Mali AMINE!!

I think I’ve explained already how with rainy season has come a whole other array of creatures we had not experienced up until now. Scorpions are biting, termites a swarming, centipedes a crawling, flies eating all of us, locusts are leaping, fiiivvvvve scarey trarantillas… There are have been four run ins with tarantillas, including tonight’s event. So being that the internet was working so badly anyway and the lightning was getting more and more frequent I figured I would go back to my hut, take a quick shower to wash today’s Africa off and watch the second half of Sex in the City 2. Sometime during the walk back to my hut the wind picked up just coming out of nowhere. Once the wind starts you can rest assured the rain is right behind. I had enough time to grab the few things me and my roommate had drying on the clothesline from earlier in the day before the drops started. I got undressed and wrapped into a panja and headed towards the shower.

Last night I wouldn’t go into the showers or the nyegen because the swarms of termites were everywhere so I wound up peeing behind my hut. Tonight there were no termites but both showers had other various creatures. Spiders, crickets, grasshoppers, etc. So I decided I would brave the nyegen, pee and get the hell out of there. I checked around any corners inside to make sure there wasn’t anything I wasn’t aware of. Got into the squat position at half mast when I spotted right by the door a tarantilla. I opened the door, leaped about three feet from where I was standing over the creature, down the step out the door and let out a scream the likes of which I didn’t think I could even make a noise like that. It was more like three consecutive screams/screeches. There was a PCV outside by the water faucet brushing her teeth and she couldn’t help but laugh when she saw me sprint out of the nyegen. Brushing her teeth and laughing I was yelling and pointing. She finally saw the trarantilla herself. By this time two other PCVs came running from their hut and one of the Malian kitchen workers staying in the hut across from theirs came running out. In PJ pants, no shirt and holding a scarf in front of her to cover her boobs. While she was laughing she kept asking me in Bambara what was wrong…”mun? mun?” I just kept yelling, “I hate Africa, I hate Mali, Mali amine (is bad), Mali amine!!” She was laughing so hard I thought she was going to pee her pants. It was pretty funny and it’s easy for me to say them from the safety of my hut under my bug net. So in my hysteria I decided I would just pee behind my hut again. But the PCVs from next door said to just use their nyegen. The Malian woman walked me over to the shower stall, went inside and checked it out for me so I decided to go ahead and take a shower. There were no bugs in there like in ours. When I came out there were two Malian women now still just laughing and laughing. I’m sure I will be the topic of conversation at breakfast tomorrow and the brunt of many, many jokes. AMINE!!