Time to go already!?

March 17, 2011


Today Miriam went to Bamako to turn in reports from Maternity and to visit her husband and children. I ate with her before she left. To get on a bus to Bamako you must wait by the side of the road and when you see one of the charter buses coming you wave them down to stop. If they have room they will stop. If not you have to wait for the next bus...or the next bus...or the next bus. Apparently the first 4 buses over a 2 hour period of time did not have room. Since Africans take everything slowly and in stride it did not seem to bother anyone else but me that we were still standing out there 2 hours later. Finally a bus stopped and she was gone. Souleymane (my homologue) told me to meet him back at 2 and we would into the next village where the market is. It is Thursday...the only market day of the week.

At about noon, the young girl that hangs out at Miriam’s house came by with my lunch. As usual there was tooooo much rice. I ate some and left some in the bowl and will bring it back with me when I go to meet Souleymane later. They hate when you don’t finish all your food. Apparently though, they think they are feeding two...maybe three. Out of boredom and pure exhaustion from not sleeping in the heat at night I laid down for a little while. I didn’t sleep of course. Who can...my room is 95 degrees. When I got ready to go I noticed that ants had invaded the rice bowl. I figured I’ll just toss the rice on my way over. The goats will love it. But as I was leaving the old man from next door decided to join me on my way over. How am I going to dump the rice now??!! He took the bowl from me. The best way I could I told him the issue. He was very upset about this. When we got back to the house he didn’t hesitate to let everyone know that there were ants in the rice. The young girl that cooks looked at me like I was nuts and exclaimed “I A La” (Oh my god), and the older girl that had bought me my food was just mortified. Apparently they have never seen ants before in Africa...which, frankly, I find very hard to believe. Whatever. The old man picked out all the ants and then offered to put the peanut butter sauce on it so I could finish my lunch. I told him thank you anyone but I was finished with my lunch from earlier. So he ate it himself, but obviously everyone was still very upset. They then asked me what I was still doing there. I told them I was waiting for Souleymane to go the market. They said he already left and then told me “E be taa”...you go. So I left. I went back to my house and held up in there all day. Every time I think things are getting better for me something totally stupid happens that makes me think what the hell is wrong with these people? Do they have no sense? They have to know ants are an issue here in Africa. They must know by now being that I return my food only half eaten that they are giving me too much. WHAT THE HELL!!

Now I’m laying in my bed wondering what am I doing here. These people invited us to come to their country to help them become more developed and yet they treat us like shit. Why? Why would they purposefully make people feel bad? Do they not realize that they are making me feel bad? Do they not realize the stupid deal they make over the smallest things? Children are dying of malaria everyday, women are having 5, 6, 7 and 8 children, and the men sit around and do nothing most of their lives. They don’t see the horrors in these facts but the ants got in the rice...that upsets them. I left my family...my children to put up with this crap. What was I thinking.

So after all that, the old man and some younger guys came over to put up my gua (overhang) in front of my house to shield the sun so I can sit outside my house during the day. I saw them out there and went in my room so I wouldn’t have to talk to them. He said they weren’t going to work on it until Saturday. I’m thinking it’s his way of apologizing. He can shove his apology.

March 18, 2011

Miriam came back last night. Late I’m assuming as she didn’t come by to see me. Of course, I’m sure she heard about the ant incident. The whole village probably knows. But I can’t imagine she would make a big of a deal of it that everyone else did. We had breakfast and then it was time for me to go.

Today I am heading out of Bougoula and back to camp. I’m actually looking forward to it. Yesterdays events aside, it has been a really rough week. Except for the time that Krystal was with me I haven’t had anyone to speak with. I’ve hung out and spoke as much Bambara as I could, drank as much tea as I could and have been as pleasant as I could. But I’m done now. It’s time to leave and put some space in between me and Bougoula until it is time for me to move here.

We go out to the road to start the long awaited bus vigil. No sooner do we sit down to wait two buses right in a row going hauling ass down the street. I could see quickly that the second one was practically empty. AAAHHHHHH....no one ran out there to get it. Son of a bitch. It’s 40 minutes before the next one comes by. I take this bus 45 minutes to the next largest town, Bougouni, to meet up with 2 other volunteers so we can ride into Bamako together. We meet, we bus and we arrive at Tubaniso. I’m glad to be back. I guess we are a day early and no one was expecting us. All the other volunteers won’t be in until sometime tomorrow. I’m assuming scattering in here and there as everyone is coming from different places on public transportation. I’m excited to see how everyone enjoyed what will be there new home. In the meantime, we are supposed to go into Bamako after showering and dressing for some kind of “frat” party with the new volunteers. I’m not feeling great so I’m going to stay back and rest. I have a ceiling fan in my room and it seems much cooler in there than outside. So I am going to update my blog, check emails, call my kids and siblings and try and get a good night sleep. This I am looking forward to. Of course I am at this big giant camp all by myself. Hopefully visions of bugey men won’t dance in my head.