Post election life at site

So, I got back to site after the election and everyone was so so so excited about Barack Obama. The Borne Foundation, a Danish NGO that has an office in my town had set up a tv set to a French station for everyone to watch, so they got to see the results. So if nothing else, at least Obama’s election restores some faith in the States and hopefully that will translate into better foreign relations in the future!!!

The other day I went into the fields with my family to beat rice. So Malians farm rice, which is still beyond me because rice is such a water-intensive crop, and Mali is a pretty damn arid place. But, alas, they have a rice variety that grows, it still requires much more water than other crops but grows pretty well. It tastes like rice pilaf in the States does, I actually really like it. But I digress. So after they cut it down they have to beat the stalks to get the rice off. So they dry it out and then put it on tarps, and take big sticks and literally beat the rice stalks until the rice grains fall off. So I went out to help my family, it was a great way to get out stress. Haha. It was HARD WORK!!! They made me take my camera and so I captured some excellent photos including my host brother took a couple of pictures of me. The whole town knew by the end of the day that I had gone out into the fields and they all thought it was hilarious. And my family let me sleep after an afternoon snack. After that I helped my host mom cook. And man, is she a lady after my own heart. (My mom would love her). She is the only Malian woman I have ever seen to eat while she is cooking. She tasted everything and of course, let me taste everything as we went along. We snacked the whole time and she basically let me do the equivalent of licking the bowel when we were done. It was fantastic. Most women just do their cooking, put in the correct amount of ingredients and wait for the men until they eat anything. Not my host mom!!! She is my favorite of my three mothers, even before our cooking episode.

Annnnnnd, my host brother put up half of a massive hangar that is going over mine and his house. It is amaaaazing. He put up my half first, so now I have this huge shaded area right outside my house. It’s a great place to sit and chat with my family and stuff. My family likes to hang out there now, which is fun because I like having everyone around talking and playing and making fun of each other. And my two younger brothers who are probably about 2 have recently learned both my name and “ça va”. So now every morning I get a “Sanaba, ça va?”. Haha.

I met this guy in my town that calls me “his sister” in an accent that sounds like a Jamaican Rastafarian man. I had never actually talked to him so I went to sit down to tea with him and he was fascinating!! He’s from Timbuktu and is probably about 50. He’s the president of the refugee camp and has been working with different NGOs to start dialogues about development and why Mali is so much less developed than the countries surrounding it. He is working with a Swiss NGO to open a cultural center in Bamako where he hopes to bring in speakers, like the minister of education and different ambassadors to talk to young people about developmental issues. Which I think is a great idea. He was really interested in what I had to say about the school system, women’s rights, and all sorts of things. And so I think I’m going to start working with him on some projects, which will be great.

So that was my week! Next week we are going out to Sikasso for a huge thanksgiving celebration! We have a bunch of turkeys, are making mashed potatoes, green beans, salad, and all sorts of desserts (and of course some beverages to go along with that). I am very excited! And then we are going camping by water falls. So all in all, while it won’t compare with the Whiteley family thanksgivings which always end up being highly amusing (and I expect reports on all the gossip that goes down danny, tanna, and travis), it will be fun. And it will be nice to be with a bunch of my friends and to see people I haven’t seen in a while.

Oh, and I tried to post on the comments but not sure if it went through. Yes, Emily, I can wear pants. The Malians LOVE LOVE LOVE when I wear Malians clothes. They always tell me how good the skirts make my butt look, hahaha. But I wear pants a lot actually. And Yeh-von, nice to see you!!! Thanks for checking in! I guess I’ll allow tanna to keep you for a while longer, and I won’t take a flight back to America just to kick you in the shin. Too bad, because let’s not lie to ourselves, that would be pretty funny if I just showed up at your apartment all the way from Africa to kick you in the shin and run away. Don’t put it past me.