Pierced Nose!

Written September 12, 2011
If you couldn't tell already, I'm a big fan of the mini story blog post, so here we go again!

Language:
I don't know what exactly changed in village, but recently I have been able to communicate a hell of a lot better than I ever have, in Bambara that is. I'm not sure if it is that my Bambara has gotten better or if people just feel more comfortable talking to me now that they have known me for a year. My host mom, for example, will now have full conversations with me when before we just talked about food, "come eat", "I'm full" and so on. Before for communication beyond food topics she would say what she wanted to say in Senufo to her husband or my homologue and they would translate it into French for me. Now she sees no need for a middle man! My homologue also now tells people "A be se ka caman caman fo Bamanankan na!" which means "she can say a lot in Bambara!" when before he told people I could only say a little. It feels really good to have people compliment me with my language!

Nose Piercing:
I have wanted to get my nose pierced since probably middle school, if not before then! I was never able to because my Dad basically threatened to disown me if I ever did it! Well, so sorry Dad, I finally did it! I figure now that I'm officially on my own and independent (well except for the packages that my mom sends me that I really appreciate!!!) that I can do whatever I want, so I did. A lot of women in my village have their noses pierced so I figured it would be a cool thing to do integration wise as well as accomplishing something I've wanted to do for a long time, a sort of "killing two birds with one stone." Thankfully Helen, the volunteer closest to me, and I decided to get our noses pierced together because I'm not sure if I would've been brave enough to do it on my own. I asked the girl who normally braids my hair where she got her nose pierced and if she knew someone who could pierce mine. She told me that she pierced her own nose and that she has pierced a bunch of other girls noses too and that she would be more than happy to pierce mine! It was as easy as that! So Helen and I went by the girl's house one afternoon a couple of weeks ago and both sat down ready to just get it over with. The girl used gold stud earrings that were super pointy and sharp at the end and just pushed them through our noses. I heard the earring pierce through the cartilage, but besides that, it wasn't too bad! A couple of tears dripped down my face, but I couldn't have been happier! It looks so good! Helen's too! I've been cleaning it with anti-bacterial soap and Betadine, and so far no infection!

Cat:
If you've been keeping up with my blog, you'd know that I previously had a cat, but was only able to keep it for a few days out of extreme annoyance. Well... I did it again, I got another cat. This is gonna sound bad, but I have no desire to own a cat, I just really need one because I have a serious mice problem. There have been 2 mice terrorizing my house. Every single night they run all over crashing into things making it very hard for me to sleep. They also eat anything and everything! They ate half a pack of spaghetti, half a clove of garlic, 2 onions, chewed holes in 4 bell peppers, chewed through a basket, chewed through the top of a bottle of hot sauce, and they got into several of my pasta sides bags! It was getting ridiculous, so I needed a mouses worst nightmare. I got my cat yesterday, and so far so good. I didn't hear anything mouse-wise last night, so here's to hoping that continues! Oh and I haven't named the cat yet, I have to judge her personality first.
First SPA Update:
My SPA was approved!! I now have to wait for the 230 some odd dollars to be deposited in my account and then I can begin! My SPA was for 30 Tippy Taps to be placed all over my village and for 2 hand washing murals to be painted at both of the schools! I'm very excited to start this project and it seems like my villagers are too!

Host Sister:
My little host sister, who is a month away from her second birthday, finally likes me! When I first got to my village and met my host family my host sister would scream any time I appeared. It took probably 2 or 3 months for her to quit screaming but still not want to have anything to do with me. A few months ago she just began to let me pick her up, but now she actually comes up to me with her arms held up!! She sits in my lap and tries to touch my face while laughing, it's super cute! I'm so happy she finally likes me because I saw her take her first steps and say her first words so I've always felt this connection with her but haven't even been able to hold her. All is good now!

Hot Priest:
Blegh. I really don't like this guy. It had been several months since I last saw him (thank God!) but good ole Hot Priest decided to stop by for a visit a few days ago. I heard a moto drive up to my concession and I figured it was my homologue or someone else I like, but then that person kept knocking on my gate door, something my homologue or his family members never do, so I figured this might be someone I don't want to see. I was in the process of making popcorn on my gas stove so I was also annoyed that I would have to leave that and run to open the gate. As I opened the gate the only thought going through my mind was "You've got to be kidding me!" It was Hot Priest! He also brought his sister and her kid along with him so I felt obligated to be cordial. He saw that I had laundry hanging up and could tell that I was occupied with something in my house, but he still decided to sit down. I ran back inside to save my popcorn, which burned a little!, and then came back out to sit with him. he kept talking about how it had been so long since we'd seen each other, but I just kept looking at the ground and giving him one word responses, I was quite cold towards him. After about 5 minutes I think he got the picture and got up and said his good byes and then left. This visit wasn't nearly as annoying as past visits, but still! Besides the fact that Hot Priest is beyond annoying, I also hear that he is always talking to my homologue about me and Helen and how we don't come by the church. First of all, as Peace Corps volunteers we're not really supposed to associate ourselves with churches (we can go to services and so on and practice our religious freedoms) because we don't want our villages thinking we're missionaries, and second of all I'm not even Catholic! so I wouldn't be going to his Church anyway! My homologue thinks it's funny that I don't like Hot Priest, he doesn't like him much either, so he always tells me about Hot Priest bringing my name up just to see my reaction. Blegh.