Breaking habits...

Africa is THE place to break a habit…

Biting your nails?
Not after you see how dirty your nails are and where your hands have been.
Picking your nose?
Not after the first time you blow it and see your blackish-gray snot that has formed because of the nasty air.
Leaving the lights on?
Not after Momma Tante yells at you and makes you feel guilty by reminding you that electricity is expensive and they’re poor.
Losing your cell phone?
Not when it takes DAYS to get it back and literally no one can get in contact with you and you have the hassle of trying to explain your incompetence to your family in Franbara (the mix of French and Bambara)
Picky eatter?
Not when your family spends the little money they have to feed you and spends the entire day in an outdoor, smoke filled kitchen yelling at the servant as she makes your meal.
Germ phobic?
Not when the only way to clean an apple and feel good about eating it is when you wipe an antibacterial cloth all over the outside of it. And, go to the bathroom over a hole in the ground.

I’ve heard it said it takes at least 30 days to break a habit… I’ve been in country now for two weeks and that research has successfully been disproven by me and my classmates.

As for some interesting stories:

1. One of my friends was lying in bed one night face down. All of a sudden, she feels the family cat walking up the back of her legs. Although she thought it was strange, she knew the cat was a wanderer and so she really thought nothing of it. Then, the cat continued to walk up her legs to her back, and then walk up her back to the side of her head. It rested on the opposite side of the pillow from where she was facing so she felt around to touch it, wanting to double check that it was in fact the cat. As her hand touched it, she soon realized it was NOT the cat… but a huge 1.5 foot long lizard that had crawled into bed with her. She screamed and the lizard ran away but an important life lesson was learned… always put your mosquito net on your bed, it saves you from more than just mosquitoes.

2. As I may have mentioned before, the sidewalks here are rather strange. They don’t really have a good grip on how to take care of waste and sewage so they build large canals along the sides of the roads and semi-cover them by placing large cement blocks over the opening. They leave space between the blocks, and at the end of the sidewalk, before you get to the road, there are sometimes very, very large openings. The logic here is you just throw your trash on the ground and it will blow into the holes and into the sewage canals or you just dump all your family’s waste and trash into the large hole. Anyway, onto the story… Because it is the rainy season here, it rains almost every afternoon-- some afternoons more than others. One afternoon it had rained particularly hard and flooded a vast majority of the streets. One of my classmates was walking from his bus stop to his house along the sidewalk that was flooded up to mid-shin. As he was about to cross the street, he fell INTO the hole between the cement block sidewalk and the road. He couldn’t see where he was walking due to the flooding. He was standing in a sewage canal, full of flowing waste, up to the bottom of his armpits. Needless to say, he threw away all of the clothes he was wearing and his nice tennis shoes and checked into the hotel for the night. He needed a dry room and a hot shower.

3. I use my own little laptop in my house to write my blog entries before I go to the cyber café so I have time to write and think. They think my computer is absolutely the coolest thing they have ever seen. The little kids told me they think it is even MORE beautiful than me! Haha They asked how expensive it was and how I could afford such a luxury and so to avoid the question, I told them it was a gift from my dad, which is true. That then sparked tons of questions about my family… they wanted to know everyone’s names, etc. Because my dad was the giver of the most ‘beautiful thing they had ever seen’, they insisted on memorizing his strange American name. Now, all of the little kids won’t stop saying it. When they play pretend, everyone fights to be called Tony Pontier. They also like playing jokes on me so they continually run into whatever room I am in and tell me I have a visitor… when I ask who it is, they always laugh and run away singing “Tony Pontier! Tony Pontier!” Their pronunciation is absolutely hilarious, but the best part? Their love of the name has spread to the rest of the neighborhood… now an entire cartier in Mali sings the name of an American man they don’t even know.

4. The best night with my family to date—definitely last night (9.11). After I came home from school, greeted by four of the little kids in my family running down the street and jumping into my arms, I sat around reading previous students research projects. Then, as dusk fell, my family moved the mat that we typically sit on in the tiled, lit part of our courtyard out into the middle area. I laid out there, under the stars, with a cool breeze, playing with the little kids. It was incredible. Then, the evening prayers start which added to the experience. I got to watch all the men and women of my family gather in the courtyard and watch them do their long night time prayer while laying on a mat and watching the stars. It was so relaxing and I really felt 100% comfortable with my family. After, I had an interesting conversation with one of my brothers about child trafficking in Mali and the surrounding countries and gained a very interesting perspective from his views. I then watched the evening news and for the first time since I have been here, I was actually caught up on what was happening in the world—how ironic, I know. An entire night, successfully conducted in only French… it was unimaginably fantastic.


I’ll try and write more next time… the updates have been great, keep them coming! Love you all!

Love. Sarah