This week snuck up on me and overwhelmed me with big transitions. There are lots of people leaving, lots people getting ready to leave, projects wrapping up.

On Monday I went to an un-birthday party for my friend Awa.* “Un-birthday” because she is a Leap Year baby and this is not a Leap Year. Awa is winding down her Peace Corps service; she left her village in the Mopti region last weekend and she'll COS (PC lingo for "close-of-service") next week.

*Her Malian name. It's customary to be given a Malian name, but I don't have one yet.

Her friend Oumar killed a sheep and invited us up to his roof. In the hot season people gather on rooftops, which are cooler and breezier. Many people sleep on their roofs if they don't have air conditioning.

Not realizing how much food Oumar had in store for us, I munched on breadsticks and politely ate two beef brochettes before I realized the moutoun had not yet been served. When it came out I was full and the pieces looked enormous. I didn't want any but Awa hissed "Yes, integrate, yes, you will have some," in my ear. "Integrate" must be Peace Corps lingo for "Suck it up, I know you don't want it but we're trying to befriend the locals." So I did, gnawing on a lamb bone until no one was watching and I was able to put it down.

All week I continued training my replacement at the commissary and wrapping things up there. It's always so difficult to leave a place -- so many little loose ends. I'm leaving more undone than I want to, but there's only so much I can do before the end of next week. And I will be leaving at the end of next week.

On a happier work note, I finally got the second payment for some web design work I completed in December. I also found out I will eventually get paid for another project I've been working on. Always good news!

Friday night we had two going-away parties in the neighborhood, one for a Peace Corps employee moving back to the Washington office and one for Geekcorps volunteer Peter, who is finishing his volunteer service. We say goodbye to people on a regular basis -- it's the nature of overseas work -- but it doesn't get any easier. The only consolation is that everyone working in international development passes through Washington eventually, and that's the city that will probably always be our home base.

Today I'm saying goodbye to my husband but only for a week. He's going to Johannesburg, South Africa, for a conference. I'm told Johannesburg is not a particularly pleasant place to visit, but nonetheless I feel a tinge of jealousy that he's getting to travel and I'm not. It's been two months since I've flown anywhere! I think I’m getting hooked on traveling.

Some handy Bambara words I learned this week:

Gwa: Any sort of structure with posts supporting a roof. You might relax in the shade under a gwa made of bamboo posts and thatched grasses. Most gas stations have cement gwas over the pumps.

Ci: A verb meaning to get someone to do something for you. When we moved Awa's things into Koumba's apartment yesterday, Koumba said “Don’t carry it yourselves, just ci one of those guys sitting out front selling cigarettes. They don’t do anything all day.” We didn’t have to ci anyone though because a young man stopped and offered to help, even carrying a heavy metal trunk up three flights of stairs. People here are so nice.

Yalla: A verb meaning to wander vaguely. Repeated twice it becomes a noun meaning a vague wandering. Don't you wish we had a word for this in English? N be ta yalla yalla la.