Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 12:33:25 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Peace Corps Mali
 
Greetings all,
 
I am a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mali and had the pleasure of assisting in the pick-up and orientation 
of the new group of trianees (or stagaires as we call them) from the airport last night. As a current 
volunteer, the best way to describe how they look is "clean". I am sending this email out because enough 
people had remarked that their parents/loved ones were worried about their arrival. If you are receiving 
this, it means your child/sister/brother/buddy arrived and wrote your email down for me to include in this 
mailing. Please feel free to forward this on to anyone who may have been omitted from the list as some 
of the stagaires didn't know the email addresses of their family/friends without being on the computer themselves.
 
All of the new stagaires are now at the training center called Tubaniso (Bambara word for House of Doves) and 
are settled in to their huts for the beginning of training. They will be headed out into the countryside with 
current volunteers on Sunday for a 3 day long "Demystification" experience. Most of them should have the chance 
to contact you via email during this time, but keep in mind that this is Mali and we are not too far removed 
from living like the Flintstones so if you don't hear from them they are still safe. Please don't respond 
to this email, because I am just a lowly volunteer and have to means of conveying messages short of sending 
smoke signals. Kan ben kofe!! (see you later)
 
Regards,
Brendan Beck, PCV Mali