Community Together-ness and Rats

The new Bambara word of the week is 'toto', as in: Toto ka bon! (The rat is huge!)

Let me explain through story. Michele and I were in Sikasso sitting at Trinh's house having a discussion in the shade trying to stay cool in the 100+ degree weather. I had just bought ice cold Fantas at the nearby boutique and we were just at the point of starting to feel refreshed when we heard a bit of a commotion from the other side of the yard. Trinh's house is laid out thusly: Her house has a large walled in yard shared with another concession. A Malian family lives in this concession and work for the Peace Corps as the guardians of the property. Basically, Trinh lives alongside her neighbors so she doesn't have to live alone.)

Anyways, the commotion begins and we get up to see what's going on. Musa is yelling to Mymuna his wife to run to the other side of the wall to head off 'it'. Being the curious tubabs we are, we follow out the front gate and around the side of the wall in the street. Miriam (my 2nd wife) and some other children follow in hot pursuit getting excited from all the obvious hurrying. When we get around the wall opposite Musa, Mymuna stuffs the sack she is carrying into a head-sized hole at the bottom of the wall and backs up quickly as if to get away from whatever is trapped in the hole in the wall.

As we wait, Musa yells from the opposite side of the wall that he can't get to 'it' from there; someone has to get to it from our side, the outside. By now, because we are on the side opposite the late afternoon sun and there is abundant shade, this just happens to be where the entire neighborhood is out hanging and lounging before dinner. A young man in his late 20's comes running up to take charge. He pulls at the sack to remove it from the wall and begins throwing fist sized rocks into the opening. I run up close to hand him one after another as he slams them as hard as he can into the beast. I use the term 'beast' because as I was on the front line I saw it: a rat, easily the size of a cat or a 2 litre bottle of coke squirming in the hole trying to dodge the rocks. The length of my forearm minus its tail.

The rocks don't seem to phase it and we're running out at this point. It seems to know this and darts out of the hole. Leaping and bounding over feet and screaming men and children, the rat takes off down the street. One man jumps out and tries to kick it like a soccer ball (since it is roughly the same size) but misses and swings wide. 10 men, 25 children, and a dog chasing after the biggest monster rat I have ever laid eyes on. Eventually, after a few solid minutes of running back and forth someone is able to hit it with a tree branch and the men capture it. Several more minutes pass while the men debate: 'if we're going to cut its throat, someone has to hold the rat's head still.' They offered us the job and we promptly refused. So did many other African men. This thing was a beast with inch long fangs. Eventually, they put it down and the rat menace was over.

Diaramana kaw

Me and my kick ass homologue, Oumou. She is awesome.

Below: I am trying to explain to my homologue that I need a scarf like her green one in order to be able to dance like her. (It did not get me out of dancing for the next 3 hours)

Tiny feet.





This little girl is gorgeous.







Bogo is awesome. He and Tim are best friends.

Our First Stay at Diaramana

Michele and the Malian children enjoying themselves at the International Women's Day festivities.












A portable Malian gas station, it goes from bus to bus in the auto-gare filling them up. To save petrol, it runs off of hay and water.









Children watching the Women's day dancing, with the most noticeable tree in Mali, the Baobab. Legend has it, long ago the Devil, angry with the Baobab pulled them all up out of the ground and replanted them all upside down with the roots exposed. Most of these trees do look like the legend is true...










Our new house! 6 rooms, made of concrete with a large front yard and even a small grove of trees. We sit underneath our gwa (the grass/reed hangar to the left) every morning and greet all the people who come and walk by.






Sunrise in the hot season of the Sahel. Dust fills the atmosphere and covers up the sun- oddly, the season while the sun is blocked is the hottest season here.


































Our dog Bogo - named after the Bambaran word for 'dirt/mud' because he eats dirt. This is him chewing on a chicken foot. Being that he is owned by Americans, he's inherited our taste for food - he refuses to eat toh until he's gotten to the point where he realizes we're not giving him anything else. This is him smiling for the camera.

elements of comedy: humiliation

Here you can tell that I don't like holding the chickens. It's kind of embarrassing how Tim shows me up the way he does, but I decided that comedy overrules all humiliation.





This is me and my homologue Oumou. (she has the green scarf in her hands) She is amazing... and coincidently reminds me of you, Mom. She forced me to 'dance' to every song; she lead the other woman, and was the life of the party! Miss you Mom! Even though I look ridiculous here, I promise it got better. This was my first dance... Tim decided that it was best to capture me at my weakest. (thanks tim) :)

The Malian Food Special

Here are some videos to enjoy - sorry for the month and a half hiatus, Michele and I moved to our new site and even though it is absolutely wonderful, internet is hard to find.

Presenting, TOH! The staple food of Mali. It isn't very easy to make but it is one of their favorites. They [and we] eat it everyday. It can be made of corn powder [kaba] or millet [nyo] and basically resembles grain pudding/gelatin. Sadly, video and words can never describe the truth of the taste and texture of toh, so no one can truly know toh until you've come to Africa; but rest assured that when any of you do come, we'll have a nice big bowl for you and a family to share it with.





Our former pet chicken - in order to keep the dog from chasing the chicken around the front yard and torturing our soon to be dinner, we kept the chicken in the bike room for a few days. Then, one day, the chicken got out and ran amuk through the house. This video chronicles our task of catching it.