First weeks at site

I know it’s been a while since I’ve last written, and so much has happened these last three weeks I have almost no idea where to begin. I guess I’ll start by saying that these last weeks have been the hardest by far for me. Someone told me before I came that the first six months at site would be hell, and at this point I can believe it. Everyday though has incredible ups and downs. Overall, I really like my site, most everyone is super friendly, and I’m improving my Bambara each and every day. There are three main frustrations. The main one is that I’m replacing someone. A lot of people seem to forget that she wasn’t fluent in Bambara when she got to site. Another part of Malian culture is that people compare you with other people right to your face, and they aren’t meaning to be rude. Every day I’m told how much everyone misses her and how good she was at Bambara. I just try not to take it personally, although I occasionally have to remind people that we’re two different people and that she lived here for two years. A major plus came last week when I was walking around town. A group of little kids saw me from a distance and started yelling “Awa” – MY Malian name, not the name of the previous volunteer. It lifted my spirits a ton. Language in general is another major but obvious frustration, although the other day a lady told me she thought I could speak Bambara, which made my day! In my village, Senofu is also the main language, so while most everyone understands and speaks Bambara, a lot of times they’ll have conversations in Senofu which I obviously can’t understand. I do know how to greet in Senofu though which everyone likes! The third frustration is that I have felt completely unproductive – but I get to start baby weighing in two weeks which I am super excited about.

So I thought I’d write about a typical day in the life of a Kourouma volunteer thus far. I get up around 6 or 6:30. I’ve gotten up and run a little bit which I really enjoy because I can watch the sun rise which is absolutely beautiful. After exercising, I take my bucket bath and then eat breakfast of fruit or eggs. I also have a little short wave radio so I can listen to BBC news in the morning (I’m so upset about the Marian Jones deal by the way). My language tutor comes around 8 and we talk for a while, although I feel like he doesn’t help that much so I’m probably going to tell him to come only twice a week from now on. Then, I go to the CSCOM to greet the doctor, nurses, my homologue who is a matron at the CSCOM and who I will go to with work issues, the pharmacist, and anyone else who is there. Then I have been picking out a part of town and just walking around, greeting people. While Kourouma isn’t too big (around 2500 people), it is very spread out and the compounds are huge with maybe 50 or more people in a compound. Unfortunately, people go to the fields very early and are there all day, but I always find some women and lots of children to greet. I greet for about an hour and a half and then go home and study until lunch. I’ve started making lunch for myself, and then I go to my homologues house to hang out for a few hours. There are always lots of people at her house, and a lot of times I help the women to shell shea nuts. Mid-afternoon, I go back home to read, sweep, wash clothes, do dishes, get water from the pump, etc. Then I usually read until someone’s gets me for dinner, which I eat at my homologues house as well. After dinner we listen to music, watch TV, or just hang out. Then I come home, read some more, and go to bed. I spend the entire day outside. I have a wonderful front porch and only go inside to sleep at night. This also means that kids often stop by my house which can be really annoying, but I don’t feel bad about telling them to leave if I want to be alone. So the pace of life is very slow and laid back and you can probably see why I’m itching to start actual work. Oh, on Wednesday’s I have been biking the 12 km to the main road and catching a bus to a neighbouring market town, where other volunteers in the area also go. They are all really nice and it is an opportunity to buy fresh produce that I can’t find in my village, along with cold drinks. Plus, it has been a wonderful opportunity to speak in English!

My village is mostly an Animist and Muslim community, which has produced some interesting stories thus far. Every once in a while, fetishes come out at night. I don’t really know what fetishes are, but if a woman sees one, she will die. Fetishes have come out 4 times since I’ve been at site, and so far, every night I’ve been scared to death. The night that fetishes come out, everyone tells me that I have to go home, close and lock all my windows and doors, and go to bed as soon as possible so I won’t see a fetish. One night, I woke up periodically and heard drums and men singing somewhere for the entire night. The next morning I got up to go running. The sun had come up some but not all the way. I saw two old women who basically made me turn around because if I had kept running the way I was going, I might see a fetish and die. So I turned around until the women were out of eyesight and then turned around again and kept going.

I also have an interesting story about the previous volunteers cat. His name was Motobo and I had told her during site visit that I didn’t want a cat. She found someone to take him, but he just kept coming back to my compound. I told my language tutor about the problem, so he brought one of his friends to come get Motobo. The friend turned out to be a fetish creator. He came to my compound with a burlap sac into which he stuffed the cat, and walked off. A few days later I asked my tutor if he’d seen Motobo and he started laughing because apparently the fetish creator had taken Motobo to kill and eat. So Motobo is no more, but I told the previous volunteer about it and she actually had wanted someone to take the cat to eat. So it all worked out in the end!

While there are a lot of annoying people who like to compare me to the previous volunteer all the time, I have also met some incredibly generous folks as well. I love my neighbours. There is a dad with one wife and four kids. The kids come hang out at my house a lot, including 3-year old Adia who is adorable. Since I’ve come to site, they’ve brought me an appetizer-type dish almost every night, from french fries to porridge. There is also a really nice lady who sells fried dough balls and sweet potatoes outside the doctor’s office every day. I always greet her and she often gives me free food as well. On Friday, which was Seli, the day after Ramadan when fast ended, the doctor and his family brought me an entire plateful of couscous with chicken and fried veggies. Needless to say I have definitely not been in lack of food.

I’m getting pretty good at carrying water on my head (using both arms of course). The first few days at site were incredibly rough. I went to get water one afternoon and ended up spilling a lot all over myself. Everyone was laughing at me and I laughed too but then got back to my house and just cried for 30 minutes straight. Since then though I fill the bucket a little bit less full and have been getting water later in the afternoon when not many people are out!

Oh, I also discovered the alcoholic part of town a few weeks ago. I was walking and greeting people when I ran into a guy who asked me if I knew what millet beer was. I didn’t know the word in Bambara so I said no. He told me he’d show me and led me to another compound where I saw a huge cauldron full of the beer. This was at 9:30 in the morning and I could tell they’d already started drinking. Anyway, it was pretty funny and now I know where to go if things get too rough in Kourouma (j/k)! In other random news, I have killed about a hundred spiders since I got to site and even killed a scorpion that was in my bedroom! It’s the only one I’ve seen since I got installed but it was still pretty exciting.

These last few days have been great in Sikasso. I have gotten to meet up with a lot of other volunteers and we spend time eating good cold food, going to a nearby pool, and hanging out at a bar at night. While I do like my site, I truly look forward to the times when I can see the other volunteers. Okay, goodness. I’ve rambled on enough. As always, hope everyone’s well, I miss you all. It’ll probably be a couple more weeks until I get to write again but still send me emails with lots of news that I’ll have waiting for me!