It's Rainin' Mangoes!

Hot season is here – yet with it come mangoes! They haven’t even turned ripe yet in Kourouma, but have in nearby villages so they’re easily accessible. I eat at least one or two a day (or five) so I’m definitely not worried about my levels of Vitamin A. I’ve also been hauling my mosquito net outside every night for the last month or so, which is nice because I can fall asleep looking at the stars, and get the occasional breeze.

At the beginning of April all the PCV’s from my stage and our homologues went to Tubaniso for a week of training. It was good to see everyone, and four of us went back to Banankoro one day to see our host families. I got to see all of my favorite kids, two of whom had gotten a lot bigger just in the six months I’d been away. And one of my host moms had a baby shortly after I left, so it was exciting to see her. After training, a lot of PCV’s hung around Bamako for a few days which was fun. The night I got back to site, Solika and Kalilu stopped by to greet and told me flat-out that I’d gained weight, which of course I just loved to hear.

As for work, I’ve started doing porridge demonstrations. The first one was in Kourouma, and I invited nine women with malnourished babies to come. One woman didn’t show up, and I had to get on my bike and track down three other women , but two extra ladies came so we ended up with ten. The porridge turned out delicious, and I did a food group animation with the help of a lady who helps with baby weighings, Fatoumata. She’s super smart and translated what I said into Senoufo and elaborated on it. Hopefully I can keep in touch with the babies who came to the demonstration, especially one little girl, Oumou, who’s as sweet as can be, but one of the most severely malnourished kids I’ve seen, because her mom is in school in Sikasso, leaving Oumou without sufficient breast milk. This is the cause for most of the severe cases I’ve seen: either the mother is away in another town, or died, leaving the child without breast milk. And animal milk and formula are risky substitutions because animal milk always has to be boiled and water for formula may be unclean. Anyway, I also did porridge demonstrations in two other villages in my commune, with about 30 women each. The plan is to do this in 7 other villages in the commune.

I’ve also been doing HIV/AIDS animations at the school, which have gone really well overall. The first week we focused on facts and myths about the virus, such as that it’s not found anywhere in Mali. The next week we studied what can and cannot transmit HIV, and last week learned about symptoms and prevention. Exams have been going on and school ends mid-June, so I don’t know if I’ll get to go back this year, but I’m excited about coming up with new lesson plans and activities for next school year.

Of course I can’t write a new blog entry without bringing up the fetishes! First off, right before April training, the “ciwaara” fetish came out, which was basically four men dancing in the middle of a circle wearing what looked to me like huge bushes. They let me take pics as long as I gave a little money to the old men so that they could buy kola nuts.

And then recently the “kori” fetish has been out. They came out about once a week for a month. It was a ton (probably over a hundred) boys and grown men who would walk in a pack without shirts on and chant (the chant reminded me of that of the flying monkeys in Wizard of Oz). They were always brandishing sticks, some lit with fire, and supposedly they would beat any passerby’s whom they came across. So when it was a day for them to come out, everyone would warn me not to leave my concession, or I’d be beaten!

This has been my life in Mali for the last month! I’m counting down the days for when my family comes (July 7th)!!! Miss you all and hope to hear from you.

Two Weddings, Two Fetishes and a Funeral

Since my last blog I’ve been unusually busy at site which is great! In the last month we’ve been to eight other villages to do baby weighings along with the weekly Kourouma weighings. I also did more animations at the school on diarrhea and malaria, and then we spent one week playing a review game on all the material. When I say animations, they are just small talks. So for with women at baby weighings, I just tell them how to feed their kids up to two years of age. Then I ask questions at the end to make sure they understand. Same with the kids at school. We go over the topic and then play some sort of review game at the end of each session. I try to have pictures or actual activities when possible because it’s a treat for the students. In most Malian schools, everything is rote memorization. Seventy-plus kids are jam-packed into a room with three students per desk. The teacher writes in small cursive on the board and the kids copy it down and then go home to memorize. There are no pictures or maps in the room. (World maps would be a nice thing for people to send me because I could give them to the school – although they would need to be in French for the students to understand.) I do all of my animations in Bambara even though usually at the school the kids learn in French. I was surprised to learn that kids as old as ten and eleven can’t even read Bambara because they’ve been learning in French from day one. Anyway, for the session on diarrhea we did an activity at the end where I got five volunteers to come up and put hot pepper on their hands. Next they had to wash their hands with just water, which doesn’t remove the hot pepper. Then they washed with soap and water, which did remove the smell. The idea was to show that washing with just water does not remove diarrhea-causing bacteria. Most people in my village don’t wash their hands with soap, ever. I like doing the animations but I know that people have a hard time understanding me sometimes. There have been random times when I talk to kids and they don’t understand the word “or”. I asked one of my friends for example, “Do you play football everyday or once a week?” She said, “Yes”. I repeated the question, emphasizing “or” and she again responded “yes”! This happens all the time!

