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.