Sorry for the lack of correspondence, I’ve been away at site for almost a month!! The STAGE before me is getting ready for their Close of Service Conference in Bamako in a few days so I’ve come into San for the day in preparation for our trip to Teriabougu…basically a village with a pool and a hotel that is up to American standards (well, there is a fan in the room and the pool water isn’t green…I’m not sure it qualifies for American standards but it’s a welcome sight for Peace Corps volunteers). It’s our good party for the 6 getting ready to go home in just a few months! I’m sad to see them go and cannot believe this will be in a year…God willing I survive another hot season.
The end of hot season is very near on the horizon, twice now, the rains have come and with them a welcome breeze. Thunder and lightning have been all but forgotten until this past week when I was almost mesmerized by the long lost sound. Though I have to admit, I had forgotten how much more challenging riding my bike on bruce roads is when you have to either create an alternative route through the trees and bushes (which have malicious thorns) or go swimming.
I ate my first bug last night. My host dad brought me a bowl of what looked like a combination of a dragon fly without wings (they burnt off when the bug was toasted) and a little caterpillar. I didn’t vomit as I threatened I would but it’s not something I want to repeat in my near future. Fortunately these bugs aren’t around long thus the novelty of them. Speaking of mutant creatures I learned there is such a thing as a scorpion tarantula mix bread of scariness! I knew I killed one a few months ago but nobody believed me until others have been spotted wandering around…I’m glad to be vindicated in being right but I’m torn because I would have been totally fine convincing myself it was a figment of my imagination.
In other news, I attended a funeral in a neighboring village on Sunday. It must have been a really wealthy family because the woman was buried in a casket!! All funerals I’ve been too before the deceased have been wrapped in fabric only. The service was nice but a little long and I’m guessing about 600-700 people were there. It made for a long day but someone did give me a chicken!
My host mom just had a baby girl two nights ago. I’ve yet to see her but when I go back to village on Monday I’ll see her and take lots of pictures for the next email. Most women have their children in the morning and are back cooking dinner and watering the garden in the afternoon…these women are amazing. However, my village is pretty sophisticated and the women can stay at the Maternity for a few days to recover.
I spent a day at a friend’s site just 9 kilometers from me and we did a world map mural painting on the side of her millet cereal bank which was a welcome break and a lot of fun. During that trip we also did a Neeme cream formation. The Neeme tree is a most interesting tree whose leaves have a natural mosquito repellent, so we presented to the women’s association in Zana (the village) how to make the cream. They can either sell the cream at market or use for personal use as the rainy season approaches.
My men in my animal raising association are really working hard to get all their paper work together for the cooperation they are trying to start. I was excited because of the eight required people that have to have birth certificates five already have them. I wasn’t expecting any of them to have them and was worried about how we would find the money to pay for all of them, but now we only have to save for three which is much more feasible (15,000 cfa which is approximately $30…much better than the 40,000 cfa I was anticipating).
I’ll try to give another update soon when I return from Teriabugou or perhaps when I’m in Sevare the following week I can get an email out. I will be traveling a lot in the month of June eventually ending up in Bamako for a few days for a Food Security meeting at Tubaniso for a few days so expect better correspondence during this month!
Love,
Cait
