Spring Break Sanankoroba!!!! AKA I hate rural life...

I just came back from Sanankoroba, which is a village45 minutes outside of Bamako. I stayed with the Jara family. We left Bamako around 8 o’clock in the morning and arrived in Sanankoroba about 9 o’clock. Then we were divided up into groups of two. Except the one guy on the trip Will who had to stay by himself since there are nine of us and one guy. So our families pick us up and take us and our matts and mattresses to their compounds. My roommate was Laurel. Our compound was about a 5-15 minute walk to La Case de l’Amité where our professors were staying, and where we would meet before going to our next activity.
My compound consisted of about a dozen mud houses. They are a lot cooler than the concrete houses in Bamako, but of course with many less amenities. My compound did not have electricity or running water, though I did see a few others with fluorescent lights. We put our stuff in a hut that had a pot of shea butter and a tea tray*. Then we went and did the Mali Chill for a little bit. We were a little restless and asked if we could go for a walk and Soloman the guy who was apparently in charge of us took us around the village. We came upon a tree that we thought was a cashew tree, but apparently not. We asked if they were ready and he said that they ones on top were. He then proceeded to climb the tree and get us about six. We tried them when we got back to the compound. The as we bit into the fruit the juice proceeded to dry out our entire mouth. We were pretty tired when we got back from this walk because both of us were recovering from various illnesses and wanted to nap. Also we were tired of saying “N ma famu” which means “I don’t understand” in Bambara. So we went and napped for about two hours, while listening to the rooster crowing, and the donkeys braying. Donkeys make horrible noises. They sound like death, especially at night when they wake you up. Then we decided that we should probably get up and go sit and do the Mali chill with our family.
They served us lunch, which consisted of potatoes doused in Maggi and Palm Oil, with some really tough meat. After lunch we did the Mali Chill with the family under a mango tree. Laurel played clapping games with the kids and drew pictures in the dirt while I sat and took it all in and got used to the people I was going to be living with for five days. WE did this until it was time to go and meet up with the rest of the group at Case de l’Amité. Soloman is very quiet and speaks a little French but didn’t have any idea what to do with us. We would talk in English to each other as we walked to the Case and he would make a remark about it, and then we would be quiet, for a little bit. But both Laurel and I like to talk and so the quiet wouldn’t last for very long.
We finally reach the Case and met up with the rest of the group. Then our professors took us to a pavilion where we learned how to do wax stamping on fabric. I chose a stamp that had to palm leaves crossed in an ‘x’. I stamped my fabric in a checkerboard pattern. After that we went back to the Case for water and to wait for our families to pick us up and take us back to the compound. Laurel was feeling worse and thought that it would be a good idea to stay in a sanitary place and go see a doctor so she decided to go back to Bamako. So Modibo drove Laurel, Soloman, and I to the compound then Laurel gathered her stuff and they went back to Bamako.
Not gonna lie: I wanted to cry. I was so terrified, because I only had an inkling of an idea on how to communicate with this family! I kept repeating to myself “I’m hardcore. I’m hardcore. I’m hardcore” This ended up helping me a lot. So I am sitting doing the Mali Chill with my Bambara notes trying to figure out what they are asking me, when everyone starts looking over a wall at something coming towards the compound. I ends up being Minnie and Rachel with the family member assigned to them, like Soloman was assigned to me. So we sit awkwardly and talk partially in English, partially in French, and partially in Bambara. After about 15 minutes their brother says that it is time to leave. Soloman and I walk them about halfway to their compound then turn around and walk back to our compound.
When we get back we sit down and I ask if I can take a bath. Soloman disappears after muttering something that I didn’t understand. He then reappears and tell me that it is ready. I change into a skirt that I have been wearing as a dress in Bamako when I take a bath, and everybody laughs at me as I exit my hut. I ignore them and follow Soloman to an open air mud structure, that is in another part of the compound. There is a short passage entering into the structure, then you turn to the left and it opened up into the bathroom area. The floor was concrete/mud but not just dirt. There was a hole in the middle of the area and in one corner there was a drainage hole to the outside. Waiting for me was a bucket of dirty water with a stick in it. I tentatively dip my washcloth in and begin my bath. After my bath I felt a little braver and when I was dressed and DEETed I sat down to do my stressed out version of the Mali Chill. I say stressed because I wasn’t comfortable with them and wasn’t used to their speech pattern or body language yet.