Last week there was a meningitis vaccination campaign in Kourouma. It was a major event, vaccinating babies, school-aged children, women and men. The medicine was coming from Sikasso, yet it hadn’t arrived by 10 am. I went home to wait and around 10:15 I heard the sound of a car and looked over my concession wall to see a herd of women and children running into the CSCOM to secure a place in line. I went with some of the staff members to the school to vaccinate the students. I didn’t really do much, just opened syringes and had them ready for the nurse to grab, and ran to get materials if we ran out. It was pretty hectic overall and they didn’t even finish giving all of the vaccinations until the next day.

There’s been quite a bit of animist activity lately which is fun. In early February the “waara” fetish came out for three days. This specific fetish comes out every year and is one that women can see. I went with my homologue’s kids one afternoon to listen to music and watch a group of men dancing in a circle. Some were wearing white skirts only. Periodically, men would run out of the circle to scare the crowd and yell random things. I saw one guy who fell to the ground and his eyes rolled into the back of his head. All of a sudden, he jumped up with a yell and ran to join the dance circle. I also saw a non-Muslim teacher who was clearly inebriated and explained to me for about seven full minutes about how women can see the waara fetish but if they see other fetishes they’ll die. I’ve learned by the way, that the fetishes are simply the men who play the music and dance. Fetishes are not necessarily objects, which I had previously thought. Last week the “komo” fetish came out, also for three days. This was one that women cannot see. On Monday they were apparently going to be out for the entire day, near the area where I get phone service. About ten people warned me not to make any phone calls for the entire day! Each night that they were out, I heard them playing music and yelling. Apparently they walked right past my house at one point in the middle of the night but I was sound asleep. My homologue had to deliver a baby at the maternity that night. She heard the sound of the fetish music, so she sprinted from her house to the CSCOM, delivered the baby, and then waited (probably terrified) until they passed, before returning home.

Weather has been crazy lately. The Mali guidebook describes the area as a “dustbowl” this time of year, which is very true as there are dust storms at least every morning. It’s also hot season, so I spend most of the time covered in an unpleasant combination of sweat and dust. However, I am once again grateful for being in the South of Mali because this past weekend it rained! Friday, I woke up in the middle of the night to hear rain on the tin roof. I was shocked because I heard that rain wouldn’t come until April or May (up North it doesn’t start until June). I went out and stood in it for a few minutes, and thought it would be over soon, but it ended up pouring until 9 am! It was great while it lasted, but then the humidity kicked in and I spent the rest of the day drenched in sweat.

As I mentioned in the title, it’s the season for marriage! My homologue’s cousin got married in Kourouma one morning so I went to the concession to greet in the afternoon. For a lot of Muslim weddings, the couple will go to the Mayor’s office in the morning to actually perform the ceremony. The next three days are spent greeting and celebrating. Often, the wife spends seven days following the ceremony inside her house in isolation. So when I went to greet that afternoon, she had already begun the period of isolation and was not there. There were still tons of people throughout the concession. A lot of women were cooking and men were sitting around drinking tea and listening to music. They fed me a bit of delicious dege, a millet-based porridge with clumps of sour milk. I felt silly because I’d forgotten to brush up on wedding blessings before I went, so I wandered around greeting people but didn’t really know what to say in relation to the marriage. This past Friday though, my friend Solika invited me to go to his home village, 7 km away, to greet his family because his older brother had gotten married the previous day. I did remember the blessings this time. My favorite is, “Allah ka furudenw soro” – May the marriage find you children! We sat around and drank tea, played cards, and ate dege again. This time, the wife was not kept in full isolation, but came outside a couple of times, although keeping her entire head covered the whole time. Men and women were also allowed to go inside the house where she was in order to greet her, and then she was able to uncover her face.

