LE PALUDISME! (malaria)

It sounds much more dramatic in french, not that Malaria needs to be made more frightening. Since I last posted, I had a great fete (more later), got sick, traveled to Sikasso, a city in the south, near Burkina Faso and Cote d'Ivoire, was diagnosed, returned to Bamako, and recovered. Time flies here, even though Africans don't take time seriously.

My battle with Malaria was not too serious- don't worry- but it did cause a great deal of discomfort. My primary symptoms were vomiting, fevers, and alternating periods of sweats and chills, thanks to parasites bursting out of my red blood cells at specific intervals. Due to my interest in all things medical, and having learned about Malaria scientifically (in english) and practically (in french), I guessed my diagnosis on the second morning. Later that day, after visiting a doctor and having blood drawn, I was proved right. Having blood drawn on a porch, sitting in an office desk chair, while trying to chat with the lab assistant was interesting...especially since the needle used looked a lot like the ones I used in lab this summer, and the blood just dripped from the needle into a little vial (I think I prefer the Red Cross method). I started on a multi-drug treatment right away, and am now feeling mostly better, only 6 days after my initial sickness.

Malaria didn't completely ruin my weekend excursion to Sikasso with the rest of the students. Though 6 hours each way in a bus (van) on rough roads was uncomfortable, it was worth it to see that part of the country. The region of Sikasso is much cooler at this time of year, and there is a lot of agriculture. Saturday morning (before the clinic), I hiked up a mountain to get a panoramic view of the region. The climb involved ladders, chains, and boulders...I was quite glad I wasn't wearing flip flops since it was a bit intense. Mali has a lot more hills and small mountains than I had thought and it is very green, year round in the south. Later in the trip we'll travel further north, but never actually get to the Sahara since there is a small presence of Al Qaeda and the U.S. embassy doesn't think Timbuktu is safe.

Upon returning to Bamako, my sole object has been recovering. At the same time, a load of homework is bearing down on me, since I only have 4 weeks until the classroom portion of the semester is finished (and next week is in rural village). I can't believe that I have been here for over a month now!

Ah yes, the fete! It turned out to not be quite as exciting as all of the buildup led me to think it would be. In the morning, we cooked a lot, but that is pretty typical. Everyone dressed up in the late afternoon and some people visited my house, but I stayed home with my sisters. In the evening, Bintou and I visited another friend who lives on the military base in downtown Bamako and the two of us ate dinner there (without the friend). Then we returned home, and went out to a couple restaurants with her boyfriend and another friend. I saw a lot of people out and about, but we didn't go to the boites (clubs) that apparently were crazy. The next day was declared a holiday since it happened to land between the end of Ramadan and their Independence Day. Bintou and I got tickets to a fancy event at the Radisson, since her friend works there, which turned out to be an awards ceremony interspersed with famous singers and dancers performing. It was celebrating the youth of Mali and sponsored by the Ministry of Youth and Sports. On the actual independence day, nothing special happened in my neighborhood.

So now I am up to date, minus the first few weeks here that I glossed over.

La fete et ma famille

Today is the festival you've all been waiting for. if you're Muslim. Today is the festival for the end of Ramadan- for the past month, most people in Mali have not been eating from sunrise to sunset, and today is the end of that so they are all excited, and Malians love to have fetes! I'll hopefully get to experience all the ins and outs of it with my family, for the next three days.


Since my program is about having the real Mali experience, I live with a real Malian family in the Garantigibougou neighborhood of Bamako, south of the Niger. My host sister gave me my Malian name, Kadidia Bouaré, when we first met, since apparently they can't say most American names. But other Malians are rather incredulous when I say I am from America and my name is Kadidia. I like it:)



I live with my mom, dad, and six sisters, in a beautiful little compound. Six sisters is a lot, to say the least, especially when most of them are younger than me, and I'm used to being the youngest child. The oldest is Dadi, who is 23 and almost done with medical school. Next, there is Bintou, who is my primary host and caretaker. She is 20, studying english at 2 universities, and has many random male friends from school that I have met, plus the boyfriend that she can't see until Ramadan is over. But she is a great sister and takes me all kinds of places, including on a rendezvous she snuck out for while her dad was sleeping. Next, there is Tabara, who I share a room with...she hasn't really opened up to me yet, but there is still time. Then, Aissata is 14 and sometimes a bully to her younger sisters and other times their best friend. Awa is next, and finally, the youngest is Nana. She has quite the attitude, being the youngest, but she is fun to talk to, or watch dance. All of my sisters are fluent in franbara (french and bambara spoken together at an alarmingly fast speed), but will speak to me just in french. Since my family obviously has more money than the average Malian, they are pretty well educated.



