Bintou works at cooperative and gets increasingly hardcore...

OH MAN my body hurts! The past few days at the cooperative have been intense... but that's a good thing because it means the women are giving me more and more responsabilities. Yesterday one of the women couldnt come to work because she had hand problems (she's 80). So guess who watered all of her plots. Yep, me! Intense. I felt really honored by the fact that they put that much confidence in my abilities.

Last night, thank allah, it poured! We had to bring everything inside (were always sitting in the courtyard outside) and the roof to my house is tin, so we literally had to yell to hear each other... but it was great! All I could think about was Aminata Mariko (the lady whose land I took that morning) and what a blessing it was that she wouldn't have to come to water her land today either!

Anyway, when I came this morning, everything was uber-green and lots of the women didnt come because they didnt have to sooni ke (water) anything. I asked how I could help and they werent sure at first because they said "i te se ka sene ke" meaning 'you dont really know how to cultivate' and I was like "n be se! n be se!" (I can! I can!) I told them I wanted to learn so they showed me and then skeptically handed me the hoe. When i started mirroring what they had just done, they were pretty shocked.

"BINTOU BE SE KA SENE KE!" one woman screamed across the farm! "A BE SE!"
(Bintou can cultivate! She can!)

All the women got really excited and it was really funny. They gave me one whole plot to dig up with that hoe and MAN that was some work! I guess the women are used to it, and at first it wasnt bad -- you basically just hack away at the earth and pull up lots of roots -- but then the heat kicked in. I was dripping with sweat (even in my new cool boubou i picked up from the tailleur yesterday). By the end of the plot, my hands felt ready to fall off. Now I have 3 hugeeee blisters just waiting to be popped. yum!

I'm certainly building up some strength at this cooperative and I really have a huge appreciation for the women who are there working constantly. Its really incredible how much they do and dont complain at all.

I've also been doing lots of research about how important women are in development, so being there and talking with them first hand is a great learning experience. My bambara isnt amazing, but today and yesterday i could say and understand everything at the cooperative which was pretty huge. granted our topics of conversation were all farming related, but still... yay!

Tonight i'm going to my friends' house for dinner and theyre making gnocchi! I'm pretty excited about that. I miss western food sooo so much.

Beautiful things of the day (inspired by Annemarie) :

• bright yellow african fabrics that have birds on them
• wood carved objects
• the cool breeze you feel for 5 minutes when you cross the bridge on sweaty sweaty sotrama rides
• children with eyeliner
• avocados
• pick-up rasta dance parties
• children that come up to shake your hand and yell "bonjour madame!"
• the little 3 year old neighbor named Kadi that holds my hand and walks with me as far as I will let her
• dirt roads that are, today, mud roads (heyyyy rain!)
  
• malian greetings and cousinage
  
• 2 minutes each evening as the sun sets when everything gets this amazing orange glow and you feel like youre in a movie about africa