Jun 19, 2008
Posted by Caitlin Cohen
Aw ni sogomo! Awn be Mali la. (Good
morning from Mali!) We've been in Bamako
for about a week now, and all of the volunteers
have moved into Sikoroni.
The first
morning of our arrival we all received Malian
names from one of the chatty market
vendors. I was pretty exhausted from the
flight and didn't realize that our names would
become such an important part of my summer
here. Since then, we've introduced
ourselves at each store or house we've visited
with our Bambara names. Our first names
are never enough, and we are always pressed to
go around and say our last names, after which
everyone laughs hysterically, telling us the
stereotypes and stories of the rivalries
between the different families. Julie is
constantly teased because she is a Kulibali-
everyone laughs that her family is known for
eating beans. I'm a Haïdra, from a
religious family, so the joke is that I must
know the Koran really well. Cari is
a Kouyaté, a griot and a praise
singer.
We've begun our Bambara lessons
with Doudou (the Peace Corps language teacher)
so that we have a few phrases to go along with
our Malian names. The lessons are pretty
intense, but Doudou is the best language
teacher I've ever had, and he's full of stories
about where the phrases come from. My
favorite so far is Mba (my mother)- the
response that men have to use when asked how
they are. (Mba implicitly means that if
the mother of the household is fine, then of
course everyone else is content as
well.)
Yesterday, we had a full day
meeting under the shade of the mango trees in
Niang's courtyard to hear the updates about
each of the projects. This weekend we'll
meet with CHAG and determine how exactly we can
revise the accompagnateur program to merge
health education and recruitment for the clinic
into a more streamlined program. I'm
really looking forward to meeting the CHAG
members, and hearing what their goals are for
the next few months.
Bamako has been
amazing so far- it's a little bit startling for
a once-vegetarian to be served guinea fowl with
a few fried plantains at eight in the morning
for breakfast- but I'm getting used to the
constant cries of the muezzin and take comfort
in that there is a mango stand at every street
corner.
-Katie Walter
