The City of Sikasso

I just returned from the Thanksgiving festivities hosted by volunteers in Sikasso. The town is big and I didn't explore as much as I would have liked, but made some good discoveries along the way. The market there is big even not on an official Market day. I spent one morning just walking around lolligallying in the market.  There is an underground and above ground market area. I was looking for some sandals and anything else that caught my fancy. I came across a shop selling soccer jerseys and went in, there were some nice Mali shirts with the country printed on the fabric and a wall of men's shoes, gucci, LV, nike, vans, etc. I found some sweet shorts that are really long and go past the knee, perfect for walking around in Mali, a little bargaining and sold.
I came across a guy selling monkey skulls among many other interesting items, such as bracelets, necklaces, masks, knives, bogolan-fini cloth, leather bags, etc. I really wanted a necklace, but I know he was overcharging me and he wouldn't accept my reasonable offer so I left. I didn't have much money with me and I wanted to be sure I had enough to buy the sandals I came there for. Finally I found a sandal man worth talking to, he sold his sandals in a wheel barrow and all of them were just a keme (500 cfa ~ 1 dollar). So with the help of the sandal man I chose a style and he dug through the pile to find my size. I think I went to the market a little early, because later that day many more vendors arrived with a larger selection of sandals, etc. Next time.
I stayed at the Hotel Ikhlass its about 30 minutes across town from the Peace Corps Bureau and Market. It was a nice hotel. I shared a room with 4 other girls. It had wireless internet, a shower with warm water, a tv, and a toilet.

 

Hotel Ikhlass Entrance

Walking towards the Bureau from the hotel you come across a Restaurant Al Baraka. They have a menu and most of the time what is listed on the menu they will be able to serve you. If you go in a large group expect a long wait. I have had the Shwarma, meat sandwich wrap, and the Hamburger. Both good choices. Down the road from the retaurant is another place that serves soft-serve Ice Cream. 



Placemat at the Al Baraka

All in all it was a good trip into town to see Sikasso and enjoy a Thanksgiving meal with other Americans. On Friday Hotel Maissa another hotel down the road and around the corner from the Ikhlass had a pool and was rented out for the afternoon. Very nice to relax in the water. Also there were donkey races before our meal. The best part though was getting woken up at 5:20 am to receive a Happy Thanksgiving call from my family in the states, everything served as a good distraction for my first thanksgiving away from family & friends. Love and miss you all. I'll be returning to my village today only to be back at an in-service training in a weeks time.

A wise man once said...

"Mogo be nunuma ni ka soro k'i taama, mogo te taama ni ka soro k'a nunuma. Jin ko bee ye doni doni ye."

"People crawl before they walk, they cannot walk before they crawl. All things in the world happen slowly."

Amiina to that! Five months in Mali and the language is progressing slowly slowly, but I am understanding more and more each day. I'm not afraid to make errors when I speak so I pretty much talk freely and hope they get the just of what I was trying to say. Kind of like the way I speak English if you know me well. I can understand better than I can speak just because it takes some effort to attempt to form a grammatically correct sentence, plus I don't want to accidently say something ridiculous by mixing up vocabulary words.
This morning was very pleasant I woke up early for a jog/walk and this time I took my ipod. It was really beautiful watching the sunrise. I found the perfect rode with few travelers and it is at a slight elevation so I can see the horizon and parts of my town. I was enjoying my tunes and then Suavemente by Elvis Crespo came on and I couldn't help but dance all along the trail. I got caught offguard when a man came up from behind me on his bike, I was a little embarrassed but carried on with my dancing.


