Life in Africa

Useful Hint for People Waning Their babies off Breastfeeding:
I learned that sometimes women put chili pepper on their nipple for the children that just don’t want to stop breastfeeding. They will begin to drink, and their mouth will burn. Wahla! They will no longer desire breast milk. Oh, the things you learn in Mali!

Where do I begin? Brusse life is SO different than city life! I knew that before going to Fata’s site (American name: Katy), but I think it is more so than I could have ever imagined. For instance, I sometimes get ants in my house. On days where I have the light on in the living room, and take my clean clothes outside, more flying bugs come in. Katy sometimes gets bats in her house. BATS! Now, when I see the ants, I am thankful that they are not gross perhaps rabbi infested bats. Her house is lovely, and I think I could live the Brusse life (no electricity, no running water, and cell phone service? Forget about it!) for 2 years. I just don’t know about the bats.
The reason we went to the village was a French group sponsored a bogolon training. We went at the end to see the end result. On Sunday night, they had a dance party. It was so much fun!!! I unfortunately did not take my camera, so I’ll try to capture it with my words. We all piled into a truck and a car to go to the dance party. I felt it was ridiculous to be riding in a car when it was an easy 10-15 minute walk, but that’s another issue/story. When we got there, somebody got us, as Katy calls them, Princess chairs. It was an outside party, but they got us these nice cushioned chairs that would easily belong in a dining room. We all took a sit, and eventually, joined the circle of dancing. There was a big circle and everybody’s’ (except the Americans) feet were all doing the same thing. There were a bunch of kids in the middle. At one point, 2 kids were beginning to push, I began yelling at them. My nature tongue is English, so they had no idea what I was saying, but I confident that I relayed the message that I was not happy. So, we were all dancing and moving in a circular motion. When people saw me, they laughed and clapped and spoke to me in Bambara. I like to think they were saying “You go girl!” but in reality, I have no idea what they were saying. I just smiled and laughed too. The music was awesome! There were drums, balaphones, and a guy singing. After a few songs, the kids were really rowdy. I saw some men pull tree branches down, and they began swinging at the kids. I don’t think anybody was hurt, but the kids moved much faster and immediately sat down. Then, people took turns dancing. It was like 2-5 in a group. These dancers were AMAZING! Their feet were moving SO fast! I kept on thinking, what if a professional dancer gave them a week of tap lessons? It was truly unbelievable how talented some of these Malians are. And, a lot of times they kicked off their shoes and danced on the ground aka dirt. There was this larger lady, and she took a few turns. It was great! It then began to rain, and most Malians don’t like the rain. So, everybody ran for cover. We ended up leaving.
The next day, they had an awards ceremony. It was great seeing everybody hold up their certificate with a huge grin on their face. After lunch, we headed back to the city.

I was talking to Trinh about needing to integrate more. She got this great idea that we would run daily at the stadium. Integration and exercise: kill 2 birds with one stone. So, on Tuesday afternoon, I show up. Not only am I the only white person there, I am the only woman. Talk about intimidation! Trinh came soon after and we began. The kids drive me crazy calling me Tubabu! Tubabu! (French person) and they call her Chin! (Chinese), even though she is Vietnamese American, and I’m not French. And, then they kept on asking for money. I got irritated at the end, which is exactly what they wanted to happen, so I unfortunately began to mimic them, which got an even bigger response. They got to me. I am trying really hard to ignore their Tubabu comments and demands for money. I figured if they realize that they won’t get a response, eventually they will quit. Let’s hope anyway.
On Thursday, the First Lady of Mali came. I was in the middle of my tutoring lesson, and I asked what was going on outside? My tutor told me the First Lady was in town. People lined the streets. I went outside on my veranda and actually saw the First Lady. She was wearing a vibrant green, smiling and waving. On Friday, I actually saw her speak. She came to Sikasso for her foundation. She gave away sooo much food and materials! I would have loved to have seen the numbers of how many tons of rice that was given away and such. At the beginning, the man who was talking was the “griot grande” the grand storyteller. It was phenomenal. He did the introduction in French, then Bambara, then Fulani, and then some language I can't remember the name of! There were a bunch of kids that were edging their way to the front. Eventually, a guard had to take off his belt and began hitting them. There was so much pushing and talking, I understand why they did that. I think that preventative measures would have been more efficient (i.e. a fence) but whatever.
It was so funny talking to Trinh (another PCV) about security. Laura Bush came to Mali in June 2007. Everybody had to walk through a metal detector and Secret Service was swarming the place. When seeing Lobo Troare (First Lady of Mali) speak, we just sat down. There were assigned seats for important people, so they would obviously make you move but other than that, it was fair game (or it appeared to be fair game. It’s amazing at how much that could perhaps be going on but I’m clueless because of my lack of language). Except for kids, and they had to move a lot. It was just interesting observing the difference in security measures.
On Sunday, I went to Marium’s house to make Zama. Marium is the secretary at Trinh’s work. Zama is one of my favorite Malian dishes. It’s rice (surprise!), but delicious! It is red rice with tomatoes, eggplant, miniature green pumpkins (don’t know the name but I don’t like it because it’s bitter), onions, fish, and potatoes. It was a lot of fun! And, I actually understood some of what was going on. Everybody got a kick out of me because first of all, I’m not a big cook in the states (or at least I have help from my lovely friends and packages) and secondly, I don’t really cut things in my hands. So, the 10 year old saw how hesitant I was cutting things in my hands, so she took the knife and onion from me did it in like 5 seconds. I feel good about preparing this dish at home, but I’m definitely going to use short cuts like a stove. Today, we sat outside and put the pot over wood and charcoal. 2 and ½ hours later, we were done!

I’m sure by now you’re wondering, geez how long was she on the computer? But, I decided that I would type my blogs at the bureau, so I could spend more time on other important things when paying for the internet (such as Auburn football, cnn.com, goupstate.com, writing emails, posting pictures, etc. etc.).

Upcoming Events:
October 31st: Halloween
November 2nd-4th: Festival in Sikasso
November 8th: Going to Bamako (another entry material; meeting with the previous volunteer about the Waterfall project)
November 23th: Thanksgiving
November 24th: Mexican Night (@ my place!!! Est. amount of guests: 70!!!)

Side note: Will try to format better when I get more time on the computer.