Not Bali, not Malawi, not Maui... Mali.

When I break the news to people that I have joined the Peace Corps and have been assigned to live in Mali for the next 27 months, I have received every level of shock and many different facial expressions. Some start with "OMG, You're living in BALI?!?!" This just leads to a down hill conversation from there... If only. My moms original response back in January was a long pause and a slow "...Let me call your dad." This is understandable though, as I had asked to go to Central America, so Africa was quite the change in plans. I also had someone ask if I felt that I would be wasting my youth. I thought about that for a little while and realized, hell, thats exactly how I want to spend my free, childless youth. In fact, I wouldn't have it any other way. Testing the boundaries of solidarity and exploring, figuring out what really works as effective means of the developing the third world in addition to a personal quest to understand much more. But, the best response by far was:

"Oh your'e going to Mali? Great! Atleast its not Africa."

Of the various responses to telling people my post grad plans, this is by far the best one.

Today at the Dutch Pub in London shortly following the victory of the Netherlands in the world cup game against Denmark, I was sitting at a table with my parents and my sister. Two drunk Dutch men who we had been chatting with returned with a serious question/worst pick up line ever: They wanted to know which was better looking, the 35 year old engineer or the 20 year old student. After this awkward poll, we were talking and they asked what I was doing after college. I responded and the drunk 20 year old exclaims "ARE YOU CRAZY?!?! I would NEVER let my daughter go to MALI!!" Clearly questioning my dads parenting skills, my dad sipped his beer and laughed.