It is rare that I get the chance to send emails so closely together but I doubt it will happen enough for anyone to become spoiled by it.
In answer to a question Uncle Larry in particular asked, there is bee keeping in Mali. Honey is available in Bamako and some of the regional capitals though it is much harder to come by in village. As a potential project I’m trying to feel out my village for anyone interested in being trained as a beekeeper and thus introducing honey into the market. I think it would be a great opportunity for someone to start their own business or at least add to their income. The APCD (the head of every sector) of the environment sector is a beekeeper and would be more than willing to come to my village for training if I can find someone willing to take on the risk of learning a new trade (MUCH easier said than done)
I’ve returned to the local school (grades 7-9) a few times and assist in the English classes which is really fun and the kids seem to really enjoy it, that might be due to me not beating them when they get a question wrong, but I like to think that I’m a decent teacher. After working at summer camps for two summers, I’ve become more comfortable and enjoy working with kids who used to really intimidate me. I helped grade some papers from the final exam of the fall semester and the average of the English exam for the 7th grade was about 35%. Talk about discouraging. It makes me realize how lucky I am to be surrounded by highly motivated kids in my concession. My homologue’s kids get back from school around 5pm and then help with the cooking and bathing of younger kids then they spend much of the rest of the evening studying (at least Monday through Thursday). I guess I didn’t realize that study time is actually a luxury here and if my homologue didn’t make time for it, they could easily fill the evening doing more chores which are truly endless.
As far as my village I’ve only just realized that I’ve given few details about it. Sebanso is one of 7 villages making up the commune N’torosso. The so called “capital” of my commune is the village of Bolokalaso where the school I work with is located as well as the mayor’s office. The local doctor’s office is about 3 kilometers from my village and the maternity is situated directly across from it near the village of Sokoroni where the local tailor lives. My village, Sebanso, has about 650 people. It is a Christian village and next to my Chief of Village, the Pasteur is probably the most respected man in village. The dugutigi (chief of village) is kind of royalty and the title is passed down to the oldest son upon death. My dugutigi resets broken bones and works with traditional medicine which is pretty cool to see him brewing sometimes. My village is quite well off, relatively speaking, I have reasons to believe due in part to it being a Christian instead of a Muslim village that I’ll discuss later. Sebanso is very fortunate in that we have an wide array of resources such as an adult literacy program, a school (pre-K to 6th grade), a mill grinder, a cereal bank, and financial bank, a butiki aka the Wal-Mart of my village, well builders, animal raisers (and a veterinarian who lives in a neighboring village. Someone I’ve come to know quite well seeing as my homologue is president of the animal raisers association), an established women’s garden, basket weavers, and a tanteen (a women’s group that collects money each month from its members and every month a woman from the group gets to keep the money as a sort of personal savings).
Now, you might be curious as to my hypothesis that Christian villages financially are better off than Muslim villages or animist villages for that matter. It’s actually a very rational and logical conclusion that I’ve come to. The Muslim religion allows and some might argue promote polygamy allowing men to take up to four wives. When these men take multiple wives, with it come multiples sets of children and as all parents will attest, children are expensive. This also demands more housing among other things and nothing comes free. Christian families are still relatively large, most families I know have at least 6 kids but, when compared to some Muslim families where they have 20 or more children supported by one man, you can do the math for yourselves. Often these families are forced to take the older children out of school to work in the fields and take care of the younger children thus depriving them of much needed education, poor quality though it may be. I can’t reiterate enough how important I think improving the education system is to providing sustainable economic growth.
I’ve just returned from my first visit up north which I’m sure will have many more to come. I caught a bus to Sevrae on Thursday and arrived around 6:30 pm…about a three hour bus ride which was incredibly quick by Malian standards. I stayed in sevrae for the night then went to Bandiagara for a day before returning to sevrae on Saturday afternoon and now I’ve just returned to San. Bandiagara was absolutely gorgeous and I can’t wait to go on a hike through Dogon country. The cliffs, unlike the rest of Mali, are very picturesque and scenic (in the dry desert kind of way of course). Saturday afternoon was leisurely spent by the pool of a local hotel; I however refused to swim when I could not see the bottom on the pool. I did get to enjoy a cold apple juice while reading a magazine and listening to my ipod which was delightful. My friend and I ate dinner at a local restaurant that who he knew well and we were chatting with the owner seeing as we were the only customers. He was complaining about the affects terrorism and al-Qaida is having on his business. In fact, much of the tourism industry in the north has all but disappeared with Americans and most all western tourists having been advised/forbidden on going to Timbuktu, Gao and Kidal. It’s so sad to see what might have been a great chance of development absolutely destroyed.
Love,
Cait
