Bandiagara Day 18 (02/08/09)

This morning we got up (a little later thankfully) and got ready to go to Mopti (which means packing our backpacks and slathering on a lot of sunscreen). Diallo and Tolo were coming with us and Tolo kept asking what our schedule was; I tried to explain that when you’re on vacation you don’t need a schedule, but he didn’t seem to understand this (which is surprising since they don’t seem to concerned about keeping schedules or time here in Africa), so I made a quick list of things I wanted to see: Bar Bozo, a Bozo village, the market, the pirogue-builders and the Mosque (which is modeled after the mosque in Djenne). When the driver arrived we headed on our way; I was again amazed by how the scenery reminds me of the southwest (or what I imagine the southwest to look like (funny I made it to Africa first)).

When we got into Mopti (there’s only one road in) I was suddenly struck by the smell of drying fish, which I can’t say was an altogether appealing smell. Our first stop was down by the pier, though it seemed nearly impossible to actually drive the car down there, the roads were so crowded with people and carts and shack boutiques spilling into the streets; Liz and I tried to suggest walking, but eventually the car made it. We walked over to Bar Bozo and Tolo found us guide to go to the Bozo villages. As a side note we learned of an interesting relationship between the Bozo and Dogon; apparently they have a pact (though the basis in history varies) where a Dogon can take something from a Bozo without compensating him (something Tolo reminded the Bozos we encountered more than once), however they also cannot intermarry. Our Bozo guide found us a pinasse (a Malian version of gondola) to take us over to a Bozo fishing village across the river (the Bani river, apparently the Niger meets it a little further west). On the way down the river we also passed a Somono village, these people are not fisherman, but make the pinasses and pirogues (boat without a motor and boat with a motor). We reached the Bozo village (I heard the name but forgot it, apparently it’s named after the chief) and went in search of the chief to ask his permission to visit). Along the way we passed through most of the village and in the end only found the chiefs first wife and many of his children. We finished out walk through the village which ends shortly before the edge of the island; the rest of the space is used by the nomadic Fulani for a few months of the year.

We departed in our pinasse and headed back to Bar Bozo for lunch; I got the capitaine de Bozo (which was capitaine with a spicy sauce and bananas) plus a plate of spaghetti and tomato sauce. Lunch was quite good and the breeze from the water was refreshing. After lunch we headed back to the car which attempted to navigate away from the pier and towards the mosque. We were able to see and photograph the mosque, but unfortunately (though not surprisingly) we weren’t allowed to enter. After that Liz needed to do some souvenir shopping (I did too) so we looked for a market. Apparently the old artisan market had been rebuilt, but seemed to be slightly low on actual artisans. I wound up buying more clothe (yeah, I’m starting to think I have a problem) and Tolo was angry that I didn’t let him argue the price down lower (he’s a vicious bargainer). We walked through some other areas with merchants and I bought to silver (well stainless steel) teapots (and let Tolo argue away about the price) and some dried hibiscus flowers so I can make bissap when I come home. It was getting quite hot by this point in the afternoon and after a little more exploring so Liz could find some more gifts we walked back to the car and made the difficult drive out of town. We made one more stop on the way home to buy some cold drinks.

When we got back to the house Liz and I were in desperate need of a wash. Afterwards we finished watching a rather bad movie and hung out until it was time for dinner. Dinner itself was a rather disappointing soup, which consisted mostly of broth with a few pieces of meat; the only part about it that is mildly filling is that you eat the broth with a loaf of bread. After dinner I was totally pooped, I think the sun drained out all my energy reserves (but no sunburn today, YAY).

Bandiagara Day 17 (01/08/09)

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).

Bandiagara Day 15 and 16 (30 and 31/07/09)

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).

Bandiagara Day 14 (29/07/09)

Last night the whole village lost power and as it turns out, our backup generator at the house was broken. At first it wasn’t too bad, but then I realized my flashlight is really not all that good, so washing in the dark was interesting. And then when we went to sleep it was unbearably hot. We had the windows open, but there’s a way right outside the wind so no air was moving. It was miserable and then a storm started so there was the lightning flashing on the walls of the room and some very loud thunder. I managed to get to sleep for a little bit, but sometime in the night one of my ear plugs (lifesavers honestly) fell out and I couldn’t find it, so I was woken up by the call for 5am prayer, by donkeys and that darn rooster.

