Bare Necessities

"Someone deprived of the basic necessities of food and clothing has no reason to love his country; he cares little whether his state prospers or perishes. Thus, the state stands to lose if national wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few, and to gain if it is distributed equitably. Where there is gross disparitybetween the life standards of the rich and poor, it means the state has reached the brink of disaster." - Gabra-Heywat

"Sanaoulolo" by Malian singer Ami Koita on YouTube
Don't you just love technology?

This morning as I was on the Sotrame I started thinking about how little I had described the experience. You know that they can get very crowded and that they are tinderboxes in the heat. But did you know that they have both a driver and a "collector" who sits in the back and collects the money. He also hangs his head out the window calls out the names of the neighborhoods where they are headed, although somewhat intelligibly, and identifies people a mile away who want to get on. When this happens, he bangs on the side of the vehicle to get the driver to stop, jumps out the side door while the vehicle is moving (the side door is only closed when it gets crowded or when it is raining) and accompanies the prospective fare back to the Sotrame. If they are carrying a heavy bucket he takes it for them so they canboard quickly. Often the Sotrame will start moving again once the passenger is seated but before he is back in his spot and he will run after it and jump back on. Sometimes when it is crowded there is no place for him to sit so he hangs on to the side of the Sotrame with his lower half inside. When the Sotrame closely passes other vehicles he will duck his body inside. Craziness! And that's before you get to a major hub where a lot of the Sotrame's stop. The collectors all chase prospective fares and try to get them to get on their Sotrames and not any others (often times two Sotrames will be going the same place and they are very much competing with each other to fill up their vehicles and get the most fares.) Quite a way to start the morning amidst all that hustle and bustle.

A few nights ago Sophie was up all night throwing up. Constance took her to the hospital in the morning where she was given two shots to help her system fight malaria. She was better later that afternoon and she asked Constance to send a package of cookies home from the store. And that's in Bamako where there is a hospital, and people are likely to be able to get to it with relative ease. I shudder to think what happens in rural outreaches in the same case.

I asked Constance what she thought about excision - female circumcision. She said that she didn't believe in it. That it may be tradition but enlightenment has shown that it is dangerous and therefore we should act as if we are living in 2000s and not the 1800s. She said she would not excise her daughter. I asked if she was worried about someone else doing it and she said that doesn't happen in Bamako. The subject of excision is really hush hush here. Everyone knows that it is practiced but no one really talks about it. There are posters in the clinic proclaiming that parents should refuse to excise their daughters, but I don't know if everyone there agrees with that stance or if they just think that is the politics of the place they work. And even if parents refuse it, in many parts of Mali, another relative can legally take the child to be excised even if the parents are against it. So what protection is that? Rodney says he met a man whose two year old daughter had a life-threatening infection from being excised. And Constance said one of her cousins died at the age of 12 shortly after being excised. Furthermore, those that don't die can have other complications including the hemorraghing to death, transmission of HIV, painful intercourse, an increase in future risk of infections and severe complications during pregnancy.

I sat with Constance in her boutique for hours and then a friend of hers came in with a bag. I lit up because I could see that there were Koras inside. Are we going to play, I asked. Her friend nodded and said yes and handed the bag to Constance. She pulled a Kora out and handed it to me. I was getting ready to tell her that I didn't know how to play it, when I read the writing on the skin on the front of the instrument: Julayne (Fanta Cisse). The other said Rodney (Moussa Samake). My mouth was open for what seemed like ages. Of course, thank you, you shouldn't have, oh my god came out of it finally. Constance just smiled like she'd hit the jackpot. She said she'd told her friend to go get the koras the day before. And for all I know she could have said it in Bambara right in front of me and I'd have been none the wiser. Rodney was equally pleased with his when he dropped by the boutique later.

Rodney and I have been going through all of our pictures. We will be putting them online where you can access them with just a link. He has pictures of camels and outdoor classrooms and the sparse rural north. That was something to see. Can't wait to share it with you. We started packing yesterday so we would know ahead of time if we were going to have problems with our baggage. It seems like everything will fit though. My bags lost a lot of weight in toiletries so that's good.

The other day a man borrowed credit from Constance on the premise that he would pay her back when his money transfer came in later that day. But his transfer didn't come in as expected and when he wanted more goods she refused. He said he was upset with her. And she said he had been upset when he came in, that he must not have gotten the money he was expecting, but that it had nothing to do with her. Then he said he wasn't going to patronize her store again. She walked past him carrying a lot of sodas to restock the fridge. That's fine with me, she called over her shoulder, but I wonder what storekeeper you think will extend you the credit I extended you. He thought about this while fuming. Constance's friend told him not to say things he didn't mean out of anger and encouraged him to sit down and relax a while. He did and five minutes later we were all debating something completely different. Turns out we started debating in English because the man did not speak French well, neither does Rodney, and Constance's friend teaches English so he was fine. So Constance finished stocking the fridge and then she asked us if it was right that we were sitting in her store debating in a language she couldn't understand? She wanted to know if we thought that was normal? We apologized and began switching back and forth with people speaking what language they could and having others translate.

I saw a man last night sitting out on a bench on a main street, one with overhead lights, and reading with a stack of books next to him. I thought he was waiting for a Sotrame, but it turns out he was just taking advantage of public electricity to do some night reading.

Heard on the Street: The director of an NGO that will remain unnamed was recently in an accident that totaled the car, an expensive luxury model. Rumor has it that the accident was karma for having misappropriated funding from the NGO to buy the luxury car and build a stately mansion from the ground up from which only the director and family were to benefit.