Camel!

Written March 23, 2011
So there was a camel in my village today... very strange. I live in the south of Mali where it is semi-tropical, so being a desert animal a camel isn't something you would expect to see here. I was biking home from drinking tea in the market with my homologue and his friends when I passed by the camel. I left my homologue and his friends after only round two of a typically three round tea session because I had already been sitting with them in the market for two hours; another round would've probably meant another round of me sitting bored out of my mind. So anyway I decided to say that I was tired and I that I was going to go home and rest as a way to get out of staying for the third round. This is basically something I do every Wednesday. Every Wednesday is market day, and every Wednesday my homologue likes to bring me to the market with him to have tea with his "Grein." A Grein is a group of friends who have grown up together, hang out together, dress alike for Fetes (special occasions or holidays), and drink tea together. My homologue's grein is made up of a very tall man that they have nicknamed Dangereux, a Fulani man, a guy that has teeth that are really spaced out, and a really sweet woman named Abi, although Abi isn't so much apart of the grein as much as she is the grein's mother (i.e. servant who does everything while all the men sit around doing nothing). Anyway... back to the camel. So I was leaving the grein when I saw in a distance a camel with a turbaned man on top. I got kind of scared at first and stopped my bike because I saw a black thing in the man's hands (the reins) and thought it was a gun. Why this was my first thought I have no idea. I guess I just got scared because I was seeing something out of the ordinary. Once I got over my fear I kept on biking towards the man on the camel and once I got to him I said I ni ce (basically hi in Bambara) and kept on going. I did notice that all the villagers surrounding the man and his camel did not look the least bit surprised. It was as if seeing a camel was no big deal to them. It was a huge deal to me! Once I got back to my house I thought 'Damn it! I should've asked for a ride!'
Things have been pretty good in village. I am spending a lot less time at home and way more time out and about with my homologue. We spend a ridiculous amount of time playing cards (uno), but it's all good because I'm getting to know more and more people. Yesterday was one of the few times I've ever truly been upset in village. It wasn't because of anything anyone had done to me in village, but rather a phone call from my APCD (my Peace Corps supervisor). He called to say that he was upset about something I did, it all turned out to be a misunderstanding, but it upset me nonetheless. I then went from being upset about that phone call to having to sit through a meeting that took literally all day. I believe I wrote in a previous blog post how much a HATE meetings here. I honestly don't understand why my homologue keeps bringing me to them when I've told him more than once that I don't like them because I understand nothing that is going on. This meeting just added to my frustrations of the day, but it was all alleviated when one of the guys who works at the mayor's office walked into the meeting wearing jeans that had two GIANT Nokia phones embroidered onto each pant leg! Funniest pants I've ever seen in my entire life, second only to a pair I saw a month or so ago that were embroidered with all different types of guns with "Welcome to the Hood" stitched on the bottom of the left pant leg. Oh Mali...
Yesterday may have been the first time I was really upset in village, but I wouldn't go as far as saying it was the only time I've ever been upset in Mali. I will go as far as to say that a few days ago I was the maddest I've ever been in Mali, and I mean I was furious. The way to tell when a Peace Corps volunteer is so incredibly mad is when they revert to yelling in English because they are so mad that they can only express themselves in their maternal tongue. I reached exactly that point. It all began when I was already somewhat annoyed because I had been waiting for a bus to take me back to village for an hour before I actually caught one. This bus was particularly crappy by Mali standards, but I decided to take it anyway because it was past 5pm and I needed to get to Helen's village before 6:30pm when the sun went down and it would be too late to bike my 8k back to my village. It normally only takes 45 minutes to get from Sikasso to Helen's village, but lately it has been taking an hour plus because the road is being repaired. Knowing this I figured I would still be able to make it in time, so I got on the bus and handed the Prentigi (the driver's apprentice; there are usually 3 of these guys on every bus and they are usually the ones who collect your money and give you a ticket) 5 mille (about $10). My ticket was only 1 mille ($2) so I asked the prentigi for my 4 mille in change ($8), to which he said it was coming. I didn't want to annoy the prentigi to make him do something like pretend to not notice my stop or even to make me get out way before I'm supposed to, so I patiently waited for him to bring me my change. Except he didn't. This prentigi got off the bus when we reached the Sikasso check point (about 25 minutes later) and never got back on. I immediately thought 'aw crap, did I seriously just lose 4 mille???' This may not sound like a big deal, but 4 mille is a HUGE amount of money to me, and I am currently trying to save up to go on a big vacation so it would do me no good to lose any amount of money. Anyway I sulked for a bit and then decided that I wasn't going to give up on my change. I then called another prentigi and told him that I was owed 4 mille. This prentigi called up to the front of the bus a couple of times to ask about my change, but I suspect he was just doing this to shut me up because no 4 mille came of this. I continued to sit patiently hoping that my change would come eventually, but also thinking that I wouldn't get off the bus without my 4 mille. The bus also kept making a bunch of stupid and very long stops, so by the time they reached the village before Helen's and decided to take a 5 minute prayer break it was already dark. This mad me even more annoyed because not only did I not have my change, but now I was going to have to spend the night in Helen's village. Once everyone got back on the bus after the prayer break I asked the prentigi again for my change and told him that I needed it now because I was getting off at the next village. He did the whole yelling up to the front thing again, and again nothing came of it. By the time the bus stopped in Helen's village I still didn't have my change. This was when I started to yell. I screamed out I WANT MY CHANGE (up to this point every verbal exchange had been in Bambara), to which several prentigis told me in French that I should just get off the bus and my change would be given to me. I replied : NO I CAN NOT GET OFF THE BUS, GIVE ME MY 4 MILLE (in Bambara) I NEED MY MONEY, I NEED 4 MILLE (in French). IF I GET OFF THE BUS YOU WILL JUST LEAVE (French). GIVE ME MY MONEY NOW!! A woman sitting in front of me turned to the person next to her and said "This girl can scream!" I continued to yell for them to give me my money and several other people on the bus yelled out "Just give her her money!" All the while all of the prentigis had gotten off of the bus and were all laughing hysterically at me. I was finally handed my 4 mille by a prentigi who said "is this how much you need?" with a big smile on his face. I snatched the money and climbed down the stairs relieved that I got my money but also very distraught by the whole situation. I was so distraught that the only thing that I could think of to say was THIS IS BAD (Bambara) over and over again and then THIEF (Bambara) while pointing to each of the prentigis. I also unfortunately tripped as the last Zon (Bambara for thief) was coming out of my mouth. This made them laugh even harder. A prentigi then came up to me and asked me in French, "Madame are you finished?" This was what set me off. I was beyond furious when I yelled SHUT THE *$&^ UP! at him. As you can see I could only express my true extreme anger in English and with a expletive (I almost never curse, so me cursing is another indication of how truly angry I was). The bus pulled away and I could still hear the laughter in the distance. I was fuming as I walked to Helen's house, but then some kids came up to me and offered to take my bags. By the time I made it to her house I was fairly calmed down because of the kindness of the villagers around me. I realized that those prentigis were jerks and that village Malians are nothing like them, and that I was just glad to be back in village.