As I am sitting there I get told to eat some rice and beans from a communal bowl. Then I am told to stop. Then they take me to the part of the compound where the bathing/toilet structure was. They have me eat about five or six handfuls of some really awesome ‘toh’ then they tell me to stop. They start eating after a bit and so I begin as well. They stop and then tell me to stop eating all together. SO I sit and watch them devour the ‘toh’ that is amazingly delicious. They then take me back to the part of the compound where I was before and give me spaghetti and fish. Definitely not as good as ‘toh’. So I eat as much of that as I can muster and say the magical phrase “N Fara” “I’m full” they always look at you like you are crazy but generally don’t argue. Then Soloman and his brother help me set up my bed and mosquito net.
I grab my toothbrush and ask Soloman where I am supposed to do this. He shows me to a similar mud structure like the one I bathed but less refined, and right on the wall waiting for me was my bathroom buddy “Negen” in Bamabara, “La cafard” in French, “ La Cucaracha” in Spanish and “Cockroach” in English. I stop in my tracks because I notice that there are more than just one. He continues to indicate that I am to enter the structure. I indicate that I hate roaches and he tries to get some off of the wall, and I ask if I can brush my teeth away from that area and the compound he says yes that it is all the same so I stay nicely way from the roaches and get to brush my teeth in peace. I return my toothbrush to my baggage and exit ready for bed. I announce to the group near my bed “N be taa N da” “I am going to lie down” and they say a few blessings and I respond with “Amiina” which is “Amen” and then I give a blessing “Ala, ka su here caya” “May God increase the peace of the night” and they respond with “Amiina” and I crawl under my bed and they continue with their loud Bambara and laughter.
It is difficult to fall asleep in a new place with loud people talking, but I manage after awhile. I wake up a bit with the random donkeys making their dying noises, but finally I sleep. At about 4:45 am I am startled awake by a person a few paces away from me yelling very loudly! I have no idea what to do. So I lay their listening to him yelling and moving about on his bed making horrible choking noises. I finally decide to glance over hoping that he is not throwing up, and see that instead of lying on his bed he is across it with his face smashed in the dirt. I also notice that it is Soloman. Some people run over with flashlights and decide that he is fine, which I didn’t understand! He seemed to have fallen back to sleep snoring painfully in the dirt. I drift in and out of sleep, terrified and convinced that at any moment he is going to stop snoring and die. Finally after about an hour his brother wakes him up and Soloman adjusts his position until he is fully on the bed. He stops snoring and is breathing correctly. I finally fall fully asleep and wake up at 6:30 with my alarm.
I take down my net and take my mat and mattress into my hut and am about to change clothes when Soloman comes in with a plastic kettle.** I ask him why and he motions that I am supposed to wash my face. I decide to go along with it and go to the structure that I brushed my teeth near. It is more mazelike than the first one and has two rooms divided by a wall one for pooing and such and the other for…bathing? I wash my face sort of and then go back and use baby wipes to really get the dirt off. I then get ready because the schedule says 7:30, and I am so freaked out by my experience a few hours ago I just want to get to people I know. So I keep pushing him to take me to the Case. He asks me something I say I don’t understand but that I need to be there by 7:30. He says okay and we leave.
When we get to the Case the only people there are Harber my French teacher and the program assistant, and Lamine the Bambara professor. They look at me strangely and talk to Soloman in Bambara a little bit. They ask me if I have had breakfast and I say no, I didn’t have time because the schedule said to get there at 7:30. They then explain to me that Modibo had changed the time yesterday to 8. I say I didn’t here that and then they feed me breakfast. I explain to them then what had happened earlier that morning and they then say that they understand why I wanted to get to the Case so early.
