...and may God give you lots of beans!

What’s new in Mali? Well it’s the end of November, and therefore cold season has begun. Either it’s colder than it was last year or I’ve just been in Mali too long; either way, I’ve already broken out the long-sleeved shirts for mornings and evenings, have been sleeping indoors, and heat my bath water. And, I tried to wait until after Thanksgiving, but haven’t had enough willpower and have been listening to Christmas music for two and a half weeks now.

Life is still chugging along in Kourouma, with simple pleasures such as joking cousins and bean jokes to make me smile. As I was giving blessings to one of my favorite old men in village, who happens to be a Diarra and therefore my biggest joking cousin, I prayed that he would have a peaceful afternoon and also that God would give him lots of beans!

I still hang out with my best friend at site, Maminatta, pretty much every day. Because of the slow work schedule, if Maminatta wasn’t around I think I would go crazy some days! We got together again to make Dege one day and went to watch a fetish dance another day, which is always entertaining. The men had come out the night before and I woke up at 2 am to hear their drums and singing. They held a small dance the next afternoon which women could watch. Some men came to the dance carrying these huge bags on their heads. Because they had sacrificed a chicken the night before, I thought that the bags were full of chicken bones or something but apparently they are where traditional medicines are stored.

The week after the US Presidential election (yay!) was full of vaccinations and baby weighings in Kourouma and the surrounding villages. A lot of times I wonder if the women actually listen to my advice, but the other day a woman whose baby gained half a kilo told me excitedly that after I told her to start giving her baby porridge, she did, and now her child’s heavier! This past week was slow in the mornings, but I walked around a lot greeting folks whom I haven’t seen in a while. In one huge concession, from the time I entered to the time I left, I was literally surrounded by about twenty young kids – “Toubabou Awa, Toubabou Awa!!!” I did one week of AIDS animations in the school, which went alright, although I was pretty frustrated that only one out of eighty or so 9th graders could tell me what AIDS stands for – even though we went over it at least three times last school year!

Even though I’ve been in Mali for almost a year and a half, there are still culture shock moments. One came a few weeks ago when I learned that one of the women who work at the Kourouma CSCOM is a fourth wife! I thought that she was her husband’s only wife, but apparently he has three others in a nearby village. And the other day, an unmarried teenage girl in Maminatta’s concession gave birth to a one kilo (about two pound) baby girl. Despite how tiny the baby was, the mother went home pretty much immediately after giving birth.

Thanksgiving has arrived. I hope that you all have a wonderful Holiday with lots of good food and people to share it with!

Anna / Awa