SoSo Fagalan Tulu:> Mosquito Repellant

I organized a presentation on how to make a mosquito repellant using shea butter and neem leaves. It was fun and the women of the village and I organized ourselves under a large tree in the market area and begin. The entire process from start to finish was about an hour and I taped a women explaining the process in the local language Meniakakan(spelling?). The language sounds ridiculously hard to learn so I am sticking with Bambara. There are women that insist on speaking to me in their language, despite the fact that they can speak Bambara. They tell me to learn Meniakakan, I say when you learn English I will learn Meniakakan, but in the meantime let us just speak in Bambara.

The women's association provided all the materials to make the repellant and I got to delegate tasks for the women. I brought along a plastic containter that once held my chocolate drink powder and gave it to one of the older women sitting closest to me, reminding everyone the cream needs to be sealed in an air tight container and stored in a cool place. Then the dugutigi's wife came up and asked the woman next to me "where the heck did you get that bottle?" >>pointing at me "Sita gave it to me : )"... dugutigi's wife turns to me "Why would you give it to her?! I'm older than her!" and then all hell broke lose and they both grabbed on to the bottle pushing, shoving, kicking....... sorry I'm lying she said "Why did you give her the bottle, I'm older you should have given it to me, where is mine?".. I said sorry and we laughed and maybe next time when I get another one I will give one to you.
SoSo Fagalan Tulu:> Mosquito Repellant

In the meantime all the other women were sending kids on errands to find containers, plastic bags, etc. to get some of this cream. Next thing I know there is a swarm of people holding out empty containers of skin lightening cream, and whatever else was available. Within 10 mintutes every bit of the cream had been divvied up in 3 tbsp. portions. After we cleared up the area and discussed plans to make soap the next week. I went back to sit under the gua (shaded area) to eat a mango, take a nap, and talk about America before the bike ride back home.

Baobob

Mangoes...big ones...small ones...some as big as your head!

It is Mango season in my side of Mali. Although the mango tree in my concession is not ready for the picking many other trees have been for weeks now. Just the other day I went to a village about 21km away and the five massive mango trees around the shea grinding mill have already been picked clean with no trace of a mango left; even on the highest branches, none. The women and children walk to the trees with incredibly long sticks to poke at the fruit to fall down and the ones that a stick, throw of a mango or stone will not knock down are sought after by those able to climb the tree.
I am amazed at the choices I have when choosing a mango. The size, taste, and texture can be so different from one mango to another. My favorite are the big juicy mangoes that are easy to cut and eat, some mangoes are so fibrous they are difficult to eat and you have to floss every time after. Drying mangoes has also been great although difficult to store, only because after the two to three days it takes for them to dry I would rather eat the mango slices then store them to eat later.

small mangoes

No doubt those wagons are filled with mangoes : )

"Oh Mija, it's amazing!!!" I believe those were the words spoken by my mom when I showed her one of the mangoes I bought today via skype. Yes, indeed they are quite amazing and that was just the medium sized one. I'll have to take a picture of each size. I still have not tasted the massive ones, maybe I'll buy one tomorrow and split it with someone. Also recently the zaba fruit is back on the market. The zaba is quite spectacular, it tastes like a sour patch kid, you open up the fruit and there are a bunch of seeds with pulp wrapped around. So sour and sweet, who needs candy. My tastes continually change here as well as cravings. In the states I always chose the non-chocolate type candies i.e. skittles, sour patch kids, war heads, starburst, lollipops, etc. But now all I crave is chocolate.
But, anyway back to mangoes. I've got to eat at least two a day, morning and evening. The flies will not let you enjoy the mango midday so I usually will not bother eating one. Damn fruitflies!

on the road to buying fresh produce



The Mangoes I have to dodge
on the way in and out of my house



What's this... what's this.... What IS This!!

What's this? The unlaid egg of a chicken that has been cooked with the chicken...
I can eat that? Oh wow it's quite delicious.
...days later...
What's that? Hmm probably should'nt point at food, but I am curious.
That is the unlaid fish eggs in this rather large catfish.... tasty!!