When we got up I decided I needed a bath because I had gotten so hot during the night. It was great when we got to the clinic (it has 3 backup generators), though it wasn’t very hot outside today. There wasn’t much to do at the clinic this morning (it seemed the rain from the previous night was deterring people from coming), so we stayed in the office and continued to work on the translations. During the morning we also when to the Couturière where we picked out our clothing designs and were measured. The rest of the morning passed with little excitement.

While eating lunch we watched the news and saw the fighting in Nigeria between the Islamists and the government. It seems that there is a distinction here between Musulman (a Muslim) and Islamist. A Musulman is simply someone who follows the Islamic faith, whereas an Islamist is an extremist (and as Badry says someone who has Islam all wrong). Although I know there are Christians here in Bandiagara (simply by the presence of pigs), it’s difficult to tell who is who, they work together, live together and treat each other the same. The only times I can tell is when the name is obviously Christian (like one of the men that works at the house, who is named Paul). After lunch we continued with translations at the clinic.

Bandiagara 13 (28/07/09)

The homesickness hit today. I blame mom’s email about pizza and Dairy Queen (sometimes when I want to torture myself I think about the foods I miss, which is pretty much everything but rice). This morning was pretty uneventful. We were in the clinic and went over to the hospital to see them anesthetize the little boy and cut off the necrosed skin. We also saw a man who had an accident on his moto (yet another reason not to ride one). There was also a pair of very adorable twin babies in the clinic. I’m noticing more and more though how much it bothers me that the patients are permitted very little dignity and have no choice in their healthcare. In fact they are rarely informed of what is being done to them. There seems to be no need here to ask a patient’s permission before coming in physical contact, no offering to answer questions, the doctors seem to hardly look the patients in the eye. I try not to look angry and to not let it bother me, but well it does. Perhaps if I were to stay here and work and perhaps if I were able to gain more respect, then perhaps I would bring it to their attention that doctors are here to provide a service to patients and that patients should be informed and given a choice.

Enough of that (or I’ll get bothered again). After lunch we were back at the clinic, but there wasn’t anything to do, so we stayed in the office until Tolo was ready to go to the market so Liz could buy her fabric today. When we went Liz has a hard time making up her mind (there are lots of pretty and very different choices). She finally settled on one with a maple leaf pattern and I wound up buy another set of fabric with the united women of Africa organization’s emblem on it (I think I’ll make a blanket out of it when I come home). After that we were back at the clinic and after waiting a while and killing more time one of the doctors gave us a translation assignment. It was a series of mock interviews that a qualitative analyst will use to assess the ethics of the studies being performed at the center. We translated one of the interviews before it was time to go home for the day; it’s actually a little difficult to translate because so many of their idioms are different and don’t translate well into English. On the drive home we passed some people filling in the ruts in the road (made by the rain) with dirt (or sand more likely) and Badry mentioned that the town hopes to one day in the relatively near future get concrete streets (though it might take a while, the town is not very high on any government lists). Tonight I got lucky and dinner was their version of spaghetti (which I really like); it was great, I was starving.

Bandiagara Day 12 (27/07/09)

This morning Liz was feeling a bit better and managed to eat a little bread at breakfast (then she went right back to sleep). On the way to the clinic I saw a little girl (maybe 4 years old) with a doll tied to her back, I guess she was playing mommy (though it probably won’t be too much longer before she’s carrying one of her younger siblings that way). At the clinic this morning I decided to hang out in the clinical lab. I got to observe more Widal et Felix tests (for typhoid), many of which were positive. There were also tests for toxoplasmosis, syphilis, sickle cell, urine tests. There was also one HIV test for a young woman (only 24 years old) and sadly it turned out to be positive. I asked Tolo what would happen to the woman; apparently here the medicine for HIV is free, but you have to go to Mopti to get it. I asked if a person usually tells there family or sexual partners when they find out they’re positive. He said sometimes they do, but many of them are scared and that if they tell sometimes their family or community make them leave. It’s also very sad because one of the ways HIV spreads here is actually due to the good social support system they have; if a woman is widowed typically her husband’s brother or other male relative take her in as their wife so that she doesn’t become destitute, but if the man died of HIV, than she may unknowingly spread that HIV into the rest of the family. Fortunately in Mali the HIV rate is very low compared to the rest of Africa, but it’s always possible that it could get worse (I do see a lot of public health ads about HIV though). This morning I also found out the significance of the little beaded necklaces that most of the small children where (they’re very plain, looks like hemp with a few evenly spaced white beads). First when I asked Tolo what it was for, he said it was nothing, just something pretty. But then I mentioned at all the children wear the same one, so he asked the mother; apparently the necklaces are traditional medicine for when a child is teething (and it seems that it just doesn’t get taken off after they’ve gotten their teeth).
On the way home for lunch we stopped so I could buy more bottled water for Liz and I, but I forgot to get some easy things for Liz to eat (I got them later though). After lunch I rested in the room for a while, mostly playing solitaire. At 3:30pm we went back to the clinic, but nothing was happen so I stayed in the office to read. A while later Tolo came back and we headed to the market so I could buy clothe to have a complet made, which is a pagne (traditional wrap skirt) and a top, plus a head wrap (we’ll see how that goes). After buying the fabric (Tolo haggled over the price for me for a while, though really the original price wasn’t that high) we walked back to the clinic (I think Tolo is getting a little annoyed that I refuse to ride a moto) and stopped on the way to buy some things for Liz to eat. The stores here certainly don’t have the same selection as the Fermi in Bamako, but I did manage to get a package of chocolate cookies (they don’t have crackers) and a can of mixed vegetables (they didn’t have any canned fruit).
After we got back to the clinic I got to enjoy my second goat feast. This time I couldn’t get away with eating just one small piece, they were all watching (just me in the guys). This time I actually enjoyed it, though I did have to politely (but firmly) refuse to eat the kidney. After enjoying my goat and washing my hands I decided it was time to post some new blogs (so here we are). A storm has just kicked up, temporarily knocking out the power, but fortunately the generators kicked in (as I’m still not bright enough to occasional save my typing). I think tonight after dinner I’ll just unwind and go to sleep early. Au revoir.

