Visitations of the First World

It has been a long time since the last update, but that's okay because for a lot of that time a majority of my huge reader base was here with me in Mali.  But before they came we had a good Thanksgiving in Sikasso with more than 90 volunteers in attendance.  Then I went to site for a month.  This went very well for me, I got really involved in the potato farming process, and after maybe a week I was able to use their work techniques well enough that I actually contributed to the work as opposed to just getting in the way.  I also noticed the a very big difference between the way the men and women worked.  The men working reminded me of the military.  There was a lot of ego and hoo-rah, but this seems necessary in order to be able to have a farming operation as big as they have around my village.  This sort of really competitive working was very apparent in my counterpart's farming association.  Each day they set out to till a section of the fields (by hand, of course), and each guy was given a certain area to till, and when they finished they were given a new area.  These areas were usually 5m x 15m or something like that.  Frequently, two guys whose sections were near each other would race to finish their sections.  When these races got going they always involved a lot of whooping and exclamations like "yi-yi-yi-yi-yi" in very high pitched voices.  But without this desire to prove who was the strongest I doubt the fields would be tilled nearly as fast, and maybe not in time to get the potatoes planted when they needed to be.  The women of course have different jobs, but their working was much more focused on working together.  Large groups of women get together to beat rice with sticks in order to remove the rice grains from the plant and they sing the whole time and set up intricate beats to keep in time together.  Their is more laughter and fun with the women's groups, but I guess I just found in very interesting how different the approaches to work were.

I can this post is going to be a bit foggy as I seem to have contracted TB or something and my head is quite foggy. (Not actually TB, stop panicking, just a cold).

We also got the money for my project and have started making some cement molds to put around the wells.  But I have not been at my site for a while due to my parents and little brother coming to visit.  We went up to Dogon country, my site, and spent some time in and around Bamako.  After my parents left my little brother and I went out to Manantali, and then on a short climbing trip in Siby.

Highlights for me:
Seeing my family.
Riding in a rented car.
Eating yummy food in restaurants that I can't afford to eat very often.
Watching to see what my family thought was really crazy or nifty, and then watching how they got used to the craziness in the two weeks they were here.

When they first showed up, everything got an exclamation from them (as it should have because their is lots and lots of crazy shit that goes down here), and by the time they left there were a lot less exclamations because as it turns out humans are very adaptable creatures.

I think some of the highlights for them included:

The first taxi ride at the airport.  The taxis here are notoriously janky, and this one was no exception.  And then we experienced a fairly good third world juxtaposition as we were entering Bamako proper.  You pass under this elaborate archway that is lit with fancy neon purple lights that says "Welcome to Bamako" in several languages.  And as we're passing under this super modern, Vegas-like sign my dad asks, "What's that smell?"
"Oh that's just the fields of burning trash," I reply.  Classic Bamako.

Also, I think the drive out of Dogon in which we had 5 people in the car, and our guide as well as two hitchhikers sitting on the window sills for a total of eight people... oh yeah, we also had two live chickens strapped to the side view mirror so they didn't crap in the car.

Everyone did well considering it was Mali, and nothing here works right.  We had a good New Year's Eve meal finally at about 10:30 PM because it took us a long to find the restaurant that was recommended, and when we finally did, they were out of chicken, beef, and pasta...and vegetables.  Basically everything.  They had one bottle of wine with the label rotting off.  We opted to leave and go elsewhere that actually had food.

It was super awesome to see my family, and I can't wait to see them all again, and hopefully my older brother will be able to make it out here.

Yesterday I had a good "Wow, that is REALLY crazy" reaction to a truck stacked with goods.  I don't get those very often anymore.  I was standing on the street in Bougouni, waiting for a ride, and I see this truck stacked way, way high with something stop in the road.   Two of the four people in the cab get out, and take these poles on the side of the truck off.  The poles have a wide, flat top, sort of like a push broom, and are maybe 20 to 25 feet long.  They take the poles and push the power line wires that are across the road up because the truck is so high it can't fit under them.  Then the truck drives by me, and I get whiff of something gnarly.  The truck was packed with goat skins.  Thousands and thousands of dried and slightly rotting goat skins.  Who needs that many goat skins, and for what?  That is my question.