The mango trees are flowering, and the harvest is wrapping up. The wind is blowing everyday, and everything is drying out. People are starting to make mud-bricks and collect grass in anticipation of the annual repair and building of houses, storage bins and compounds’ walls. The signs of the changing of the seasons are all around Madoubougou, though not the changes I’m used to. I will be glad when the mangos finally start to ripen- I’m getting sick of papaya. J And I got a puppy! She’s your typical Malian mutt… check out the pictures as soon as I’m able to get some up. She follows me everywhere and is currently learning to sit and fetch. Her name is Lazy… I don’t really know why; it just came to me while I was attempting to think of something clever (which obviously worked out really well) and I started giggling. So now she’s stuck with it. For better or worse, it tends to sound more like Lacy when the people in Madoubougou say it.
Per Carrie Paukert’s request, I am now going to attempt the impossible- to explain “to” to you. To (pronounced like the toe on your foot), along with rice, makes up the main part of my diet in Madoubougou (as well as the diet of most Malian villagers, usually minus the rice). Whether it’s made from corn, millet, or sorghum, the process is about the same. In areas without the luxury of a gas-powered grinder, women pound the grain by hand for hours until it’s a fine flour. Then it’s cooked into what most resembles a paste while hot but turns into a kind of spongy texture as it cools. There isn’t much of a flavor to it- not more than say a plain pasta or rice. The key to good “to” is a good sauce. Most people who don’t like to don’t like the texture of either the to or it’s most common sauce, which is kinda slimy/sticky. But I for one think it’s not all that bad, and sometimes even get a craving for my host-mom’s best corn to and sauce (a kind of spicy, onion and tomato based sauce that’s slightly less slimy than the average sauce). Mmm mmm good. J
I thought of many ways to start this story:
-So I helped my village fight a brush fire…
-Dry grass and high winds are generally a bad combination…
-I thought I heard Sada say something to Adama about fire, but I wasn’t quite sure. Then we were on our way to make some mud bricks…
-I watched Sada go from side to side of the small grass fire he had purposely started, controlling it by snuffing it out before it got out of hand. All the while I was thinking, “Maybe I could help…”
…But none of them seemed to really fit. Apparently, the quickest (though maybe not the smartest) way to clear an area for mud-brick making is to simply burn the grass standing in your way. Sada, a 30-something man in my village who I hear laughing at least once a day regardless of whether I actually see him, had cleared a circle around the area he intended to burn. He lit the grass in one area with his lighter, and it slowly spread. Then Sada chopped a couple of live branches with plenty of green leaves from a nearby bush and put out parts of the fire as it reached his “border”. Before I could act on my thoughts of helping, the fire started to get out of control. Once Sada realized it was going to leave his circle, we backed up to a nearby path with the apparent intention of controlling it from there. But by the time it reached the road, it was too big for just the two of us to handle. The women from the house nearby (within maybe 100 feet) were understandably quick to come to our aide with buckets of water, as their roofs are made of dry grass. J Soon the whole village, or everyone in the village at the time, showed up to help fight the fire, as they were apparently called through just lots of yelling. Women were pulling water from the 2 nearest wells and relaying it out around the edges of the fire as men made their way around to kill it bit by bit. In the end, the only thing to get burned was a few acres of grass, but it was enough excitement to last us all the rest of the day. Sada then finished preparing the ground for his next day brick making, and we went and drank some tea.
Well that’s all I’ve got for now. Stay tuned for more pictures, including a few of Lazy…
Merry Christmas and Happy 2007!
Me at an amazing set of waterfalls south of my village
Another shot at the falls
A view of the falls through the brush.
Huskin some corn.
Still can't figure out the rotation, but thought this was too funny to leave out. Random lady hanging out at Fousseini's house wanting to dance and have me take a picture.
Lazy
Me at an amazing set of waterfalls south of my village
Another shot at the falls
A view of the falls through the brush.
Huskin some corn.
Still can't figure out the rotation, but thought this was too funny to leave out. Random lady hanging out at Fousseini's house wanting to dance and have me take a picture.