Everyone else arrives and we depart for the SOS Village for Children. You should look up SOS Villages on the internet and read about them they are pretty awesome. Then we visited an SOS school for adolescents. Then we went back to the Case for lunch and Mali Chillin’. We stayed there until three and then we went back to the pavilion where we wax stamped our fabric. The next step was to die them! I chose purple! They came out really well! There are pictures on Facebook. That took awhile. Then we went back to the Case for water and our families.
I really didn’t want to go back, because I was a afraid of the unknown. But after I got there and “bathed” really I just washed my feet that water was too dirty. I sat down and it wasn’t as scary as I thought it was. They made a little fun of me for some cultural things, but besides that it was fine. I went to bed, no one slept near me and it was as peaceful a night as I could ask for there, despite the donkeys and howling dogs.
In the morning I wake up to my alarm at 6:30 but don’t get out of bed until 7 since I knew that I didn’t have to get to school until 8. So I dress and wash my face with baby wipes. Then I get a knock on my door, I open it and it is a woman with a crying baby on her hip and she asks me if I am ready. I assume that it is for breakfast and I say almost. She leaves and I follow to go sit in a chair. Soloman tells me to go back to my hut and follows me with a chair. The woman returns with a bowl and a cup of hot liquid something. I think that it is a sauce and ask her through motions if I am supposed to pour it on the sandwich. She makes a noise that I assume is yes, and then leaves. I start eating a sandwich of what I think might be fish and onions but I am not sure at all what it is and decide that I don’t want to pour the liquid on the sandwich because then it will be too soggy. So I dip my sandwich in the liquid. It is super sweet and I am enjoying the sweet/savory contrast. I eat all of my sandwich and as I am packing up my stuff to leave Soloman asks me why I didn’t drink my coffee… I stare at him in astonishment and explain to him my misunderstandings, we both laugh at it, and then in all seriousness he asks me if I am going to drink my coffee. The coffee with onion, and bread and possibly fish in it. I pause for a second and say yes. The coffee was so sugary that I didn’t even notice the onion and other things, I just needed to strain them out a bit with my teeth. So we leave after that and go to the Case.
Everyone met at the Case and we headed towards the Health Clinic of Sanankoroba and while walking there we get news that Laurel is back in Sanankoroba! I was so excited to hear that! I mean I was doing pretty okay on my own, but I was definitely lonely all by myself! So we all greet her and walk the rest of the way to the clinic. One of the interesting things that we find out there is that women usually are married and having children at 16. I can’t imagine that! It made me think about the Jara family and wonder how many of those women were: my age, married, and had two kids already. Two of the students in my group talked about a chart that their Sanankoroba dad had each childs name written in the order they were born, and that they were in different alternating colors. They speculated that each wife alternated having a child.
After that we went back to the Case, and then back to the pavilion where we used stencils to paint things on a yellow t-shirt with a mud dye called Bogolan. There are pics on Facebook. After that we went back to the Case for lunch and Mali Chillin’. Then we went back to the SOS Village and screen printed a white t-shirt, and used Bogolan to make a banner type thing. On mine I wrote “Ala, ka tile here caya” “May God increase the peace of the day”. I hope my roommate will let me put it up in our apartment next semester! Then we went back to the Case. Laurel and I decided to start walking to meet Soloman, as we were walking along the big road that splits Sanankoroba in two we saw a donkey standing in the middle of the road with this two foot penis!!! We kept thinking that it wasn’t real and that it was something else, but no, that donkey had a two foot penis that almost touched the ground. As it stood there a huge truck almost hit it! That made us think that something was not quite right with that donkey. Anyway we were too astonished to think to take a picture, so you will just have to believe me.
We met up with Soloman and he walked us back to the compound we ‘bathed’ and then hung out a bit with peeps. For dinner they served us CUCUMBERS!! It was one of the most horrifying meals of my life because that is all it was... VEGETABLES!!! UGH!!! Though it did have some hardboiled eggs. So I put cucumbers and egg in a sandwich and ate half then took the cucumbers out and ate the egg and bread. Then we “N fara”ed our way out of eating the rest and went to bed. That night I talked to my mom and she told me that my SU class ring had gotten to her house and that everything was spelled correctly! I was really excited about that!
