Countdown: 1 Month!

Forgive me for not posting in quite a while - I've been paying too much attention to the World Cup and not much has happened regarding information about the Peace Corps. That is, other than one BIG thing. Apparently, Michele and I sent our passports to the wrong place - instead of sending them to the US Passport Agency like we did, we were supposed to mail them to our Peace Corps office directly and let them mail the passports to the US Passport Agency. At this moment, all we can do is wait and see. There shouldn't be any further problems at this point other than trying to buy all the right supplies we'll need in Mali.

Here are a few of the things Michele and I have bought in preparation:

-iPods: the key here is weight and size. The second I saw that iPod has a camera connector accessory, I realized this 5.5 ounce device can completely replace my 5.5 pound laptop computer. Because we're each only allowed 80 pounds in our luggage, every pound of extra fluff we can shed gives much relief, especially since we want to take as many books with us as possible. I also bought a solar panel charger that can be used with my camera battery and our iPods. It's pretty sleek and is bound to be useful since the only thing Mali has in abundance is sunlight.

-French books: last night we both bought pocket French dictionaries. Since all of our searches for English - Bambaran language dictionaries have ended in failure, we can at least try to learn French. I also managed to find a free French - English dictionary online for my iPod, so that will help too. Now I just need to download the Bambaran lessons that the Peace Corps has posted online for us.

There are still some important things we still need to buy, however:

Shoes: yeah. I'm going to need a pair of sandals and tennis shoes (since the pairs I have right now are not capable of lasting another 2 months let alone 2 years in Africa. And a pair of boots would be nice too, just in case.

Tools: I'm excited about getting to pick out a multi-purpose Victorinox or Leatherman tool/knife. You never know when these things will come in handy since they are always handy. Also, a compass (com-pass for you, Michele). It's the difference between knowing what direction you're going and assuming - literally.

Other news:
This is my last full week of work! Hooray!! Granted, this statement is a little misleading - I still have 3 weeks of work; next week is a 3 day week and the week after is a 4 day week. But after that, I'm done! Goodbye, Atlanta traffic.



In World Cup news:
2 of my 5 teams made it into the 2nd round: France and Ghana.

Here is how everyone faired in their matches:
USA - Well, I really can't say anything other than we didn't live up to the expectations. We just didn't play like a world cup team. Very disappointing. Lost to the Czechs, tied the Italians, and lost to Ghana.

France - First 2 games, the French played like the US - as in, they didn't. But they at least came away with 2 tied games. They woke up, however, in game 3 vs. Togo and showed that they can play like they're on fire, just like the old days. They advanced to round 2 and play Spain tomorrow. Spain has an amazing team this year, and most doubt the French can do it, but I'll be rooting for them anyways.

Ghana - Amazing. They've defied all expectations. Opening loss to Italy, sad, but then clear victories over the Czechs and Americans. They are the first African team to advance to the second round, ever, which has no doubt excited many of the people in West Africa at the moment. They play Brazil tomorrow which doesn't bode well for them. Brazil is one of the best teams around at the moment, but then again, no one gave Ghana a chance vs. the Czechs and US either. Go Ghana!

Cote D'Ivoire - They played with heart, and each one of their games were very close. Two losses and then a win against Serbia and Montenegro made it so that Cote D'Ivoire could leave the tournament on a high note.

Togo - They played tough and put up a good fight each game, but just weren't able to do that well. All 3 of their games were losses.

World Cup Fever (Part II)

This is an update to my post yesterday exploring my thoughts about Africa in the oh-so-quickly approaching World Cup.

Being that I will live in Mali in a few months, which African nation should I support more: Cote D'Ivoire, Ghana, or Togo?

Here is what I've found out so far:
This is the first time qualifying for the World Cup for all three nations. All three have their 'Jamaican Bobsled Team' stories. Out of the three, Ghana has the best team and the best legacy. For years they've been a contender in Africa - they've won the Africa Nations Cup several times and all sorts of youth tournaments in the past decade. The country is poor and so usually their best players are lured away by European teams with money. The powerhouse African teams (Cameroon, South Africa, and Nigeria) didn't qualify for the World Cup because, as critics say, they were over-confident and weren't focused as a team during games. Ghana doesn't have that self-defeating pride and are viewed as the most likely underdog to do well.

Out of all three countries, few have hope for Togo. Early on, they were ranked 96th in the world (only the top 32 compete in the World Cup) and their first game against a weak opponent was lost. But then they picked their head up and beat Senegal and Congo, two teams considered to be immensely better than Togo. The most goals scored by a single person this season in Africa were made by Togo's Emmanuel Sheyi Adebayor. Togo is the very little nation that could. No one thought they would do well (think of the Cleveland Browns making it to the Superbowl), yet, somehow, they beat some of the best teams in Africa to earn a place in the World Cup. If any country is an underdog in this tournament, it is Togo.

Cote D'Ivoire is a bit different. They aren't considered a particularly strong team - the story behind the team is what matters. Cote D'Ivoire has been a nation broken by war the past few years and its people are still suffering from periodic violent clashes, especially in the North where rebels still occupy much of the land. The night that the Cote D'Ivoire Elephants qualified for the World Cup when a Cameroon player hit the goalpost during a penalty shot and lost to Egypt, the people of Cote D'Ivoire flooded the streets cheering and celebrating alongside one another - something they have not experienced in quite some time. It may be a little naive to think this, but a poor country treated as insignificantly as Cote D'Ivoire, torn by war, many of its people afraid to go out on the streets having a team on the world stage to call their own can be a pretty inspiring situation. Unlike here in America, those nights that Cote D'Ivoire will be playing another team, every single person in the country will have their eyes glued to the TV, intensely watching every moment, a collective nation-wide holding of breathe during the last moments of the match to witness the official outcome... Just one or two wins in the World Cup can do amazing things for the people of the nation if only for a few weeks.

So after all this research to find out more about these teams, I'm not really sure I can pick between them yet if at all. I guess I can put it like this: when I'm practical and placing bets, I'll go for the Ghana Black Stars - the little guy inside me will throw his hands in the air for Togo - and my heart will go out and lose its voice screaming for the Elephants of Cote D'Ivoire.



Interesting side note about the World Cup: the beer, Budweiser, somehow got its stinking watered-down paws on sponsorship of the World Cup in Germany and was to be the only beer allowed to be sold in German football stadiums. Needless to say, Germans everywhere were pissed as hell. The Royal Jester of Beers doesn't even meet the purity laws enforced on all beers in Germany to use the best ingredients. There is no other country in the world where beer is more of a source of national pride than Germany - I've been witness to the fact that they sell it in German McDonalds. Well, anyways, Germans were outraged, so an agreement to allow Bitburger to be sold as well has been reached. (It's pretty easy to see my bias against American beers here - other than Michelob Amberbock that is.)

World Cup Fever

Not too many Americans reading this will care, but today On Point radio (XM channel 133 11am-noon) is dedicated to the upcoming Football (Soccer) World Cup. Everyone on the program is talking excitedly and getting really worked up over the tournament and via radio waves passing that excitement on to me. People are saying that the USA is at its best ever, so we will be one of the teams to watch out for. Granted, Brazil is also said to have its best team ever (which means significantly more than the US best-ever team), so we'll have to see how that works out.

Personally, I'm torn at the moment as to who I should cheer the most. I am American, so the USA team will be up there. I absolutely loved following football (soccer) when I lived in Paris last year and since I was in high school I've been fairly partial to the French team. But now there are 3 added countries that really cause the dilema - I am going to Mali with the Peace Corps in July, so in the spirit of "trying to fit in with the culture" like the Peace Corps wants, I ask "who will the Malians be cheering for??!"