The other matrone, Djeneba’s, father died a few weeks ago, so I went to greet in her family’s concession as well. It seemed basically the same as the weddings, with people going to give money and offer funeral blessings, and then either sit around and chat or cook.

On Palm Sunday I went to the church in Foh with my friend Moniqui. I couldn’t understand much of the service, but it was fun because at the beginning everyone stood in a group outside and got palm branches, with which we then processed inside. Afterwards, we visited with Moniqui’s family and they gave me pork to eat! It was quite tasty, although there were bits of bone interspersed throughout, forcing me to chew carefully! I like going there though, because people call me by my American or Christian name, Anna. I spent Easter Sunday here in Sikasso. I went with two other volunteers to the Protestant church. It wasn’t very exciting because we didn’t have hymnals and couldn’t sing along, and the service lasted for three hours! Hope you all had a lovely Easter Sunday!

I just learned the fabulous news this morning that the Tar Heel men advanced to the Sweet 16 - yay!!! (And I learned as well that Dook is OUT - yay!!!) Anyway, good luck Tar Heel men and women!

February news

It’s so hard to believe that the end of February is right around the corner. The first couple of weeks back at site after IST were probably the hardest for me, but things have gotten better. I had this idea in my head that after IST I would magically have all this work to do – not true! I’ve continued basically the same routine I had before IST. What made it worse is that the CSCOM ran out of vaccinations and hasn’t been able to get any in a month, so while I’ve continued to do weekly baby weighings in Kourouma, we haven’t gone out to any other villages. I have continued to go out and greet in the mornings which is really fun, and am making more friends as my Bambara improves. There’s a really sweet old man who is missing an eye who I like to visit. He’s super sharp and is excited to meet my family when they come in July. There’s also a group of young guys who hang out at the butiki (small general store) across from my Homologue’s concession. Sometimes I go drink tea with them when I get sick of listening to only Senoufo conversations at my Homologue’s house. There’s also a lady, Maminatta, who walks around and sells beans every day with her adorable baby daughter, Sanata, strapped onto her back. She stops by and chats every now and then which I always appreciate (I mostly hang out with guys and am grateful for any female friends that I make!). My next door neighbors continue to be the nicest people I’ve met in Kourouma – I go over to their house about once a week at night to watch a really horrible Brazilian soap opera, dubbed over in French. I hang out a lot with the new vaccinator, Solika, and a med student, Kalilu, because they’re really laid back and easy to talk to. They also play on a football (soccer) team which has had two games in the past couple of weeks which are fun to watch. The guys on the team wear matching blue shirts, and they usually wear tall socks and the ever-so popular jelly sandal. The Africa World Cup was a few weeks ago. The doctor’s family is the only family in village with a colored TV, so at 5 o’clock on game days, I would see crowds of mostly men and boys running over to watch it. I watched the final game at my neighbors’ house, where Egypt beat Cameroon for the second title in a row. Despite having the Africa World Cup and local matches to watch, they don’t even come close to taking the place of Carolina basketball! Go Heels!

As far as work, I did my first animation (a short talk) on weaning with women who came to a baby weighing. I plan on doing an animation at every baby weighing. This past week, I also started teaching basic health stuff at the school, 3 days a week. I’ll continue to do this and teach two 7th grade classes, one 8th and one 9th. This first topic was on Nutrition and I was very pleased with how all the classes turned out. We did an activity at the end of each class where I drew pictures of different foods to give out to volunteers and they had to come up and tape them on the board under their respective food group. I gave stickers (thanks Aunt Anne!) to those who participated. For each class it was always really hard to find a first volunteer but after everyone saw me give the sticker they were jumping out of their seats to get called on – nothing like a little incentive every now and then! There are more than seventy students in each class, so I’m a little unsure about how I’ll keep coming up with fun, hands-on activities to do, but it’s good to have steady work in place for three afternoons a week, even if each class is only about 25 minutes long!

So let’s see, other news…I went to a church last Sunday in Foh, a village 18 km away. The church was tiny with long cement benches. There was one little wooden cross that hung in the front. Unfortunately there weren’t hymnals like there had been in the Sikasso church, so I couldn’t really participate in singing. I hope to go more often though and eventually learn the songs. There’s a lady from Kourouma whose family lives in Foh, so we visited with them before and after the service. There were pigs in the concession, which I certainly hadn’t seen any of in Kourouma. There was also a guy who was apparently already far into his palm wine, even at 8 am. It was interesting nonetheless to visit a non-Muslim concession!

