This is sort of the month of microfinance in Sikoroni! Mike has had three trainings the past two weeks with the five women who compose the microfinance committee. They are a great group—very interested and eager to learn about profits and payments and most importantly—eager to help the community. Mike has put in a seriously tremendous effort. He’s teaching math, the fundamentals of loans, how to advertise, how to work on a committee…I think you get the idea. The women even got to try some American team-builders, although the human knot didn’t really knock their socks off. My friend Papou has been invaluable for helping translate into Bambara (or French…) at the meetings. He is an economics student, so can help Mike with some of those math-y terms in French. The women finished their last training on Friday.

For Saturday, Niang and I planned not only our CHAG meeting, but also a surprise birthday party for Mike (he’s 22!). The Microfinance Committee also came, and we all sang “Joyeux Anniversaire”, drank sugary Malian beverages, and watched Mike blow out his candle and eat a piece of cake. Mike also threw himself a little pizza party at the café by his house where he has a lot of friends. I don’t think I’ve ever seen seven pizzas go so quickly! I’m sure it will be a very remembered birthday.

On the clinic fundraising front, we got some EXCELLENT news last week! We’ve been waiting to hear from the U.S. Embassy here about whether we received their Self-Help Grant for the coming year. Turns out, we are amazing and got $6,000 to put towards the cost of the clinic in Sourakabougou. This means, however, that the community must contribute 33% of the clinic cost (I believe this is around $8,000), so fundraising needs to get kicked up! The clinic committee is finally starting to work (after we threatened a break in our partnership) so I have a completely renewed motivation in clinic affairs.

It is also “le mois de Carème” here…Ramadan. This has its ups and downs…more ups for me since I don’t fast all day. I can eat, drink water, and swallow my spit! Yayyy! We eat really good dinners, followed by bouille (a sugary, watery hot cereal) and some type of sugared drink—usually extremely delicious. Last night was ginger-lemonade of some sort. Unfortunately, the Malian TV station has stopped showing the evening soap opera, which was decidedly the best, so I will never know how “The Heart of the Peach” turns out. Sigh. Also, Niang, Mike, and I went to the movie theatre Thursday night only to discover that it, too, will be closed for the month. I can’t imagine anything closing that long for religious purposes in the United States!

And finally, Fear-Factor, Mali! Background information: I really like dates. I just discovered you can buy them here, particularly this month since they are often used to break fast for Ramadan. I bought about a pound at a store by my house. They definitely were aged, as I found out later…

I sat in my room, Harry Potter in my lap, munching my dates. I was riveted by the story…would Harry escape the Death-Eaters?...When I noticed a small bug crawling on my arm. I brushed it off and continued reading. A bug crawled across the page. I smooshed it, and immediately examined the date I was about to put into my mouth…it had bugs in it. Having eaten about ten similar dates, I swallowed my disgust and my rising nausea and rationalized…just extra protein, right? Then I threw the rest of the dates away, tried not to give in to the urge to vomit, and finished up with Harry Potter. Dad would have been so proud!

This has been an interesting week! The projects we’d been planning have finished up and my work for the rest of the month is going to be more administrative: developing a system for and electing new members to our health action committee and potentially expanding our programs into a new sector! I’m also continuing to work with the clinic committee to fundraise the community’s part of the clinic costs, which has been frustrating. They are a new organization and sort of lack…organization.

In the mean time, I’ve been keeping busy. Nana and her friend were cooking coconut outside my room and I thought I’d include a picture. They grate coconut and then cook it in oil…it’s delicious! Ma and her baby are also pictured. I tried braiding Batouma’s (the bonne at Niang’s house) hair one night, but didn’t get too far. She actually left it in a couple of days though! Granted, she wore a scarf over it, but still I was flattered.

I have been visiting the clinic in the mornings and then returning to Niang’s to help with the cooking if there is anything left to be done. Last Tuesday at the clinic I stayed two hours and in that time twelve of fifteen patients that the nurses cared for were there for malaria complications. It really is a great complement to our work in malaria prevention to see how much of an impact the parasite actually has here.

