Did you read, study, practice, learn or teach?

I’m sorry for the long delay between blog entries. My two weeks in Bamako were not the least bit notable aside from my experience with the weird doctor who cut off my thumb tumor. I did spend an afternoon/evening playing a rousing game of Moose and Kings (for those who are not familiar, please consult your local college student) with some other PCVs.

I should also tell you a little history of Peace Corps Mali. I don’t know where this tradition started, or when, but each Stage (pronounced in a French way meaning training group) has a name. It is given to the Stage by the Stage preceding. Before last year, there were two Stages a year that entered into the Peace Corps. One came in February, and one in June or July, like mine. Our Stage was given the name The Breakfast Club for a number of reasons but first I must shed light on the Stage before us to make sense of our own name. The Stage before us is called The Belushis. Those of you familiar with animal house should use this allusion to compare to this Peace Corps bunch of rambunctious partiers. They were notoriously wild, or so we hear, and so we have taken a blow due to their indiscretions. As I may have mentioned a trainee in my Stage was asked to leave Peace Corps because she was found to be publicly intoxicated during training. She opted to E.T. in order to allow her to apply for the Peace Corps again, but the year before these actions went largely unpunished, or, they were, at least, ignored. As you know from the Breakfast Club, it is a bunch of misfits who do not know each other, or in anyway acclaim to want to know each other are in detention for various reasons. Our Stage was a conglomeration of very different people who were, relatively, calm and easy-going. The women are either crazy or studious (I’m certain I fall in the middle) and the men arrogant or shy. The two Stages before the Belushis were the Ginsus (called thus because the Stage before them were the Cleavers and they thought to be a sharper group, hence the name of a sharper instrument as their Stage name).

Onto the life of Emily and also Mariam… When I initially left my village to head to Bamako for my imminent thumb treatment, I told my host family that I was going to be gone for four days, five at the most. Turns out I was gone for 15. Completely out of my control, but I did get to skip Ramadan in my village which was okay because this way I didn’t have to skip lunch. I spent a few days in Kayes running errands and relaxing more (watching movies and eating food that I cook). When I finally got to my village all of my furniture which I had made was finished. I set up my house and commissioned my friend, the carpenter, Vie, to go to Kayes and buy me a giant water bin. He fixed the lid so that I could open it and put a robinet (faucet) on the bottom of it so I can reach the water at the bottom. I bought rope for a clothes line (yes, I do my own laundry). And attempted to set up my gas stove. I’m an idiot and turns out gas stove can explode or at least come unhooked and light a kitchen on fire. I put out the fire, didn’t burn the house down or the village (I’m certain this circumstance would have resulted in an outcome not much different from that of Chicago’s famous encounter with Miss O’leary’s cow) but it did happen two more times, at which time I decided to quit cooking for myself and have enjoyed three meals a day at many different locations throughout my village. My meals usually consist of rice or couscous (do not be fooled, couscous here are a mix between flour and couscous from the box in America; it has the consistency and flavor of sand). But rice by itself is flavorless as well, so they make all kinds of sauce usually having some sort of delicious meat (most often sheep) and peanuts. Peanut sauce is my favorite, actually, especially with meat. Now I complained about the food at my home-stay quite a lot and I want you to know that I still wouldn’t eat that food if God told me to, but in my village they do a much better job of cooking with the same foods.

My host-family is a strange conglomeration of people and my first night back I took my notebook and wrote down everyone’s name and their relation, including the 90 children the run around the concession naked. The Dugutigi (chief) my host-father is named Kaba Camara (kaba is the word for corn in Bambara), he has 9 children and one wife, her name is Djallo (I don’t remember her last name, but women keep their last names here so it’s not necessarily Camara). Because the Dugutigi’s name is Kaba one child from each of his children is named Kaba (that makes 9 Kabas). The dugutigi’s sons (8 of them) all live in France for 10 months working and living in Paris. If you know anything about the state of Parisian immigrants you know that they probably live a rough life and work very hard, and if you don’t, then please do your best to educate yourself. In the last five years there was a serious uprising there bringing to light a slightly concealed problem and I am on the complete other side of it. Several of the dugutigi’s sons have two wives but most of them only one. I will come back to my opinion of polygamy later on. For now, just accept it without prejudice. These women ALL stay in Goumera (my village) all the time. The oldest of them is probably in her early to mid thirties with a son who is 16 or 17, a daughter who is 10 and twins (a boy and girl) who are 2 and she’s pregnant now (she might have other kids, and many, no doubt have died, but that’s all I can remember). The rest only have two or three kids, all under the age of 5. When they take off their head wraps I’m able to look at them and see the youth in their faces. Some of them are younger than me, others around my age. Yesterday, one of the women was holding her small and malnourished infant son (mind you, this is a rich Malian family and malnourishment still exists) looking at him with the most beautiful smile that only a mother can make to her children. Moments like those make me feel at home because every mother has that smile.

