sumaya ani typhoide tun bè ka n na, nka sisan n ka kènè

(i had malaria and typhoid, but now im healthy)

sooo yeah... just got out of 5 days at the hospital. i woke up on thursday morning feeling awful and found out a few hours later at the clinic that i had both typhoid and malaria. JUST when i was thinking i might sneak out of mali without a scratch!

this is what my experience was like (from my journal)...

five days i spent in one bed. five days horizontal. there were some good things about that room, though, like the one way window serving as a mirror to outsiders (and providing me with some light entertainment). the air conditioning became my good pal and its remote too. i got to know the inside of my head a lot better and the lengths of my imagination in desperate measures. i got better at shadow puppets and shallow dreaming. one of the nurses named moussa had a shirt accidently embroidered with the word mousso. that was really funny it made me laugh outloud alone in my empty space. bob dylan sustained me. i had a cleansing oil detox and a clearer head because of it. as moms daughter, i made lists. i practiced bambara sentences in my head. i looked up words in my french dictionary. i read l'amant. i got a plant from lobo and i put it outside so it could taste the rain. it rained. i watched the wind and rain from my one way window. my room smelled of bananas. i slept a lot. and wrote.

now im out! FREE FREE FREE! i have so much life to live! no but really, after being in one space for so long, its strange to leave and exciting. i felt like i was seeing africa again the way i did when i first got here... noticing all the bright colors and the smells and the sounds. its a lot. i have lots of things i want to do that ive been ittttching to do all week. i cant wait to get back to the cooperative. i love it there. the women are so amazing. did i mention that last tuesday when i went they gave me a whole bag full of freshly picked bissap flowers (below) and mint and citronella. bissap juice is one of the best things ever in mali and especially when its frozen. that night i went home and made my own bissap juice with mint and citronella. yum!

anyway, some of you parental types are probably still stuck on the whole malaria typhoid thing but donnnt worry im AOK. and im taking it easy for the next few days anyway because im a smart one... no african dancing while carrying water on my head in the 100+ degree weather (at least for a week or so).

peace and glucose solutions

BINTOU

a few family pictures from yesterday...

1. Me and Mamadou
2. Lala, Bintou, et Diami (Lala's mom, my sister)
3. Tell me Mamadou isnt the cutest child youve ever seen (sorry I dont know how to rotate this image)
4. Maimouna (my sister) and me

Turns out I have another sister that lives with us too. Her name is Aida. Shes been at our house for a few weeks and I thought she was just visiting because sometimes family members come to visit for a while, but turns out she lives with us. Figures.

sooo voila! proof! this is me earlier today at the fields where im doing my project. (you cant get a great view of the fields this shot bc i was near the edge) i spent a good 2 hours going back and forth from the water basins to the vegetable plots with water on my head. today i was working with/for aminata mariko - the oldest member of the cooperative. shes 80 and still she works there everyday, twice a day! these women are so strong. it took about 2 hours to do all the watering (with my help) this morning (and i can carry as much if not more than she does), so i imagine it would take about an hour more had i not been there. its so incredible how much these women work!

im on a relatively fast computer right now so im going to try to upload more photos in another post.

I went back to Sanankoroba this weekend to visit the family there and bring them some of the pictures I had printed. Even though it took wayyyy too long in the blistering heat to get there, it was really great once I arrived. Everyone was so excited to see themselves in the pictures. Most people in villages here dont have pictures of themselves, so it was pretty cool to see their reactions. A small dance party broke out too :)

Yesterday I spent a lot of time at home with my Bko family, since I feel like Ive been out a lot. I made them guacamole and, after a long hunt, found some tortilla chips. The dish was devouuuured. My host brother told Matou (my 16 year old neice) that she needs to make that so she can get a good husband. Now I want to make more food for them since they seem to like it so much. Any suggestions of things I can make that dont involve an oven?

some things

Bamako doesnt have that many billboards, but if you see one, you can be sure that it will be for one of three things: a bank, AIDS, or powdered milk. If its for AIDS it will usually just be a big ribbon that says "SIDA: pensez-y!" (AIDS: think about it!) and Im not sure how effective that is if people dont know what it is. There are also some pretty great AIDS billboards that have a picture of a condom with two fingers in it. Im also not sure how effective that is. The powdered milk ads are the best though, because despite all the cows there are, everyone here just drinks powered milk. My favorite is for this brand called Laicran. Its just this picture of this woman smiling and below her it says "Laicran: la plus belle preuve d'amour" (Laicran: the most beautiful proof of love).

The best word that weve learned in Bambara is "ka jigin" which has 3 definitions: get down, get off, give birth. Its like a Malian public service announcement and I think its more effective than the AIDS billboards.

Bintou meets Baobab and they are very happy together

or:

Bintou discovers easier way to put pictures on her blog and finds herself feeling surprisingly computer savvy. Mmm.

back in bko

just got back from the grannnnd excursion today. even though we were traveling in a huge pack (which i was dreading), it ended up being a great time. we went to segou, djenne, the dogon hills (sangha) and mopti. i looooooved the dogon hills especially. if anyone wants to come with me next time i go back...

basically the hills are these huuuge rocks that you can hike through and people live in them and the area is sooo remote and beautiful. for the most part there is no electricity, so at night you can see a bazillion stars. i slept out on the roof both nights even though it got really cold. it was soo wonderful. since i only have a few minutes left of cyber, im just going to highlight dogon country. basically, im ready to move there (sorry mom and dad). for the 3 days we were there i was at total peace and it was really perfect. one morning we got up early and went on a 5 hour long hike through the hills. there were tons of baobab trees which are the best kind of tree because theyre soooo huge and wise. you cant climb them though because there are snakes. but in dogon, every family has their own baobab and every baobab has a name! how cool is that?! malians dont even name pets here... just goes to show how great the baobab is.

another highlight of dogon country was attending a church service one night with a few other students. it was SO beautiful. it was all in the dogon language and the preacher sat among us and it was all done through song. really beautiful song. african church music...mmmm.

im in the process of trying to get some pics up from djenne and dogon (a lot, but just a few compared to how many i havent gotten around to putting up). OH ok ooooh it just finished yayyy! im going to send yall an email with the link to see my pictures because i dont really want to put them on this public blog.
hErE mogow (peace, people!)
bintou