Mali, OAA, and Atlantic Shores

Lunch with the PEO gals at Atlantic Shores (Memaw to my right).  

Reading articles like this one and this one about Mali are painful (I also really don't like this one, which highlights the junta's targeting/fear of other West Africans in Mali).  I am hesitant to write about Mali for fear of contributing to her bad press image (although, I'm certainly not against reading posts that show Mali's democracy for what it really was - not much).   I know my blog could serve as more of an awareness-raising platform and I suppose that's what I'm trying to do right now.  Sigh.  I also prefer to read first-hand analyses (this one in English) of what is going on (and assume others would, too!).

While I haven't been writing about Mali, I have been talking a lot about her (just ask any of my family members, thanks for your patience, guys!).  It has been wonderful to have so many thoughtful friends, family members, and friends of the family listen, and talk with me, about my time in Mali and what is happening now.  Thank you.

In other news, I received a text message at 1:40am confirming the receipt of Abdoulaye's K-1 fiancé visa application.  I guess U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) never sleeps!  Step 1 1/2 of OAA done!  Now I'm just waiting for Form I-797 to come in the mail.  By the end of this process I'll be a regular K-1 fiancé visa expert - glad I'll only be doing it once, though!

While Visa Journey puts the current processing time in Vermont (where it was sent from Texas - VT processes visa applications from Virginia-based American fiancés in case you cared to know!) at about 5 months before the application is sent to its final destination in Senegal, I'm hoping they'll see how cute Abdoulaye is (I included pictures of us as proof of our relationship) and that he really needs to come to America sooner to contribute to our cute-i-tivity (thank you Kira for connecting me with the website!).  Fingers crossed!

Coming tomorrow - a video from our trip to Guinea.  Remember Morocco?