We slept late trying to recuperate from last night and didn’t make it into the clinic until 9am (though Tolo didn’t make it in till the afternoon and the other guys were, well a bit sluggish). We spent the morning in the lab with Sessoko reading and staining slides and even doing one smear for a kid that came in. After we ran out of things to do in the lab we sat outside and talked with some of the other staff at the clinic. I got to try a Shea fruit (karate) and discuss the apparent aphrodisiac properties of ginger (apparently if a man eats ginger, his lust won’t be abated even after 3 women). We also talked about how Liz and I find the tea and some of the juices here to be a bit sweet, which they countered with our sugared meat (i.e. barbeque). I find it a little amazing here as I have watched people add mounded spoonfuls of sugar into their powdered milk (but apparently sugar on meat is sacrilege).
In the afternoon Liz and I lounged in our room and tried to nap (well I think Liz napped and I just stared into space before giving up and reading). Later in the afternoon we decided to go for a walk in the village to take some more pictures and just get outside. As we started out the door we bumped into Paul, who initially insisted on going with us (I got the feeling that we were to be watched at all times), but then Badry came by and I think he understood that we wanted to go alone (it always feels a bit rushed and like we’re wasting someone’s time being escorted everywhere). So we started off solo and didn’t make it more than five minutes before the rain drops started; a little disappointed we started to walk back to the house, but we got lucky and the rain quickly stopped. We walked along alleys and down by the river (being stopped now and then by calls of “toubobou”) and down towards Auberge Kanzye (apparently Auberge means hostile). We saw people washing and bathing in the river (full of schistosomiasis mind you) and the world’s smallest kitten (I think a mouse probably could have eaten this thing). We made a left down by the old bridge (it was destroyed in the flood in 2007 and is now apparently a slide for the kids) and wound up at a tiny little library talking to its proprietor. We also came across a sign that gave us a little information on the history of Bandiagara; apparently the road from Mopti wasn’t paved until 2001 (I bet it was an interesting ride before that) and electricity was brought to Bandiagara in 2003 by a German NGO. As it was starting to get dark we decided to head back (if we got lost in the dark I’m sure we would never be allowed out alone again). On the way back we bumped into Sessoko and the lab girl on his moto (I wonder is her parents know) and he laughed shyly, a little embarrassed. When we got back to the house one of the guys that works there had a monkey on a rope. It was pretty sad because the monkey was clearly malnurished and looked ill (apparently he has it as a pet).
After dinner we headed over to the boys house to have and English lesson with Sessoko and play some cards. The English lesson didn’t get very far (I think the girl in the lab that Sessoko likes called). But the card game went well; we played a few rounds of Uno after which Kareem drove Liz and I back to the house (he heads back to Bamako tomorrow).
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