The big move!

Yesterday, we finally did it. We made the big move from the north to our new home in Tambacounda!!! I'm so happy words cannot even begin to explain it. Yesterday we were really worn out because we were in a car for 11ish hours, but today has been wonderful. We woke up this morning and went to the main road for an awesome egg sandwich from a guy named Osman. After this, we came back and spent some time pulling all of the thorns out of our bike tires. Oh, thorns...souvenirs from the north. After this, we went on a wild goose chase for new inner tubes, but all of the stores nearby are sold out. Luckily, the guard here at the Tamba house is an awesome guy who is going to pick us up some new inner tubes from a bike place far away from here, and we will be in business. The main parts of the town are totally bike-able, including an awesome burger place that has been written up in the Lonely Planet, a fantastic warthog restaurant that we ate at today and enjoyed thoroughly, and a giant market with the biggest cucumbers and watermelons I've seen since being in Arkansas. Life is so good! Fruits and vegetables are cheaper here, too. In Ourosogie for a small cucumber I would pay 500-600 cfa...here, a large cucumber is only 200 cfa. WOW! Thank you, moderately warm climate, for making vegetable production so much easier for all of the farmers in the area.
In addition, we met with our local volunteer support person, who is an awesome guy that spent some time in the United States and as a consequence has a very American sense of humor, which I can appreciate in a Peace Corps staff member. He took us to some of our potential work sites, including an NGO that works with runaways and Koranic students, the health post, and the Yaajeende office (where Nic will primarily be working if things line up). I am going to go on Monday to the NGO that works with runaways and Koranic students and speak with them specifically about their needs and potential projects. The volunteer support guy told me that he will give them a call and let them know that there is a Peace Corps volunteer that wishes to work for their organization. I am so excited. The work available to me in this region is plentiful and seems to be rewarding stuff. There is also an orphanage here I could potentially work at, and maybe two but the volunteers in the area are unsure about one of them. I am going to go myself and check out the situation. One of the benefits of being relocated is that I can pretty much choose my own work, but this comes with the difficulty of having to find my own counterparts and make my own work connections. I am optimistic, though. It's a good opportunity to test my language!
We are going to be in the regional house for at least one more week while we are waiting for our house to be ready for us to move in, so we will have the internet for a while. Be in touch!