We left Houston on the plane at 4:30 pm on Monday, January 13th, and it just managed to take 15 hours and 30 min. to get to Bamako, Mali's capitol by way of "Gay Paris," where we changed planes. At the airport in Mali when we stepped off the plane a gust of hot air hit us. It is hot and dry in Mali. In some places it is very green despite common thought. In customs we whizzed through because some friends were there to help us. Otherwise, it would have been very confusing, with crowds of people and many, many people with carts offered to carry our baggage. Since we had a lot of baggage, especially with the satellite telephone, which is quite big and weighs 100 pounds, we needed to hire several of these men. We stayed in the Ambassador's residence and I was allowed to interview him. He actually has a pool in his backyard. Since America is such a big and powerful country they give him many luxuries. The mosquitos were terrible because of all the standing water (he also has a large and often watered backyard) The first night of 2 that I spent there I got more than 100 bites. My reaction to African mosquitos is to get small red bumps that don't itch, my sister's reaction is to get large red welts that itch terribly. Even the second night under a mosquito net I got about 20 on my face only. A Mosquito net is a net that hangs down from the ceiling that is tucked into the side of a bed. Many local people use them. After two days in Bamako we left for the town of Jenne 400 miles to the northeast where we would be doing the work. It took us over twleve hours. The roads were paved and didn't have many potholes and we saw many donkey carts, people walking, huge buses that people were stuffed in, and broken down cars. Talking about broken down cars we had an encounter of our own. The Land Rover that some of the people on the project were travelling on broke down in the first place so we had to stop and fix it at the small town of Fana. We stopped for lunch and to buy a few things. We bought watermelons, mandarins, cucumbers, and tomatoes. Every time you stopped the car, people would crowd around your windows trying to sell you fruits and veggies. Many people carry their wares on their heads, they use rags to make the tops of their heads flat. Many boys were begging. They would say "Hey, you are my friend? Friend, do you have any money?" and they would keep harassing you for a while until they give up. We left Bamako at 11 in the morning and arrived at the Bani River around 10 at night. We waited for a "bac," or ferry, to take us across. We honked the horn on our "voiture," or car, and waited. Some people my mom and dad knew went over in a "pirogue," an african canoe, and rousted the ferrymen. Because we were driving with someone from the government we got free passage over the river. The city awaited us on the other side of the river. As we approached the city I was surprised to see electric lights. My parents had told me they didn't have them. The town just got them six months ago. I think Jenne has really done themselves a bad deed in starting to use electricity. Because of the electricity a certain air about the city is gone. When they turn off the electricity at night it is beautiful. You can see more stars than ever, not just the ones that are the brightest. You can see the Milky Way clearly because you can see so many stars. With the electricity it is loud at night and many people listen to the radio and stay up very late. From the roof of the house we are staying in we have a beautiful view of the Mosque. However, I think the view is ruined by the fact that they put up a huge loudspeaker so that you can hear the call to prayer all over the city. Local people are of course very excited and proud to have the speakers and the lights. Because electricity is such a recent thing here, my Mom and Dad say they can really see some of the many ways that people's lives change when new technology comes in.