written November 19, 2010
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY P.I.C JENN!!
Here are some random mini stories:
There isn't much of a variety of names here, for example I can't tell you how many Moussas, Oumous, Salimatas, or Brehmas I know, so it's fairly necessary that nicknames be given out. What is interesting to me is that these nicknames are usually not the nicest, or the most politically correct. For example there is a girl here who is named Sita and she isn't the skinniest girl in the village, but I wouldn't necessarily call her fat either, but everyone else in the village does. They call her Sita Ba which translates to big or fat Sita. Another example is my homologue who is a big dude and also very tall; they call him Le Gros, which is French for the big guy. There is also a man named Amadou that they call Amadou Noir, which means black Amadou because his skin is so dark. My homologue and others even joke that how can he be so black? He must paint himself every morning. Coming from an American background where we tread lightly on subjects like these, I find it a little uncomfortable to laugh at these nicknames with my fellow villagers, but it is all quite funny isn't it?
Moms here pretty much let their children eat and drink anything. I don't know how many times I've thought to myself 'aren't you gonna stop him/her, that's covered with dirt!' Mothers will hand their children food that has fallen on the ground instead of eating it themselves. They also will give children water to drink that has been used for hand-washing. It's pretty gross. I can't decide if it's terrible or kinda good because if you think about it, these mothers are building up there children's immunities.
Very few people, especially children, shout out Tubaboo when I pass by now. This is great! I feel like I'm fairly well immersed in my village, and that the majority of people know me. Pretty much everyone calls out my name, Gnire (pronounced gNeer- Ray, I think I may have gotten the pronunciation wrong in my earlier post on Site Visit), whenever I pass by. A few days ago a young woman even called out my name on a bus coming from Sikasso (she was from my village, but I'm pretty sure I had never met her before).
Exciting news! I found someone in my village who can do my hair! This was actually quite difficult because apparently the very simple plaits (braids) that I always get are considered a "modern style" and not many people know how to do them since no one in village ever gets them done. I think the reason no one ever gets them done is because it is kind of expensive to buy the hair (they call the weave/extensions/fake hair Meshi). Meshi costs about 1500 cfa (about $3) a pack and to do my hair I need 2 packs; 3000 cfa is considered quite a lot for something simple like hair. Anyway I'm really happy I found her because I don't like my hair lady in Sikasso; she's not very nice and she doesn't listen to me, however her braiding is impecable. My new village girl isn't the best, but she will do!
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Seli Ba
written November 18, 2010
I don't feel very good. My stomach is full of goat meat and I think I might throw up soon. I unfortunately made the decision to eat a good deal of the air-dried goat leg I was given as a gift. I've been given quite a few hunks of meat as gifts over the past two days. Today was the last day of the 2 day Holiday called Seli Ba. That's the Bambara name for it, all I know about it besides that is that in French it is called Tabaski and it is the Islamic Holiday where they kill a lot of sheep. In my village they don't just eat sheep meat, they also butcher cows and goats, so it's basically like a meat schmorgusborg. My stomach can't handle it. Meat is usually so hard to come by in my village that I've basically become a vegetarian. The only meat I eat is the tuna my mom has sent me in care-packages, and maybe a few pieces of chicken no more than once a month (this doesn't include the schwarmas or hamburgers I get every time I go to Sikasso). Anyway Seli Ba has been pretty chill. I expected it to be pretty crazy in Village because it's a holiday, but everything pretty much stayed the same except that people dressed up a bit and we ate a lot of meat. There was also a lot of balofone music. The first night they played until 4am!! I couldn't believe that they could stay up dancing that late (They work so hard during the day, you'd figure they'd be too tired to stay up that late). Over the past two days my homologue and I pretty much just went to all of his friends house's to say hi, or rather to "donner les bonjours" (give hellos). This wasn't that much different from what we do on a day to day basis. The first day was a little different because several people gave me candy and a few people gave me money (not a lot, basically like 20 cents worth or less) for the holiday. My homologue said it was to wish me a good year. The second day, today, all of my gifts were of meat. It was kind of gross to be handed a dried hunk of meat that was just hanging on a string from a tree. I've learned that it's incredibly hard to look grateful when you're disgusted by something. Another interesting thing about Seli Ba, and I guess really all Holidays here, is that everyone likes to get dressed up. What's interesting about that is that all the boys' idea of dressed up is a track suit with a stiff baseball cap, and all the girls have the same complets (full outfits) as their friends. The boys all also get their hair cut so that their heads are completely shaved except for a circle patch of hair on the top which many of the boy's had designs shaved into. It's all very 1980s. The girls look very cute with their little head wraps, but the boys just look ridiculous (to me; this is all my opinion, clearly not theirs).
