Sorry I haven’t been posting, but I lost my converter, and so I have to borrow someone else’s and charge my computer, then when it is fully charged I can go to cyber’s and work on it and stuff, but then it dies (though it takes a few days because it is and awesome little computer) and I have to wait to be able to charge it again. I went on the Grande Excursion, but never had time to write about it, and also what has been going on since the 12th of April I have been working on my Independent Study Project!
The Grande Excursion was really fun but also made it difficult to go back to living with my family in Bamako. What I mean by this is that with the Grande Excursion came real beds, air conditioning, eating dinner at a table, privacy, sleep, and talking in English. Whereas in Bamako I sleep on a foam mat, the only air conditioning is when you have sweat so much you shiver when the wind blows, eating with dinner in your lap and a spoon, no privacy because you can’t close the window and the women are always coming in and out of the room you share with your sister, it is too hot to sleep anywhere during the day, and you switch between French and a little Bambara to try and get your point and your needs across. Anyway the Grande Excursion was supposed to be an “Educational Excursion” and we did learn a lot but we also just kind of relaxed and dreaded ISP time starting. The cities we stayed in were Ségou, Teriyabougou, Djenné, Sangha (Dogon Country), and Mopti, in that order. Then we stayed in Ségou for the night before we went back to Bamako. All these places were pretty awesome. I think my favorite was Teriyabougou, because it was the prettiest and the most comfortable. Ségou was my second favorite though, because it’s air conditioning worked best and it’s pool was the best. Djenné was other peoples favorites but I was ripped off there, ended up spending a lot of money there buying stuff for people, and was also trying to register for classes and the internet at the cyber that I went to was a joke so I ended up having to call my mom and have her register for me. Which worked out okay but there are still a few things that I need to work out. Then in Sangha we went for this hike that I ended up not being able to finish because my asthma was really bad when we started going up the cliff instead of down… so I got my first ride on a motorcycle ever… on a moto that started by hot wiring, up a cliff… trying not to run over the animals in the road or fall off… it was one of the craziest experiences of my life. I don’t think I will willingly ride a moto again in Mali. Then in Mopti I bought more gifts for people and spend more money, but the gifts are pretty awesome and the air conditioning in the hotel was really good and there was free wifi in the lobby. Another reason why Mopti was so awesome was because there was a shop owned by a guy who has traveled extensively in the states, and worked extensively with the Peace corps in Mopti. His name is Peace corps Baba, and he talked REALLY loud, but was super funny, and had some awesome real African jewelry and when something wasn’t necessarily from Africa he knew where it had come from and the history of how it had come to Africa. The bus rides around Mali are long and rough sometimes especially when the roads are not paved by anything except the cars and animals that travel on them. The scenery is very interesting and is a strange mix between West Texas wasteland and hill country greenery, a lot more sparse than either, though. Also we would have to stop at check points within the country to check our papers and stuff but the people at all these stops would sell things and when we didn’t want to buy anything they would ask for a gift. At one point we started asking why, and they wouldn’t know how to act about that. What is really sad about this is that somewhere along the way some white people had to have started just handing out gifts of money or food, or something like that for the Malians to think that it was okay. Anyway that was frustrating and every now and then we would give them empty water bottles for them to reuse, and fights would break out over them. I discovered that one of my talents is being able to sleep on this horrible bus and especially during some of the bumpiest parts. I hope this talent transfers to the plane ride back, because usually I can’t sleep on planes unless I am super tired. After Ségou the last time we went to Bamako and ate at a restaurant called Amandine’s that we go to after every trip outside of Bamako. Then I went home and hung out with my family. They missed me a lot, and I missed them so we sat and talked and I was very Malian and asked about all the different people in my family that weren’t present then and my mom was really impressed that I knew all the names of all the people living in the house. Then on Monday (the next day) we went to school, talked about ISP stuff and got our stipend for the month wrote a paper, and then went our separate ways to start our ISP’s. I say separate but only three people left Bamako for research.
I am doing my project on the underground homosexual culture here in Bamako. This has been really hard even though it has only been going on for two weeks. I met with my advisor a lot and then on the 15th we went to two night clubs to actually go find homosexuals. We met with two people and I had one really good interview and one really bad interview, then went home around three in the morning. My research involves a lot of waiting. I have to wait for my advisor to get the Arts school that he works at and that we meet at. Then when we go to nightclubs I wait while he poses as a homosexual and gets actual homosexuals to come be interviewed by me or we get their contact information. This is really stressful and the fact that I don’t get a lot of sleep doesn’t help. It is also difficult because a lot of other people in my group have completely different hours than me and we see very little of each other. One good thing is that I share an advisor with the one guy on the trip so we usually take Sotarama’s to INA (Insitution National des Arts) which is where our advisor works. Our advisor also has him come along on our trips to clubs so that when he leaves I am not a white woman sitting alone in a bar, which is potentially dangerous, but with Will there the danger virtually disappears except for the one time when both he and our Advisor have left for separate things and then two people sat down asking me questions about why we were looking for homosexuals (in a non threatening “I know someone” kind of way), but my French sucks, and is so much worse at 2 in the morning with music blaring, so I didn’t really get much across to them.