My trip to the Segou music festival at the beginning of the month was really fun. There were a lot of other PCV’s there, along with tons and tons of non-PCV Toubabs. There were three nights of music, but the music never started until night, so we would spend the days eating good food (I had enough cold milk to last a lifetime) and looking at artisan goods. Two friends and I went to this one place where beautiful mud cloths are made, and we got to make our own mud cloth sample for free. Each night, the music was supposed to start at 8 pm, but of course that meant it didn’t actually start until 9:30. My favorite performer was this guy named Bassékou Kouyaté because his music was very bluegrassy sounding. My new favorite instrument is the Cora, a gourd with long strings attached. It kind’ve sounds like a mix between the banjo and harp. I also enjoyed a performer named Habib Koité (who fell off the stage at one point into the Niger, but kept playing the whole time anyway). The main performer for the entire festival was Salif Keita, a very popular albino Malian musician. He was the fifth performer on his night, and didn’t come on until after 2 am. Everyone went absolutely crazy though, when he walked onto the stage. I recognized a few of his songs from the radio, but was unfamiliar with most of the other musicians’ songs. Anyway, that's pretty much all of my new Malian news! I hope all of you are very well, and please continue to write with any news!

Anna

Road kill

It’s been a busy last few weeks, all of which I’ve been away from site. Starting the seventh of January, I was back at Tubaniso for two weeks of technical training. It was great to see other volunteers, many of whom I hadn’t seen in three months. The ride to Bamako was interesting. Ideally, going from Sikasso to Bamako takes about six hours. This ride took twelve. The bus broke down about half-way through the ride and we had to sit for hours on the side of the road until a new bus came along to pick us all up. The most exciting part of the night came when we hit the donkey. I was sitting in the very front of the bus and had been dozing for most of the ride, but just happened to wake up for the 30 seconds when it happened. There were three donkeys lined up on the road, with not enough space in between any of them for the bus to go through. Instead of trying to swerve or slow down, the driver just plowed through one of them. There was a big bang, but the bus didn’t even slow down after we hit it, so the only harm done was to the donkey!

Tubaniso was full of eating good food, watching lots of Grey’s Anatomy, and going to technical trainings, some of which were helpful, others not so much. Overall, I’m excited to go back to site and hopefully get started working on some projects. One Sunday during training, we had a Hash Run, consisting of most of the PCV’s in my stage, along with ex-Pats from all over, including South Africa, France and the US. Four “rabbits” started running about 15 minutes before the rest of us, and our goal was to follow paper trails that they left behind and try to catch them. The race was only 3.1 miles though, so of course no one caught them. The trail took us through some crazy thorns and bushes and by the time I was finished there were cuts all over my legs! It was fun though, and afterwards we got barbecue and cole slaw!

After training, a group of us went to another volunteer’s site for a formation on making improved shea butter. A lot of women in my village sell shea nuts and make shea butter, so actually helping them to sell the butter is a project I am interested in working on. To get to her site, we had to cross the Niger in a boat not much bigger than a canoe. There were two guys who rowed us across, using long sticks instead of oars. It took a while, but the view was beautiful. We walked about 3 km to get to her site after crossing the river, and the path was lined by tons of shea and mango trees. The formation was very helpful. It lasted for two full days. The first day, we actually made improved shea butter and the second day built two solar dryers for the nuts. Each day, the women in the village gathered together and played drums and had dance parties. We were more involved with the dance parties than the actual work with shea but that’s okay. We taught them some American dances, including the electric slide, Macarena, and Old MacDonald. The last night we were there, a group of local hunters played music and danced for us. A couple of times they danced with their guns, and not always pointing them toward the sky. I just sat and hoped they weren’t loaded!

After the shea training, I went to my friend Becky from home-stay’s site, along with Amanda, another friend from Banankoro. Her site is about 30 km from the Guinea border, and the road to get there was horrendous! We were crammed in a tiny bachée for a 4-hour drive on a dirt road with a gazillion pot holes. I was almost thrown out of my seat about twenty times and at one point the driver slammed on the brakes to avoid hitting a cow. It was really nice to see her site though, which is about half the size of Kourouma. We were only there for two nights, but got to tour her village and hang out with a lot of the people. Becky lives in a concession with her host family, which would be hard for lack of privacy but good for interaction and language. We washed clothes on Friday and were watched the entire time by her family! Everyone was super friendly though. The only transportation that leaves her site is at 5 am, so on Saturday morning we had to get up at 4:30 in time to catch it. It was already really cold, and then the bachée that we caught was missing one of the huge windows in the back, so for pretty much the entire ride, Amanda and I were huddled under a huge scarf that she had been smart enough to bring. We got back to Bamako from her site with no problems other than the cold, and the ride back to Sikasso took less than 6 hours and did not involve hitting any animals, making made up for the initial horrible ride. As always, hope you are all well!!! Miss you all!

