My chicken 'Wilma Traore' died dramatically. I was away for a few days and the day I returned she surprised me. She had laid another egg while I was gone, but did it a top the well so it broke as it rolled down to the ground. I went to the market to buy wood, a saw, and nails to build her a chicken coop dreamhouse. In the afternoon of that same day she was acting weird and looking strange, around 2p.m. she was hopping around crazily as if she was choking and as she was in the midst of her last breath several people around yelled to grab a knife and cut her throat before she died. I was in a state of shock, but soon realized they wanted to eat her. Someone took off running to call Laso, our next door neighbor so he could slit poor Wilma's throat, but he did not arrive in time. I let him take her anyway and several of the men ended up eating her, my host brother said it would be bad to eat her meat because she was sick and her blood was not released before she died. People gave me blessings when they heard about my loss. Sad day.
I had not cooked a Mali meal in a while and realized I never recorded the recipe for 'zame' one of my fav mali meals in my notebook. So on market day I went out to buy as many veggies I could score, tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, sweet potatoes, cabbage, garlic, carrots & hot peppers(from the garden), something that looked like squash but wasn't, and meat, dried fish, rice, tomato paste, peanut oil, maggi cubes, etc. The next day we got together and cooked! It is always a good time cooking with the family. Everytime they laugh, because I cry when I cut onions. "What are you cooking today?"....'Zame'.... "Very good, bring me some when it is ready."...'No worries, will do'... I have to say this time the zame was much better then the time I made it before, it must of been the carrots. If anyone is interested in the whole recipe let me know and i'll post it along with the pictures.
I have been commuting to another village about 22km from my town and it is going good. The dugutigi (village chief) is a sweet old man that wants me to find him a pair of prescription glasses. He tried mine and said it is better a little bit, but not good enough. Last time I was there after the women's meeting and lunch I was taking a siesta under the gua of the chief's house. A few of the boys where playing with two baby parrots they said they found in the bush, apparently their parents died and they fell from the nest. I told them I used to hold big birds that eat small animals and birds when I was in America to show to students. I do not know how to say 'birds of prey' or 'raptors' in bambara.
Sikasso Kow's regional in-service training took place at the end of March in Sikasso-ville. It went well and it was nice to see a lot of people I had not seen since December. We even took a trip out to a few volunteers sites for a PACA (Participatory Analysis C) session. The community creates a list of all the good things they have in their village, create a community map outside using sticks, stones, ashes, leaves, etc. mark the places where people go to the bathroom and where people throw their trash. End result is they realize they have a very dirty village and it is bad for everyone's health. Last we gather together in a classroom and split the men and women, each make lists of what is most important and then it is narrowed down to the top 5 and we began to vote. Access to clean water and health where at the very top of the list. It was a very productive day, I hope the village actually implements some of the ideas it had for change i.e. building latrines and a trash pick-up.
Accra, Ghana; Global Shea Conference 2011
As soon as we got off the plane you felt the humidity, it was uncomfortable, but bearable. I definitely prefer the dry heat in Mali although it is hotter at least it doesn't feel gross (for lack of a better word). In Mali when you are outside your sweat doesn't stick, because it is dry heat and it most likely evaporates before you notice you are sweating. When its humid... it is gross heat.
Four members of PC Mali staff and three volunteers including myself came to Ghana for the Shea conference. The day we arrived, we went to the West African Trade Hub office to organize, meet staff and other volunteers from neighboring countries attending, and to get some things done before the first day of the pre-conference schedule, 'training for shea businesses'. I stayed late at the office with Togo PCVs and a Guinea PCV stapling and folding agendas, stuffing folders and bags, but it was worth it. We were given a wonderful dinner of pizza with lots of cheese.
The next day we all met at the La Palm Hotel (location of the conference) bright and early, everyone wearing there business casual clothes and shoes. It was honestly my first time ever wearing the shoes I brought thinking I would wear them in country, but never had an opportunity so this was the one. They gave me bad blisters so I went back to wearing my rainbows. Here is a list of the sessions I had the chance to attend; 'Natural Formulation, Perfumery & Processing for Quality'; 'Overview of Natural Cosmetics'; 'Quality @ Quantity @ Price'; 'Natural perfumery & fragrancing for products'; 'Shea Processing'; 'Shea cosmetics continued'.
Wednesday April 6, was the start of the Shea 2011: Sustainable Solutions Conference
The keynote address was given by the Vice President John Mahama, of Ghana, also the U.S. Ambassador Donald Teitelbaum was in attendence among other VIPs. Protocol was observed and everything got started. I went to every presentation in the main hall; 'Climate Finance in Shea Landscapes of West Africa'; 'Shea Today 2011'; 'Overview of Demand for CBEs'; 'Linking Sheanut Quality & Traceability'; 'Sustainable and Efficient Shea Production'; 'Low Quality Costs!'; 'Certifying Supply Chains'; 'Social Business in Shea'; 'Sourcing Sustainable Butter'; 'Fair Trade Shea'; 'Marketing FT Butter in the US'; 'Handcrafting in the Village'; 'Beyond SOS: the potential of overlooked shea bioactives'; 'Enriching Parklands'; 'Bee Pollination of Shea trees'; 'Opportunities and Challenges facing NWPFs'; 'Mali's National Strategies & Building for the future of Shea'; and lastly I got to play time-keeper during the Business2Business (networking) sessions that lasted 15 minutes, so on the loud speaker I announced 5 & 1 minute warnings before announcing the beginning of the next session. It was fun, a few other volunteers then started to announce the warnings in French after me.
Accra, Ghana was great. I cannot wait for the chance to see other parts of the country. I loved the signs, in English but interestingly written and a good portion of them religious. One sign read "Soul Clinic" another "Everyone Except God" (I think they meant Accept). We went to Global Mamas a well-known fair-trade store to do a little bit of shopping. On our free day a group of volunteers and I went to the National Museum and the Mall! Oh my gosh there was an actual mall, there was a theatre, arcade, and foodcourt. I experienced culture shock for sure. I bought some cute sandals, a piece of kente cloth (traditional hand sewn cloth in Ghana) I could only afford a small piece because it is super expensive. That is how Ghanians can tell if someone is wealthy I assume.
The local food was good, the best was the sweet roll bread. It was like a hawaiian sweet roll, soo good. The choice of beer was different from Mali as well, the cheap beer in Ghana was Club or Star the equivalent of Flag or Castel in Mali. They also have smirnoff in Ghana so that was a welcome change. I could write more about Ghana, but that could be too much to read so I'll stop here.
