site rat

wow, it's only been about 4 months

site rat... That's the name my friend Amber has dubbed me with. This is officially the second time I have made it to Bamako in four months, and well, my 4th time away from site total. Now as I type it, it seems like a lot. But, not going to lie, in comparison to others, it is NOTHING.

So what to say, I havent really had reliable access to internet in the last four months and a lot has happened. I will probably talk about some of my most favorite memories, and some that stick out the most.

First and foremost, Nyaminakaw (people of Nyamina) are the most friendly fun loving group of people I have ever met. The group of people in my quartier alone are amazing. Nyamina is made up of six quartiers, I live on the edge near the river, which is BEAUTIFUL!

My main set of friends consist of a group of neighbor guys and one the guy's wife. In the afternoon I usually drink tea with them and put works on my husband's fish hooks. Yes I said husband, but please take this lightly. His name is Baba and they call him the American. For the most part he is a soft spoken, kind gentlemen, who is really tall. The women in my neighborhood always ask me which guy I want to marry and conveniently I chose Baba. All of the time he is known as my Ce.

The younger population in my neighborhood knows better and always asks me how my husband Amahfah is doing. Amahfah has been helping learn language (bambara and some arabic) and get to know the village. He is my best friend in village and he is always willing to help out. His family is also very kind and his mom is always trying to get me to eat. I usually have eaten before I go to her house and when I tell her I am full she asks if I don't like the food or if the hot pepper is too much. I laugh and rub her on the back and say no seriously I am full. There have been a few occasions at his sister's house where I was so full I couldn't move, and they still didn't believe I was full, but amahfah straightens things out.

Ive been working in the women's gardens hoping to start my own garden in the future. I will also be doing a tree pepinaire, but mostly the past three months I have been talking to the women in the garden and watering with them. They are always telling me to take a rest and when I refuse they say " a be barrala bi" "she is working today" which is pretty humorous. Most women are shocked that I cook for myself and wash my own clothes. Then they usually tease me and say my clothes aren't cleaned perfect. The women are really awesome and all have great senses of humors. My neighbor's wife is young probably late twenty's with two kids. The two cutest kids ever. She is a sweet heart and is always watching out for me.

All of my guy friends act like my brother's and are always watching out for me. They like to make sure I am only hanging out with good people and are always willing to hang out with me when I am alone and inviting me to different events (soccer, dances, etc)

My best friend Bamoussa is an awesome soccer play but unfortunately moved to Bamako. Amahfah and I got to see him two weeks ago and it was memorable.

I have been learning some about Islam and have become really interested in it. My friend Amahfah has been teaching me how to pray and teaching me arabic, soon he is going to teach me how to read arabic and I am pretty excited about that. There was a day of reading the Koran at the mosque in my village and it was an amazing site to see.

43 days ago my host sister died. It was pretty horrible for me. My host sister was probably 18 years old and my closest girl friend in village. All of the time people would talk about her behind her back saying she was pregnant, etc. I always just shrugged my shoulders and explained to my closer friends that it takes two people to make a baby so why are they condemming her alone. Well Ev ery morning I go to my Djatigi's house for breakfast. As I was approaching the concession I heard shouting. This was really strange for me because my Djatigi and his wife NEVER fought. Both are very happy, friendly people. I walk into the concession and I see my host mom gripping a post of the hangar and a woman behind her she is crying. She stops crying as I greet her and then says, "Nana, Tata died" I just said no over and over and over again and she told me to walk into the room. I walk into the room and I see Tata's body lieing underneath a sheet, every part of her body covered, but I could tell it was her. I started crying and just sat on the ground. My host mother kept telling me to stop crying stop crying (crying allows bad spirits to enter the environment plus malians believe crying doesn't solve anything). So I just sat and waited and she told me to go home and tell the woman I lived with. I was upset because the woman I lived with always talked about how Tata was pregnant and how horrible it was. The funeral service was beautiful, but also very very very hard. I found out later that Tata had overdosed on medicine because she was trying to abort the pregnancy. This made me really really upset and has really motivated me to try to start a project for women's reproductive health and women empowerment.

Time is running short and I hate to end on a bad note

SOOO I will leave you with this. Language is going AWESOME and I really love speaking the language! hope all is well with everyone at home!!!!