As for polygamy…I just finished reading Under the Banner of Heaven. It is about the Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints (FLDS, Mormons who still believe in and practice polygamy). I do not believe in polygamy. I would not practice or condone it, but I certainly find vast and painful differences between that which we see in America and the polygamy in West Africa. First of all, polygamy is legal here, regardless of morals or personal opinions; it is illegal in America. It is illegal in America because the polygamy that occurs appears, and as far as I’m concerned is, a greedy self-righteous method for appeasing the sexual and authoritative desires of men and to oppress women (often against their will at an absurdly young age). In Mali it is not unusual for a man to have two wives, it is not strange to have three or abnormal to have four, but no more are permitted by the law. Most men probably find it financially and emotionally demanding to have more than two wives. The function of two wives here is different than that in America. There is no necessity in having more people to take care of your children and no necessity in having many children. The African, and perhaps everywhere but America, retirement plan is having many children so that you may cease working and have many sons to take care of you. As for the pedophilia that occurs in FLDS polygamous societies does occur here, but as a cultural crutch due to lack of education and stunted development. My best friend, Halimeta, in my village is 15, she’s been married for a year and is two months pregnant. Happily pregnant, I should say and excited to be a mother, but her body is probably not ready for such an endeavor and may result in her child’s death, early miscarriage, or unspeakable atrocities to herself. The prevention of this practice does not come from ending polygamy; it comes from education and development and an entire culture’s behavioral change. FLDSers took a step backward in development when they decided to partake in polygamy. These men do not stop at two or four wives, many are known to have had more than twenty wives. The problem here is that financially one many cannot support such a harem and leaves his children (mostly women) without the ability to be properly fed, cared for or educated. Education for women in Mali is growing and every year more young women are learning to read and to speak Western languages. Polygamy probably stunts development here in a minute way, but development does not begin with personal relationships or liberal ideas, it begins with supplying people with basic human needs like clean water, access to hospitals, paved roads, electricity and education on basic matters like math and science. Once you have all of these needs met, you can endeavor to change cultural habits and behaviors. However, I venture to guess these deficiencies are compensated as a community’s basic needs are met.

Sorry for the bit of philosophy or anthropology or whatever, but I think that is an important part of this society for you to understand. As for my daily village life…right now, I’m having trouble figuring out what I’m supposed to be doing. My basic tasks required by Peace Corps are to carry out a survey of my village (by scheduling meetings and meeting with villagers) to find out what their needs and wants are related to health matters and improve my language skills. I’ve been spending the last week and a half writing up a survey for the basic village person and their families and I’m attempting to create one for the mayor, the chief of the village, the doctor (my supervisor) and the matrone (my homologue), and the artisans and farmers. All separately because I want to know what kinds of things my village has to offer and how they make money and subsist right now. I go to the CSCOM (health center) every day for a little while, but I feel awkward there. When they aren’t busy they mostly do not do anything and I sit around and eat peanuts with them. When they are busy, I just get in the way, or I feel like I do. All their paperwork is in French, which I can’t read (some stuff makes sense, but French people use strange cognates that I can’t always connect). When I leave the CSCOM I have to have a reason for leaving (other than I’m not helpful here, I need to go study Bambara so I can understand you), so I tell them that I’m going to go study (the for study is also the word for ‘to read,’ ‘to teach,’ ‘to learn,’ and ‘to practice.’) I think they think I’m lazy, but I decided, after three or four days of feeling utterly exhausted with guilt that I was just going to do my own thing and they can think what they want, they will see eventually that my language is improving and that what my role is in the village. I spend my time “studying” reading for recreation and also writing these surveys. I translate the things I want to know into Bambara and then go over the questions with my language tutor (who speaks fairly good English) to make sure that the questions make sense. I do my laundry, dishes, sweep out my house (my house is made of sticks covered in mud, the mud dries and falls everywhere, pain in the ass). I go on walks with my dog, who won’t leave my side to save her life and when I leave the house I have to tie her up which is very sad. Today when I left the village I didn’t tie her up and my neighbors give her their leftovers for dinner so they’re going to feed her.

If you decide you want to send me something the only thing I really want are things to do, like paint by numbers set, or yarn for knitting (I’ll knit you a sweater if you want) and dog treats. She eats just about anything but it would be nice to give her something special because I can’t really afford to buy her meat.

Daily Schedule:

7:00 wake-up, do yoga, go on bike ride with dog

8:00 take shower (bucket bath), get dressed, slowly

8:30 eat oatmeal, or bread, or seri (corn porridge) or moni (rice porridge)

9:00 saunter over to CSCOM (depending on the day, stay for 30 minutes or 3 hours, accomplish nothing)

return home to study/read/take a nap before lunch or take dog for a walk

12:30 eat lunch with host-family or Halimeta (my neighbor and best friend mentioned above)

2:00 come home, do chores, anything from gardening to laundry, to dishes to whatever or hang out under the baobab tree and chat with Halimeta and her husband and his friends and read or nap

4:00 shower, slowly

5:00 read

6:00 go to CSCOM and hang out with homologue, doctor, his wife and all their kids, eat moni go to dugutigi’s house hang out and talk eat dinner lay on mats and look at the stars

8:00 go back home study bambara, write letters, read until I fall asleep.

Sounds rough, but I can tell that my Bambara is improving and that my relationships are developing with my village. Tomorrow I’m heading back to my village and Thursday I’m going to start my survey (actually asking questions). I’ll be back to Kayes on Monday and on the internet around 2 pm, my time, so if you can get on Gchat at 7:00 am PST I’ll talk to you!

For all of you who have not gone to the pumpkin patch or picked apples (especially if you live in Washington (GO TODAY, because I can’t and apples here cost more than they do in America and fall is my favorite season and I miss it.) It’s hot here. So hot. I wish it would snow.

Miss you all!