March 28, 2011


I slept ok. Hot, tossed and turned a bit and woke up soaked…as usual. I took my bucket bath this morning already. It is 7:30am and I am in my room with sweat dripping off my face and right down between the girls (boobs). My shirt is wet and my crotch is on fire. Ahhhh Africa.

It is very cloudy and looks like it could rain. That would be nice. Maybe get rid of some of the heat and humidity. It’s been cloudy and very humid since the sand/wind storm last night. Today I have to do a presentation at the CSCOM…in Bambara. Me and 2 of my site mates will do it together. It is on malaria and how to avoid it…mosquito nets, repellent, etc. I’m sure we’ll do fine. Nothing is going on at the CSCOM on Monday morning so there should only be a few that we can embarass ourselves in front of with our basic at best bambara skills.

*All the women carry their babies on their backs. With our babies we hold them in front watching to make sure we cradle their heads. When someone want to hold them we hand them over with warning, “watch his head, put your hand on the back of his head, watch his neck”. Here they take a 1 week old baby by one arm and fling them onto their back while standing bent at the waist in a 45 degree angle. Then while still bent over throw a shawl over their back covering the baby up to their neck. They then tie the shawl at the top, stand up (so basically the only thing holding the baby on their back is this shawl tied around the back of their neck) and the gather up the rest of the material under their bottom and tie the shawl in front of them at the bottom. It looks like they are carrying a sack of potatoes. Head bouncing around by the neck as the mom walks and pulls water and cooks and cleans.

I’ve wondered since I’ve gotten here, since babies don’t wear diapers, how come moms are never wet and poopy. Apparently moms can tell by the body movements of the baby when they have to go to the bathroom. The will un-tie their shawl swing the baby around their side to their front. Sitting in a chair they will stretch their legs out separating them at the ankles a bit and sit the baby on their feet facing in towards their legs (babies face resting on mom’s legs) and the baby will take care of business. Potty trained from day one.

March 29, 2011

Last night I slept outside after sleeping the past 2 nights in my room. We are definitely into hot season and besides the 120 degree temperatures during the day there isn’t as much relief at night as there was a few weeks ago. When I set up my tent outside there wasn’t much difference in temperature between in my room and outside. I should have taken a Benadryl. I tossed and turned and heard things all night and woke up with sweat as usual.

I decided after having to pee with frogs the other night, and with rainy season coming the frog situation is going to get worse, that if I have to pee during the night I am going to pee in a bucket. Don’t judge me…you haven’t seen these frogs and I’m pretty sure you’ve never had to pee with/by them. But last night before I went to bed it was still kind of early, there was light and noise and I thought surely there isn’t any frogs in there yet so I attempted to use the nyegen before hitting the tent. Well there wasn’t any frogs in there but there was about 40 cockroaches, 4 inch big fat brown cockroaches sitting around the rim of the pee hole. I thought, screw this, went into my room and peed in a bucket. That makes the decision final. I will never pee in the nyegen at night again. It’s like learning to dive…the first time you leave the edge is the hardest after that it’s just a matter of perfecting your style. Maybe tomorrow night I won’t get any pee on the floor.

This morning for school we were to re-give our presentations on the local radio station. The radio station is in a little brick building I pass every morning on my way to the main road. There are three guys in there that do the radio show, without getting paid. Just to do something besides making and drinking tea all day and they get to listen to and play their favorite music…off of cassettes and their cell phones. It’s pretty funny. They will put the music on pause and start singing, the cell phones are ringing as the show is on, people come in and out talking. They are only on the air from 8:30 to 1pm. And again 6:30pm to midnight when the electricity goes out. There is a boom box in there and some kind of wood sound board with about 5 buttons/knobs. High tech stuff. There was a second year volunteer that came with us. He talked about the fact that he does a 1 hour radio show every week in his region. He is a health volunteer as well and each week he does his show on a different topic. Nutrition, vaccines, prenatal care, HIV/AIids, using condoms, healthy eating. I was surprised he breeched so many topics I would think we be considered inappropriate. He said as white folk in Mali we are already outcasts, anomalies, inappropriate, you may as well use it to your advantage and talk about whatever you want. In the next couple of weeks he is going to talk about voting being that voting time for a new president is drawing near. We aren’t allowed to talk about politics but he said he can make sure everyone knows they have a voice and they should use it. He was pretty inspiring. Oh yeah…the radio station he works at was a project started by a PC volunteer several years ago. Nice job!!

School is getting shorter and shorter every day. It’s not just us. Africans can’t sleep in this heat either and the teachers are as sleepy and cranky as we are. School used to be 8 to 12 and 3 to 5. Now it’s 8 to around 11 and 3 to about 4 before we can’t stand the heat anymore. 4pm is just as hot as the rest of the day. In a way it’s hotter. The heat actually rises from the street and you can feel it all the way up to your face. The is the first time they’ve ever had a group of volunteers come into Mali this time of year and this is exactly why. It is really hard to concentrate and learn in this heat. They used to have only one group a year deploy to Mali and they did it in June which is a month into rainy season and quite bit cooler (100 instead of 120) than it is now. PC decided they are going to send in two groups this year and we are it. Right as hot season is getting ready to start. Great timing.

4 more days, 4 more days, 4 more days. I can do this!!