Michelle in Mali: A Week in My World

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Sleeping outside was a great idea. As it got later and later it became deliciously cool, and Moose and I snuggled up under my blanket. Plus it was really easy to let him out when he had to pee at 2:30am AND 3:30am. The only bad thing was the stupid animals. I’d almost forgotten why I hate roosters so much. They woke me up at 4am when every rooster in the neighborhood decided it was gossip time. And the donkeys woke me at 6:30am with their crazy seizure donkey brays. But all in all, totally worth sleeping outside!

I’d been planning to go out into the bush with Alima to cut wood for the cooking fires (all the wood for the entire year is cut during these few months), but she came over to tell me we weren’t going until tomorrow. Something about the sous-préfets (gov’t official who lives in my vill) would find out and “hit us.” (There’s no way I correctly understood that). I think she was trying to get across that Malians aren’t technically allowed to cut down trees, in an attempt at environmental conservation. Which in reality is ridiculous, since every village family cooks every meal over a fire. What are they supposed to use, cow-fart methane? Just another example of how far removed Malian (Bamako) officials are from the majority of the Malian people.

So instead of going into the bush, I had a normal morning, reading for awhile and making breakfast, and then I headed over to my host family’s house to hang out for a bit. I love going over there because they’re all so ridiculous that I know all I have to do is be ridiculous to fit in and make them laugh. (These are all compliments!) So I play it up, and we find common ground in teasing and laughter. My host fam makes fun of me for everything from my dancing to my inability to cook toh, and I make fun of my mom for being a Coulibaly, and my dad for being a cekoroba (old man) and not doing anything but sitting under a tree with the other cekorobas and drinking tea. My mom in particular gets a kick out of that one!

My brother Seydou with Konia.

Moose also loves going over there so he can play with my fam’s puppy, Konia. And chase chickens (I secretly approve of this habit). I also got to hold Ma’s new baby for awhile. Her name is Worokia but since she’s named after the older Sinali’s mom (Ma’s aunt), she goes by the female version of “Junior”: Batoma. Or in my case, since I call Batoma’s older sister Terimuso (female friend), sometimes I call Batoma Terimuso Fitini (my little female friend).

Interesting note: in Mali you can (unfortunately) buy medicines like antibiotics in the butikis or from random people on the street. I often see yellow and red pills being sold, not quite sure what they are. While at my fam’s house I wandered around the tree to find my dad holding down one of his ducks, pouring the contents of a yellow and red pill down its throat, followed by a mouthful (beakful?) of water. Why? The duck was sick, of course.

It took awhile to get out of my house for good, after chores and playing cards with Alima (I also had to stop her from washing all of the black coating off of my frying pan because she thought it was dirty and scrubbed half of it off before I realized what was happening), but eventually I made it to the CSCOM, or rather, the doctor’s house next door. I hung out with the kids for awhile and we watched the daily episode of the French-dubbed, Spanish-language telenova, Frijolito. At the end of the previous episode, two men were just starting a duel. (Seriously, turning their backs, walking 10 steps and everything). They had just raised their guns when the heroine, Margarita, came running over and stepped between them. For today’s episode, I stayed awake long enough to make sure nobody died, and then I passed out for the rest of the episode. I also drooled a little bit on somebody’s pillow, but that’s a secret.

After lunch, everyone went off their own ways and I quickly grew bored so I headed over to the maternity to hang out with the women. Nothing was going on there so Djeneba took me for a walk out to the women’s garden behind Flawεrε, the Fulani sister-village to my village, on the other side of the road from my vill. The garden is about a 20-minute walk beyond the town, with a well, pump, and metal fence provided by World Vision. The community women have individual spots where they grow rice, tomatoes, cabbage, potatoes, carrots, and lots and lots of onions. My village also has a World Vision Women’s Garden, but it was apparently built in a place where there’s no water in the well for most of the year, so it just sits empty and unused. (Chrissy’s World Vision Women’s Garden was made in a place with a year-long dry well. This is exactly why Peace Corps’ development philosophy focuses on community-centered development – so dumb mistakes like this aren’t made). But the Flawεrε garden is big and beautiful, and the women and their kids clearly put a lot of work into it. I guess I would too, after hiking all that way to get out there!

Back at home I had a bit of a rest to myself. I also took a bath, and since my thermometer read 100° in the shade I figured it was warm enough outside not to heat my bath water on the stove before bathing – wrong!! I was freezing!! I was so cold that I had to forgo washing my hair and shaving my legs. I’m really starting to worry that I’ll never be able to enjoy an Amεriki waterpark again.

Sidiki and the banana tree

Later, the kids came over. Sidiki had asked me yesterday if I wanted a banana tree, and I said ok, so sure enough he came over today with a baby banana tree! I made a big deal out of it and took lots of photos of my brother Sinali digging the hole and planting it, and of my dad supervising and covering it up. I made sure to get Sidiki’s photo too: he’s shy and was embarrassed about all the attention, so I wanted to make sure he got his moment. And now I have a banana tree! I was given strict instructions to saturate it with water twice daily and not to let Moose eat it. The kids made a small brick barrier around it from discarded bricks in my yard, but it’s not completely Moose-proof. He and I are working on that.*

Sinali planting the tree.

My host dad helping us plant the tree.

Sidiki and me with my new banana tree!

Once again, my house emptied out around dusk, so I made and ate dinner alone and then went to Alima’s house to hang out and chat for a little bit. I don’t usually go inside her house, but that’s where she and her brother Yaya had been hanging out so that’s where I went. In fact, it was my first time in the back room, and they were both so excited to show me everything from the box of broken flip flops to the big stuffed dolphin hanging from the ceiling rafters. Show and Tell with Michelli! :D

It’s much windier tonight but I’m going to sleep outside again. It’s too nice to pass up!

*Update on Moose and the banana tree. He did not agree to leaving it alone. After a mere 24 hours, it was down to 1 lonely little leaf from the original 3. So the kids and I built a legitimate brick wall around it. It was a lot of fun, we had about 15 kids running back and forth from the brick-making place (gathering more kids each time we passed) to pick up the broken, discarded pieces of brick to build me a wall – sometimes I really just LOVE Malian kids! (Ok, almost all of the time).

Photos from making the banana tree wall: