I’m getting more and more into village life every day. Each day that I am there, my language improves and the villagers become more a part of my life. When I first got to village, I was determined to cook for myself each day. After getting sick a couple of times, I’d decided it was the best way to ensure that I stayed healthy and also the best way to ensure that I knew what I was eating.
Of course, after getting into village, I discovered that cooking for myself was not as easy as it is at home and definitely not as fun, since I cooked and then ate by myself. In the last week, after spending more time at the CSCOM, I've gotten to know more of the CSCOM employees better. Everyone is so very friendly and patient with me and my language. We have three male employees, the pharmacist, the records keeper, and the assistant to the Chef de Poste. Our Chef de Poste, our Matrone, and our relais, my homologue, are all female. I have been taken in by them all, especially by the two Alima’s, my homologue and my matrone.
The matrone lives in a house behind the CSCOM. She has a husband who works in San and 7 children, all of whom are polite and sweet and very funny. Lately I have taken to having lunch with Matrone Alima, who is a fantastic cook. Lunch for a lot of Malians is to, which is ground millet made into a play dough type substance that is dipped in sauce. Some volunteers like it, but I am not a fan. And luckily, neither is Alima. Lunch with her is always rice and sauce, which I admit may not sound as good as it really is. But it is very tasty.
After lunch, we have tea and then on most days I walk her younger children back to school, which is right near my house. On our walk, I stop at the teacher’s house, which is right near the school, while we watch the children run off to school. I get to visit with the teacher’s wife, and sometimes with the teacher, who are both very friendly and also patient with my language. She reads the paper and we giggle over the funny photos and talk about the few things that we can both understand.
In the evenings, I go to my host family’s house and visit them, say hi, talk about the day and talk about the coming day. As the sun begins to set, I go to homologue Alima’s house and we have dinner together. A few nights ago we made dinner together. We made siiri, which is a sweet rice porridge. The one night I was not sure about going there, she ended up coming to my host family’s house to feed me. Its become a great routine.
In addition to being at the CSCOM each day, I am still running in the mornings, and am starting to run through town instead of out of town. People love to watch me run by, the crazy tubab. The kids sometimes even run with me for spurts of time. All of these things combined, I am starting to feel more at home and more connected, which is exactly what I am aiming for.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Cotton Picking
This last Monday, Jen and I went out to another volunteer’s village to go to a cotton picking party. The village was about a 40 minute bike ride outside of Bla, a town between San and Segou. To get to the village, Jen and I took a boshe out to Bla. Boshes are like big vans, always green, and usually decorated with some kind of religious or musically inspired graffiti style art. They pick up just about anyone off the side of the road and will drop them off anywhere. Of course this makes for a long ride of stopping and going, but we made it in decent time.
Unfortunately, as we got to Bla the sun was getting low. We met up with about 7 other volunteers to make the ride out to the village, and after about 20 minutes of biking out in the brusse, realized we were going the wrong direction. Luckily we found a donkey cart to lead us out of the wrong direction back towards the main “road,” and then a man on a bike to get us going on the right road, and finally a guy on a moto, sent out from the village to meet us and take us back in. In the meantime we “biked” through ankle deep sand, eventually having to push our bikes through. The ride which would later take us about 30 minutes on the way out turned into about 90 minutes of trekking through the brusse in the darkest dark. Luckily as tubabs, we practically glow in the dark and stand out a lot, especially as there were 9 of us parading through.
Needless to say when we finally got to the village, we were very ready for dinner, which was amazing beans and then fantastic pasta, and showers. There were about 17 of us all out to the village to help pick cotton, so I enjoyed hanging out with everyone, getting to meet some new people.
The next day we went to greet the pastor of the village (this was one of the few Christian villages in Mali, which are pretty abundant in the Segou region) as well as the dugutigis, since the village had two. Its not common, but I guess there was some discrepancy in the village political system a few years back and now they have two. The rest of the morning and the early afternoon we spent hanging out, playing cards, relaxing. At 4 we went out to the field to pick cotton. The walk out to the field took us a long time and when we actually got to the field, it was probably 4:30. It was so fun to pick the cotton with the Malians, who were laughing at us the whole time. Even with so many of us out there to pick, we were all pretty sure that we were less helpful than if the Malians had done it themselves. But we provided entertainment and got the experience of it.
That night, there was a pig roast (another plus to being in a Christian village) and some absolutely fabulous mashed potatoes, gravy and garlic green beans. Late in the night,, around 11:45, the villagers came to celebrate with us, bringing music, drums and dancing. A good time was had by all that weren’t trying to sleep through it! The next morning, we trucked out of town back to Bla, a ride that really was much better, and easier in the light of day. As soon as I can get some photos up, I’ll let you all know. They are pretty good!
Projects begin!
Hi all!
After a whole month (and what seems like much longer) spent doing “nothing” in village, I had a very productive week. After talking to other health volunteers, I had decided to plant maranga trees at my CSCOM. Maranga trees are AWESOME! You could probably find info on them on the internet, but here’s the basics: these trees grow quickly, are very resilient and have a million uses. For example, the leaves of the tree can be used in salads, or ground up into powders for sauces and provides a multitude of vitamins and protein! The leaves can also be used as a salve for skin irritations, while the seeds can be used in water purification. I have already planted a couple of these trees in my concession and they are coming along quite nicely. I had talked to my homologue about wanting to plant some at the CSCOM to later use in animations to teach about nutrition. We talked to the president of the ASACO (the board that directs the CSCOM) and he was in for the idea. I also talked to Mammi Dembele, a man who owns a very large tree farm in village. Mammi has been a homologue before and is very excited about Peace Corps and development work, especially as it pertains to environment. So, on Wednesday I set off with Alima, my homologue to dig some holes and plant some trees. When we got to the CSCOM early, when the sun was not quite hot yet, we greeted everyone and spent time chatting. Officials from the CSREF in San had come in to do paperwork with our Chef de Poste and our records keeper. The CSREF is to the CSCOM what a city hospital is to a small health center. Because they were in to check up on our facility, we did not get to dig our holes or plant our trees. Instead I spent the morning talking to a man about marriage in America. We discussed the fact that men in America only have one wife, not three or four. We also talked about how families tend to have fewer children. Because my Bambara is still a work in progress, it was easiest to tell him that the reasons were money related. Children are expensive. They must be fed and clothed and put through school. When you have too many of them, it gets too expensive. I found it easiest to explain that women didn’t want to share their husbands with other women, that, in fact it is illegal to have more than one wife, and that if one man had multiple wives, there wouldn’t be enough for his neighbors to have one. (We had been told in a discussion in training that some people believe that there are more women than men in Mali, and even in the world, and men are actually helping the problem by taking in more wives.)
Alima and I had decided to come back in the afternoon to dig our holes and plant our trees. We had lunch with Alima, the matrone, who is like a midwife, and then went home to have a nap. When we came back in the afternoon, around 4:30, the sun was dipping down in the Western sky and was blocked by the trees near the road. The weather was pretty perfect. Alima took over and began digging the holes and since we only had one daba (the blunt edged pick you use in the garden and the fields) I went to the pump to pull water. We planted the seeds and as I was putting the last few into one of the holes, Alima got very excited. She informed me she had more and would run to her house to get them. She’d be right back. When she returned, she had two mango starts and another tree start call sen sen. It is a tree that grows an edible fruit, although I am not sure what it would translate into in English. We planted the starts and as I watered them, Alima put up branches around them to keep animals from eating them. It was awesome because even though I had started the project, Alima had taken the idea and ran with it, bringing her own starters from her garden.
The next day, Thursday the 15th of October, was Global Hand Washing Day. People that I have spent time with in Mali understand washing their hands, but they only use water, no soap. As volunteers, we do a lot of talking about washing hands with SOAP and water. On Thursday morning, as we were getting ready for baby weighing and vaccination day, I got to give an animation on hand washing. In Bambara that my host dad helped me with, I explained why you should washing your hands with soap, when you should wash with soap, and then how you should do it. I even demonstrated! After I gave my animation, another woman from San did an animation on when and why people should come to the CSCOM. We finished out the morning with the usual baby weighing and vaccinations.