Besides all of the excitement of Seli Ba, not much has happened. My wrist is basically back to normal, with spurts of pain every once and a while. I've also taken up the hobby of jewelry making which wasn't difficult seeing as my mom sent me like 4 packages full of jewelry making materials. I've made several bracelets, some of them fairly complicated, and even tried making bracelets with a few of the girls in my village. That was interesting because it's almost as if kids here have no creativity, they all want to copy everything you do, so since I made a pink and blue bracelet, all five girls made pink and blue bracelets even though I had more than 10 colors of beads to choose from. Oh well.
In other news, I think I may be getting sick because for the past 3 or so days I have been perpetually tired, like I could sleep all day if left alone. I really hope that I'm not sick because Thanksgiving is a week from today! I'm super excited for Thanksgiving because every year Sikasso hosts a Peace Corps' Thanksgiving dinner/weekend type thing and a bunch of PCVs from all over Mali come down to celebrate. I'm excited for good food and for seeing people I haven't seen for quite some time!
I don't feel very good. My stomach is full of goat meat and I think I might throw up soon. I unfortunately made the decision to eat a good deal of the air-dried goat leg I was given as a gift. I've been given quite a few hunks of meat as gifts over the past two days. Today was the last day of the 2 day Holiday called Seli Ba. That's the Bambara name for it, all I know about it besides that is that in French it is called Tabaski and it is the Islamic Holiday where they kill a lot of sheep. In my village they don't just eat sheep meat, they also butcher cows and goats, so it's basically like a meat schmorgusborg. My stomach can't handle it. Meat is usually so hard to come by in my village that I've basically become a vegetarian. The only meat I eat is the tuna my mom has sent me in care-packages, and maybe a few pieces of chicken no more than once a month (this doesn't include the schwarmas or hamburgers I get every time I go to Sikasso). Anyway Seli Ba has been pretty chill. I expected it to be pretty crazy in Village because it's a holiday, but everything pretty much stayed the same except that people dressed up a bit and we ate a lot of meat. There was also a lot of balofone music. The first night they played until 4am!! I couldn't believe that they could stay up dancing that late (They work so hard during the day, you'd figure they'd be too tired to stay up that late). Over the past two days my homologue and I pretty much just went to all of his friends house's to say hi, or rather to "donner les bonjours" (give hellos). This wasn't that much different from what we do on a day to day basis. The first day was a little different because several people gave me candy and a few people gave me money (not a lot, basically like 20 cents worth or less) for the holiday. My homologue said it was to wish me a good year. The second day, today, all of my gifts were of meat. It was kind of gross to be handed a dried hunk of meat that was just hanging on a string from a tree. I've learned that it's incredibly hard to look grateful when you're disgusted by something. Another interesting thing about Seli Ba, and I guess really all Holidays here, is that everyone likes to get dressed up. What's interesting about that is that all the boys' idea of dressed up is a track suit with a stiff baseball cap, and all the girls have the same complets (full outfits) as their friends. The boys all also get their hair cut so that their heads are completely shaved except for a circle patch of hair on the top which many of the boy's had designs shaved into. It's all very 1980s. The girls look very cute with their little head wraps, but the boys just look ridiculous (to me; this is all my opinion, clearly not theirs).