Jege ba ni jaba ji ani kini -> Big fish, onion sauce, and white rice

Such a surprise to find little eggs inside

The World on a Wall

A fellow PCV has moved into a village relatively close to mine and invited me to help paint a world map at one of the local schools. I was thrilled to help, because I plan to do one in my village and possibly the surrounding villages I visit. It was my first time to the village and I am glad I decided to take a van rather than ride my bike. I left early evening after returning from a bike ride to another village and was sore. My seat is no longer comfortable after the first hour of riding and it does not help that the dirt road is bumpy.
Paula, another PCV, and I started with gridding the wall at the school and drawing the outlines of the countries. I worked on most of the countries North of the Equator, although it was very detailed work it was a lot of fun. I brought my ipod and mini speakers, which have been the two best things I brought to Mali. Laundry day which usually happens every tuesday is the day I blast my music in our family's concession. You should know I cannot do chores without listening to music.

It was great painting, singing, dancing, and laughing as students and adults came to watch us work on the map. Between the two of us working on different sections of the globe at a time the work went by rather quickly. It was only difficult at times finding countries to paint, because they are so small that on the world map plates the letters printed are too small to read.
One of the days we went to visit the maternity ward where Paula's next door neighbor works. While I was sitting outside, Paula witnessed an entire birth and came out of one room with a baby wrapped in a pagne to lay on a bed in another room directly across from me. The expression on her face said it all, she saw a woman just give birth.
Another day we attended a denkundi "naming ceremony" for a child born the previous week. They shave the child's head (?not entirely sure shy, probably have been told why before, but forgot), religious leaders meet in the morning with men of the family read from the koran and choose the child's name. I was so surprised when I arrived because I knew several people at the party, almost all being Jelibas (men and women that know the history of Mali and family names, they sing praising you and then ask for money). It was great I felt immediately more comfortable and relaxed with people from my village in attendance, one woman is my host mother's good friend and I see her on a regular basis when I go into market. So she made sure I got water and was fed well. After lunch we agreed to return in the evening to dance after working on the map at the school.

but it got real windy

Well the sky turned grey, large dark clouds were approaching quickly with the winds. No dancing, but we got to see a show of lightning and thunder. I love thunderstorms!!! Bring on the rainy season round 2.

I left early monday morning and we got news via text message that Osama Bin Laden had been killed and as Americans we should lay low. I did not get to stay to finish the map by labeling the countries, but I did not want to miss market day plus I told my host family I would be back Sunday or Monday. Plus I did not want to miss my favorite ce koroba's weekly visit.

sweetest old man in Mali
his smile is contagious
and his laugh is outrageous
host granddad

Letters from Ameriki

I have been collaborating with a French Teacher in the U.S.A. to exchange letters written in French between Malian students and high school french classes. I organized the letters alphabetically by first name, but due to many students with the same name it was hard to distinguish what letter went to whom. Also there were more American students that wrote letters so several Malians received more than one letter. After the chaos of the school teachers reorganizing the letters for over an hour while the entire class enjoyed themselves in conversation, we began to pass out the letters. The students read their letters and then began sharing with the students next to them.

After everyone received their letter(s) they asked me questions in English. "How old are you?" I answered in English and then switched to Bambara. It was amazing every response I gave they found tremendously hilarious. When I told them I was 24 years old, most were shocked, the teacher told me they thought I was in my 30s. Well thanks for the compliment, I guess. I talked about my family and home. That all the letters they received were from students that attend my alma mater Redwood High School in Visalia, California. Then we talked about where California is located and one student so boldly asked "What do I have to do to marry an American?"; good question, but I feel my answer was biased. My point was that a husband and wife should share responsibilities involved with living together or raising a family.

We moved on to talk about my hobbies when suddenly due to more extreme winds, one of the metal window shutters fell off its hinges and it began to pour down rain so hard you could no longer hear anyone speak in the room. At that point we just hung out and listened to the rain while the students either sat inside hanging out with friends, wandered outside to watch the rain, or ran outside to play in the rain. Believe me I was very tempted to start jumping up and down in some of those puddles, but I refrained for several reasons. My tutor took this as an opportunity to show me a video of his grandfather's funeral and the great number of people in attendance. He said his Grandfather died at the age of 130, "a ka koro!!" "he was very old!" In the video there was a crowd of people circling around a body wrapped in a white cloth with only one hand exposed across the chest. He said everybody wanted to touch him, everyone wanted to touch him. He reminded me of this fact several times through out the 5 minute video on his cell phone that they wanted to touch him, because he lived such a long life.

washing the sandals

watching the rain or staring at me

After an hour or so of waiting for the rain to let up, kids slowly began to take off for home. And since there was nothing more for me to do I also walked on home enjoying the cool air brought on by the heavy wind and rains.