15 year old Ouima and her older sister
Grinding millet
Mom with twins
Oldest daughter
Safi my first Bambera teacher and her sister
Fa
I went to visit Constance at her boutique and Mohammed was there again. He and Constance were saying that the world was changing so quickly and that French was not as important a language as it used to be. French is only used in France, North and West Africa, the Congo, Haiti and a few other islands, Mohammed complained. But even the Arabs in North Africa are abandoning French and are teaching English in their schools. At least Spanish is spoken in all of the Americas save for Canada, Brazil and the US. Constance agreed and added that in a few years anyone who did not know English would be obsolete. Mohammed said that a group of engineers had been confounded by how to put a system together upon delivery because all the instructions had been in English. You picked the wrong second language, Mohammed said with a laugh. I thought about why products come with instructions in only one language, ignorance...arrogance?
Like the engineers, who are unable to complete their work due to language barriers, isn't the work of the international development also confounded by the inability to truly understand another? Isn't as well basic human interaction and understanding? Aren't we all just trying to create a common basis for knowing the other, to work across these language barriers to achieve the great heights we have imagined for ourselves, to come back together once again as we once were...
It hasn't rained as much as it should have by now and the result is that water is turned off in a random selection of neighborhoods in the city throughout the day. Of course there is no advance notice. This is how I happened to be in the middle of bathing early on Friday morning when the tap ran dry. Luckily I had one bottle of water left in the shower for situations such as these and I was able to rinse off. But as for washing dishes or flushing toilets, there is currently no water available for that. Nice!
Friday morning we met with Mary Beth Leonard the Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Mali. She says she is only in the US once a year and after we talked about the different ways that the US supports infrastrucure, governance, health and education here she was eager to know where we were from, where we were headed after this trip, and what we thought of the candidates for the upcoming 2008 elections.
After the meeting I headed to the Ghanaian Embassy to secure my visa for my upcoming trip. As I begin to fill out the application form in quadruplicate, I realized that I would need 4 passport photos and not just two, and that I also needed names and addresses of my contacts in Ghana. Hmmm. So I set off down the road looking for a passport photo place and luckily there was one not too far away. One of the women there it turns out has a sister who lives in Los Angeles...small world. Then I ended up playing a lovely game of call people in the US very early in the morning to get the address info. Thanks mom and Shirley for being such good sports!
Friday night I went out to the Hogon, a music venue owned by a famous Malian singer Fatime something or other who regaled us with her sultry voice, with Brahms and his friend Mamadou. The music was lovely. I discovered that the instrument that makes me think of asian influences is the Kora. It a harp-lute string instrument with 21 strings stretched over a long neck of rosewood and plucked with the thumb and index finger of each hand. The sound it produces is not unlike the Chinese lutes I have heard before. At any rate, I enjoyed the music and the singing but I wasn't aware that the venue was going to be outdoors so I provided a lovely feast for the mosquitoes that were out. I said a prayer this morning when I took my malaria pill.
A patron at Constance's store asked if I was her little sister. She said yes. He said then that she should give her little sister to him. I was shocked and didn't look up. I just told you this is my little sister, Constance said. Why would I give her to you when I don't even know you. You would get to know me once you gave her to me, the man replied. I would have said something if I had known what to say but literally the shock evaporated all of my words. Constance laughed and said I don't think so.
He continued to press his case and she said, You're just like all the rest. You want to marry her and once you have 2 or 3 kids you'll leave her and go back to Nigeria. The man insisted that he would not. Yes you're like the rest Constance said. Why do you all do that? Marry Malian women, give them children and then desert them? I wouldn't desert her. She's pretty...Yes, she is, Constance said, so you would need to have a lot of money to marry her. And she's smart so you need to be educated too. Have you graduated from University? What do you do? I didn't think so. Keep on! I was still shocked at this point and trying to get over my momentary concern that she might actually agree on an arrangement.
Then he attempted to talk to me calling me "Cherie," a term of endearment. Constance told him to stop making a nuisance of himself. He said he was just having a discussion. Well, we don't like your type of discussions, Constance said. Now I was really disconcerted because a few of his friends were outside the boutique and they kept peeping in on me and Constance and the progress of the conversation. Night had begun to fall and I was planning to meet Rodney at our place in a few. Maybe I should sneak out the back door, I whispered to Constance. No, you go right on out the front door, she said, pointing in the direction of my place. And send me a text when you get home. She stood out on the porch walking me walk away and I texted her shortly after saying I had safely arrived.
Earlier I stopped and chatted with Ouima and her older sister. The pictures above are of them and the sister's kids, her twins and the older daughter. I saw that she had a maid, a young adolescent girl, and I asked about her as I had been curious about the situation. Most hourseholds have one. They appear to be very young and impressionable. I have noticed that Constance's maid seems to be very nervous in social situations and laughs a lot to cover this. I was wondering if there was some depth to the situation that I am not able to perceive. Also I noticed that many of the maids wear their hair in similar styles, that I haven't seen on anyone else.
So Ouima's sister explained that the maids are girls from very poor families in very poor villages. Their families usually have up to 10 kids and can barely afford to feed them, let alone clothe them. And indeed Rodney said on his travels throughout Mali that clothing for kids seemed to be a luxury...most were running around with nothing on or at most a long t-shirt. Since the girls are nearing marriage age, they work as live-in maids to save up the money to buy things for their wedding trunk, clothing, household things etc. I hav noticed that there is a big leap between the way that the average unmarried women dresses, in t-shirts or tank tops and a length of fabric wrapped around the waist into a skirt, and the way the average married woman dresses in matching skirt and top tailored ensembles in various fabrics and cuts. Ouima's sister said her maid receivs free meals, room and board and 7500 CFA a month. In two or three years she will have saved enough to buy what she needs to return to her village, get married and start out her life with her husband.
1 comment:
I can't believe that guy! Sounds like someone who's personal growth stopped at 15. Just think what good human behavior management training this is.
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