Saturday, October 11, 2008
Thursday, October 9, 2008
1 month into site
Ok, so a longer post, as promised!! I’ve been at my site for a month now! The time has gone both slow and fast, if you know what I mean. I just got a bunch of letters from everyone at Karate Camp!!!! THANK YOU SO SO MUCH!!! I loved reading them, I read them and re-read them! They are adorable. I told my host family that I do karate and that my parents are karate teachers and showed them a picture of danny and travis sparring and they LOVED IT. Malians are obsessed with karate, they watch kung fu movies constantly and are always doing mock karate moves. My host brother made me promise that I would show him some moves. And tanna, thank you for the birthday card!! (travis and danny where are my emails??? Huh?) It was perfect, and yes, I do need some pink in my hut, it is seriously lacking in that department. (Its also lacking in electricity, internet, plumbing, cell phone service, and air conditioning, but one step at a time).
I’ve been making some friends, well, sitting around drinking overly sweetened tea speaking in partial bambara partial French and sitting in silence a lot. But still, it’s a start. Haha. I’ve read a bunch of books, oh including the Red Tent, which my mom has been wanting me to read FOREVER. And now I understand why. It was a great book.
It was just Selitini – the Fete of Ramadan. After Ramadan is over there is a big party, its not as big as Tabaski (seliba) which is in December, but it was still pretty fun. Its like thanksgiving mixed with Halloween. The children all go around door to door and ask for change and money, and everyone else eats a ton and walks around to greet each other and bless each other. Kia (my pseudo host mom, I don’t remember if I explained this, but I eat lunch at the previous volunteer’s host family, and hang out there a lot too) so anyway, she dressed me up in one of her outfits (which she then gave to me!!!) And we walked around, and my host sisters painted henna on my hands and feet. Everyone was more than excited to see me in Malian garb. Hahaha. They all loved it, and made me promise I would do it again for Tabaski.
Sometimes I feel like I am in some random town in the States, and sometimes I look around and I’m like, oh man, I’m in Africa. I think the oh my god I’m in Africa moments come at weird times, like the other day, I was sitting in the refugee camp in my town, sipping on hot whole milk (if you drink milk here you have to boil it then drink it immediately so it doesn’t grow bacteria, and its fresh so its completely whole), munching on raw peanuts straight out of the ground, and listening to Celine Dion blast in the background, and the family I was chatting with asked me if I wanted to borrow the Celine Dion cassette tape because I was singing along. And it hit me that I wasn’t in America anymore (although I bet you could find a similar scene to this somewhere in the south). Another time it hit me was when my host brother asked me if I knew what “I ni gwa” meant, and I said thanks for the food, and he said, no, thank you for preparing the food. So I replied with “c’est la meme chose, Hitler”, which made me laugh for a while. It’s the little things, I guess. I do have to say, there are some things that I love about Mali that cant be found in the states. My favorite thing is the smell of tea when it hits the hot coals its heated on. It smells like burnt marshmallows, but better. And right before the rain storms roll in, it gets really windy and black. Annnnd, there is a fruit for basically every season. Right now its guava and banana season, and the guavas are absolutely amazing. Soon its watermelons, then the famed mango season. For which I cannot wait. And the rainy season is wrapping up now, which means mini hot season, but soon it will be cold season, which will be really nice. Because hot season is supposed to be brutal!!!
This morning was probably about 75 degrees, I, of course, wore a tank top and a wrap skirt, and I was sitting for a bus and everyone was bundled up. I mean bundled. Like winter coats, like legit parkas, pants, sneakers socks, hats, long sleeves. And everyone was like aren’t you cold? And I said that this weather felt amaaaaazing. They thought I was crazy. Although, I think they already think I’m crazy most of the time, so its nothing really new. Hahaha.
