Been a while
So I really feel that I should apologize for taking so long to get out this last blog. I would like to say I have just been too busy at site to have made it into Bamako but unfortunately it is more along the lines that I couldn't drag myself to sit down and actually write a blog. That being said, this one is going to be decidedly long and most definitely a jumble of anything I can think about the last couple months.
So I got back in July which hit us right during the middle of rainy slash working season. Driving back to my village I was amazed at how much it had changed. areas that were desert when I left were suddenly jungle like and vibrantly green. I remember thinking that the sotrama driver had perhaps taken a wrong turn and indeed I was in some completely other location. The rain itself was much better this year and the people promise me that peanuts are going to drop at least 250 cfa (which is like in half) per kilo. This is exciting because it means that I can buy peanuts so my family can make tigadegena (peanut sauce with rice). Mali definitely different with the rain in that it will still be really hot most of the time but when it rains, man it rains ( my screen door fell off the rain was pouring so hard). I started a challenge with my villagers about guessing when the rain would come. They were convinced that I always knew since I was an American and Americans have satellites and stuff to track weather, the fact that I was in Mali didn't convince them otherwise (that and I actually was pretty good about guessing when the rain would come). Rainy season also means farming season, and for all the sitting around that the men do throughout the year, they definitely make up for it during these couple of months. I tried to make it out to the fields, and succeeded in helping plow the fields with cows. (which was an experience in itself, the hardest part is actually dealing with keeping the plow straight as the cows don't always follow a straight line and the plow likes to move around a little) Once you get the hang of it, it is sort of like ice skating over dirt. haha. However, when it came to the cikeing, I wasn't able to hang as long. They spend months going out every day with a short ho (daba) and just bend over all day weeding acres of fields. I went out several time and by noon I could barely bend my back I was in so much pain. I remember I was at market one day and some lady asked me if I worked in the fields, trying to be cool I was like of course I ci ke. Then the woman was like oh yea, let me seeyour hands. When I showed them to her she laughed and was like you don't work the fields, your hands aren't covered in blisters. It was a little embarrassing. I got my garden planted and it has been moderately successful. The squash are doing much better now that it has dried out a little, the corn went in a little late so it is ready for harvest but won't have a very high yield. The basil however, well I am a basil king you could say. I have more basil than I know what to do with, and my villagers won't take it as they have no idea how they would use it (frankly I am okay with this, experimenting with to sauce rarely turns out well.) Rain season also is known as bat season, and for about two months there were more bats than I have ever seen constantly circling the village and hanging out in the trees. Several times every day you could count on a huge migration of thousands of bats launching into the sky and making horrendous noises. However, on the plus side, everynow and then a bat falls off his ledge and dies, which means that the kids get to cook and then eat the bats. I had a little and I have to say, while I won't eat it again, it was pretty good meat. A combination of chicken and rabbit. Oh yes, speaking of which my rabbit finally had a kid, proving my teammate Mike wrong in beleiving that had I bought two male rabbits. haha.
We have two new volunteers in Northern Koulikoro, one in Koulikoro itself so that has been fun getting to know the new people, even though it has been sad watching the old stage all head back to the States. Hmmm... Selila just happened which is the big celebration that follows Ramadan. It seems that my entire village this year really went all out with the fasting an were super serious about it. Last year I remember every one eating and not being too concerned but this year I had to eat lunch with the kids since none of the grown ups would eat. ( although Makono still insisted on boiling tea for me everyday even though he could not drink it) I got asked several times why I was not fasting but just told them that I couldn't, they thought it was pretty funny. Some guy asked me this while he was eating and I asked him why he wasn't fasting, he told me that today was his day off, at which I told him he was ridiculous. Anyway back to selila, we killed two cows which was good times since I ate more meat than I thought possible and got to the point where I was looking foward to to. I had some stomach problems one day and was going into the medical center to take some tests that morning and Makono my guy made me eat some refried beef before I went. I looked at him like, "Makono, I am going into bamako because my stomach hurts, and you are forcing refried beef on me at 630 in the morning, seriously??" haha. I have come the conclusion though that Seli la is a combination of Halloween and Thanksgiving. You eat a lot of food, the kids go around and get candy by saying a formulaic greeting, Mali played soccer to qualify for the Coup d'Afrique in January and all the guys got together in the afternoon and went out to play a game of soccer ourselves (after we cut down four tree branches to make the goals of course) .
As for now, school is starting up again so a bunch of kids that went to bamako and their home villages are back now to go to the local school (Wolongotoba hosts lots of kids because Koula-the secondary school- is only 4 kms away and all Malians in my area have relatives in neighboring villages) I am planning on working again with the local Wolongotoba school kids in math which should be a good time since I actually have flash cards and ideas on different math related games to play with them. My womens group got their five sheep and we have had some meetings on how best for them to raise the sheep for selling, I am still ocncerned with that they are going to be doing with the money once they make it and hope they are willing to reinvest it into buying more sheep, but we shall see about that. Of course the mens cow project is what all of you are familiar with since I spent a good time in the states campaigning for your donations. I wanted to first off thank everyone that donated money and let you know that the project is funded and that it would have been started long ago except for time constraints. I got back during rainy season when every one was farming (including the corn for the future cows themsevles) and therefore couldn't build the fence. Then Ramadan came and everyone was fasting so that they weren't able to do any work. However, I have been assured by my villagers that by the end of october they are going to divert all their attention to the project and we can really get the ball rolling, which I am looking foward to. My villagers were very thankful for all the support and really surprised at how quickly I was able to come up with so enormous a fund of money to start the project, so once again thank you everyone for your support.
