Currently I’m in Paris, waiting for the plane to Bamako. There’s 80 of us, and we sort of move around as a mob clog things up; however, the French version of TSA did not help things. I’ve been informed that this is normal in European airports, but the security here is much more rigorous than in the United States. Almost everyone got a pat down, and I had to take my external hard drive out of my backpack (something I’ve never had to do in the states.)

I’ve spent quite a bit more time with a few people here, and so far everyone is really cool. Additionally there is a lot of variety in areas of specialty among the volunteers. Of all of ag/env volunteers only two were raised on a farm. Two other are grad students in ag econ, but have no farm experience. Most interestingly there is an opera singer in the ag/env sector. This king of variety is not isolated to my sector, but standard among all sectors.

Right now everyone is just anxious to get to Mali, and get to work. When I post this I’ll be in Mali, but I’m bored so I thought I’d write an update.

P.S. I'm in Mali and net access is pretty limited right now due to the number of us trying to get on. So far everything is awesome, but a little surreal. I spent Fourth of July at the American Club with is the country club here, and it was a pretty good time.