Vaccinations, onions, and dancing

The last two weeks in Kourouma have been fine, and I’ll just try and think of any interesting incidents to share. Saturday morning was fun. After greeting at the CSCOM, I walked around town some, going to compounds I haven’t been to in a long time. At one point, a woman asked me if my hair was hair of a scarf. Kids are either terrified or fascinated by my hair, but it had never even occurred to me that people might not even think it is hair! I wonder who else thinks that I walk around every day in a light brown colored scarf! I stopped several times and sat with people, including two teachers from a nearby village, one of whom lives in Kourouma and two university students. Overall, I felt confident with my Bambara. It’s so much easier for me to speak and understand if I’m with only one or two other people. I get frustrated almost every day at my homologue’s house because there are always a lot of people there and they’re either speaking in Senofu or there are so many of them speaking fast Bambara that I’m lost and just sit there. I know I’m quiet in English too but at least I know when to laugh if someone makes a joke!

A few weeks ago there was a major vaccination campaign in Mali. One morning I went to greet at the CSCOM early and there was a line of women and children stretching from the hanger in the middle of the large compound to the doors leading out. The Doctor gave me some work to do, helping to give out Vitamin A pills and polio drops. We were there from 7:45 until 2 in the afternoon, with a steady stream of patients. It was a zoo and I thought it would never end, although I loved actually having work to do. And luckily we didn’t run out of any of the vaccines and had enough mosquito nets to give to everyone who came through. It was good to see such a good turnout.

This past Friday morning I decided to go to the onion fields again, and brought my camera. I had a really good time greeting and helping women, and taking a bunch of pictures. I helped my homologue’s friend, Mamine water all of her plants. We left together and I thought that eventually we’d separate but she followed me all the way to my house and plopped down on a chair. We sat for a while and she asked me what I was gonna make for lunch. It was noon and I just said I wasn’t sure yet. Well, we sat there for a few more minutes and I started to wonder if she wanted me to cook for her. Turns out so because she basically told me to get up and cook! I had no idea what to do. I asked her if she liked eggs and she said yes, so we had scrambled eggs and then she helped me make fried sweet potatoes as well. I’m still a little unsure whether she just wanted me to make her lunch, was maybe curious about what I eat, or whether she just wanted to hang out!

This past weekend has been a happenin’ place in Kourouma. It was the Doctor’s birthday, so his wife threw him a dance party both on Saturday and Sunday nights! Saturday afternoon I went to greet at their compound, where a bunch of women had gotten together to cook. I sat for a while, but before I could leave, the Doctor’s wife made me take a big bowl of porridge and another bowl of spaghetti. I felt so bad because I hadn’t helped cook, so another woman told me that my help would be to dance that night! So, at the dance I ended up dancing to about six or seven songs (they’re about ten minutes long each!) and had a really good time. I didn’t get home until 1 am! Sunday night wasn’t as exciting because I think everyone was tired. The most interesting part of the evening came when one of the musicians really got into the song and threw off her top (no bra underneath) and started dancing and even did a cartwheel!

Be sure and read my other new post below this one. I hope you all had wonderful holiday's!

