Solidarity

As always, the conversations I have with Aliou give me pause.

He asked me what I appreciate about the life here. I told him the lack of waste. And the support everyone gives each other--incredibly strong family units exist here. He agreed and said this "solidarity" is both and cause of and a relief to poverty. On the one hand, no one progresses because Malians are about collective-helping rather than allowing individuals to soar ahead on the socio-economic scale (generally speaking, there are always outliers). But on the other hand, it is impossible to be forgotten. You are expected to share and to support each other--few truly suffer without being able to turn to a family member or a neighbor. Even people ask for "goungouti" (the scrapings of the rice pot) to eat if they are desperate. So rarely do you wash the pots directly after the meal. Aliou, and others (including my supervisor and school director who are being difficult but I'll spare you all the details), share the idea that volunteerism requires prosperity. This frustrates me because though I understand you need to at least be able to survive, how can you develop by only doing the bare minimum? But the people who tell me this are all salaried civil servants who even "bouff" to pad their income. Aliou poured the tea, blamed the French, and told me I am lucky to be able to do what I do. True.