Besides all of the excitement of Seli Ba, not much has happened. My wrist is basically back to normal, with spurts of pain every once and a while. I've also taken up the hobby of jewelry making which wasn't difficult seeing as my mom sent me like 4 packages full of jewelry making materials. I've made several bracelets, some of them fairly complicated, and even tried making bracelets with a few of the girls in my village. That was interesting because it's almost as if kids here have no creativity, they all want to copy everything you do, so since I made a pink and blue bracelet, all five girls made pink and blue bracelets even though I had more than 10 colors of beads to choose from. Oh well.
In other news, I think I may be getting sick because for the past 3 or so days I have been perpetually tired, like I could sleep all day if left alone. I really hope that I'm not sick because Thanksgiving is a week from today! I'm super excited for Thanksgiving because every year Sikasso hosts a Peace Corps' Thanksgiving dinner/weekend type thing and a bunch of PCVs from all over Mali come down to celebrate. I'm excited for good food and for seeing people I haven't seen for quite some time!
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Moto accident
I am currently sitting on the couch at the Peace Corps office in Sikasso. I am on med hold. Why is that? Oh, i just got hit by a moto yesterday morning, and now I have a very painful sprained wrist. I was planning on going back to village for another 2 week stint yesterday morning, but that was before I got hit. All I was trying to do was cross the street. I had made it halfway across the street when this moto coming from behind the roundpoint decided to speed up when he saw me. Malian drivers are weird. I feel like they play this game called 'Let's scare the pedestrian' by speeding up anytime they see someone cross the street. Maybe they think it's funny to see people run the rest of the way across the street scared? I have no idea, but they do this. So anyway he sped up and then I guess at the last moment when he realized he was going to hit me he decided to slow down, and his bike swerved a bit. That was when I decided it would be a good idea to stick my right hand out and try to stop the moto from hitting me, because I have super-human strength? So yea that was a major idiot move on my part, but it was kind of like an unconcious reaction, like how you always reach out to catch something that is falling. My hand ended up grasping the handle bars of the moto for a second and then getting pulled back with the moto because of course the man didn't stop after he hit me. This is what must've sprained my wrist, it getting jerked back with the moto. Immediately afterwards I screamed, but did anyone rush over to help me? NO. Was the street full of people? Yes. I don't get it. Malians are very nice and hospitable, but I've noticed that they aren't ones to rush and help someone when they need it. I'm sure that in the US after getting hit by a moto several people would've asked if I was okay.
So anyway my wrist is in a lot of pain, I can barely use my right hand which is a major issue here. It's rude to do almost anything with your left hand like eat with it, or hand someone money with it. So all day yesterday I had to struggle to put money in my limp hand and painfully raise it to drop whatever coins into the vender's hand. It really sucked. I also spent most of the day icing it and laying down because Dr. Dawn (Peace Corps Medical Officer) advised me to do so. The day of the accident I was in quite a lot of pain, but today it is manageable, but I think that's because I've just taken 800mg of Ibuprofen. So yea, hopefully tomorrow I'm pain free and can head back to village, but until then I'm gonna watch a lot of movies, TV shows and be online 24/7. I've already caught up completely on the Office which I didn't think was going to be possible with my terrible internet connection, and I've watched half the 1st season of Mad Men. I'm really enjoying this technology filled few days, even if the cost of having them is a swolen wrist.
So anyway my wrist is in a lot of pain, I can barely use my right hand which is a major issue here. It's rude to do almost anything with your left hand like eat with it, or hand someone money with it. So all day yesterday I had to struggle to put money in my limp hand and painfully raise it to drop whatever coins into the vender's hand. It really sucked. I also spent most of the day icing it and laying down because Dr. Dawn (Peace Corps Medical Officer) advised me to do so. The day of the accident I was in quite a lot of pain, but today it is manageable, but I think that's because I've just taken 800mg of Ibuprofen. So yea, hopefully tomorrow I'm pain free and can head back to village, but until then I'm gonna watch a lot of movies, TV shows and be online 24/7. I've already caught up completely on the Office which I didn't think was going to be possible with my terrible internet connection, and I've watched half the 1st season of Mad Men. I'm really enjoying this technology filled few days, even if the cost of having them is a swolen wrist.
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