I think that brings me to the end of this blog, although I am sure I will instantly remember things as soon as a publish it, it is all I can think of right now to mention, and hopefully I hit all the big events. I hope that everyone is doing well in the States and I miss everyone a bunch. Take care and I will try to update again soon.
So I got back in July which hit us right during the middle of rainy slash working season. Driving back to my village I was amazed at how much it had changed. areas that were desert when I left were suddenly jungle like and vibrantly green. I remember thinking that the sotrama driver had perhaps taken a wrong turn and indeed I was in some completely other location. The rain itself was much better this year and the people promise me that peanuts are going to drop at least 250 cfa (which is like in half) per kilo. This is exciting because it means that I can buy peanuts so my family can make tigadegena (peanut sauce with rice). Mali definitely different with the rain in that it will still be really hot most of the time but when it rains, man it rains ( my screen door fell off the rain was pouring so hard). I started a challenge with my villagers about guessing when the rain would come. They were convinced that I always knew since I was an American and Americans have satellites and stuff to track weather, the fact that I was in Mali didn't convince them otherwise (that and I actually was pretty good about guessing when the rain would come). Rainy season also means farming season, and for all the sitting around that the men do throughout the year, they definitely make up for it during these couple of months. I tried to make it out to the fields, and succeeded in helping plow the fields with cows. (which was an experience in itself, the hardest part is actually dealing with keeping the plow straight as the cows don't always follow a straight line and the plow likes to move around a little) Once you get the hang of it, it is sort of like ice skating over dirt. haha. However, when it came to the cikeing, I wasn't able to hang as long. They spend months going out every day with a short ho (daba) and just bend over all day weeding acres of fields. I went out several time and by noon I could barely bend my back I was in so much pain. I remember I was at market one day and some lady asked me if I worked in the fields, trying to be cool I was like of course I ci ke. Then the woman was like oh yea, let me seeyour hands. When I showed them to her she laughed and was like you don't work the fields, your hands aren't covered in blisters. It was a little embarrassing. I got my garden planted and it has been moderately successful. The squash are doing much better now that it has dried out a little, the corn went in a little late so it is ready for harvest but won't have a very high yield. The basil however, well I am a basil king you could say. I have more basil than I know what to do with, and my villagers won't take it as they have no idea how they would use it (frankly I am okay with this, experimenting with to sauce rarely turns out well.) Rain season also is known as bat season, and for about two months there were more bats than I have ever seen constantly circling the village and hanging out in the trees. Several times every day you could count on a huge migration of thousands of bats launching into the sky and making horrendous noises. However, on the plus side, everynow and then a bat falls off his ledge and dies, which means that the kids get to cook and then eat the bats. I had a little and I have to say, while I won't eat it again, it was pretty good meat. A combination of chicken and rabbit. Oh yes, speaking of which my rabbit finally had a kid, proving my teammate Mike wrong in beleiving that had I bought two male rabbits. haha.
We have two new volunteers in Northern Koulikoro, one in Koulikoro itself so that has been fun getting to know the new people, even though it has been sad watching the old stage all head back to the States. Hmmm... Selila just happened which is the big celebration that follows Ramadan. It seems that my entire village this year really went all out with the fasting an were super serious about it. Last year I remember every one eating and not being too concerned but this year I had to eat lunch with the kids since none of the grown ups would eat. ( although Makono still insisted on boiling tea for me everyday even though he could not drink it) I got asked several times why I was not fasting but just told them that I couldn't, they thought it was pretty funny. Some guy asked me this while he was eating and I asked him why he wasn't fasting, he told me that today was his day off, at which I told him he was ridiculous. Anyway back to selila, we killed two cows which was good times since I ate more meat than I thought possible and got to the point where I was looking foward to to. I had some stomach problems one day and was going into the medical center to take some tests that morning and Makono my guy made me eat some refried beef before I went. I looked at him like, "Makono, I am going into bamako because my stomach hurts, and you are forcing refried beef on me at 630 in the morning, seriously??" haha. I have come the conclusion though that Seli la is a combination of Halloween and Thanksgiving. You eat a lot of food, the kids go around and get candy by saying a formulaic greeting, Mali played soccer to qualify for the Coup d'Afrique in January and all the guys got together in the afternoon and went out to play a game of soccer ourselves (after we cut down four tree branches to make the goals of course) .
As for now, school is starting up again so a bunch of kids that went to bamako and their home villages are back now to go to the local school (Wolongotoba hosts lots of kids because Koula-the secondary school- is only 4 kms away and all Malians in my area have relatives in neighboring villages) I am planning on working again with the local Wolongotoba school kids in math which should be a good time since I actually have flash cards and ideas on different math related games to play with them. My womens group got their five sheep and we have had some meetings on how best for them to raise the sheep for selling, I am still ocncerned with that they are going to be doing with the money once they make it and hope they are willing to reinvest it into buying more sheep, but we shall see about that. Of course the mens cow project is what all of you are familiar with since I spent a good time in the states campaigning for your donations. I wanted to first off thank everyone that donated money and let you know that the project is funded and that it would have been started long ago except for time constraints. I got back during rainy season when every one was farming (including the corn for the future cows themsevles) and therefore couldn't build the fence. Then Ramadan came and everyone was fasting so that they weren't able to do any work. However, I have been assured by my villagers that by the end of october they are going to divert all their attention to the project and we can really get the ball rolling, which I am looking foward to. My villagers were very thankful for all the support and really surprised at how quickly I was able to come up with so enormous a fund of money to start the project, so once again thank you everyone for your support.
I think that brings me to the end of this blog, although I am sure I will instantly remember things as soon as a publish it, it is all I can think of right now to mention, and hopefully I hit all the big events. I hope that everyone is doing well in the States and I miss everyone a bunch. Take care and I will try to update again soon.
posted by Daniel Marsh at 1:10 PM
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