Bandiagara Day 11 (26/07/09)

This morning there didn’t seem to be much to do, which was ok because we were a bit tired from hiking on the escarpment yesterday. We hung out in the office for a while and then decided to go outside. It was a surprisingly nice day; I can’t say it was cool, maybe temperate (which means in the mid 90s instead of 100+). While were sitting out there a girl carrying a tray or what turned out to be Shea fruit on her head offered us each one to try (I never actually ate it because I was worried about washing it and then someone else ate it, oh well). A little while later Liz began to feel pretty ill (no she didn’t eat the fruit later) and she managed to get someone to take her back to the house early. After she left I went to help Tolo check for documentation errors in the study and file away papers. I was a bit shocked at the lack of organization in their paperwork, but I’m probably a bit rigid after working at a pharmaceutical company that was a bit anal in its documentation practices (I think if I were here longer and maybe if my French were better I could help them reorganize and save them a lot of time and errors).
When we came back from lunch Liz was laying down and still feeling pretty crummy; later Dembele and Dr Kone came in and checked her over (they wound up giving her some antibiotics). After lunch I stayed at the house; Badry left for the clinic before I could catch up with him, but that’s ok, I was pretty tired anyways. I spent the afternoon watching the end of the tour de France, playing solitaire and watching a movie on my computer. The team came back to the house for dinner and after eating I left with Tolo and Dembele to go to a bar/restaurant (we were going to a wedding party afterwards too, but never made it). At first Dembele didn’t want to come, but I was worried that going with Tolo alone might be misconstrued as a date, so I insisted he come too. We had an interesting conversation on the walk over; apparently here they see no problem with having a girlfriend one place and dating other girls somewhere else without informing their girlfriend (however, they argued that it wasn’t ok for their girlfriends to do the same thing). At this point I decided it was a good idea to make it ABUNDANTLY clear that I was not interested in dating anyone while I was here. That I didn’t think it was ok to lie to your boyfriend/girlfriend and that I tell my boyfriend everything (I think this is when the idea that this might turn into a date ended).
When we got to the bar (I think it was called Auberge Kanzaye) it was surprised that there seemed to be a whole group of toubobs there. Later I wound up talking to a few of them (an older British couple) who told me that it was a trip they signed up for on the internet and the group had started in Burkina and was traveling over land to Timbouctou. It sounded like a fun trip (28 days long I think they said), but they didn’t seem to have been able to mix with the locals and find out about the culture (which I think is quite a loss). I explained to them about malaria (they had no idea that pretty much ever African gets malaria as a child and develops immunity) and about the medical system here. They were very friendly and it was nice to have a conversation in English. The music was good, it was a local Dogon band and some of the African kids were surprisingly good dancers. I danced for a while and even got Tolo and Dembele to dance for a bit, but it was pretty hot so we only danced for a few songs. It started getting late, so I suggested we head back. On the walk back I got to check out the stars and even got to see the Milky Way (it was amazingly clear). After a shower I crashed.