Thursday morning Niang and I went to the clinic to welcome our community and help the unvaccinated kids under five get vaccines along with free mosquito nets! The whole experience was really interesting. We have been working with three sectors of Sikoroni since my arrival to get the names of kids who can benefit and to advertise in the community about the program, so I was pretty surprised by the disorganization of the final product! We had less than half of our previewed turnout and the clinic informed us last minute that we also needed to write down any of the vaccinations that the children have already received on a paper and we would have to get the nets to them the next day.

Niang and I spent three hours looking through and recording vaccination histories from vaccination cards while the women and children waited. Very patiently! Most of the children had already been vaccinated but had not benefited from the free net. It is cheaper for us to pay a clinic fee and get a free net than to buy a net for these kids, so the program still works. Despite the minor disappointments, we caught two children who were not up to date on vaccinations…who had in fact not been vaccinated since their birth! It felt really good to see them getting their shots and know they would be now protected against yellow fever and polio and all that great stuff.

Friday morning we again met at the clinic to write up receipts for every child that would benefit from a net then collected 22 nets to distribute in the families. The next few hours were spent trying to match the right kids with the nets—which was really hard even though we had their “addresses” and names! All nets were given to their new owners except for Adama Sissoko, the one-year old man of mystery, who was not to be found. He was not listed on our address sheet, but we had collected his vaccination card and information at the clinic Thursday, so hopefully his mother will come looking for his net soon! Next Wednesday and Thursday will be more of the same. I’ve included pictures of everyone at the clinic Thursday and the net distribution from Friday. Saturday and Sunday are more net treatment days!

After the morning of work on Friday, I had a visit from a Carleton graduate who is passing through Bamako as she voyages through West Africa! She will be here for three days. It was great to talk to another American for the first time in a week, although since she doesn’t speak any French, the Malians were left out of the conversation. Shortly after she showed up, my friends Bintou (Tou) and Papou surprised me with a visit!!! I was soooo excited to have my friends come all the way from their quarter of the city to see where I work. Tou even brought me lokos (plantains) to fry because she knows fried plantains are my favorite thing to eat here. Mmmmm!

We all sat on the terrace with Niang and one of his friends. It started to rain and kept going for over four hours, but it was really nice to talk with friends and make tea under the shelter of the terrace. I’m getting in lots of practice making tea right now, and Niang is a great teacher! The hardest part is when you make bubbles in the cups because you have to pour the tea from a little glass cup into the other little glass cup, and you can’t really make bubbles unless you pour from high in the air, but this inevitably leads to spills. Sigh. I am improving. I’ll include some pictures Niang took of me making tea Thursday. Everyone went home just before sunset, and the family and I watched the evening soap and ate rice and sauce!

I have been really enjoying my health this week. I appreciate Mali much more when I’m not running outside in the rain to the bathroom every hour J I find so much about living here extremely interesting. For example: last week I had a dream that as I reached down to pick up Aba, Niang’s two-year old son, a black dog lunged at my face. I woke up immediately, but it was a vivid dream, so I told Niang’s mother and sister about it later in the day. It also happened that this was when I was feverish and sick, so Niang’s mother gave me some amber colored crystals to put in my bag to protect me. I figured it couldn’t hurt! Today Niang and his friends discussed how since my skin is really clear, when sorcerers cast spells and everything, my skin can pick it up, which is probably why I had that dream and got sick. They also fully condone antibiotics to help me get better, by the way. It seems like the more things you try to get rid of an illness here, the better…even if it involves the supernatural.

Well if you read all that I’m flattered! I love you and miss you!--me

Lots going on in Sikoroni lately! Mike departed for two weeks of traveling throughout Mali last week, and Gowri left for Paris shortly afterward. Niang and I stayed in Bamako to hold down the fort, and since I have been rather sick Niang has been busy! Just in case you are curious, my fever and (ahem) intestinal issues were NOT caused by malaria, typhoid, or parasites. I am on a couple antibiotics the past few days and stayed with my host family and friends in another quarter (Baco Djicoroni ACI rather than Sikoroni) while I recovered. I’m feeling much better after about three days of nonstop sleeping!

The Community Health Action Group (CHAG) that is in place here decided that we should do mosquito net treatment days for each of the three sectors. It is the rainy season, so most people have mosquito nets right now, but they are half as effective if left untreated. Last Saturday we had our first mosquito net treatment day. I was really impressed by the turnout. When we counted up packages of treatment, we had treated over 120 nets! We are going to do the same thing this Saturday and Sunday.