Batouma and Massura (Niang’s wife) do pretty much all of the cooking. I took a picture of them in their “kitchen”. Mike and I decided we wouldn’t make it too long if we had to cook for ourselves on coal stoves. Massura also went to a wedding and got all spruced up for it, so I had to take a picture of that! She is an incredible woman! I can’t get over the fact that she’s my age but is married with a two year-old!

And then I mentioned the party Niang’s mother (woman stirring the pot of chickens) was having. She invited twenty of her friends over and we cooked fifteen chickens and twenty kilos of potatoes into French fries. Crriiiipes! My favorite moment of the day was arriving to watch Batouma and Massura clean chickens. Batouma grabbed one without a head and hit it up and down on the washtub and it made chicken squawks as the air rushed over its vocal chords. Sorry if that’s too graphic, but it was completely hilarious. It was quite a day. I cooked French fries for five hours. That is a loooong time. The food was delicious though, and everyone enjoyed it.

The next day I left to spend a few days in Baco Djicoroni with Fanta and my friends. It was a good visit, although the day I arrived I got sick again with what I’m assuming is the same as last time—fever sore throat stomach troubles. I spent the visit for the most part in bed sleeping. I returned to Sikoroni today and immediately bought more medication, so Inshallah (God willing) things will improve soon! I’m certainly tired of falling sick so frequently.

Things are also really happening in the microfinance arena. Mike has a committee of women that he is in the process of training. They will be in charge of deciding who is given loans and the time frame of reimbursements. Very exciting stuff! I believe they are planning on taking in their first loan applications this week.

It’s HOT again in Bamako, as the rainy season seemed to end with August. We’ve had five days without any substantial rain. The plus side is that the market is a lot easier to get through when you don’t have to wade through a river or mud and garbage.

Thanks for your emails and lots of love and missing!

The accompaniment program and the mosquito net treatments are finished! In total, we treated around 300 mosquito nets (the first treatment last spring treated 100, so we’re growing!) and were able to receive and distribute 37 nets! The organization went much more smoothly for the second half of the accompaniment: we got the vaccination cards in advance in order to find the unvaccinated early to make sure they got to the clinic. For everyone else, we took down names and information to ensure they received their mosquito nets. We only had one pregnant woman come in for her consultation, though the other women had received consultations and still needed mosquito nets. It is our hope that as we continue to implement this program in the family sectors we have created that it will become better attended and publicized (much like the net treatments!). I’m including some photos from the last net treatments as well. You can observe our nice sign, which says the name of our organization, Sigida Keneyali. It also says welcome to Sikoroni in French, and below that it welcomes in Bambara!

Now that there is a pause in my work after all that activity, I took the opportunity to catch up on sleep! I have had slower days now sorting out our financial dispenses and stamping receipts that will be used in the collection of funds for the new clinic. I’ve also been honing my tea skills. Today Niang (our director) let me make tea for his mother, so I must be getting pretty sweet! This next month is going to be less focused on projects and more focused on organizing the committee for the clinic fundraising and the community health action group. It’s also going to be Ramadan in a bit over a week, and apparently things slow to a halt during le mois de Carème (I’ve no idea how the French spell that one) as people seldom eat during the day and you party at night. I’ll let you know how it goes, though I think I might skip on skipping meals. If I don’t “eat my hunger” my hunger eats me.

Speaking of food, I woke up a few days ago and a chicken was hanging outside my door by its feet, with its neck dripping blood. We had chicken and potatoes for breakfast the next day. In Niang’s family, where I eat lunch and dinner, we also had chicken. No part is wasted, so the head appears in the dish as well as the intestines. I try to avoid, but sometimes it’s hard to tell what you’re eating in the sauce. So I had my first chicken intestine today. Not terrible! There are chickens running all over his yard and apparently there’s going to be a little party this Tuesday night. I anticipate plucking and washing a lot of bird carcasses. Kind of like after a pheasant hunting trip, eh dad? I have no idea how many people, but there sure are a lot of chickens!

Happy September with lots of love and hugs!