A robber climb over our neighbors wall, then into our compound, then walked up our outsides staircase to where most of us were sleeping and then took our phones from besides our sleeping forms. Then I went to a Ja Rule concert (take some time to chuckle at that please) and as it was ending someone starts throwing bottles in our general direction and the gendarmes find the guy pull him through a gap in the gate, rough him up a little bit and then take him away. On our way out of the Ja Rule concert a group of guys start circling a friend and then one guy pushes me out of the way and grabs her and starts trying to rip her skinny purse strap apart so that he can take her purse. We all start fighting for her and some Malians are in the mix but we aren’t sure if they are helping us or the guy and. We finally get her and her purse away from him and running to go find a taxi and they follow us. We cross a street and they continue to follow us, then we try and grab a taxi but it is full, and then an empty taxi drives by and doesn’t stop but they follow it and I get cut off from the group by a huge SUV and a big Malian man hits my ass and laughs at me saying “oh the white girl is scared.” I run off to get back with the others. We get in the Taxi and I start bawling and just freaking out! But one of my friends was able to stay the night and that made us both feel better. That all happened last Friday. This could have happened in any big city though, and potentially we were targeted because we were white, and they think that white people have a lot of money (which in this case we do because even a little American money is a lot here)

Have I mentioned yet that I hate Malian men? They feel so entitled to everything. Not just rights because everyone is entitle to those, but to have any woman they want, and to not have to do chores, and they also feel entitled to respect. I (as I am sure that you are aware) do not respect anyone who feels that they are entitled to it without actually doing anything except breathing. So few men here have my respect. I often tell them no when they ask for my number because it teaches them a lesson, and because I like seeing their sure-of-themselves faces change into confusion.

The women here are wonderful. They are so nice and kind and would give you the shirt off of their back if you smiled at their child. They are so capable. Yes they feel indebted to men and often feel that they are inferior beings but they are still so caring. The children here are aggressive and will run up to you and shake your hand because you are white. They will also play with you once you get to know them enough.

My family is very western in some ways and very Malian in others. That translates to the women having pretty western ideas but performing traditional Malian task and the men enjoying western technology and jobs but having very traditional Malian ideas. This means that I sit and get frustrated watching the men boss the women around and not getting to talk to the women much. Though they looked at me in horror when I stated that I did not like cooking. I can’t picture you in most of Mali but I can picture you in the bars where live music is being played and cold beer is being served. Not that I drink the beer, I order my usual rum and coke (they put SO MUCH RUM in their drinks) while everyone orders a beer. Of course my tastes are more expensive, though I realized that I prefer cheap champagne and wine to the expensive brands because they taste sweeter.

Lately I will have dreams that I am back in the states, but then I wake up on a roof in Bamako. That is probably one of the worst feelings, apart from realizing that someone took your phone from beside your sleeping head, hoping with all your hear that you are one place and realizing that you are in the exact opposite place.

Right now Gay Malian Men suck. I am trying to get in touch with someone who has been telling me that he is going to get a bunch of his friends to come over to his house and fill out a questionnaire for me and my research. It was supposed to be last Saturday then he was sick so he changed it to this Thursday but now he isn’t answering his phone…. UGH! Anyway besides that I am good, I drank a coke that had expired in February today… it tasted kind of funny, and the can smelled like dog, I drank most of it but didn’t finish it.