I’m including photos of Saturday’s events. We treated the nets with a product called BLOC, which came in tablets. You measure out a half liter of water in a large bowl for each tablet, dissolve the tablet, and add a net to the bowl. Then you mix it all up! I added the water—a very difficult job ;)

Nets were lined up behind me all morning! We treated for about three hours. If you notice in my picture, my hair is braided. I have tried to avoid “d’être tressé” (to be braided) all my time in Mali so far, but in this case, my friend Fifi just attacked while I was napping in a chair! Oh well…it was good bonding. My objection is pretty much purely aesthetic. White people don’t have pretty skulls. Just my luck to be caught on camera the next day! The day after the net treatment, I left for Baco Djicoroni.

I returned to Sikoroni Wednesday before 9 AM to meet Niang at the clinic. We were supposed to meet the CHAG members to welcome the pregnant women of sectors 1 and 2, but no one showed up! At 11 AM, Niang and I went out to visit the homes of the women who were supposedly coming to the clinic this morning to receive care and a free mosquito net. They had been misinformed about the time, so we told them to come next Wednesday with sector 3. Niang and I then visited the homes of all the children under five who either had not received vaccinations or had not received mosquito nets with their vaccinations to make sure they arrive at the right time this morning! It was a lot of visiting and walking around to different houses, but very worth it to make sure the message got out.

I remembered my camera for some of the houses, so I’ll include photos of that experience. As I remarked a month or so ago, it is truly amazing to see the families we are helping. I asked Niang today how Sigida Keneyali chose which houses to include in each sector. He told me they picked the poorest houses and left the ones that were better off. One of the houses we visited has 67 people living in it—a truly extended family. I don’t think the pictures do justice to the enormity of the poverty or of the amazing spirits of the inhabitants of these houses, but they’ll give you some idea!


So…a rather long entry, but things have really been happening! I took more pictures this morning when the kids all showed up at the clinic, and I’ll post about that this weekend along with the next net treatments. Lots of love!

The Sigida Keneyali Microfinance Program!

Mike has been hard at work the past couple of weeks. Having finally found a building to rent for a center, he set to work cleaning out the spiders inside, painting and cementing. The Microfinance Center is located right on the main road through Sourakabougou, the very poor part of Sikoroni (actually, it’s pretty close to where we hope to build the new clinic). I wish I had pictures of the area around the new center so you could see just how stunning it now looks! It has become a beacon of color and cleanliness, if you will just take my word for it. Maybe the before, during, and after pictures can give you some idea of the effort Mike put in. I will also direct you to notice the flowering plants in front of the beautifully crafted sign. Nice touch, Mike! The drawing on the door and the sign is the tentative new logo for Sigida Keneyali which we recently designed with a graphic artist here. The butterfly-like symbol means strength in unity.

Now that Mike has the center, he and Niang and some key community members have been putting together a board of women who will accept applications from women in the community who want loans for new businesses/enterprises. It is our hope that by providing some start-up capital, these women will be able to make money themselves in their new work while paying back their loans. This fight against poverty here is a big step in fighting for health. Hopefully the first applications will be accepted soon, and once the organization gets government approval, the microfinance program can give its first loans!

While my projects are still waiting on other people, I have been making (or drinking) a lot more tea, reading, and catching up on the Malian soaps--which are actually Brazilian soaps--nonetheless riveting! I also started going to the existing clinic to spend time and watch the activities there in the nurse’s area (FYI the clinic we want to build will serve the interior of the community who live too far for the existing clinic to be of use).

When you visit the clinic, you first go to the waiting area. If you need to see a doctor, you sit there until he can see you in his office. If you need the nurses, you wait until one of several patients vacates their office-sized room. There are two beds to the side of the waiting area where there are usually people lying down receiving intravenous rehydration. I’m including photos of the waiting area, the nurses’ room, and the beds.

The nurses’ room (infermière/salle d’acceuil) is a surprisingly busy place every morning. Lots of bandage changing and shots of some kind—though whenever I asked what the shots were or how someone got wounded, I was met with blank stares. Apparently in the nurse’s area, we don’t ask how or why, we treat. The first day must have been some kind of nurse training day, because there were at least seven women, two doctors, and four patients in the very small space. Everyone crowded around a screaming girl while a nurse tried to find a vein in her hand…for about five minutes. It was a little overwhelming! No matter what though, it is always interesting. Bandage changing might get old after a while, but it certainly hasn’t yet!

My host brother, BaKante Karkoss, is a medical student here in Bamako. This morning when I was leaving for the clinic, he was sitting in our courtyard changing the bandages on a girl whose head he stitched after she fell on the cliffs near our street--flies swarming. Never a dull moment! Karkoss has offered to take me with him to his med school classes next week, and I’m excited to see what that is like as well.

I hope you found the visit to the Malian clinic at least half as interesting as I did! At least now you have some idea of what we are trying to build for the community. Thanks for your emails and I send lots of love!

Gowri Chandra, Modibo Niang (Malian Director), ME!, Mike Tong (on Niang's patio).

