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