The next day I began the project of tracking babies’ weight and health progress in each village. I am taking the charts we use to track the health of babies, their weight and age determining whether they are health, malnourished or severely malnourished. I will make visual graphs to show how each village is doing. They will also to show the comparison between the health of baby girls and boys, as well as track the consistency in the recording of the baby weighing, something that we are going to be working on. In addition, my Chef de Poste has asked that my homologue and I start making mooni (porridge) on Thursdays, the mornings of vaccination and baby weighing. We will serve the mooni to children who are in the yellow (malnourished) or the red (severely malnourished) zones, which is determined by comparing their weight to their age. I am amazed, totally surprised, in the best way possible, at the initiative that my CSCOM has taken thus far. They already do so much and are so organized! A part of me is a little confused about what I will do to help, but very excited at the prospect of being able to be a part of such a cool group of people. And I am assured that there is always room for improvement. All in all it was a very productive week.
After a whole month (and what seems like much longer) spent doing “nothing” in village, I had a very productive week. After talking to other health volunteers, I had decided to plant maranga trees at my CSCOM. Maranga trees are AWESOME! You could probably find info on them on the internet, but here’s the basics: these trees grow quickly, are very resilient and have a million uses. For example, the leaves of the tree can be used in salads, or ground up into powders for sauces and provides a multitude of vitamins and protein! The leaves can also be used as a salve for skin irritations, while the seeds can be used in water purification. I have already planted a couple of these trees in my concession and they are coming along quite nicely. I had talked to my homologue about wanting to plant some at the CSCOM to later use in animations to teach about nutrition. We talked to the president of the ASACO (the board that directs the CSCOM) and he was in for the idea. I also talked to Mammi Dembele, a man who owns a very large tree farm in village. Mammi has been a homologue before and is very excited about Peace Corps and development work, especially as it pertains to environment. So, on Wednesday I set off with Alima, my homologue to dig some holes and plant some trees. When we got to the CSCOM early, when the sun was not quite hot yet, we greeted everyone and spent time chatting. Officials from the CSREF in San had come in to do paperwork with our Chef de Poste and our records keeper. The CSREF is to the CSCOM what a city hospital is to a small health center. Because they were in to check up on our facility, we did not get to dig our holes or plant our trees. Instead I spent the morning talking to a man about marriage in America. We discussed the fact that men in America only have one wife, not three or four. We also talked about how families tend to have fewer children. Because my Bambara is still a work in progress, it was easiest to tell him that the reasons were money related. Children are expensive. They must be fed and clothed and put through school. When you have too many of them, it gets too expensive. I found it easiest to explain that women didn’t want to share their husbands with other women, that, in fact it is illegal to have more than one wife, and that if one man had multiple wives, there wouldn’t be enough for his neighbors to have one. (We had been told in a discussion in training that some people believe that there are more women than men in Mali, and even in the world, and men are actually helping the problem by taking in more wives.)
Alima and I had decided to come back in the afternoon to dig our holes and plant our trees. We had lunch with Alima, the matrone, who is like a midwife, and then went home to have a nap. When we came back in the afternoon, around 4:30, the sun was dipping down in the Western sky and was blocked by the trees near the road. The weather was pretty perfect. Alima took over and began digging the holes and since we only had one daba (the blunt edged pick you use in the garden and the fields) I went to the pump to pull water. We planted the seeds and as I was putting the last few into one of the holes, Alima got very excited. She informed me she had more and would run to her house to get them. She’d be right back. When she returned, she had two mango starts and another tree start call sen sen. It is a tree that grows an edible fruit, although I am not sure what it would translate into in English. We planted the starts and as I watered them, Alima put up branches around them to keep animals from eating them. It was awesome because even though I had started the project, Alima had taken the idea and ran with it, bringing her own starters from her garden.
The next day, Thursday the 15th of October, was Global Hand Washing Day. People that I have spent time with in Mali understand washing their hands, but they only use water, no soap. As volunteers, we do a lot of talking about washing hands with SOAP and water. On Thursday morning, as we were getting ready for baby weighing and vaccination day, I got to give an animation on hand washing. In Bambara that my host dad helped me with, I explained why you should washing your hands with soap, when you should wash with soap, and then how you should do it. I even demonstrated! After I gave my animation, another woman from San did an animation on when and why people should come to the CSCOM. We finished out the morning with the usual baby weighing and vaccinations.
