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!