Stories

A few more stories from homestay:

Apples and Peanut Butter
One night at dinner I asked Moussa what foods he likes. I wanted to buy him a special gift, separate from the rest of the family, since we’ve been so close the whole time. I know he doesn’t like toh, and I can’t imagine eating the exact same things every day, day after day, is that exciting. But all he could come up with were potatoes and apples! Neither food is available in the Mountougoula market, but I was able to get ahold of two apples from a nearby village market. I also bought a baggie of peanut butter to go along with it, as any respectable American would do. When I gave the apples to Moussa he was so excited! Apples are definitely a treat. Like I said, they aren’t available in Mountougoula, and on top of that, they’re relatively expensive. Two apples cost me the same as about 10-14 mangoes. He had of course never heard of eating peanut butter with apples (even the Australians thought I was weird for doing that) but I explained the deliciousness of it and he tried it – and loved it! I gave him the apples when we were alone so he wouldn’t have to share if he didn’t want to, but he shared one of the apples with all of the kids, including a few who don’t actually belong in the family but are always playing with my siblings. They were so adorable. They were all confused by the addition of the peanut butter, but they loved it! In fact, after the apple was gone, they each stretched out their hand to receive a dollop of peanut butter in their palm to lick off. (The health worker in me was inwardly cheering – protein!!!) My little brother Le, who is 2, wasn’t wearing a shirt and spilled peanut butter on his huge round baby tummy, so his older sister Bi scooped it off to eat. It was so wonderful to sit there and watch them share and enjoy a new kind of special treat!

Le

I mentioned Le above. He’s so adorable. At 2 years old, he just never quite understood the strange white girl that was living in his home. He liked to look at me, but if I looked back and waved, or tried to approach, he always ran away, and occasionally cried. I was only able to come close to him a few times without him crying. And he has the biggest eyes that communicate so many expressions!

One night in my last week while we were playing the dice game, I was sitting in my chair with my brothers and sisters lined up on the bench in front of me. Le had come over and was sitting near the end of the bench, straddling it. I was so excited he had come so close to me! I figured he must be getting used to me, so I reached over to tickle his tummy.

As soon as he realized what was happening, his eyes widened huge with fear and he scooted back away from me as fast as his little arms could push him. Unfortunately he was sitting on the end of the bench, and he scooted right off the end of it! Then the crying started and my hopes of making friends with Le before I left were yet again dashed. Even so…he was so cute with those big eyes and scurrying limbs!

Sunday Holiday
The Sunday before we left homestay, Peace Corps arranged a sort of holiday for us. The PC vans picked us up in the morning and took us to Bamako for the day. We spent a few hours at the Malian National Museum and then went to the American club for the afternoon. I ate pizza!!! It wasn’t that great, but it was pizza, and it made me happy. And…the American Club has a swimming pool!! I can’t begin to tell you what an incredible afternoon that was. It was so nice just to escape for a day. To go to a pool and hang out with 60+ friends, play music and games, and just generally relax was so wonderful, and I’m very grateful to Peace Corps for arranging it for us.

Later that night, back at homestay, I wanted to show Moussa our soak pit, so shortly before dusk I asked him to walk over to the CSCOM with me. As we made the 3 minute walk I looked at the sky and said, “Moussa, is it going to rain? The sky looks dark.” He responded, “Lala!” (Maybe). We went in the CSCOM, looked at the soak pit, and a few minutes after entering we exited. It was like a completely different day. The entire sky was dark and a wall of dust was heading our way. Moussa covered his nose and mouth with his shirt and I took off my headscarf to do the same. We hurried home and passed my friend Clare’s house along the way. She was standing at her gate watching the dust come and yelled, “Damadje! Get home!” As she turned to go inside I yelled, “I feel like I’m in the Wizard of Oz!” Later when we talked about it, I found out almost all of the PCTs in my village had thought the same thing.

Moussa and I hurried home and I quickly took my bucket bath before the dust really hit. I was still wearing my contacts which I’d put in that day for the pool and I was worried about all the dust flying around. I’ve only worn contacts 3 times in Mali, and only for special occasions. I worry about eye infections from the dust and my hands just don’t feel clean enough to be all up in my eyes. (Yesterday I took out my contacts and there was a bug right in the center of one of them. No wonder my eye was burning). So I ran back to my room to take out my contacts while my hands were still clean from my bath. And I didn’t leave my room again for several hours. There was no way I was about to go out into a swirling mass of dust. The wind was blowing hard and rattling my tin roof and it slammed my door shut several times. Moussa brought dinner into my room and we ate sitting on my floor, but it was still sooo hot in my room and it was miserable to eat in there. It was a lose-lose situation! But we had fun eating in my room together and I shared with him my new favorite Malian snack: dates. I like when I’m able to share food with him that’s not toh.

Eventually the wind died down and the dust settled. I had been worried that I’d have to sleep inside that night, but luckily we were able to sleep outside as usual. It’s crazy how the storm just came and went like that, and I’m sure I’ll be seeing plenty more of that in the years to come!