4 African teams are participating in the World Cup this year, 3 of which are located spitting distance from Mali: Cote D'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Ghana, and Togo - all of whom are 1st timers to the World Cup. Cote D'Ivorie is a no brainer since they are the only team I like in Group C. However, Ghana and the US are both in Group E while France and Togo are both in Group G. Actually, I guess that makes it easy enough: I'll go for Cote D'Ivoire, USA, and France in the Group phase of the tournament (although Ghana is said to have an extremely good team this year, I might have to switch over to them if they impress me more than the US does).

Anyways, the point is, I'm conflicted between loyalty to my country (USA), loyalty to the country taught me the love of the World Cup (France), or loyalty to the countries that closer identify to where I will be for the next two years (Cote D'Ivoire, Ghana, and Togo). Sigh... if only all of life's problems were as interesting and fun to figure out as this.

On a completely aesthetic note, out of these above mentioned countries, The French Les Bleus have the best uniforms. The Ghana Black Stars have the worst. My Wild Card pick goes to the overall team with the coolest uniform: Ukraine. Cote D'Ivoire has the most appropriate mascot, the Elephant (due to the "ivory").



Special note to anyone thinking about going to Germany for the World Cup:
The Nazi "Heil Hitler!" salute (even mocking it) is illegal in Germany, so try not to be stupid (this will prove harder than it sounds because the beer comes in very large steins).



On a different note, happy Slay Day, everyone! The heavy metal band, Slayer, has declared today the official Slay Day (6/6/06). They request everyone call in sick to work and play Slayer albums loud in public places to convert the non-believers. Personally, I'm not a big Slayer fan, but I will be listening to:
Sympathy for the Devil (The Rolling Stones), Devil in a Blue Dress (Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels), Running with the Devil (Van Halen), Devil Went Down to Georgia (Charlie Daniels Band), Devils and Dust (Bruce Springstein), and everything ever made by Rob Zombie. Ah thank you.

Quote of the day: "Each of us should view ourselves as if the world were held in balance and any single act of goodness on our part could tip the scale." -Mainomedes

First of June...

First off, Happy Birthday to my beautiful woman! We gonna have crab tonight fo sho. Yummy.

Also, happy start of hurricane season, everyone! The Associated Press says that only a small percentage of people along the Gulf Coast are prepared, so good luck with that. Also, emergency preparedness funding was cut in half this year for New Orleans, so good luck to everyone over there. Granted, that's probably good news for you, Ricardo, since you'll have more disaster stories to cover for the local news. I'm coming to visit in July, so I hope you're ready for me. Even if you're not, I'm still coming.

Also, happy 25th Anniversary to AIDS! 40 million people worldwide are infected now. 1.2 million people are expected to die from AIDS in Saharan Africa each year for the next 20 years. AIDS has become an epidemic in most countries around the world because it will flood across a region long before it is first detected. It spreads extremely quickly across regions because of drug users and prostitutes who unknowingly give it to everyone they know. In each and every country that currently has an AIDS epidemic, it basically started with drug users and prostitutes. Here's the funny part: the US is trying to force the UN to drop a clause in its AIDS agenda talking about giving relief and medication to drug users and prostitutes specifically. Even better, we're trying to force an abstinence-only AIDS agenda around the world since it is better to have AIDS (a surefire death ticket in Africa) than to upset our God by condom use.

But I digress. I promise whenever I rant, I'll try to keep it short. In more personal news, our staging event location is not Washington DC but rather Philadelphia. We're told it has always been Philadelphia and that we never should have thought it was in DC. This is a big disappointment. I don't know anyone in Philly. Part of my family is in DC. Not to mention, taking off from the nation's capital to proudly serve two years in the Peace Corps has a much more glorious feel than being shuffled off from some government annex in Philly.

After downloading 300+ songs off of www.allofmp3.com (10 cents a download, I love Russian websites!) I attempted to put them on my mp3 player only to find out that my computer can't find the correct software to allow a connection. That and it only detects my mp3 player some of the time. This problem is on my priority 'to-do' list before leaving for Mali. Michele wants me to buy an ipod, but I just can't bring myself to buy something new when there still might be ways to fix my current one.

Quote for the day:
“Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.”
Muhammad Ali