Hey guys, sorry it has been a couple days since I've last posted. The wifi is in and out and in the smaller villages outside of Bamako wifi is nonexistent. I'm having a wonderful trip and can't wait for you all to see more pictures about our experiences! If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment. I usually write these in a hurry and half asleep so I leave a lot of stuff out. Love you guys!

Day two
Today was just another day of running some errands, preparing for our trips to the villages, and waiting for the rest of our group. We woke up at La Hotel Venise, ate the usual weird omelette, coffee and bread and waited for Alou. It was around 11:00 that we went to the bank to withdrawal some money. Alou, Oma, Ivy, my Dad and I pulled up, were checked by security, and we then entered what greatly resembles the DMV. You walk in, take a number, and everyone is sitting around in chairs waiting to be called up so that they can access their accounts while be surrounded by four other people. It was here I saw THE CUTEST little African baby. I'm talking fresh out of the oven, puffy lips and cheeks, and super dark sparkly eyes. Don't even get me started on African babies. You see them all over the place tied to their mothers' backs. They're dark, pudgy, and have little clumps of fuzz on their heads. I freak out every time I see one. I'll try to take some cute pictures sometime, but I don't want to be rude and sometimes their mothers are camera shy.
 After we had exchanged some money for nearly the same price as we did on the streets, we headed to the Mali Orange store to set up my dad's phone. This was a similar experience as going to the bank. Ivy and I waited with Oma on some chairs in the back and Alou helped translate for my dad. So what took us a couple hours to do in Africa we could've accomplished in one hour back home with a quick stop at the ATM, and a call to a Verizon store. It was about 2:00 when we finished and my dad asked Alou if we could go to a pizza place for lunch. Alou smiled at the idea and before we knew it we were sitting at this little cafe surrounded by pastries, sipping Cokes, enjoying a random free wifi hotspot, and eating small personal pizzas. The pizza wasn't awful, but it was African pizza... So lets just say it had its quirks. Coca Cola is a universal thing, which I seriously appreciate, and so is the term "okay", and I think as long as that statement holds true, ill be content with traveling to strange places. I also got to use a sketchy public rest room here,which I'm sure is normal for them, but it was just too weird. The sexes aren't separated, a man peed with the door open, and lets just say I hover peed because I was not about to touch anything.
Next, we went the Alous's office and the main headquarters of The Mali Rising Foundation. Basically it was this little hole in the wall that was as big as my room with a small wooden divider. It really amazes me though how much these people do with so little. A club I'm a part of at school can't get itself off the ground with all of our resources to help the organization, but I think if they can make do with the basic supplies of a computer, printer, and wifi, then we should have no excuse. I have serious respect for those who are a part of the MRF because it is a HUGE commitment of your time, energy, and money. There's a quote that says "charity is cheap", but if there's one thing this trip has taught me, it's that "Charity isn't cheap." And it has taken a lot of work for the organization to come this far.
We  then decided to go to a market where we could buy some futbóls, or soccer balls that we could take around to the schools with us to play with the kids. So we went to a market where of course we stuck out like sore thumbs, and I nearly melted, but we found some soccer balls. Alou would tell us to wait around the corner, he would go haggle with the vendor, and then my dad would come pay for it because as soon as they see white people they raise their prices two or three times as much. Might I also mention how they sell EVERYTHING here. Tires, pots, prayer mats, seat covers, clothing, electronics,  you name it, they sell it once street somewhere or runyour car and try to get you to buy it through your window.
For our last event of the day, Alou asked if we wanted to go to a Malian National Park. We drove slightly out of town around a mountain that had a pretty, large white house on top of it. Alou and Oma told us that the president lives there and so everyone calls it "power mountain". I think that encompassed my thoughts about the day because I was slowly making sense of why Africa is oppressed, and what the biggest problems are. Everything is a power struggle here, and it makes me extremely grateful for my political circumstances at home where I don't live at the mercy of the power of one person. But anyways...(:

We went to a beautiful nature reserve. As usual, we paid more to get in than Alou and and Oma.  It was shaded by huge trees and you could walk around the paths and hang out in a park like atmosphere. We also went to the zoo. I saw monkeys, crocodiles, a baby elephant, a hyena, a lion and lioness, fish and cool snakes. This trip hasn't quite been an African safari, but I've had more than my fill of animals.
We then went home in crazy rush hour traffic which made it take forever.I took a little catnap, we ate our supply of snacks, and I  managed to stay awake long enough for Allen, his son Garret, and Bridget to make it to our hotel.
Phew! I never realized how much we did until I wrote that. Just another crazy day in Africa.