Oh, and there are times when I forget I’m in Mali, which I know may be hard to believe. But its things like how all children, everywhere in the world, spin around in circles and then try to run in a straight line only to fall down, get up, and do it again. Or watching a basketball game and everyone is cheering on the sidelines, the women dressed to impress the athletes and chatting not even watching the game. Or someone coming up behind you and tapping you on the opposite shoulder and pretending that they didn’t do it. And, on the fete of Ramadan, they had potato sack races and the race where you put an egg on a spoon and put the spoon in your mouth and do a relay race. And of course, watching soccer matches is exciting no matter where you are, and the kids here are genuinely really good. They play every Thursday in my town against another town, and the games are really fun to watch!
Alright, that’s all for now. Miss everyone!! I want to hear gossip from the states!!!
I’ve been making some friends, well, sitting around drinking overly sweetened tea speaking in partial bambara partial French and sitting in silence a lot. But still, it’s a start. Haha. I’ve read a bunch of books, oh including the Red Tent, which my mom has been wanting me to read FOREVER. And now I understand why. It was a great book.
It was just Selitini – the Fete of Ramadan. After Ramadan is over there is a big party, its not as big as Tabaski (seliba) which is in December, but it was still pretty fun. Its like thanksgiving mixed with Halloween. The children all go around door to door and ask for change and money, and everyone else eats a ton and walks around to greet each other and bless each other. Kia (my pseudo host mom, I don’t remember if I explained this, but I eat lunch at the previous volunteer’s host family, and hang out there a lot too) so anyway, she dressed me up in one of her outfits (which she then gave to me!!!) And we walked around, and my host sisters painted henna on my hands and feet. Everyone was more than excited to see me in Malian garb. Hahaha. They all loved it, and made me promise I would do it again for Tabaski.
Sometimes I feel like I am in some random town in the States, and sometimes I look around and I’m like, oh man, I’m in Africa. I think the oh my god I’m in Africa moments come at weird times, like the other day, I was sitting in the refugee camp in my town, sipping on hot whole milk (if you drink milk here you have to boil it then drink it immediately so it doesn’t grow bacteria, and its fresh so its completely whole), munching on raw peanuts straight out of the ground, and listening to Celine Dion blast in the background, and the family I was chatting with asked me if I wanted to borrow the Celine Dion cassette tape because I was singing along. And it hit me that I wasn’t in America anymore (although I bet you could find a similar scene to this somewhere in the south). Another time it hit me was when my host brother asked me if I knew what “I ni gwa” meant, and I said thanks for the food, and he said, no, thank you for preparing the food. So I replied with “c’est la meme chose, Hitler”, which made me laugh for a while. It’s the little things, I guess. I do have to say, there are some things that I love about Mali that cant be found in the states. My favorite thing is the smell of tea when it hits the hot coals its heated on. It smells like burnt marshmallows, but better. And right before the rain storms roll in, it gets really windy and black. Annnnd, there is a fruit for basically every season. Right now its guava and banana season, and the guavas are absolutely amazing. Soon its watermelons, then the famed mango season. For which I cannot wait. And the rainy season is wrapping up now, which means mini hot season, but soon it will be cold season, which will be really nice. Because hot season is supposed to be brutal!!!
This morning was probably about 75 degrees, I, of course, wore a tank top and a wrap skirt, and I was sitting for a bus and everyone was bundled up. I mean bundled. Like winter coats, like legit parkas, pants, sneakers socks, hats, long sleeves. And everyone was like aren’t you cold? And I said that this weather felt amaaaaazing. They thought I was crazy. Although, I think they already think I’m crazy most of the time, so its nothing really new. Hahaha.
Oh, and there are times when I forget I’m in Mali, which I know may be hard to believe. But its things like how all children, everywhere in the world, spin around in circles and then try to run in a straight line only to fall down, get up, and do it again. Or watching a basketball game and everyone is cheering on the sidelines, the women dressed to impress the athletes and chatting not even watching the game. Or someone coming up behind you and tapping you on the opposite shoulder and pretending that they didn’t do it. And, on the fete of Ramadan, they had potato sack races and the race where you put an egg on a spoon and put the spoon in your mouth and do a relay race. And of course, watching soccer matches is exciting no matter where you are, and the kids here are genuinely really good. They play every Thursday in my town against another town, and the games are really fun to watch!
Alright, that’s all for now. Miss everyone!! I want to hear gossip from the states!!!
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