There are a couple of questions that I have about Mali, but I will give you a quick update about life in the Sikasso region. I was able to begin a well treatment schedule. My counterpart and I treat the wells twice a month and we've done it twice thus far. Right now I am paying for the bleach, but we are beginning to collect a small amount of money from each family in the village in order to cover the cost. Other than that life in village has been good. I have just spent the last 6 nights in a hotel room in the city with running water, Internet, AC, and electricity. It has been a fun time hanging out with all the other volunteers of the "Team America" stage in the Sikasso region. We have spent the last week having language classes, but there has also been plenty of time to enjoy each other's company. There are about 12 of us Americans here. I go back to village tomorrow. Now I want to comment on three things I find "different" in this country.
1. WHY DO MALIAN'S WEAR WINTER COATS AND HATS? IS IT 96* WHERE YOU'RE STANDING, BECAUSE IT IS WHERE I AM.
It is not uncommon to see many a Malian in a sweatshirt, down winter jacket, ear-muffs, sweater, winter hat, or slightly used sport jacket. It would be fine if they were cold, but most of them are sweating just as much as I do in shorts and a t-shirt, which by the way I never wear shorts outside of my fenced-in property (concession). It is normal for me to wear long pants and a short-sleeved collared shirt. Anyways, people of all ages and gender are wearing these typically winter garments in Africa of all places.
2. WHY DO SO MANY MALIAN GUYS WALK AROUND HOLDING HANDS?
There is no word in Bambara for gay or lesbian, because they reportedly don't exist in Mali. That being said, there is a copious amount of male hand holding going on in this country. Interlaced fingers, arms around the waist, or hooked arms are all the commonly used techniques. That's all I have to say about that.
3. WHY IS MY GARBAGE EVERYWHERE?
There is no proper waste removal system set up in Mali, so that creates a problem. Some Malians solve that problem by burning or burying their garbage. All the others just throw it on the ground or into the various designated garbage piles. I have a little garbage can in my house that I use for paper or plastic waste and I compost the food scraps by throwing them over the wall. I needed to figure out what to do with the full garbage bags, so I just placed them on the other side of my wall outside the house. During the next day I found that my garbage was torn apart and spread across a large area of land. My home stay experience taught me that it was not an animal that got into the garbage, rather it was many small children. I won't speak to what I saw being done with my garbage, but needless to say I haven't put any more garbage over the wall. I don't want to burn it and I don't feel like burying it, so I am just going to stack it in a pile behind the house. It will be interesting to see how much garbage I accumulate in two years.
ABANA~FIN
