Photos, Please work! <3. Sarah

Everyone’s comments, emails, and facebook messages have been great! Please keep them coming!! I really enjoy reading what everyone has been up to and so far I still feel like I am somewhat included on most peoples lives. As for some more updates:

I have spent my first official weekend with my family, which has been great and challenging. Trying to think and speak in French 24/7 is extremely difficult and when you add the Bambara it’s definitely a lot to take in.

Friday my class went to the National Museum of Mali. Sounds great… but it was a major let down. We had a guided tour with a tour guide that kept his eyes closed the entire time and started his speech off by telling us that because it is Ramadan and he is fasting, he is extremely tired and didn’t really want to be giving the tour. He then continued to speak French very quickly and quietly, losing my interest almost immediately. The museum itself was poorly designed and set up but fortunately I was there with my classmates and they make everything better. That evening when I returned home, I was getting sick so I went to bed early.

Saturday, my sister woke me up at 6 am by turning the light on and sitting next to my bed and staring at me until I finally woke up. My mom took my 18 year old sister, an older brother and myself to visit a cousin who had just had a baby and to meet my grandmother and more cousins and aunts. When I came home that afternoon I went over to my cousins house which happens to also be the house of one of my classmates, Katarina. Kat and I went on a two hour walk around where we live-- we were trying to sweat out some of the oil that our food is always drenched in. Then we went to the Cyber, or internet café.

On one of my first nights with my family, I had asked if I could go to their mosque with them one time to observe their religious practices and my family invited me to go that Saturday! They gave me clothes to wear because when a women goes to the mosque, only her feet, hands, and face may be showing. We walked there and filed in along with everyone else. I stood in the middle of the room observing and copying the movements of everyone around me. During the evening prayer session (remember they pray 5 times a day, but not always at the mosque) they go up and down 17 times! Not every time they pray during the day do they do the 17 rounds, they only do that during the night. During the day, there is a certain number they are supposed to do at certain time intervals. The way they pray is incredible and the amount of focus and dedication it takes is admirable. Even the prayers that are played over the loudspeakers that indicate which movement to do and when to do them is enchanting. The only downside to my religious workout was the heat-- standing in an nonair-conditioned room, fully covered with tons of women all crowded around you in continuous motion really gets the temperature rising. Add the already hot climate and the mosque is a top of the line cake-baking machine. Despite the heat though, it was an eye opening experience and something I have always been very curious about. It gave me a new perspective on why women wear and do what they do during prayer and really changed a lot of my uneducated preconceived notions.

Later that night, I spent the night out at another classmates house. She lives on the third floor of a huge house and has the entire thing to her self with a huge walk out balcony area that overlooks part of the city. Everyone needed a little ‘normal’ American college time. Lots of my classmates came over and it was nice to be reunited after not seeing each other for a day. It seems weird but because we were thrown into this situation and had to bond so quickly, we are creating strong bonds and truly enjoying each others company. And, let’s be honest, we speak English together which is what we love the most. The only down side… my love of B.Spears is pretty lonely.

Overall my family is great. I had friends over Sunday and my little sister and cousin enjoyed dancing and playing with all of them. I even got to show my friends the dance my family taught me… it’s not very complicated but it took me an embarrassing amount of time to learn it. The most important members of my family, or the people I see on a regular basis, are my mom (Tante), 18 year old sister (Moye), 12 year old girl cousin (Bejou), and 6 year old sister (Momme). I ‘hang out’ the most with Moye but spend a pretty large amount of time with the two little ones as well. Everyday when I get home from school the 6 year old waits by our door and runs down the street to me when she sees me cross the street and jumps into my arms. My typical day routine with the little ones is learn how to dance, get stared at, have them touch my hair, and continuously get told how pretty I am. It’s interesting here… no matter what you look like, if you have white skin you automatically look pretty because the color of your skin is your most attractive feature and very little else really matters. Although I know it is false flattery, I must admit that it’s going to be tough returning to the United States… I doubt Hillary or Ellie will sit on my lap and stare at my for 5 minutes at a time and comment approximately every 30 minutes on how beautiful I am. J

This Sunday, I also participated in my first complete bucket shower. For the first few days with my family I saw the task of taking a complete bucket shower as too daunting so every time I went to the bathroom I proceeded to just wash one main part of my body and leave the rest of the areas to the next time I was in the bathroom, like a rotation. Sunday though, I felt extremely dirty because I had yet to leave the bathroom and feel 100% clean at any one single point since moving in with my family. Thus, I took my first complete bucket shower which was shockingly successful and much easier than I would have thought. It might have been because I had washed every part of my body previously so putting all of it together was actually less stressful. Although the water looks kind of gross when it comes out of the faucet-like-thing and has left all of us covered in red bumps/ rashes, its cool temperature is greatly appreciated and the overall clean feeling I am left with when I leave the bathroom is rewarding… even if in only 10 minutes of leaving the bathroom my feet are already dirty again.

Okay I am going to try and add pictures but because of the way I write the blog it might not work very well so if the pictures don’t show up and it’s just the captions, I am sorry!

Here I am at the shea butter ‘factory’. At this point, the paste that was made from the kaite nut is added to water and beaten over and over again until it forms a white foam above the water.



When we got to the top of the rock/mountain structure after the first hike, we went to the place where they used to speak to the Gods and make sacrifices. This is where they used to make the sacrifice and supposedly the sand here tells the future. I just thought this was an awesome picture with the light and the motion. To the right is the an opening to the cave area we were standing in. This is directly under the ridge where the arch is located.



This is me, post-first hike. It isn’t a great picture to represent the hike but I’ll try and explain it… the arch is the large structure on the right and it’s a picture of the side of it so you can’t tell that it is an arch. We climbed up one side of it and then came down this side of it. I feel like it doesn’t look as big in the picture… bummer


This is a picture of me with a cousin and my little sister. The one on the left is my cousin, I only hung out with her one day and her name is Rokia. The one on the right is my little 6 year old sister named Momme and although you can‘t tell by this picture, she is absolutely the cutest thing ever! (Also, please notice that we are doing ‘heads together‘ and I didn‘t even have to tell them to do it! Haha… I was meant to be family with these people!)

Sorry I don’t have any pictures of myself without sunglasses on! I’ll try and add more later. If this works, I’ll put up more pictuers the next time I post.

All in all, life’s good J
Love you all!

Love. Sarah