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