The next day I began the project of tracking babies’ weight and health progress in each village. I am taking the charts we use to track the health of babies, their weight and age determining whether they are health, malnourished or severely malnourished. I will make visual graphs to show how each village is doing. They will also to show the comparison between the health of baby girls and boys, as well as track the consistency in the recording of the baby weighing, something that we are going to be working on. In addition, my Chef de Poste has asked that my homologue and I start making mooni (porridge) on Thursdays, the mornings of vaccination and baby weighing. We will serve the mooni to children who are in the yellow (malnourished) or the red (severely malnourished) zones, which is determined by comparing their weight to their age. I am amazed, totally surprised, in the best way possible, at the initiative that my CSCOM has taken thus far. They already do so much and are so organized! A part of me is a little confused about what I will do to help, but very excited at the prospect of being able to be a part of such a cool group of people. And I am assured that there is always room for improvement. All in all it was a very productive week.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Just another day in paradise
Hi all!
I’m back in San this weekend in preparation to head out on Monday morning to another site where there is a cotton picking party being held. One of the other volunteers the year ahead of me has invited a bunch of us out to her site to help her village harvest their cotton crop in exchange for dinner and good company. I am not quite sure what to expect, but I’ll let you all know how it goes when I’m back in town.
Its been very warm here lately, and it has not rained in over two weeks. I think we are transitioning now to a mini-hot season which is said to last anywhere from a couple weeks to a month or more, and then will change into “cold” season. I can’t wait!
I’ve taken to sleeping outside since it is always so hot in my house. I set out some mats, hang a mosquito net and fall asleep under my trees, looking up at the millions of stars. Its amazing, when there is so little light pollution, you can see all of them, and they really do twinkle! And of course, to wake up with the sun, to the sounds of Mali in the morning is really very nice. You can hear the roosters and the other live stalk making their noises, but you can also hear the sound of women pounding millet or corn or any other number of things in their giant pestles. It is called so so -ing and every time I pass women in the village doing it, they want me to try. I get about three strokes into it, powder and debris flying, and they decide that I am done. No amount of trying to convince them that I am not good at it keeps me from repeating this process with new women, almost daily.
Anyway, I’m enjoying sleeping outside, waking up outside. The only drawback is that the mats I am using are prayer mats, with a heavy blanket atop them. It doesn’t leave much padding. And the ground is really hard. I do a lot of tossing and turning and waking up with dead arm. The other night I decided that I should just sleep inside for one night, get some sleep on my big comfy, very thick mattress. Yes, my house would be hot, 91` compared to the 82` that is was outside, but I was willing to deal with it in favor of a real night’s sleep. Of course, it was also more tempting to sleep inside since I had just finished my first set of curtains that afternoon. I was looking forward to waking up to a settled and homey room.
I was getting settled in the house when I noticed that some dirt had fallen onto my bed when I was hammering the nail for my curtain into the wall. I went to brush it off and noticed there was actually quite a lot of it. I lifted my pillow to shake out my sheet and did a big double take. There, under my pillow, right next to my can of mace, was a scorpion! I knew I needed to kill it, but I wasn’t wearing shoes and in my mad dash for a sneaker, the bugger moved. I came back, shoe in had, to see him slipping down the crack between my bed and the wall. Change of plans; I was sleeping outside.
After three shooting stars and what seemed like forever spent tossing and turning, I finally fell asleep. For 45 minutes. I decided that I would brave sleeping inside. The scorpion was no in my bed anymore and was probably scared enough not to come back. I’d check everywhere to make sure he wasn’t there and then make sure to keep a shoe near by. I did a bit of reading to settle myself down and distract me from the possibility that I was sharing my bed with a poisonous creepy-crawly, and fell back asleep.
For an hour, at which time I was awoken by the sound of something large on my roof. I was frozen in fear, a million worst case scenarios going through my head. I could hear “it” move across my roof and go down the set of stairs I have attached to the end of my house. Then I could hear “it” in the yard. I thought about the things I had left outside in my sleepy trek inside. My mosquito net, my mats, my water bottle…. My running shoes! My most prized possession in Mali were outside, and there was an “it” out there! Slowly I grabbed my whistle that I keep next to my bed. With out even the smallest thought about what I was doing, I slid my hand under my pillow to get my can of mace. Finally, I grabbed my flashlight. I rolled slowly out of my bed, simultaneously cursing myself for having decided to sleep in a noisy, creaking bed and also so extremely relieved that I was not still out there with “it.”
