> News and Reports > Blog > Bambara names and meetings...
Bambara names and meetings under mango trees- Katie W.
-
Jun 19, 2008 Posted by Caitlin CohenAw 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