The road of my morning travels

I was going to do laundry today. but the fam was so I decided to wait till after Tabaski. Instead I went to the corn/rice machine to get some work done. Had tige dege na for lunch, took a nap next to mom, and had tea when I woke up. I promised to make no-bake cookies for the seliba tomorrow so in the wulafe (late afternoon) I went to the butigi (boutique) down the road to buy some oatmeal and chocolate powder drink mix. Then I decided to wash my bike and oil the parts, which took longer than I had anticipated.
After bathing I watched my host mom's niece cut apart a guinea fowl while I cut potatoes and then onions, garlic, and a bell pepper. "Sita be kasi". Yes Sita does cry everytime she cuts onions. I didn't understand what we were going to have for dinner. because they were also cooking plaintains and they mixed them in with the fried potatoes. It turned out well though, I asked what the dish was called and she said 'frite ni loco", fries and plaintains. Ayiwa. O.K. I can remember that; on top of the fries and plaintains was the guinea fowl cooked with the onions, garlic, and bell pepper. When I came home on Monday there was a new goat, but I guess he'll be gone by tomorrow night. My brother said he is going to kill it tomorrow and we are all going to eat! Except for her, pointing to his cousin. He teases everyone in the family a lot. So sometimes I say he is crazy. Tomorrow evening I am also going to make oatmeal a.k.a. "Ameriki moni/ceri". I made it once before in the morning, but my host mom wasn't back from town then. Well its that time again.
Ala k'an kelen kelen wuli. ~ May we get up one by one.

"Sita na na! Sita na na!" ~ Sita is back! Sita is back!"

Indeed I am back in town. A little bit of a struggle to get here. I figured instead of biking to where the mobilis load I would ride my bike in the direction of my town and wait for the vans or buses to come by and hail them like a taxi. Unfortunately, I waited for an hour with no luck, no vans or buses where going to my town. So after another ten minutes I reloaded my bag on my bike and headed to the place I was the day before. The instant I said where I wanted to go to they grabbed my bike and bag and tossed it a top the van. Note to self in the future choose a better van it was smaller than the usual ones. I got my ticket and sat.. and sat... waiting... they don't usually leave until the van is completely full. Completely full. My head was an inch from the ceiling and we were off to the gas station : (. Ok and then we were off to my town. The jerk of a driver didn't stop when I asked him to so we rode through town on the busiest, most crowded of market days, because Tabaski is Wednesday. So I had to meander through crowds of people, motos, buses, donkeys, goats, etc. etc.
I arrived home to a warm welcome. I handed the pineapple I bought the day before to Shaka to give to my host mom. Gave quick greetings and threw my bags into my house. Phew! I made it home. They had a warm bowl of rice with sauce served for me when I arrived, I ate with them. Shared some of the events that occured over the weekend. Showed them a sweet video of Malian children dancing, showed my scrapes from my fall in the sand, and drank a bit of tea before fetching water from the well to take my b-bath. I usually always go to market day, but today I didn't have the energy or the time, because my tutor was coming at 2 p.m.
I talked a bit in Bambara of how I despised the mobili tigis that lied to me and didn't stop the bus when asked. Then we went on to read a text in Bambara to translate into English. Today's text was "Makoro Kuman" ~ "Old People's Talk". It was about in the past people would always tell the truth, but nowadays people tell lies to get the things they want. Things have changed from the past, our children no longer follow us. What should we do? ~ An be mun ke? Should we make them our enemies? ~ An ku ke an juguw ye wa? No that is not what I think we should do. Through time the world will give them advice. The old people said, If you are hot in your house~ Ni funteni b'ila i ka so kono, ~ You can make a hole for wind to come through~ i be seka fuyin bo da bo sola, ~ but if you are hot in another person's house ~ n'ka ni funteni yi mine waliso kono, ~ you can leave and sit under the shade of a tree ~ i be bo ki da yiri suma koro.

"Du konona ka di ni bee bi joyoro fa." ~ "The family house is good if everyone takes care of their obligations."
We then moved onto sentence building and passe compose etc. It was a good lesson. I'm thankful I have a very capable tutor.
Later on after the lesson I begin the tedious task of unpacking and cleaning house. While I was gone the ants on steriods ate holes through a plastic bag of sugar, and were having a field day. I find out soon after there is a whole in my house where they enter by the dozens. I move everything off the shelves sweep my entire house, including behind my pantry/clothes shelf. Its already dark and thankfully the electricity is now on so its easier to sweep. I'm done sweeping up all the dead ants and sugar and I sit outside bringing some dates (tamaro) for the fam to eat before dinner (to served with beobab leaf sauce and a piece of fish). I then return into my house for water and i'm shocked to see the ants returned running around my shelf, which i just thoroughly cleaned. Now I'm being called outside to grab my piece of papaya, but I'm stomping and sweeping all the ants and call out "menemene caman beyi n ka so kono" "there are many many ants in my house". They come to investigate and call someone to assist with the situation. In about 5 minutes a cekoroba (old man) is in my house; I untie a bag of 3 kilos of cement I bought the week before and he patches up the ant entrance. We sweep out the remaining ants and return to sit outside to watch a soap opera. Bed time I use the neygen, brush my teeth, put away my clothes, write this blog, turn off the computer, wash my face, and lie in bed. Its cold season, but its hot inside....

