Hope all is well and everyone is getting ready for thanksgiving, I’m so sad I won’t be there but you better believe I’ll be eating well, a feast is planned!!
Just after Halloween I experienced my first bashe ride (Malian public taxis) which consisted of a van gutted of all the insides and stuffed with about 25 Malians and my two friends (Alaric and Shelby). We were going to Fangasso which is Shelby’s site about two hour bashe ride north to spend the day. Of course this is Mali so we blew a tire about an hour into the trip which was actually a blessing because my butt was numb and I really wanted to stretch. When we made it Fangasso we wondered the market for a bit then spent the day with her homologue and family before heading back to san.
Nothing too exciting has happened at site over the past two weeks. I took a bit of a tumble one morning while running which the kids found absolutely hilarious. The incident did involve an exposed tree root and a low hanging branch… I’m fine, just a few bumps and bruises, but I had to take a few days off running to try to heal my knees and hands and my pride. Fortunately, because rainy season is over, flesh wounds heal really quickly without too much concern for infections. Unfortunately, with rainy season ending, I can already see in increase in the level of dust in the air. Apparently during hot season in May, there is so much dust in the air you can’t even see the stars at night, which is a real shame because there is no light traffic to inhibit my view of the sky at night which is one of my favorite parts of my nightly routine.
I spent a day in the garden trying to learn some of the trees and fruits here but Malians don’t really understand that their trees don’t exist in the US and that the average American doesn’t have to know about agriculture to survive. I pulled water from the well for the first time and I have an all knew respect for how strong these women are who have to water the entire garden every day from the well, my arms were burning after two buckets from the well.
I got a hold a week old baby a few days ago which was terrifying. I love kids from about 6 and older, but babies are one of the scariest things imaginable for me. I was so afraid I was going to break him but at the same time I was entranced by him. Babies have their eyebrows drawn on by eyeliner and also wear eyeliner then they all covered in white powdery stuff so it was exactly the cutest baby in the world, but it was pretty amazing to be able to hold him.
The hardest part of the past time at site was when I went to the schools for the first time. It was both exciting and totally overwhelming and unbelievably frustrating. I met the director and 6 teachers after the 45 minute walk to the school with two of my host sisters. The school in itself was really nice cement building with big windows for a nice cross ventilation. It was approximately 7-9th grade but the kids aged from about 14 to 20. At 7:45 there was a flag raising ceremony where they sang their national anthem then the school director took me to each of the three classrooms and introduced me to the students and that was the overwhelming part. I walked in and was greeted with 130 smiling kids. 130 kids in a classroom no bigger than my classrooms in the US… Kids were sitting five to a bench that should have only seated two, some were on the floor and others sitting on the window sills for class. Totally unable to process the 130:1 student teacher ratio I was talking to the English teacher who confesses that the teachers know the problems raised with the unfair ratio but there is nothing they can do because they can’t afford more teachers or more classrooms. Talk about frustrating.
Days pass both painfully slowly and quickly just as days pass at home and it’s a comfort to know that my bad days are always followed by good ones.
Love,
Cait
