Interactions

"Rhythm is the basis of life, not steady forward progress. The forces of creation, destruction, and preservation have a whirling, dynamic interaction." - Kabbalah


On back of Jacques' moto

Dir. of USAID Mali on team as Mieko and Rodney

Elections posters

Another election poster focusing on giving the future back to the youth

Interesting that I am in a clinic with two doctors and an associate and because no one wears uniforms, and because I look Western in dress, people who enter address their questions to me who knows the least. Let's talk about assumptions and stereotypes...

I've been hanging out in Constance's boutique and at Fa's house a lot. Both are ways to interact with a lot of people at the same time and to watch how people interact with each other...

Constance used to have a young woman in the store helping her out. The young woman lived at Constance's house rent-free, enjoyed free food and drink and on top of that was paid almost 20 USD a month to help keep the store. One day I saw the girl with a few tote bags. I asked later and Constance said she let her go. That she was always arguing with her and that she had become concerned about the company she kept. Everyday she was out with a different guy. Hmm I said. Then I wondered what my neighbors must think of me. One day Fa's brother Habib had no sooner walked me home (Fa had an errand to run in the opposite direction) when Jacques appeared because Constance hadn't seen me in a few days. Rather than walk down the street I hopped on the back of his moto and got a ride. Perhaps they have drawn interesting conclusions from my comings and goings but I don't really care since I know the real deal. It's not the same Constance said, Trust me.

Yesterday Jacques came to Constance's store and started following her around and smiling. He told me in English that he had had a flat tire on his moto and he wanted to borrow 2000 CFA (just under 5 dollars) from her. A few minutes later as he continued to follow her around, Constance turned to me and said why is he following me around like this? He only does this when he wants something. And then she turned to him and said I don't have any money today. Let me be. That didn't deter Jacques who turned to me and said, Why won't she give me any money? She knows I restock the store? I didn't want to get in their business so I didn't say anything. Finally Jacques turns to Sophie and Constance's nephew who were standing close to the metal Lipton tea tin that serves as a cash register, and said something to them in Bambera. The nephew started towards the cash box and then he thought better of it and asked for Constance's permission. She didn't give it so he sat back down. If it's money he wants he can dance and sing for it, Constance said folding her arms across her chest. Go on! She kept a straight face until I fell out laughing and then she joined me. Jacques got his money.

I've said before that everything is reused here. There are huge steel junkyards where everything from car parts, to appliance parts to broken umbrellas goes to rest until being resurrected into something grand and resourceful. The railroad cars that we are used to only seeing as part of train cargo have many uses here, most often as storage rooms with ready-made self-locking doors. I have seen men searching amongst the piles for desirable pieces, beating at the steel, fusing it, hammering it into shape, and giving birth to a nex creation which is somthing wholly unlike what it was before.

It is cool and rainy today, although cool is relative. We went to a Togolese restaurant for lunch although restaurant is a bit of a misnomer. We went to a shack with a tin roof and walls and beams of young slim tree trunks. The shcak was held together with nails driven through metal coke bottle tops to keep them from being nailed clean through. The windows were merely half doors in the walls as they were also constructed of metal and wood and were not see through unless they were open. Inside the food was cooked and warmed in pots and pans on old coffee tins filled with live charcoals. Each patron got a plate of rice or To which sort of looks like cream of wheat, either sauce of tomato, spinach, or gumbo (gumbo refers to okra here and the sauce is a little slimy for my taste) and a choice of beef or fish. The food is great and they give you a little woven fan to wave while you eat to keep the flies away. If the fly situation gets bad they throw some incense into a can of live charcoal and the smoke makes the flies go away. The total cost is 400 CFA, less than one US dollar. Of course you can go across the river to the hip places and eat at an indoor restaurant more like the types we are accustomed to and pay 5000 CFA to eat American food. I've only done that once while here and thought it a complete waste of money.

Last friday we had a meetin with representatives from USAID to discuss their involvement in Mali. They support efforts to reduce poverty (focusing on water management, health, and education) and to include women in the democratic proces and encourage them to run for office. The director talked about the difficulty of financing projects not knowing what the funding will be like from year to year. While the democrats normally support financing for USAID projects, the Republicans have extended a lot of support due to the war on terrorism. They have envisioned these types of poverty reduction efforts as a strategic step. USAID Mali recently helped to secure contracts with Hallmark to sell bogolan sacks made here through Bono's Red campaign and with Royal Aho (sp?) a major supermarket in Europe to export mangoes.

Seems no post would be complete without an update on that roommate that everyone loves to hate. Surprise surprise he cooked yesterday, which was just as well because I didn't get home until 10pm. Now we just have to work on getting him to go to the market. However the day did not pass without Rodney noting that Andrew continues to lock his bedroom door every time he leaves but when Rodney came home the other day Andrew said he had borrowed Rodney's DVD which would mean that not only did he enter Rodney's room while Rodney was not there, but he searched and found Rodney's CD case, thumbed through it, and took out his DVD. Meanwhile if Rodney had wanted that same DVD that next day, he wouldn't have been able to get it because Andrew's door was locked and Andrew was gone. Now the question is why would he be in rodney's room while Rodney wasn't there if he has a problem with the situation in reverse.