village Sunday

I spend all day last Sunday in the village.  I left home at 7:20am and didn't get back home until around 6:30pm.  I went with them to church, you can see it in the picture above.  The newer cement church building is just a 5 minute walk from their house.  There was lots of singing.  I had my Bambara song book with me, so I could sing along to the songs that were  in there.  There were also special songs presented by a women's group, a children's group, and the youth choir group.  Those special songs are always as much about the dancing as the singing.  Visitors were made to stand up and introduce themselves, so I had to do that in Bambara but they don't expect you to say much.  The pastor preached a message in Bambara that I understood the general idea of, but didn't catch most of the details.  I remember a time that I couldn't understand some of the details in French, and I can now, so I think of that to encourage me in my Bambara learning.

After church the older daughters in the family started to cook lunch, so we ate quite late.  It was rice with peanut sauce - my favorite!  I was given my own plate and a spoon, but you can see the boys gathered around a big bowl of food eating with their (right) hands.
I spent the whole afternoon sitting in the shade and listening and chatting.  Several different visitors came by to greet the family.  Sunday is the only day that the dad doesn't go to his gardens to work, but after church he went to the next town over to check on a friend who had just had surgery, so he wasn't home most of the time.  The mom was there to chat with me, and you can see in the picture that she kept her hands busy, too.  She was unbraiding Zaena's hair.  The old braids were pretty tiny, so this took a long time.
When it was around 5pm and I said I was thinking about heading home, I was offered a ride on the back of a visiting friend's motorcycle from the village to the edge of Bamako, a trip of about 40 minutes.  Knowing that there is a lot of traffic on Sunday evening, and that traffic heading into Bamako can be scary to face on a motorcycle, I declined and took the Sotrama (a public minibus.)  The family sent me off with a bag of mangoes, fruit from their trees.  Oh, and a sunburned back and neck.  Even though I was in the shade under trees all day, the top of my back that my Malian top left exposed had turned a deep red.  By the time I got home my face and chest were looking pink too, but the next morning it had all changed to normal colors again.

hanging out in the village

I love this boy's smile!  You can see a green cloth wrapped around Samuel's right forearm because he broke his arm several weeks back when he fell out of a mango tree when he was picking mangoes.  The cloth is doing nothing, except maybe reminding people that this arm shouldn't be used.  At first it was wrapped in a splint made of wood and cloth, but I think its almost better by now.  The little girl is his niece, Masitan. These 2 are my favorites in the village where I go to visit each week.

This is Fatoumata, a friend of the older daughters.  One of the older daughters does foot henna as a way to make a little money.  Women often get their feet decorated to go to a wedding.  The traditional style involves cutting bandaging tape into thin strips and using it to make intricate designs.  When all the tape is stuck on, they mix some kind of leaves with mud or something and apply that.  Then some nasty chemical that smells like perm solution and burns goes on.  The untaped part turns black. The whole process takes several hours.  I did this once, it was with my mom when she visited in 2011.  That once was probably enough for me.  There is another style, a painting of flowers that is done with black hair dye.  That is much quicker and easier, and I'll try that sometime if I get a chance.

study break with Moussa

Our little neighbor Moussa is pretty cute when he isn't screaming and crying.  He lives with his mom and dad in a magasin (like a storage room) about 10 feet from my window, and spends much of his day hanging out and playing and mostly crying about 5 feet from my living room and kitchen windows.  I am seriously ready to have our own private peaceful courtyard again!  I blame the crying on a lack of parenting skills- he has clearly learned that if he fusses and screams enough he will get whatever it is that he wants.  Moussa and our dog Teddy are buddies, and I am impressed by how good Teddy is with this little one who is not always gentle.  Sometimes Moussa comes in the house to visit.  He has gone pee-pee on my floor a couple times since he doesn't wear diapers.  But usually he just hangs out for a while and checks out all of the interesting things in our house.  He is especially interested in our water filter- its amazing how you can turn a knob and water comes out and keeps coming out.  That was another wet puddle I had to clean up.  He is at a stage where he is trying to talk a lot, but most of what comes out of his mouth is just sounds.  A few weeks ago he started trying to repeat the "cou-cou!" I would greet him with when I saw him peeking into my kitchen window.  At first he was saying "tou-tou!" but he finally got the "k" sound down, and now he will come to my window and shout "cou-cou!" before I even notice him there.
In the picture you can see JP taking a little study break to visit with Moussa.

it's rainy season!

Here are a couple pictures of us after we got caught in a sudden downpour while out on the motorcycle.  We got soaking wet and couldn't help but laugh.  There's nothing you can do about it, so why not laugh?  We thought back to another memorable time that a big rain caught us off guard: A few weeks after we were married we made a trip to the local outdoor market to buy some household supplies.  I wound up wearing a huge clothes washing basin on my head and trying to hang on to a long broom while JP did his best to see as he drove home.  It doesn't make much sense to try to wait it out because the rain could continue for hours during rainy season.  We will be very thankful to have a car one day!