I had a very amazing weekend visiting my friends and host family from last year! Saturday I got to eat two lunches and two dinners! Bintou, my closest friend here, saved me some of the yams and beef they had for dinner and when I came over I got to eat again. She told me I needed to store up food for when I go back to Sikoroni, where the cuisine is a little less to my tastes. What a friend, eh? I got to make tea with Zana, who is amazing at this activity, play legos with the four-year old Maurice, watch Bintou braid Dadi’s hair, see Tristan and Isolde (an American movie!), and use a toilet! What a vacation!

Yesterday I came back to Sikoroni for a meeting with the clinic committee. It was supposed to be a really straightforward meeting where we distributed receipt books that will be used in the collection of funds in the community. It ended up being a big power trip for the sector chief (not to be confused with the chief of Sourakabougou, who I really like). A little background: this guy holds a hereditary position that does come with a lot of respect and a varying degree of power. This particular chief is pretty much only interested in money. He has sold land in this area that was being used by families because he wanted the money, and lost interest in his involvement in the clinic committee when he found out that we needed money and weren’t interested in dispensing money.

He arrived—long white beard and all--and sat down, all done up in a fluorescent green boubou (long robes), sunglasses, shawl, Hajj hat, and a large multi-colored umbrella. He started out by saying he wanted the committee to disband and that he thought Niang, the director of Sigida Keneyali, should be removed from his position. Basically, this was really frustrating because of its irrelevance. This man is a member of the committee which is a partner of Sigida Keneyali. He had nothing to do with Niang’s appointment and has no power to disband the committee. I was really annoyed that we all had to spend an hour arguing with him rather than devoting the time to the more important matters at hand. Things eventually settled down and it was business as usual.

On the brighter side, Mike finally got his microfinance office! It is a little building in Sourakabougou (Sourakabougou is a part of Sikoroni) right up the road from my house. He has been hard at work painting and cleaning it.

I’m including pictures again! One of me and the lady who sells me peanuts—one of my favorite snacks, Zana making tea, Bintou braiding Dadi’s hair. Also, a picture of the committee meeting yesterday, kids in the courtyard outside my room, and a photo of the view outside my compound’s door. The meeting picture was taken before everyone had arrived. The attendance eventually doubled—Malian time you know. Love you all!

Busy week so far! We have 93 women and kids that need and should have already received mosquito nets from the clinic, so I have been typing up lists of names and immunization card numbers that we will bring to the clinic board on Friday. At that point we wait for them to give us a meeting so we can discuss what days we can bring our community to the clinic to get their nets!

I have also been stamping receipt books that will be used in collecting funds for the clinic. Stamping each page and counting all the pages is all to keep people honest…we don’t want any of the money we are working so hard to get pocketed! You hear a phrase a lot here: to eat money. The people in this community have seen their money eaten time and time again, and one of the hardest parts of our job is to convince them that this is not the case this time.

Another interesting eating phrase: in French, rather than saying you are full, you can say you have eaten your hunger. I really liked that. I find that if I don’t eat my hunger, my hunger eats me since all I can think about is food! Mike and I (although honestly mostly Mike) made a delicious spaghetti last night. Onions and green peppers in tomato paste with chicken and spaghetti noodles! Oh my how scrumptious.
I am finally sending some pictures, although unfortunately you don’t get to see my beautiful face because I haven’t taken any pictures of myself! There is a view from my room’s window, a photo of our family’s bonne (maid), a photo of the sweet lady who sells oranges outside my door along with one of her friends (orange lady on the left, friend on the right) and a picture of the market down the street from my house. The market is really busy and colorful and filthy, and I promise more pictures of it later.

I want to explain the situation of the bonne, which can really throw people off (I mean, you know I’m in a really poor area of what is now the 3rd poorest country in terms of human devleopment, so how do they have maids, right? By the way, Mali is better off than Sierra Leone and Niger). Bonnes usually are from villages, read REALLY poor, and often come work for families in Bamako to earn some extra money for a dowry or for their families or something like that. These are women who do not stop working. Ma, our bonne, is a cook, housecleaner, laundress, dishwasher, shopper and full-time mom. I don’t understand how she does everything she does on the little sleep she gets and poor quality and quantity of food she eats. I wake up every morning to Ma sweeping the dirt courtyard outside, and whenever someone comes home late after the door is locked, it is Ma who wakes up to let them in. One of my first days here she admired my earrings. When I pointed to her ears, which had little twigs where earrings normally are, she said waari te n bolo, I have no money. I took my earrings right out and put them in her ears, and when she looked at them in the mirror, her eyes lit up. Despite her obviously hard life, Ma is the only person here who never complains and always has a big smile and handshake for me at any time of day. She has the cutest baby, Pabi, who definitely takes after her mom in the smile department. I’m sure you will get more pictures of them, as well.

Hope you are all well at home. Loving and missing!