Holiday News

Happy New Year! I have a lot to write about since my last entry two weeks ago, so I’ll split my blogs into Holiday news and regular stories. Two major Holidays occurred in the past two weeks. One of course was Christmas. The other, Tabaski, or Seliba (the big Festival) in Bambara, was a huge deal in Kourouma. Tabaski commemorates the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. As the idea of sacrifice is the backbone of Tabaski, those who can afford to sacrifice a sheep, goat or cow. For me it was one of those days when I wake up and have no clue what’s going on, what to say, wear or how to act. I put on a new fancy outfit (consisting of long pagne and huge embroidered top) which immediately gave my neighbors a laugh. For a while I stood on my porch and watched as tons of men, all dressed to the nine’s in flowing colorful boubous, and some women made their way to the mosque. Then I walked to my homologue’s house where they were doing basic chores in every-day clothes! I felt a bit ridiculous and went home to change. As it turned out, most people dress up in the late afternoon to walk around and greet. After the 9:00 prayer is the time for the sacrificial slaughtering. I was sitting on my porch where I can look out the door to my compound as people pass by. My neighbor’s son, Solo came out with one of their sheep, along with a big metal sheet which he laid on the ground. Then I heard him go back into his compound and heard the sound of a knife being sharpened. Next a random guy showed up and he, Solo, and my neighbor led the sheep out of my eyesight (fortunately). A few minutes later they were skinning and cutting up the dead sheep on the metal sheet. That afternoon they gave me a hunk of the raw meat which I cooked the next day. The day after that they brought me a whole bowl full of sauce and cooked sheep parts (I’m still not sure what but I’m thinking some liver and intestines). It was actually really tasty other than the texture! Luckily I’ve never been a picky eater, although I think it’s funny that I used to want to be a vegetarian because I thought it was cruel to kill animals for any reason! Anyway, I went to my homologue’s house for lunch, where sheep, rice, and a variety of vegetables were served. I hung out there for a while and she had music playing on the radio but it wasn’t too exciting. That afternoon, several groups of kids came by my house to offer blessings and in return I gave them candy. It’s the Malian form of Halloween. Instead of ‘Trick or Treat’, it’s ‘May God give you a good year’ and things like that. I had told Adia, my adorable three-year old neighbor, that I would take her picture on Seliba. She came over all dressed up with a new hairstyle, bright gold shoes, big gold earrings and dark eyeliner. I got my camera and her mother came running over to see what Adia could hold for the picture. I didn’t have any flowers so at first she suggested the mini globe that my parents sent me for Christmas! Then I found the mini Christmas tree and she agreed that that would be better. I just love how Malians like a good prop, no matter how tacky! That night was quiet, although after dinner at my homologue’s house, her kids kept me entertained by throwing their sheep’s head into the fire and then trying to saw it in half. The next night was a Seliba dance, which was basically the same as the dance after Ramadan.

Noel was the other major holiday and it was certainly the most different Christmas I’ve ever had. For starters, it felt absolutely nothing like Christmas, which was probably a good thing because it didn’t give me a chance to be too sad about not being in the US with my family! I spent it in Sikasso with about seven other gals. On Christmas Eve we baked up a storm. Three of us went to the Protestant Church for an 8 o’clock service. Well, we got there at about 8:05 and an hour and a half later it still hadn’t started! (Not too surprising though. We had been told during training that things in Mali often don’t get started until about two hours after they’re supposed to) We were tired though so decided to go on home. Christmas morning I slept in ‘til 8 (crazy!). We had scrambled eggs and pancakes for brunch and then walked over to a boutique where we sat outside, drank boxed wine, and had girl talk. That night we planned on having curried vegetables and twice-baked potatoes (my personal Holiday favorite). Another volunteer and I baked the potatoes once, made the filling, and had them ready to pop back in the oven when the gas tank ran out! Unfortunately it was too late to get a new one so we all watched ‘Home Alone’ and ate once-baked potatoes!

Christmas Eve and Christmas day were also filled with a major rat hunt! The volunteer whose house we stayed at had a huge rat living in her oven. It was spotted several times but always got away (we even brought two male neighbors over to try and catch it and they had no luck). Finally on Christmas day, a PCV and one of her friends were able to chase the rat into a room and then catch him in a bucket. They tossed him over the railing where he fell to his death. The neighbors were entertained though, because for the two days before the rat was caught, every so often they’d hear us Toubab’s screaming bloody murder whenever it was spotted!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas... sike!

