Courage Sharing

Okay, so it looks like the last update was the proper 300th.

Even though I don't have cutaneous leishmaniasis anymore, and haven't for some time, I still have some red markings around my ankle. They have the same quality as the rest of my skin, and they haven't decreased in size for quite some time. I think it actually may be residual scarring from the infection. Oh well, it's a nice souvenir to have brought back from Africa. Kind of cool, actually.

In my rejection letter, the guy said that they still need male volunteers for the next CWY assignment. That's funny, in Katimavik, they also have an over-abundance of female volunteers. They tried to balance out based on gender, but every group had at least one extra female at their starting point.

CWY has female-exclusive groups, in addition to ones with a gender balance. They say that it's to promote awareness of gender issues, but it looks to be more likely a way to deal with the disproportionately large number of female applicants.

In Mali, they believe that if you have enough courage, you can do anything, and they believe that it's the type of thing that can be passed around. If someone got sick, all their friends would visit them to "Give them their courage", which would help the sick person heal. When I was crying when I was about to leave the village, tons of Malians told me that they "Gave me their courage".

Courage-sharing was a nice tradition, that the Canadians picked up.