Happy early Turkey day!

Happy Thanksgiving! I am in Sikasso to celebrate with other volunteers, although it sure is weird not to have a family Thanksgiving. Things in Kourouma continue to go well, although as always there are ups and downs. The biggest plus for the past few weeks is that I started baby weighings! I’ve done two weighings in Kourouma, which take place on Thursdays. This past Friday and Saturday along with the week before, I biked to other villages to do weighings, which coincide with vaccinations. The farthest village I’ve biked to was only 7 km away, although the road was horrible with big rocks all over the place. During rainy season, I may not be able to bike there at all. I enjoy baby weighings and the vaccinators, Bakary and Solika, are super nice. The women in the other villages are often very impatient, which is a bit frustrating and surprising considering how slow Malian culture generally is. I put the babies in a little pair of shorts which then hang from a scale. Afterwards, I give the mother a bit of advice if her baby is underweight. I’ve been peed on at least once every day, and sometimes the baby is kicking so much it takes three of us to get them into the shorts! This past Saturday I got peed on twice and literally came within an inch of being thrown up on. Needless to say, I’m always worn out after a morning of weighings!

While I don’t really feel like I have any good friends at site yet, I almost always have kids hanging out at my house and sometimes grown-ups come by. The Mayor comes by on Sunday mornings to chat. He is so sweet! He’s probably about 70 years old, but is missing his two front teeth. So when he smiles, it’s like a mixture of an old man and a first-grader! A few weeks ago, I was asking about his family. He didn’t know how many kids he had so we just settle on ‘a lot’. I was biking back to Kourouma last week and he passed me on his moto, wearing a heavy winter coat, even though it was 3 o’clock in the afternoon and probably 90 degrees. It’s “cold” season right now, so Malians tend to bundle up. I meanwhile spend all day sweating like a pig.

I continue to be thankful each and every day for having been placed in the Sikasso region. When I go to Sikasso I can buy big avocados for the equivalent of 40 cents each (Mommy, I have made some delish avocado sandwiches). I can get onions and tomatoes at site, and bread, eggs and other veggies at market on Wednesdays. Dinner at my homologue’s house is always good. Lately we’ve been having manioc, which is kind’ve like potatoes, with an onion and tomato sauce. Two nights ago we had grits! A few weeks ago was the peak of the corn season so I went to my homologue’s house one day where a group of 40 women or so had gathered for a corn-shucking party. Cotton picking was last week – the problem is that a lot of people are needed, so school was closed last Thursday and Friday afternoon so that the kids could help out in the fields. Education is ranked second below agriculture. Right now is onion-growing season, so women are out in the fields from dawn to dusk, planting and watering their onions. I went to the fields yesterday morning to help plant for a handful of minutes – it’s not a hard job, but very tedious and I can imagine having major back pains after working in the fields year after year. A few weeks ago was also the arrival of peanuts. My kitchen was almost overflowing with them, and I felt like I was snacking on peanuts all day!

I’ve had some interesting gender role conversations with several men in the village, one of whom is one of the vaccinators, is very well educated and has lived in a big city. All of them seemed to very seriously think that men literally are unable to cook, get water, or wash clothes. They thought it was hilarious when I said that I think men are perfectly capable of doing those things. I was talking to my homologue’s kids and mentioned that there were places in Africa where a woman can have more than one husband – they were astounded!

Oh, I had an interesting mouse experience last week. I was making breakfast when a little mouse scurried across the floor. I had heard them and have swept up tons of droppings but it was the first time I’d actually seen one in my house. Anyway, my trunk was open and it ran inside! So I had to take all of the food out until I realized the mouse had gotten stuck under a bowl. I lifted the bowl and the mouse climbed out of the trunk and ran over my foot and across the floor, out of sight. I bought some mouse poison at market so soon I intend on beginning a full-scale battle!

Hope everyone's well. Send me letters, I want letters! Miss you all!