Woke up around 6:30 and again didn’t get out of bed until 7 watched the chickens mill around us for a bit ate our sandwiches and drank our sugar milk with a hint of Nescafe. That day we were supposed to do everyday village things with our family, but really that translated to a lot of the Mali Chill and a little work. We cleaned a dish a piece with soap, water, and… dirt. They use dirt to help scrape off the food that is stuck on the bowl. Then we swept a hut. We sat back down for a bit. Then we went to the market. Came home. Sat down for a bit. Pounded some corn. Sat down for a bit more. Minnie and Rachel came to visit us. It was then time for lunch and they forced Minnie and Rachel to eat, but then only let us eat a little bit of the ‘toh’ again even though I specifically asked for it. Then we went and ateblack-eyed- pea paste, that I could not stomach. Then we went to the Case because Laurel and I needed water. Soloman kind of left us there so we went on a grand hunt for cookies and coke, both of which we found after looking for about 30 minutes in just about every store on either side of the main road. We sat down under this crazy tree and drank our coke and ate our sketchy cookies. Then we decided that since we hadn’t seen Soloman that we should just try and find our way back, which we did quite successfully. Then we worked on homework, hung out with the men and children, and drank tea. While doing this we noticed that a large blister on the bottom of one of the kids foot had popped and was going to get infected. So we pulled out our first aid kits and Laurel cleaned and bandaged it. Then we continued to do the Mali chill, though we moved to sit with the women because most of them were hanging out while one of them got their hair done. Then we ‘bathed’ and sat back down with them. For dinner they served us two things: Potatoes fried in palm oil and meat, and some weird bean thing. I liked the meat and potatoes, while Laurel liked the other thing so we ate what we preferred. They didn’t quite understand but it wasn’t that big a deal, because I think we ate the most that night out of all of them. Then we sat a bit more and went to bed. What I have failed to mention is that where they put my bed when I was alone is different from where they placed my bed when Laurel was there. The first was much more comfortable. The second had a dip to one side and a rock in the middle of it. So basically I slept between a rock and a hard place. But my body seemed to curve just right so when I was on my side it wasn’t too bad!
We woke up at 6:30 and got out of bed then because we wanted pictures with people and of some of the fauna that we had been living with. So we went around taking pictures and we ate breakfast. Then we made the rounds again saying “K’an Be” which I am not sure how it translates exactly, but it is a way of saying goodbye. Then we set off to the Case with Soloman carrying our matts and mattresses and us our luggage. On the way there he told us that he would miss us, and we told him that we would miss him, though really I am so glad to be back with my Karabentas’!!! So when we had deposited our stuff we took a picture with him. It is also on Facebook. Then we discussed our assignments and what we had done the previous day. Then the mayor of Sanankoroba came and talked to us a bit. Then we did the Mali Chill until Karamogo our driver came with the bus and we all piled in. Then we went to Amandines!! It is this bizarre but blissful western/french restaurant. The cheese on most things is gruyere, and the icing on cakes is butter, but we always look forward to Amandines. Then we went home and I rejoiced being back with my family!!! I also took a super long pail bath and washed my hair and scrubbed everything twice!
After that I hung out watch Shallow Hal dubbed in French chatted with my family ate dinner and went to a concert at the French Cultural Center (CCF).
Saturday I went to the Tailor and am getting three outfits and two skirts made for about 13 thousand CFA which is $30! I am so excited! Then I chilled and went to another concert at the CCF.


*Side note about tea. It is a special kind of green tea that is made EVERYWHERE in Mali, by every young to middle aged man in Mali. It is made while doing the Mali Chill. The Mali Chill consists of sitting in these special chairs that end up giving you a wedgie when you sit in them for too long. Mostly men do the Mali Chill, men and white visitors. They make tea all day and discuss everything and nothing. They make the tea either with lots of sugar or no sugar. And serve it in small glasses, and the tea itself needs to have about a half inch head of foam on it before it is deemed ready.
**Plastic kettles are used by Muslims to wash their hands arms, feet, face, nose, ears, and eyes. They are also used in the bathroom in lieu of toilet paper. It is etiquette here to wash ones face before greeting anyone. Though I don't really do that... oops....