March 14, 2011
Well I made it through the night...barely. If you add all the minutes up together I probably slept for an hour. I don’t think I’ve ever been so uncomfortable and hot in my life. At 2am it rained for about 10 minutes. How do I know this...see above...I was awake all night. I have the same issue here as I do in my homestay site with the cement falling from the ceiling when the birds land, the wind blows and it rains. It sounds like stuff running around on the floor. But it’s just my ceiling falling apart. I confirmed it after careful inspection when it got light this morning. I probably fell asleep at 6am when I couldn’t keep my eyes open a second longer. At 6:20 my neighbor, some young girl with a little baby, I’m assuming related to the dugutigi, knocked on my door to ask for my bucket to get me some water. Really!! Are you frickin kidding me right now. I thought the one thing I wouldn’t have to worry about is living on someone elses time once I left my homestay. When I want water I will ask for it. Don’t wake me up, don’t bother me, don’t feed me if you don’t want...all of this is fine with me. Of course, I can’t complain though. I don’t even know where to go to get my water at this point, and I certainly don’t have the means to cook for myself. I laid back down for about ½ hour and then got up and took my bath. As usual it felt great. Even though it’s 7am I’m sweating. So the cool water hits the spot.
After I try and lay down, but NOOOOO...people here have no sense of privacy or space. One of the first of the elders I met yesterday is at my house already. I have a pan~a wrapped around me and nothing else on. Really!! Can’t you see I’m not dressed and maybe coming back in a minute or so would be a good choice. But again, no sense of privacy or space. When he steps outside I get dressed real quick skipping the unimportant things like underwear and deodorant. I just need close on. He tells me that if I go to Miriam’s house, the matrone, my new friend, she will give me breakfast. I think he wants me to walk with him but I take my time and he leaves. Of course he’s back in 15 minutes. OK, O frickin K, I’ll go. I walk to Miriam’s house. By now it’s 8:45...I am a little hungry. She finally asks what I had for breakfast...again, I have no means to cook and no food for cooking...same as last night. Nothing has changed. She pulls out bread, mayonnaise and what is either tea or coffee. They really like eating mayonnaise alone on bread. And in Mali apparently they have magic never go bad mayonnaise. Although the jar says to refrigerate after opening, like most things, we Americans are overly cautious. You can live mayonnaise open, out of the fridge and in the heat for a good 2 months if not longer. It’s a miracle.
I finally make my way back home after telling everyone that I wasn’t able to sleep last night because of the heat to try and take a nap...before the highest heat part of the day. What nice neighbors I have. Two people came by knocking and yelling for me to ask me if I am able to sleep. WELL NOT ANYMORE. But thanks for your concern. WTH!! This is not the first time I thought that no matter what country you are from and how underdeveloped it may be doesn’t the same common sense instincts kick in?? Apparently not. After I told the first person that “I WAS sleeping” they said OK and to go back. 15 minutes later guest number 2 shows up. What a world, what a world!!! I finally lay down and fall asleep and am probably sleeping for 45 minutes when another knock on the door. I can’t complain. It’s Miriam with some lunch. She sees that I was sleeping and promptly leaves my food and takes off for home. AAAHHHHH...I can’t catch a break.
After lunch I walk back over to Miriam’s house to bring back my leftovers...which she’s not happy to see that I didn’t finish all my lunch...and visit. My homologue, Souleymani, shows up too. We sit and talk for a while. They let me know their desire for me to teach them English. Since I will be here for 2 years I tell them I will be glad to. The more English they know the less Bambara I will need to know. So for my own selfish reasons I agree to help them. Apparently lessons start today.
After I finally got to walk over to Souleymani’s house and meet his family. As I am to find out, Souleymani has 2 wives. Muso kelen (wife one) and muso fila (wife two). He has only 4 children. I don’t know who belongs to whom and didn’t think it was important enough to try and find the language to figure it out. So I left it at that. We talked, we laughed and we headed home. My water is waiting for me in the nyegen for my nightly bath. I’m too hot to even get up for my bath.
I saw my first rat today. It was chased off by chickens. Maybe that’s the trouble they were talking about on the form. I don’t think there are snakes here...not enough to worry about anyway. And I hear some bird making a high shrilling noise at night, maybe bats...but as long as they’re outside during the night and I’m inside they shouldn’t be a problem for me. The rats, I’m going to have issue with if they come inside though.
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