It’s been a while since my last post, so I’ll start with Thanksgiving. While it was hard not being with family, I didn’t spend it alone! All of the Sikasso volunteers got together to have a feast of turkey, pumpkin and apple pies, mashed potatoes, and roasted veggies. So it turned out to be a pretty typical Thanksgiving meal. The weekend after Thanksgiving, some of us went to nearby waterfalls outside of Sikasso. They were beautiful – there were three different sets of waterfalls, each with a nice swimming hole. We camped out next to one set and were able to hike up to the other two. It was so nice to go camping, swimming and hiking!
Christmas is my favorite time of year, so these last few weeks have been hard, as I knew they would be. However, I began listening to Christmas music the minute I got back to site after Thanksgiving, and have been listening to it pretty much non-stop ever since. To keep myself entertained after dinner one night, I came home and danced to the entire Nutcracker Suite by myself! And people sent me decorations so my house now contains a mini tree, wreath, angels and bows!
I continue to walk around town and greet on the mornings that I don’t do baby weighings. I fee like most people know me by now. I went to the onion fields on Friday for a little over an hour and helped women pull water and plant the onions, which take about three months to grow. It’s actually been cool enough several mornings that I have to wear my long-sleeved hoodie – I love it! As I mentioned in my last blog, since its cold season now, a lot of Malians complain all day about how cold it is. I always mention how hot I am, and say that it’s snowing in parts of America. Some people have seen snow on TV and some have no idea what it is. Cotton-pickin’ time is still here, so I can look outside my house occasionally and see big piles of what from a far looks like snow! So I guess I can say I am having a somewhat White Christmas!
This past week I only did one baby-weighing and so spent the rest of the week making Christmas cards, doing basic chores, and feeling completely useless. I’m still not quite used to the slow pace of life with no set schedule of things. And while my Bambara is improving, there are still a lot of frustrations. A lady told me the other day, “Kadia (the old volunteer) could speak and understand Bambara a lot. You can’t really”. I just have to remind people that she was here for two years and eventually I’ll be able to. On Wednesday, I went to market town; getting ready to go back to site, I was the one person on the whole bachee sitting directly under the blazing sun. And two people commented on how much I was sweating – Malians just love to tell things straight up!
Overall I really enjoy baby weighings. We went to a town last week where 140 babies came! Luckily there were women there to help, so all I did was record the info and offer advice. And I had about fifteen shots of the very sugary Malian tea so I was pretty hyper. I’m definitely getting my biking in (which is good since I’ve been a total slacker lately when it comes to running!). I went to a village 12 km away a few weeks ago, but on the way thought I’d missed a turn and ended up backtracking for about ten minutes. I had been right all along as it turned out, so I had to turn back around and eventually found the town. It’s nice to get to know people from surrounding areas, and I love babies! They are (most) so cute.
World AIDS day was December 1st, and one of the Sikasso volunteers put together an Awareness Day on the 2nd. Several volunteers came to help. There was a basketball tournament, free AIDS testing, and a couple of info booths. Another gal and I sat at one booth and had people play a little game on ways of HIV transmission. At first we gave away condoms for the participants, but then about fifty kids showed up wanting to play, even though they didn’t know what they were doing (they just wanted the free condoms to blow up as balloons). So we stopped giving out prizes, but there were still a decent number of people who came by and seemed genuinely interested. In Mali, the AIDS rate is very low compared to the rest of Africa; below two percent. However, it is still a problem and from what I’ve seen in my village, a lot of people either do not really understand it, or do not want to talk about it.
Last Tuesday night was exciting. I heard drums and so at dinner asked my Homologue what was going on. She said it was the funeral ceremony for an elderly Animist woman. I wanted to go watch, so her son and two girls who live at her house went with me (one of the girls is about sixteen years old and insisted on holding my hand the entire time, since at twenty-two years old, clearly I am incapable of walking by myself and not getting lost!). Basically there was a big group of people in a circle, with men dancing in the middle. There were about four younger guys wearing white skirts and no shirts, a couple of guys holding burning sticks, and a main guy with a big mask, who served as the fetish. The circle moved its way across a section of town. The men with the fire would charge towards the outskirts of the circle every so often, causing the spectators to scream and disperse (oddly enough the men with fire had the exact same effect with the villagers as I do with many children when I’m simply walking!). Eventually they reached the end of the line and everyone went home. It was pretty neat though and I definitely look forward to seeing and learning more about different ceremonies. Tabaski is this Thursday so everyone in my site will be very dressed up and have feasts (most people will kill a sheep for the occasion). I attended a Protestant Church here in Sikasso yesterday which was fun, although I couldn’t understand most of it. There was a lot of singing; some of the songs came from hymnals so I was allowed to participate. Even those to which I couldn’t sing along were still fun to listen to though. It was a worship service pretty much exactly the same as those in the US, only in Bambara not English, with a different style of music.
Everyone have a wonderful Holiday season!