Right now, however, there is no school, so they hang around the house. When not doing chores, there favorite activity is watching tv...I have had a hard time reconciling myself with that, since I have already probably watched more tv in two and a half weeks with them than I do in a normal year, but I have started to do homework or read a book in the same room as them instead of just watching it. They have a wide variety, including hours of music videos, Spongebob, Maria de la Barrio (a bad soap), Survivor, Secret Story, african dancers, CSI, and Desperate Housewives. My favorite was grey's anatomy a couple nights ago.



My father is a biologist at the University of Bamako- the first molecular biologist in West Africa to learn to separate and recombine DNA (He studied at the NIH for 6 months in 1992). He is doing some interesting research with the genetic modification of mosquitoes and other vectors so they cannot carry infectious diseases, like malaria. My mother stays at home most of the time and cooks and makes sure her daughters and maid are in line. Having a maid living in the compound is pretty typical here, and and my family treats her really well.

I believe it is time to get dressed up for the day. I am borrowing one of my sister's old complets so I will fit right in...or not.

First Impressions

I arrived in Mali on August 28 after 3 long, stressful days of flying and sitting around airports. I stepped off the plane into the sweltering heat, walked inside, went through the fastest customs ever, watched several cycles of bags through the baggage claim, and did not find mine. Someone told me to go outside and around to find out about my bag, so i obeyed, about at my wit's end. I didn't have my bag, and worse, it looked as if there was not anyplace indoors for me to sit for the next 8 hours until the program director would arrive.

As I walked outside, I didn't notice the man holding a piece of computer with SIT written on it, until I was almost past him, and he approached me. When he introduced himself as Modibo Coulibaly, the academic director of my program, a wave of relief hit me. They helped me check with the office where I was directed to find out about my bag, and we found out that it wouldn't be there until Monday. I could go to the hotel right away, so I hardly cared that I didn't have my bag.

I hardly noticed anything else about the airport. I got in a van with another student who arrived shortly before me, and we rode to the hotel, staring out the window at the fields of corn and millet, which were quickly replaced by houses. I was struck by all of the women carrying huge buckets on their heads, with children tied around their waists. That is definitely not something you see every day in America.

From the moment I left the airport, everything keeps getting better. After a couple of days of orientation in Bamako, and staying in a hotel there, we went to Siby for three nights. Siby is a village about an hour and a half outside of Bamako, in a lush green area. We visited a women's cooperative that makes soaps and shea butter there, and spent a couple of hours in small groups in an actual village compound (a family here doesn't have a house, they have a compound, with different buildings aroudn the perimeter for cooking, sleeping, and washing). We knew just enough Bambara to introduce ourselves and greet people on the street. That is one of my favorite things about Mali so far: everyone greets everyone on the streets, especially in villages. The culture is so open and welcoming, which has made my transition to malian life very comfortable.
In the village, we stayed at a 'hotel', that was actually a series of huts. Living in a hut and listening to a thunderstorm through a thatched roof, but never getting wet was a great experience. While in Siby, we also went on a short hike that led to some places where some of the events of their legend of Sundiata took place. Look up Sundiata (or Sunjata)- it is the story that the Lion King was based off of!

After Siby, orientation was finished, I finally got my bag (on Wednesday since we were in Siby on Monday), and I moved in with my host family, and our normal class routine started. More about that later...

At long last...

I ni su! Good evening!

I was kind of slow getting onto the blog thing, but now I have one so I hope you enjoy! I will try to update the normal goings on of my life here, as well as what I am learning about in class and the cultural insight I am gaining. Luckily, my host family has a computer with internet (very rare) and it normally works (except when it rains or is really cloudy), so I can update regularily.

First, I assume some of you are wondering what I am doing here in Bamako, Mali. I am studying abroad through SIT (school for international training) in a program focusing on Gender, Health, and Development. The classes are not taught at a Malian university, or anything like that: they are seminar style with myself and 20 other students from universities around the U.S. in the same classroom together for all our classes, except french, which is split into four levels. The other classes are Bambara (the main language spoken here), a field study seminar, and a thematic seminar, covering history, culture, gender, health, development, and music. We have three main teachers and overall guides, who are Malians so they give us a real Malian experience, all the time. Also, lectures are often taught by guests from local universities or NGO's in their areas of speciality.
The program places much importance on field based learning, so we have assignments like interviewing a person, or making a photo essay. The most important source of direct contact with the culture comes in the home stay family (I'll write more about mine later, since I can say a lot on that topic). The culmination of our learning here is a month long independent study project (ISP). I haven't picked a topic yet, but I have many ideas and resources for a health based project.
I chose this program because it is in a francophone African country and has a focus on health...and frankly, I didn't have that many options. The field based nature of all of the SIT programs also drew me to it. I wanted a unique learning experience in a completely new culture, and a break from my normal hermitage in lab (not that i don't also enjoy that!) and thus far, my experience has been beyond fulfilling my expectations.

I will write more details about what I've been doing here soon, but right now, I am sick of the french keyboard with its misplaced a and w and nearly impossible period. Plus, I need to get back to my tea, dates, and millet porridge:)
k'an ben!