I forgot to write anything down for Thursday, so there’s not much in particular I remember (I think it was a pretty slow day). In lieu of writing about what happened that day perhaps I’ll fill in about the farming techniques here. When we first arrived nothing had really been planted yet (they were waiting for the rain) and the fields in front of the house were grassy (well a little grass and a lot of sandy soil). Now they’ve been planting for about a week and a half; they plant anywhere that is open. They use these wooden hand tools with one end that is curved and broadened to break up the earth and make these small mounds in which I assume they plant the seeds (though I haven’t actually seen that part). Afterwards they cover the mounds with a little bit of the grass that had been there, I assume that this is either to keep birds from eating the seeds or to hold in a bit of moisture between rains. All members of the family seem to spend time in the fields, though the littlest children are usually just out there to play. The principle crop here is millet, but they also grow rice near the river and later in the season they may plant tomatoes and onions. Peanuts are also grown, though I’m not sure where.
On Friday we went on rounds at the hospital (there were fewer patients this time), there was an older man recovering from a snake bite, and my favorite little boy was there (and as terrified as ever at seeing people in white coats). Over at the maternity center there were two baby boys (I think 12 and 14 months) who were being treated for malnutrition. The 14 month old had almost no muscle mass and weight just over 10lbs and the other little boy was swollen from Kwashiorkor syndrome. The woman that had been at the clinic for septicemia had been sent on to a rehab center; fortunately she had started eating again and was able to move (though with some difficulty), however she’s still unable to speak). After rounds we went into the clinic for a while. Back in the clinic there were a set of twin babies dressed in matching pink outfits, so I assumed they were little girls. Apparently here (and I had noticed this a bit before) pink is not reserved for girls; here the only way to be certain a child is a girl (before it becomes obvious) is that all baby girls ears are pierced. Later went to the lab to observe the weekly maintenance on the hematology and biochemistry machines. Shortly before lunch a child in the incidence study was diagnosed with a confirmed case of malaria so we helped prep the samples for preservation (they save samples for RNA and DNA extraction, as well as serum samples and a sample for parasite preservation) so that they could be sent to Bamako or the lab in the US.
In the afternoon we hung out in the office and waited to head over to the Couturière to pick up our clothes for the party at night. When we got to the shop my top wasn’t quite finished, and I think he must have disregarded the measurements he took for my pagne (it’s a bit big, but I suppose I can always fix that later). After we got back to the clinic we went for a walk with Dembele and Diallo to the river, the water has definitely risen significantly since we first arrived. Later in the evening we headed back to the house for dinner. After eating Liz and I got dressed. For some reason the guys all think it must be really hard to tie a pagne (it's really just a wrap skirt) and kept asking us if we knew how to do it. Both our pagnes were a little long, so we had to roll them, but I have to say Liz’s pagne and top suited her well. I felt awfully awkward in mine and couldn’t stop laughing, which was apparently appropriate, as Sessoko and Diallo laughed later when we saw them. We headed over to the boys house to pick up Sessoko and Tolo, our dates (they had invitations that allowed them to bring one guest). I asked Sessoko why he didn’t bring the little girl (who seems a bit ditsy) from the lab that he likes (I’ve seen them flirting a few times), but apparently her parents don’t let her out after dark without a family escort. The party was at Cheval Blanc and we apparently arrived unfashionably early (though we were 45 minutes late). Dembele was already there and soon many more people arrived (including Badry, Djigabe from the lab, Kareem and many other people). The party was sponsored by the deputy of the city and the nurses from the hospital (who were referred to as princesses for the evening). It seemed that the party had a secondary motive besides the celebration of Pan-African Women’s Day; every so often the music would stop and one of the “princesses” would get on the mic and ask a question about public healthy (focused mostly on malaria). If a person in the crowd answered correctly they won a cadeau (a gift, which turned out to be a bed net). There wasn’t much participation at first (and we decided it was unfair if anyone in our group answered), but eventually it picked up and interestingly it was often kids winning. There were also other cadeau that they gave to everyone, a four pack of condoms with the motto “chaque fois, toutes les fois” (“each time, every time”). After observing the dancing for a little bit we went out and joined the floor; Tolo kept asking me if the dancing was hard, but to be honest it wasn’t all that different from American dancing (it certainly wasn’t the kind of African dancing I had learned in my African drum and dancing class at Goucher). We party and danced hard (Tolo is a dancing maniac and Dembele is certainly a ladies’ man) until sometime after 12:30 am. I decided I was wiped and Badry took Liz and me home (I think the guys stayed for another hour or so).
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