Right now I have almost two weeks till I leave here I am looking forward to that. I miss home like I said. Okay I'm going to stop being so mopey and go work on my paper!

Frustrations and End of Classes

I am getting more used to life here. Not many things surprise me as much as they did when I first got here. Though I am more aware of things now and not necessarily trying to just communicate and go where I need to go and get done what I need to get done. One of the most annoying things is how obsessed people here are with having a girlfriend or a boyfriend. Often they want more than one and often if you don’t have one they will try and get you one. This is frustrating for everyone here. There are nine of us. Eight girls and one guy. Most of our siblings/cousins have brought up dating to us and though five of the people in the group have significant others four of us don’t. Though that doesn’t really matter here apparently because they still want to go out with you. Let me relate to you a perfect example of the conversations that we have.

I am sitting with eating dinner and my cousin Abu who is few years younger than me sits down and I ask him how his day was and what he did. He told me that he went swimming with his girlfriend and how beautiful and big and dark she was. Then he asked me about the youngest person in the group and I told him her name, he asked if she had a boyfriend in the states and I said no. He then wanted to know all the names (Malian) of the girls in the group, and I got to one girl and said her name and he asked if she had a boyfriend in the states and I said yes, and he said “That doesn’t matter, it’s a balance: an American boyfriend, and a Malian one, it’s better this way.” Then one of my brothers asked me why I hadn’t gotten him an American girlfriend. I told him it wasn’t my job to find him a girlfriend. He laughed and kept telling me to find him one. I then started to pretend that I couldn’t hear him and he laughed and went and did other things. My cousin though had now been joined by youngest sister and started grilling me about why I didn’t have a boyfriend. Then they decided that I should date the one guy in the group and I told them that we were friends, their response was that friendship can turn into love. UGH! Then they kept asking me if I loved him as a friend or as boyfriend, that is when I got up and left. As you can see they are very persistent.

Another frustrating thing is that for dinner I often get spaghetti (with seasoning, but no sauce…), or an African Guacamole Sandwich (It is basically guacamole but seasoned with Maggi which is similar to Ramen seasoning MSG included I get it without onion and tomatoes though because I don’t like raw onions and the tomatoes are bitter, on part of a baguette of bread.) Now have actually learned to like Avocado much more than did in the States which is good, because I always wanted to like avocado, but just never could. So to remedy my eating situation I have started asking for different things that I used to get, but then they stopped for whatever reason. Like French Fries, or French fries and avocado which is what I asked for Sunday night and got it and it was AMAZING . The amazing thing about French fries here is that they are made with Palm Oil, which can taste like bacon, which is impossible to find because Mali is predominantly Muslim and they don’t eat pork . So I will be trying to figure simple but good dishes that have two types of food on them instead of just one.

Classes have ended and Today (Monday) and Tomorrow (Tuesday) are exam days. All weekend I have been writing essays to turn in. But it has been kind of fun because the first day Will and I walked, but then on the way back, we decided to be brave Toubabu’s and ride a Sotarama back to our neighborhood. Sotarama’s are a little scary because it is a van that has been gutted and wooden benches bolted into the floor and “oh Shit!” bars bolted into the top. A guy hangs out the side and calls the place that they are going. Depending on the time of day and the actual day you could get into a completely empty Sotarama or a completely full Sotarama. A full Sotarama is one of the most intense experiences I have ever had. I was pushed in a corner with my feet tucked under the bench because of a spare tire that was put there. Then this woman sat down next to me but was definitely too big for the space that was left by a women half her size. This means that she was sitting on me. I had my full backpack and a mostly full bottle of water to hold on to. Also it is almost impossible for me to get out of a Sotarama without bumping my head on something… but they are also super fun. One time when we got into a Sotarama these two unrelated people asked us our names (Malian) and then started fighting about our answers. Important fact: Last names are SO IMPORTANT here. Mine is Karabenta, that is a Bozo name our Joking Cousins (or people we used to be at war with but now just make fun of) are the Dogon’s, one of the other girl’s in the program is living with a Dogon family and whenever we talk about each other our families make little side comments. Doumbia, Will’s last name, is Bambara and once when we were walking to school a large group of people asked us our names and when he told them his they all broke into cheers! It was so awesome! Where I was going with this was that today has been very chill and I finished my written French exam pretty quickly, because that is just how I take tests. Tomorrow all we have to do is turn our Bambara Final and then take the Oral French final which I feel is goind to be pretty easy, I mean I have learned a lot of French here. And all that SIT and SU are looking for is that I learned something, and that I passed the class. Which I am pretty sure that I did, yeah today and tomorrow are basically just chill days.

