Next

I spent 10 days at my site before coming into Sikasso again this Saturday. This week my homologue, Salimata, and the vaccinator, Soumaila and I went to some of the surrounding villages serviced by our CSCOM to do vaccinations and baby weighings. I was really excited, because having some planned activities really helps to break up all that unscheduled time. We would leave between 8 and 9 in the morning, and Sali and Soumaila would go ahead on his moto while I biked. When we arrived in the village, they would notify their contacts there, and people would set us up with a table and chairs, usually under a shady tree. After a while, word would get out and mothers would start showing up with their babies.

Friday was the holiday at the end of Ramadan, called Seli Fitini in Bambara ("little holiday" -- Seli Ba, or "big holiday," is 40 days after the end of Ramadan. In my village, they buy and prepare beef for Seli Fitini. Basically people dressed up in nice clothes and went to the mosque and pray, ate a lot of rice and meat, and went around greeting each other. Children get dressed up and go around to different houses and people give them coins. There seemed to be a huge number of children on bikes, which confused me, because there aren't usually that many bikes in the village.

When I arrived in Sikasso on Saturday morning, I discovered that things were not back to normal. The whole weekend was an extension of the celebration, and the market was much quieter than usual and lots of businesses were closed. I'm hoping that when I return to my village this afternoon, things will be back to normal.

If anyone wants to send me a package, I have a general list of things that I can always use here:

trail mix (fruit and nut kinds)
M and Ms
dried fruit (craisins, raisins, apple, mango)
peanut butter
sudokus or crosswords
dial soap
sponges (like for the kitchen, preferably with the scrubby thing on one side)
sauce mix packets (instant packets to make pasta sauce, taco seasoning, etc.)
spices (now I just need thyme and cumin)

Ok, sorry for the shortness of this post but I'm just not in the mood to write more right now.