facing three more months with little actual work to do to justify me being here. Hot season is still in full swing, and I am going to sleep at night while the thermometer on my alarm clock says its still 103 degrees... Not so fun. I got to Skype with the Mouton side of my family last night, which was awesome! My parents are down at my grandmother's house outside Baton Rouge, LA, and they set up the computer so that I could see everyone's faces, say hi and meet some new additions to the family. Skype is amazing!!!

Coming up at the end of this month, I am going to do an HIV/AIDS awareness bike ride at a fellow volunteer's site. We're going to travel to the villages around her town with Malian educators to support them, take pictures, and hopefully generate interest in getting tested. After that, I am going to go back to my village and stay for a few days, hopefully doing some baby-weighing and doing some neem cream demonstrations. Our "Close of Service" conference begins June 8 in Bamako, so I will be in Bamako for a few days with everyone in our stage who has made it this far- the survivors ;)

I was thinking about going back to my village, and I decided to figure out exactly what sort of terrifying insect it was that I found in my mud house on a number of occasions. Youtube helped me out- it was a Camel Spider. They're really big and terryfying, but not venomous. They do pack a powerful bite with strong, scary mandibles though. Here's a video of one that a soldier caught in Iraq:



My first encounter with these spiders was when I innocently enough took the lid off of my (empty) pot to fill it with water to cook, and found one scrambling around inside, struggling against the smooth surface to escape. I have no idea how it got into the pot in the first place! Of course, I freaked out and couldn't breathe for a minute (after I had immediately slammed the lid back down). I took the whole thing outside to the Malian women in my concession, and they laughed at my obvious terror. One woman took the spider with her bare hands and flung it in the yard out of the way somewhere and moved on with her day. It took me a while to recover.

Some months later, when my villagers had completed my new house, I woke up one morning and unzipped my mosquito net tent to find another one struggling around on the floor right next to me. Thank GOD for REI Bug Huts! It could have easily been in bed with me! I trapped it and took it outside and put it in a bucket. It looked like it was dying, but I couldn't see a reason why. Even though the spider was obviously in a weakened state, I still jumped every time it moved. I eventually took it into the field far from my house and threw it out. Ohhhh, Mali...

 I'm also considering bringing my sweetheart of a cat, Mya, home to the United States. I don't know if it would be worth the extra couple hundred dollars and sleepless international flights full of people mad at me because my cat is crying from her carrier under the seat in front of me... What do you think?