With my mace in one hand, my flashlight in the other, and the whistle in my mouth, I moved from my bedroom towards the door. Which I realized at that moment that I had left unlocked. A frantic check in each room revealed that I was still alone, “it” was still outside. I could still hear “It,” eating something behind my house. “It” was noisy, although that didn’t really designate what it was as Malian mothers do not seem to teach their children to eat with their mouths closed. After locking my door I decided I had to do something about this thing in my yard. I went to the back window and shined my light out it, trying to see what was there. I couldn’t see anything, but rationally (finally) I decided “it” must be an animal since the light didn’t scare them away. Certainly a person would have known they were caught and would have run off. It was at this time that I also remembered two things. A) goats in Mali climb EVERYTHING. I had seen them on walls of other concessions, of rocks a hundred feet up. Surely a roof was no big deal to them. And B) I had dumped my leftovers from earlier in the day out back in the area where my compost pile has started. Of course, it was an animal out back who had smelled food and gone in search of the source. I calmed down and after a bit was back asleep.
The next day I was talking to some people about the goat on my roof. They were looking at me like I was nuts. I know my Bambara is not great, but I checked again and I was saying what I meant to. “A goat? A goat? No, no. It couldn’t have been a goat.”
“Oh, silly Awa, goats are not out at night. It was a dog! A dog on your roof.”
Of course. A dog on my roof. How could I have NOT known it was a dog! Happens all the time where I’m from, of course it was a dog….
And in talking to my host dad about the scorpion, I discovered that I should have killed it. Really? Because I was thinking I’d keep him as a pet. The next morning when we were doing our language lesson, he began to list off all of the things I should kill if I see. On the top of the list was scorpions, followed by snakes, wasps, big spiders, etc. All in all, it was a rough couple of days, but funny to look back on.
I’m back in San this weekend in preparation to head out on Monday morning to another site where there is a cotton picking party being held. One of the other volunteers the year ahead of me has invited a bunch of us out to her site to help her village harvest their cotton crop in exchange for dinner and good company. I am not quite sure what to expect, but I’ll let you all know how it goes when I’m back in town.
Its been very warm here lately, and it has not rained in over two weeks. I think we are transitioning now to a mini-hot season which is said to last anywhere from a couple weeks to a month or more, and then will change into “cold” season. I can’t wait!
I’ve taken to sleeping outside since it is always so hot in my house. I set out some mats, hang a mosquito net and fall asleep under my trees, looking up at the millions of stars. Its amazing, when there is so little light pollution, you can see all of them, and they really do twinkle! And of course, to wake up with the sun, to the sounds of Mali in the morning is really very nice. You can hear the roosters and the other live stalk making their noises, but you can also hear the sound of women pounding millet or corn or any other number of things in their giant pestles. It is called so so -ing and every time I pass women in the village doing it, they want me to try. I get about three strokes into it, powder and debris flying, and they decide that I am done. No amount of trying to convince them that I am not good at it keeps me from repeating this process with new women, almost daily.
Anyway, I’m enjoying sleeping outside, waking up outside. The only drawback is that the mats I am using are prayer mats, with a heavy blanket atop them. It doesn’t leave much padding. And the ground is really hard. I do a lot of tossing and turning and waking up with dead arm. The other night I decided that I should just sleep inside for one night, get some sleep on my big comfy, very thick mattress. Yes, my house would be hot, 91` compared to the 82` that is was outside, but I was willing to deal with it in favor of a real night’s sleep. Of course, it was also more tempting to sleep inside since I had just finished my first set of curtains that afternoon. I was looking forward to waking up to a settled and homey room.
I was getting settled in the house when I noticed that some dirt had fallen onto my bed when I was hammering the nail for my curtain into the wall. I went to brush it off and noticed there was actually quite a lot of it. I lifted my pillow to shake out my sheet and did a big double take. There, under my pillow, right next to my can of mace, was a scorpion! I knew I needed to kill it, but I wasn’t wearing shoes and in my mad dash for a sneaker, the bugger moved. I came back, shoe in had, to see him slipping down the crack between my bed and the wall. Change of plans; I was sleeping outside.