N binna negesola.

I fell on my bike. I knew it would eventually happen, just because I remeber talking to myself on a ride to a nearby village. "Woah! Damn this sand is dangerous." I probably have had close to four close encounters before actually eating dust. Don't worry mom I was wearing my helmet, thanks to the strict Peace Corps policies. Also I guess I'm glad I fell on sand rather than hard ground or donkey poop. I have several large bruises on my legs, scrapes across my right leg and right elbow. A little after soreness, but nothing major more likely due from sleeping outside on the ground for a night. Tonight I will sleep well another PCV let me use her tylenol pm so I should be sleeping like a baby in no time.
To catch up on things most recently at site I made Dege a traditonal Mali porridge served usually for naming ceremonies (denkundi). I also made Wujula, a meal from the northern region of Mali. I was very excited to learn how to make this meal, just because its so cool how they make bread without an oven. Its steamed!

Preparing Dege using my filtered water because it is something not served hot, like most other things are in Mali.

Bread rolls soon they will rise and we shall steam them!

Jose I also cry when I cut onions and everyone makes fun of me. Not all American women cry when they cut onions, o.k.

Sorry no pictures of the completed meal, only due to it was sufe and there was not a sufficient amount of light to take a decent picture. But it came out very well. Onions, green peppers, garlic, a lil mustard and seasonings, cooked with meat and oil, add some water bring to a boil, eat with steamed bread and you've got yourself some Wujula.
On another note, my host mother has returned home from her month stay in Bamako, hooray. Soon my village will kill a lot of goats and eat a lot of meat. I spent about an hour or more the other day cracking peanuts to make something for Tabaski, of course asking what they are going to do with the nuts flew right over my head so I'll just have to wait and see only about four more days.
I would be in my village now had the mobili men not lied to me, I could easily have taken a bus from the gare. I arrive at the van area to find a ride to my town, ask when they are leaving they say sooni, meaning soon. Of course I know already Mali time is very different from an American's perception of time. So I ask again how soon do you think and he says soon like now. So I negotiate a price hand over my bike and bag and they get tossed up onto the roof. I stand and lean against the van with other passengers waiting and make some small talk. The guy who sold me the ticket comes up and tells me there is a place to sit across the street while I wait. I say no I don't need to sit and we're leaving soon anyway. Not! I arrived around 3:45 and now its 4:15 p.m. I've been asking continuosly when they will leave and he says sisan sisan, right now right now. Really because thats what you said ten minutes ago. The sun is setting earlier here and its not safe to travel at night. I began to worry that we'll leave past five and I will get in my village when its already dark, with no flashlight so i'll have to walk my bike and bags to my house. I tell them if we don't leave in 10 minutes I need my money back so I can find another ride or stay an extra night and leave in the morning. They keep brushing me aside and say they are leaving very soon or now. I get frustrated, so I call another PCV and she gets me on the phone with her tutor that works with PC he saves the day tells the driver if he doesn't leave in five minutes then he needs to give me my things and money back or I will call the police. I wait close to ten minutes and just as I am about to ask for my things on the roof of the van again he comes up to me asks for my "ticket' and gives me my money back. I say thank you and go grab my bag and bike that is handed to me from the man on the van getting ready to lay goats across the top in a tetris type fashion. I load my gear onto my bike and head back to the PC house before sunset. Tomorrow will be the mother of all markets in my town due to the fete coming up, so hopefully I'll be able to sail out of town early tomorrow morning before there is a lot of traffic. Well the Tpm is kicking in i've got to get to bed. K'an ben sooni.

N nison diyarra kosebe!

I am very happy. I am in my banking town and have returned from the post office and market. The care package was amazing. I couldn't ask for more. I feel like i'm set for two years it was so big. The post man helped me tie it to the back of my bike. I returned later to give him some chocolate and granola bars. Also I received a beautifully written letter from my darling sister. Thank you Family! You made my month! Now I'm going to go shower in the sun and after paint my nails while I watch a movie. A little Vacay before I return to site and get some work done before In-Service Training in December. Update about site will come later today. Love to all!