My Malian Family

Okay so my blog writing skills are beyond terrible… I am so so so sorry!!! Let me try and catch you up a bit on what has been happening in the past few days.

We spent three nights in a rural village called Siby. We stayed in a hotel that was made up of stand alone huts that each fit three of us. We took a tour of a shea butter ‘factory’ and by the term ‘factory’, I mean a bunch of Malian women that work too hard all day long to ground the kaite nut into a paste and then mix it with water over and over again until it foams and the shea extract can be taken. Then they melt it down and make it into soaps and lotions. After we toured that we spent the rest of the day learning more Bambara so we could participate in our first rural village visit. Later, we went into the village in pairs of two and spent time with a family. We spoke mostly French with them, which was shocking because they typically don’t know much French. Although there accents are incorrect and grammer is worse than mine in French, we could still understand each other. We spent about two hours their helping out with chores for their dinner. My friend and I swept, did the dishes, helped cook rice, and pounded some strange ingredients together to form a mortar or paste like substance. Many people, especially children, gathered from the village to watch us help with chores. Most of them thought it was hilarious because we had absolutely no idea what we were doing-- they sweep their completely dirt floors with a bunch of sticks or branches and wash their dishes outside on the ground using the sandy dirt with the brillo pads for extra scrubbing power. The woman taught us a lot of vocabulary in Bambara though which was greatly appreciated. That evening I did get a little sick. I woke up in the middle of the night feeling pretty bad but by the morning it had mostly passed.

The next day… we… went… HIKING!!  I hiked! A lot! Mali is almost all completely flat but next to the village were huge rock mountains and we hiked to the top of one that had a huge arch. Our guide told us that many years ago, the tribe that inhabited the area worshipped there in a special cave next to the arch. Supposedly they made sacrifices and communicated directly with God. That hike was about two hours long. And in the hot sun, two hours FEELS long. After our first hike, we traveled down the rode to a waterfall my class had seen on the drive into Siby. We walked up that mountain to about the middle of the waterfall which took about an hour and then my class all sat around on these huge rocks all around the waterfall for about 30 minutes just soaking up the beauty and bonding. The hike down was really steep but I made it! And my friend who is really into hiking and rock climbing said he couldn’t even tell it was my first day of hiking! Needless to say, I was very self gratified.

The next day we left Siby early in the morning so we could get back to Bamako and spend more time with our family. We were dropped off with them permanently. Their home will be my base for the next two months. That afternoon we hung out around the house with my two sisters, one is 18 and the other is 6, and two of their girl cousins, one is 21 and the other is 12. I continually meet more and more brothers and when I ask them how many brothers I have they only respond “beaucoup, beaucoup” meaning “very many, very many”. Many of them are cousins but I know I have at least three brothers. They continually eat so I never know when meal time is but I am never hungry. They are all so loving and welcoming and I can tell they are beyond excited to have me in their home. I share a room and armoire with my 18 year old sister and I have my own queen size bed to sleep in. I also gave them the gifts I brought for them on the first night. I brought them two royals t-shirts, a bottle of bbq sauce, sunflower seeds, and a bunch of little gifts for the little girls. They LOVED the presents and had the entire large bag of sunflower seeds done before we had even started dinner. They put on their shirts and wore them the very next day. My 18 year old sister was so grateful she took me to the family boutique and got me fabric, then took me to the tailor and had me measured because my family is having a traditional dress made for me. My little sister and two girl cousins were so excited, they gave me a stuffed Ernie stuffed animal to sleep with and they named him Sarah Pontier. Oh, I should also mention, all families give their host students knew Malian names to use for the semester. My first name is Jamilla and my last name is Maiga, like theirs. They are extremely patient with me and continually help me with my French and my Bambara. The most difficult aspect of my family is their servant. They have a female servant that they treat terribly. The call for her to come into the room and turn the light on for them and then when she leaves, they make her open and close and open and close the door… over and over again. It’s terrible but I can’t say anything because it is a part of their culture.

I went to school today which was great and then my whole class went back to the large market together to spend some time. The best part of today was the little girls in my family told me there is a girl that lives down the street from me and her name is Sarah. They also tell me she is a bully, extremely mean, and a witch… they are silly little girls but I have to admit… its rather humours that the only other girl in Mali with the name Sarah is scary. C’est terrible!

That’s all for now!
I have much, much more I could write but I don’t have the time.
I love and miss all of you a ton but I am still having an absolutely incredible time!!

Love. Sarah