After three shooting stars and what seemed like forever spent tossing and turning, I finally fell asleep. For 45 minutes. I decided that I would brave sleeping inside. The scorpion was no in my bed anymore and was probably scared enough not to come back. I’d check everywhere to make sure he wasn’t there and then make sure to keep a shoe near by. I did a bit of reading to settle myself down and distract me from the possibility that I was sharing my bed with a poisonous creepy-crawly, and fell back asleep.
For an hour, at which time I was awoken by the sound of something large on my roof. I was frozen in fear, a million worst case scenarios going through my head. I could hear “it” move across my roof and go down the set of stairs I have attached to the end of my house. Then I could hear “it” in the yard. I thought about the things I had left outside in my sleepy trek inside. My mosquito net, my mats, my water bottle…. My running shoes! My most prized possession in Mali were outside, and there was an “it” out there! Slowly I grabbed my whistle that I keep next to my bed. With out even the smallest thought about what I was doing, I slid my hand under my pillow to get my can of mace. Finally, I grabbed my flashlight. I rolled slowly out of my bed, simultaneously cursing myself for having decided to sleep in a noisy, creaking bed and also so extremely relieved that I was not still out there with “it.”
With my mace in one hand, my flashlight in the other, and the whistle in my mouth, I moved from my bedroom towards the door. Which I realized at that moment that I had left unlocked. A frantic check in each room revealed that I was still alone, “it” was still outside. I could still hear “It,” eating something behind my house. “It” was noisy, although that didn’t really designate what it was as Malian mothers do not seem to teach their children to eat with their mouths closed. After locking my door I decided I had to do something about this thing in my yard. I went to the back window and shined my light out it, trying to see what was there. I couldn’t see anything, but rationally (finally) I decided “it” must be an animal since the light didn’t scare them away. Certainly a person would have known they were caught and would have run off. It was at this time that I also remembered two things. A) goats in Mali climb EVERYTHING. I had seen them on walls of other concessions, of rocks a hundred feet up. Surely a roof was no big deal to them. And B) I had dumped my leftovers from earlier in the day out back in the area where my compost pile has started. Of course, it was an animal out back who had smelled food and gone in search of the source. I calmed down and after a bit was back asleep.
The next day I was talking to some people about the goat on my roof. They were looking at me like I was nuts. I know my Bambara is not great, but I checked again and I was saying what I meant to. “A goat? A goat? No, no. It couldn’t have been a goat.”
“Oh, silly Awa, goats are not out at night. It was a dog! A dog on your roof.”
Of course. A dog on my roof. How could I have NOT known it was a dog! Happens all the time where I’m from, of course it was a dog….
And in talking to my host dad about the scorpion, I discovered that I should have killed it. Really? Because I was thinking I’d keep him as a pet. The next morning when we were doing our language lesson, he began to list off all of the things I should kill if I see. On the top of the list was scorpions, followed by snakes, wasps, big spiders, etc. All in all, it was a rough couple of days, but funny to look back on.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Not to be a goober...
but Halloween is coming and with Halloween comes some of the best candy of the year! If you happen to find yourself with an extra bag of say, candy corn or miniature DOTS or anything else that you just can't seem to get rid of, I know a good home for it.
In other words, if you are looking to send me anything in the near future, Halloween candy would be AWESOME! (reminder chocolate tends to melt, but M&M's and those bite size snickers/milky way bars seem to make it here in pretty good shape.) I'm not picky; I just am missing really good candy season!
In other words, if you are looking to send me anything in the near future, Halloween candy would be AWESOME! (reminder chocolate tends to melt, but M&M's and those bite size snickers/milky way bars seem to make it here in pretty good shape.) I'm not picky; I just am missing really good candy season!
Photos!
Ok, I was finally able to load some photos. They are on facebook, so if you are on there, you can check them out through my profile. If you are not, you can follow this link
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2187402&id=25912270&l=a943851a57
Other PCV's have some really great pics too, so if you are there, check them out.
lots of love!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2187402&id=25912270&l=a943851a57
Other PCV's have some really great pics too, so if you are there, check them out.
lots of love!
Monday, October 5, 2009
And in other news...
