emily christine doerr: Back in the Village

The last few weeks have been full of activities:

First I spent a few days in my village finalizing the plans for the garden project. When I was leaving to go out there I was anticipating the worst, which, in Mali, is not such a horrible way to view things. It turns out, however, that my village is more on the ball than I thought, so I gave them the money to start the well and by the time I left they had already built the fence (I was only there 2 nights). I had postponed my trip to Goumera initially because my roof had leaked majorly after it rained a few times, and my village had to get my roof fixed and finish cementing my latrine. They fixed both my roofs (I have two huts) and put grass over the hangar in the middle and built me a whole new fence which actually made my concession bigger. I had some fun hang out time with my homologue and got some good pictures of everyone.

When I returned to Kayes, the whole Kayes family was in town, Andrew, Nicole, Amy, Eileen and Brooke. We had a good few days of relaxing then I headed to Sikasso to see a friend. I stayed one night in Bamako on the way down and got to hang out with my boyfriend for a night. I went to visit a friend of his who was recently married.

Teachable Moment: When someone gets married there is a big party all into the night on the day of the wedding. People sing and dance and take lots of photos of the married couple. There are two parts, they go to the mayor’s office and sign some documents and there is a Muslim part of which I do not know the details. For one week the couple lives in a room and people come by and bless them and give them gifts. The man can go in and out as he pleases, but he still wears the traditional white bubu (a bubu is a whole outfit of Malian fabric for a man or a woman). The wife however, stays in her bed under a mosquito net, with a veil over her face for 7 days. An older woman will come to visit them and spend time with the woman and explain to her how to be a good wife. When I went to hung out with my boyfriend’s friend and they taught me the marriage blessings. For ANY event in Mali there is a blessing, whether it be going to bed at night or having a baby.

Here are some:

Weddings

Allah m’a kera here ye. = May it be a success.

Allah k’aw kan ben. = May you understand each other.

Allak ka sen ni bolo bo a la. = May many arms and legs come from the marriage.

Allah kan’a ke nimisa ye. = May it not be a regret.

Allah k’aw nogow kun nogonna. = May you support each other.

Allah ka kana nafigiw donawce. = May swindles not interfere.

Allah ka ke furu sabatilenya. = May it be a serious marriage.

Baptisms (this is actually the ceremony 7 days after the birth of the child where the child is given a name)

Allah ka den balo. = May the baby have a good life.

Allah ka naakan diya. = May his/her future be bright.

Allah ka da hirime nogoya. = May his food be easy to provide.

Allah k’a ke silame ye. = May he/she be a good Muslim.

Allah k’a bugo a dogo ye. = May the child have many siblings.

Allah k’a dogow caya a korow ye. = May the child have more younger siblings than older ones.

There some for sickness, death, Ramadan and Tabaski, blessings for greetings at the mosque, and Bon Voyage blessings. These blessings are really helpful actually in avoiding awkwardness with conversations regarding death and sickness. If you know someone in their family died, you say “May God pity the deceased” or “My his resting place be good,” and they say, “Amen,” and life goes on.

I headed to Sikasso for my birthday to hang out with my training roomy and some others. Sikasso, entirely, is a nicer city than Kayes, it’s cleaner, and cooler and also much larger, which actually didn’t appeal to me at all. But it was definitely nice to get away from stiflingly hot Kayes. Katie gave me for my birthday a beaded belt worn under the clothes by Malian women as lingerie, it’s called a baya. Katie had some sort of stomach sickness the whole weekend, but the highlight was definitely relaxing at her house and hanging out.

I was in Bamako for another week to attend a VAC (Volunteer Action Committee) meeting and do my health mid-service exam. Half-way through everyone does a physical half-way through. This is no normal physical, however, we have to give stool samples which I haven’t had to do yet, so that was pretty gross. Turns out that one of my samples showed that I had amebas, but I wasn’t showing any symptoms so I brushed it off, to my dismay, the diarrhea hit a few days later, once I was back in Kayes. I also got to hang out with Susie who had just arrived back from America after 3 weeks, she brought me Ritz Crackers and Easy Cheese, my personal favorite of Malian delicacies.

Once back in Kayes, I hung out for a few days with Andrew and Nicole then headed back out to the village. I was excited to be there, but somehow in my hurry to pack forgot everything, including, tampons, my hoe for gardening, project money, Moringa seeds, my ipod, needless to say I didn’t get as much done as I was hoping to. I had a good time relaxing and chatting with people. All my Moringa trees were eaten by my neighbor’s goats, and I’ll tell ya, I really did feel angry enough at them want to cut off an ear or a leg of one of them. Currently I have no fence, but my friend is repairing it while I’m in Kayes for a couple of days.

My project is moving forward, they are about 2/3 done digging the well, which means that probably they’ll be done with the whole thing in time for rainy season En sha Allah (God willing) and Allah ka soonna (may God make it happen). Everyone in my village is really excited about the Peace Corps fabric, so we’re selling more and more of it, eventually when we finish the garden we’ll do a ribbon cutting and all wear Peace Corps fabric and take many many photos.

Yesterday, was the last day of school for the kids at the kindergarten, so they did and Invitation (say it with a French accent), the kids all dressed up in their Malian clothes, then they all got to eat lunch at school (normally they leave at 11:00 and eat at home), then they all got to drink orange soda (laced with sugar, awesome), then they all went to their respective classrooms where they were each given a gift (dolls for the girls, cars for the boys). At first I thought it was cool b/c I thought the village had bought the gifts but it turns out the sister-city in France who paid for the kindergarten to be built bought the gifts which actually infuriates me. Why do organizations spend money on this useless stuff, that more than likely the kids don’t need, I’ve seen kids have more fun with an old sardine can, worn out flip flops and a piece of string than you’d imagine. What the school really needs are books and learning materials and SOAP! Unfortunately, none of the bozos who work for that organization speak English or Bambara, so I’m a little stuck, when it comes to talking to them. At any rate, the Invitation was fun and also hilarious, the kids were a little bewildered and noticeably tired, because usually they are taking a nap by noon when in this case they were running around screaming (literally) and yelling for an extra 2 hours before nap time. The director of the school is also the most terrifying woman I’ve ever met, and if she scares me, she no doubt scares the 3, 4 and 5 year olds. At any rate, the Invitation was great, and I got to eat some delicious food, which is always a great thing.

I’m heading back to Goumera on Saturday with my friend Nicole for a couple of nights then she’s heading off to America for a few weeks. Then my other friend Nicole is coming to my village for a few days to do some formations and start farming! The rainy season has almost started here, soon it will be raining every day and night, right now it just rains every few nights. Once it’s full blown rainy season it’s time to plant corn, sorghum, peanuts, and millet! Can’t wait!

Tomorrow it will be 11 months since my arrival in Mali, can you believe it? Only 15 more to go!