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This week I'm in Mamou, attending the counterpart workshop. My counterpart is the person in my village that I'll have the most contact with. I found out today that my counterpart won't be here this weekend, but I'll be meeting him when I visit my site at Timbi Madina on Sunday. I don't have a lot of details about my site yet, but I'll include what I do know: it's a city of about 100, 000 people , so medium sized, although it's hard to tell exactly because the cities here, their structure and the businesses they support differs so greatly from cities in the States.

I also know that my site is in the Fouta region of the country, which is the Plateau/Mountainous region. The temp. there is cooler and it rains less. There are apparetnly great hiking/biking trails (I was issued a PC mountain bike last week). I've heard that it's only about 5 km to the closest waterfalls.

Here in Mamou I have met a current PCV, Christine who is dating another PCV, Ricky, who has been assigned to my site for the last two years. She had a lot of good things to say about my city, there is electricity at some period of almost everyday and there is also a water faucet just outside my house. My house is like a duplex and I have a bedroom, living room, and kitchen to myself. I also have a latrine just outside of my house. The city has a few restaurants and you can get yougart and ultra-pasturized milk (the kind sold Europe as well that doesn't need to be refrigerated). There is also a big market daily in the town and a regional market on Sundays. There is a telecenter (phone) in town, and Ricky had madefriends with the owner, so hopefuly I can get the number and continue to receive incoming calls for free (mom & dad I'll keep you posted on this). I also know that my 3 closest neighbors are 15km, 20km, and 30km ways (and two of them i'd conside myself to know well).

I'll find out more about my work when I actually visit my site, but as of now I know that I'll be working with a groupment that is responsible for the collection & distribution of potatoes from all the regions potato growers (I guess that's the main crop around my site). One of my business trainers has a lot of experience working in my town and is confident that I'll be busy with projects during my time there.

I'm going to try to upload some photos now....if it doesn't take too long I'll update about my family as well.

miss you and love you,
Amy