Hi all,
I hope you've all enjoyed the first few days of October. I know I have! Currently I am in Bamako, the capital. I came in yesterday so that I could go to a dentist appointment this morning. The trip actually started on Friday when I rode my bike into San from my site. This ride is really only about an hour long, around 20k, and I usually enjoy it (see previous post; sometimes the ride is better than others...) I made the mistake of riding in during the middle of the day, another reason why the Malians think I am crazy. I made good time, getting to the house around an hour and 7 minutes after departing. I was hot and very, very sweaty, and was drinking water like it would disappear. After a good shower and a little bit of lunch, I was able to relax, hang out with other San Kaw (people of San; Kaw sounds like how with a "K") As the evening approached, I started to feel a bit sick. I knew had been dehydrated, because I had also gone for a pretty long run that morning, so I kept plugging water. But when dinner time rolled around and I couldn't even think about food, I decided to call it a night.
Not twenty minutes later, I was sick. Really, really sick. Luckily I have good friends to take care of me. I spent most of the night either sick or about to be sick. This continued into the next morning, when, having not been sick for a while, I tried to eat something. Mistake! I was sure that I was dehydrated, and I suppose that, combined with the effects of the heat fom my mid-day bike ride just sent my tummy up on end. It was not happy!
Luckily for me, I was already headed for the medical office. The trip to Bamako from San was tough, mostly because I was SO nauseous, but we made it with only a few stops. Finally, we were at the med office. I was still feeling gross, but being sick in an air conditioned place, with a real bed and a REAL TOILET makes being sick that much less awful, I must say.
So I went to the dentist this morning, and I am cavity free! Yay! This is especially good because I was sure I wasn't. It is a relief though because I think getting a filling in a Malian dentist chair is one experience I don't really need as part of my Peace Corps service. The dentist himself is Lebanese, and very nice, but has a different idea of what it means to be gentle. After having such a great dentist at home, and then having this experience, I will never again grimace at the thought of going to the dentist.
And now the real news. The upset tummy and sick feeling that I was having earlier? Giardia! Look, ma! My first parasite! I start my Fasigyn tonight with dinner and hopefully feel ok during my long bus ride back to San tomorrow. Wish me luck!!
I hope you've all enjoyed the first few days of October. I know I have! Currently I am in Bamako, the capital. I came in yesterday so that I could go to a dentist appointment this morning. The trip actually started on Friday when I rode my bike into San from my site. This ride is really only about an hour long, around 20k, and I usually enjoy it (see previous post; sometimes the ride is better than others...) I made the mistake of riding in during the middle of the day, another reason why the Malians think I am crazy. I made good time, getting to the house around an hour and 7 minutes after departing. I was hot and very, very sweaty, and was drinking water like it would disappear. After a good shower and a little bit of lunch, I was able to relax, hang out with other San Kaw (people of San; Kaw sounds like how with a "K") As the evening approached, I started to feel a bit sick. I knew had been dehydrated, because I had also gone for a pretty long run that morning, so I kept plugging water. But when dinner time rolled around and I couldn't even think about food, I decided to call it a night.
Not twenty minutes later, I was sick. Really, really sick. Luckily I have good friends to take care of me. I spent most of the night either sick or about to be sick. This continued into the next morning, when, having not been sick for a while, I tried to eat something. Mistake! I was sure that I was dehydrated, and I suppose that, combined with the effects of the heat fom my mid-day bike ride just sent my tummy up on end. It was not happy!
Luckily for me, I was already headed for the medical office. The trip to Bamako from San was tough, mostly because I was SO nauseous, but we made it with only a few stops. Finally, we were at the med office. I was still feeling gross, but being sick in an air conditioned place, with a real bed and a REAL TOILET makes being sick that much less awful, I must say.
So I went to the dentist this morning, and I am cavity free! Yay! This is especially good because I was sure I wasn't. It is a relief though because I think getting a filling in a Malian dentist chair is one experience I don't really need as part of my Peace Corps service. The dentist himself is Lebanese, and very nice, but has a different idea of what it means to be gentle. After having such a great dentist at home, and then having this experience, I will never again grimace at the thought of going to the dentist.
And now the real news. The upset tummy and sick feeling that I was having earlier? Giardia! Look, ma! My first parasite! I start my Fasigyn tonight with dinner and hopefully feel ok during my long bus ride back to San tomorrow. Wish me luck!!
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