Sunday, June 10, 2007

Quote

Urban T. Holmes writes: "A life incapable of significant sacrifice is also incapable of courageous action."

Thursday, June 7, 2007

Cebo

42 babies at weighings this morning! Safi came back, and her mother had strung beads around her neck. Fetishes of a kind. Bebe actually ripped them off Safi's neck saying "she has good medical care no need for superstition." But I kinda feel as long as the beads weren't hurting Safi, why not let the people have their superstition? Mentality is half the battle when it comes to healing.

In the afternoon I went to a baptism or "cebo". It was the baby of the hospital's driver, Youssouf. Everyone I work with was there, plus many of the women in the Bonfeeri association, and other neighbors. All dressed in the finest of Basin of course. I was only in my pink tungu. But when we, "La Sante" got up to dance to the appropriate song "SIDA est la" (AIDS is here), I got 2000CFA put in my head wrap and a shawl draped over my shoulders--even without a booty it was deemed that I can dance! It was incredibly amusing having the women try and get me to shake it. No matter how I tried to explain my lack of a derriere, they'd just try harder. I greeted the mother and baby, and gave money to the griots (the older male griot tried to dance with me, ha) so they wouldn't insult my name. The next morning I was greeted with "Ni nda gaani!" "You and the dance!" Fadi, a nurse, said I can't go home, I am truly Koyraboro now (what the Sonrai call themselves, "village people"), awww warm fuzzies of acceptance!

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Market strike

I went to Gao to get some Gao-borey lovin', but the mood was soured by the fact that the market had been closed for days. The Mayor threatened to raise tariffs on stalls, doubling them to approximately $0.40. The police were actually hitting people in market! So I still have yet to get my 10-month bracelet though the day passed May 27th. Ah well, if anything service has taught me it is patience.

On my way back to site I took the bus (my way to Gao was in the nice and air-conditioned hospital vehicle), and had to pay 2000CFA for myself and 2000CFA for my bike! Guidronne-robbery! Plus, I didn't even get a seat. Sarah and her homologue were headed to a village 25km south of Gao on the road to Ansongo and wisely reserved tickets. I however was left to sit on an ice-box in the middle of the aisle. At least it was a pooly insulated ice-box and I was kept chilled.

The kids of La Famille Cisse had an impromptu dance party in our courtyard. Addey and Abba have some moves! And Abba was trying to teach the other kids how to roll their stomachs. I was amused and slightly disturbed by the "grippa" dance which is a song about the bird flu calling out to dancers to dance like dead and or dying chickens. And you thought our chicken dance was annoying?

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Tweet, Tweet!

I went to the hospital again today to find Safi's mother had started to make the milk, and when we weighed her child again she had gained a kilo!

Coming back home Addey, a host brother in the 4th grade, was holding a decapitated birdy by its wings tweeting and flying it around. I was aghast. Then again, he doesn't have a transformer or a GI Joe to play with. Everything is a little more...(insert graphic adjective here).

Sunday, June 3, 2007

Wait, that's an Oregon Trail disease!

I managed to fight away a case of bacterial dysentery (literally "bad stomach") just by drinking lots and lots of clean water...but was advised to turn to antibiotics to clear up an upper-respiratory infection that came on the day the dysentery cleared. I'm all healthy now; but it does remind me that no, I do not have an iron stomach. I had been buying the ice people sell in market in attempts to beat the heat, but chances are it was made with untreated water. And one cannot exactly filter ice.
I was amused by how the Malians reacted. This was the first time I was seriously ill. Many many came to visit and say "Albai yeesi." They laughed when I said I was praying the diarrhea away (really, it is best to just let it pass) and not taking any medicines. The answer to all maladies here is an injection of "kinin," or the Sonrai version of "quinine"; Of course that is also because all maladies are assumed to be malaria. In fact, there are two words for "medicine" in Sonrai: "safari" (it's a wild ride for your immune system!) and "kinin." I am often asked on the street for "kinin" be it that the local is pointing to a gash in their leg or holding their head in pain. But I don't have a problem with doctors treating for a deadly disease--malaria--even if it might just be dysentery (the symptoms are often the same). A better safe than sorry attitude does save lives.

Saturday, June 2, 2007

Oh, Anniversaries!

It was five years ago today I graduated from Wayzata High School. I wonder if anyone back in MN will have a reunion? Or they've fallen out of style cause everyone practically stays in touch whether superficially or not through Facebook.

The mood of the day, pensive, and the fact that I was not getting off my mat other than to run to the latrine, gave me time to reflect. I was happy Safi, a 2 year old was brought into the hospital with a bad case of whooping cough because at 6kg390g and 79cm with an arm circumference of only 9cm (average is 12cm), she seriously needed nutritional rehab. It was the obvious illness that caused her parents to bring her in, not the silent killer: hunger. Now, Bebe reports to me when she visits that Safi's mother is refusing to prepare the rehab milk. It is incredibly frustrating when the resources are available and people don't use them! Maybe the shiny silver packaging is just too foreign, or the idea that the mother's milk isn't enough is offensive. Maybe the parents don't even want the burden of their child anymore. Safi is just so small!! And she'll only keep wasting away unless the worms are killed and she starts eating. I want to be back at the hospital! My foreign presence can be a blessing and a curse: people fear or don't trust the white woman, the outsider. Or, they are more likely to act because I am there, "we'll do it if the foreigner says so." But in this case I feel because Safi didn't cry when I weighed her, the mother just might warm up to me enough to let us treat her daughter.

Disclaimer

All tales, opinions, and attitudes are those Joanna has experienced and subsequently composed. This Blog does not reflect the ideas or policies of the U.S. Peace Corps, its employees and volunteers, at large.