Monday, September 17, 2007

Banankoro bana

Homestay is officially over and we're all back in Tubaniso 'til next Sunday when we depart for site! Swear-in is Friday - I am getting increasingly nervous about being dropped off at my site, although very excited as well. This last week has been fairly eventful. Wednesday night we hosted a dance for Banankoro. On Thursday we got together with some women and children and demonstrated making oral re hydration salts, which is good practice for site. Thursday also, I went to the one restaurant in Banankoro to eat lunch with some other trainees. We had to wait two hours for our food because they had to go out of town to get the ingredients, but it was totally worth it. We had cous-cous with an onion and pepper sauce and chicken. It was delicious and I ate every single bit of meat on the bone (M&D it reminded me of Shonda A. eating at our house that one time!).

Ramadan started on Thursday, so many members of my family and all over Mali will be fasting from dawn to dusk for the next month. Fasting is different than say the 30-hour famine because no food or drink (not even water) are allowed. Gum chewing and even smoking are not allowed. My family kept asking me if I was going to fast and so on Friday I did! For the whole day! I woke up at 4:15 to eat rice, bread and coffee with my sisters and then went back to my room and drank a ton of water before going back to bed for a few hours. It was tough not being able to drink water, but I did it and I think my host family was really proud of me. As soon as fast was over I chugged a liter of water and got to eat not only macaroni for dinner, but porridge and coconut as well, a nice bonus. My family thought it was really funny that I was only fasting for one day but I told them that next year I'd do it for two! On Saturday the PCT's and our professors cooked our own dinner at the school and each invited a couple members of our family to come. I invited my two sisters who I always eat with. We made a wonderful feast (including ketchup bought from Bamako) although I kind of felt bad because my sisters saw me eat about 20 pieces of meat whereas at home I avoid it altogether or only eat one or two pieces. Oh well! Afterwards my sisters took me to a photographer on the main road and we got our picture taken in front of a corny scenic background. Yesterday morning I gave gifts of rice and fabric to my parents and a deck of cards to the kids (although I think they lost half the deck within 10 minutes). Most of the kids walked me to my professors' house to say goodbye. When they left, Salimata lagged behind and kept turning around to look at me. Even though she's driven me absolutely crazy the last two months, I'll definitely miss her along with a couple others. So that's it until I go back to Banankoro in January to visit. As always, miss you all and hope everyone's well!!!

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Den kundi (Baby naming ceremony)

Hi everyone! Hopefully you can see some of the pictures that I’ve put up – they take forever to download! So, I finished Harry Potter (of course). Luckily, another trainee had already read it so I immediately had someone with whom I could talk about it. However; if anyone wants to talk about it further with me, let me know.
The last week in Banankoro has gone very well. We’re at Tubaniso until tomorrow and then we’re only in our home stay sites for one more week! I’m not really going to be sad to leave, just because I’m so ready to live on my own and cook my own food – I will miss some members of my family and will most of all miss having other trainees right there. For health education practice, we got to hold a porridge-making session and baby weighing this past week, both of which turned out well. A lot of women and their babies came to each event, and we got to practice doing everything in Bambara. The most exciting news from my site was that two sisters (whom I hadn’t yet met but live on the same street as me) both had babies within a few days of each other. The baby naming ceremony for one was all day Wednesday, in my concession. Tuesday night, I was trying to sleep but there was a sheep outside that kept me up half the night. I was so confused because there isn’t usually a sheep that lives in my concession. Then I remembered that the baby naming ceremony was to be held the next day and sure enough, I woke up the next morning and the sheep’s skin was lying right outside my door. So, I got to eat some nice lamb for lunch on Wednesday. Then, yesterday morning, I went to greet my dad and he was eating something. I asked him what it was and he replied that it was sheep’s head, and then asked me if I wanted any. I said I was full. The baby naming ceremony was fun. I missed most of the dancing because I was in class, but still got to dance a little bit. I also wore one of my new Malian outfits which everyone loved. That’s it for now. As always, I hope you all are well!