On Wednesday we will be going on our Grand Excursion. This means that we will be traveling for twelve days through Mali: Ségou, Teryabougou, Djenné, Sangha, Mopti, back to Ségou, and then home to Bamako. After that I will be starting my Independent Study Project I will be studying the Underground Homosexual Culture in Bamako. This is kind of dangerous for me because one my family is very against homosexuality and if they found out that I was researching that they won’t understand, and they might decide that I was a homosexual and then kick me out. Interestingly enough, I am not technically homosexual. I identify as Pansexual which means that I don’t like gender and will date people for who they are not for what they present their gender as. So this is going to be an interesting month, when my family realizes that I don’t have school and meeting with random people, and they ask me what I do with my time. I had talked to Modibo about it and he said to just say that I am studying Gender Relations, and that that is close enough to the truth that it won’t raise too many questions.

So I have been having to buy water for about a month, because the tablets that I bought ran out about a month in, and so I have been buying water when I am not in school and can’t borrow a SteriPEN from my fellow students. Water is about 400 cfa for 1.5 liters, I need two during the day and two at night so that is 1,600 cfa, a day. But NOW I finally got the package that my Dad sent from the states which has a beautiful SteriPEN in it!!! Now all the money that I would have been spending on water can be spent on things like clothes, and going to the cyber to post this blog, and going out!!! I am so friggin’ excited! Also in this beautiful package came a voice recorder, so that when I start my ISP I can recorder people and then run it back later and type up what they said instead instead of scrambling to right it all down, though I will still take notes, it will just be easier when going over them!! AND in this AMAZING package is my French-English dictionary!! This will make things a lot easier when my family is telling me something and I have no clue what they are talking about!! Oh this package is going to make my life so much easier!!! So now I am just waiting for the package that my Sorority sent me which has a bunch of fun stuff, I hope that comes tomorrow, so that I have fun things on the Grand Excursion. I feel like my Dad and my Sorority sent my packages around the same time… maybe it is in Bali, or Malawi.

So I am having my tailor make a faux Vera Bradley bag that I designed! I get it tomorrow (Tuesday)!! I am so excited about it!! I am going by today so that I maybe it will be done, and maybe I will get it sooner, and maybe some of the dresses I am having made will be done, but I don’t really care about those, what I want is my BAG!!!! It is yellow, with black swirls on it, and it has two pockets in the front, and a pouch for my computer, a pouch for the cords, a pouch for miscellaneous crap and a big pouch for my books and notebooks!! There will be pictures on Facebook of it!! OH! And one of the best parts is that the inside is NOT going to be black. I made sure that it was yellow, so that I can find shit in there! My tailor wanted it to be black his reasoning being that it when it gets dirty it will show less if it is black and more if it is yellow, and I said “AYI! Jaune!” which is “No” in Bambara and “Yellow” in French. And on the outside I am having a diamond pattern stitched into it in alternating colors of Red, green and blue. This bag is costing about 7,500 cfa but it is so worth it, because in the states a VB bag like that is $60 but here it is about $16! I am so excited!! My tailor is funny, but crazy. He wants to marry me, or at least someone like me “because I am so big and strong.” This is an interesting point of cultural intersection. Women here are praised for being bigger, but there are also a lot of pressure to be more western, which as we all know means not big. So one thing that is particularly Malian is the phrase “belebeleba” which is a big woman, now depending who you are talking to and the situation there may also be the connotation that a “belebeleba” may also be a woman who is more assertive. I am fine with this definition, but again it varies from person to person, and depends on the situation.