One of the craziest things I’ve seen here happened the other week when my friend Hannah came to my site for a few days to help me paint a mural at my health center. We had just finished eating dinner and were sitting around, eating corn with my host family, when we heard people screaming, calling people to come. We had no idea what was going on and couldn’t get anyone to tell us in the frenzy of them running around. We followed and noticed that everyone was running towards the pump with buckets, which is when we saw it: there was a hut on fire. It was, as the cliché goes, like watching a car wreck – you wanted so desperately to help, but realistically knew that there was nothing we could do. We guiltily wanted to take pictures, but how cruel would that have been? No one was hurt, as it was only a cooking hut, where no one lived. The entire roof, made of straw, ended up collapsing in and being suffocated, despite people’s attempts to throw water on it. It seemed like my entire village was running back and forth to the pump, filling buckets with water to throw on the flames, but it wasn’t enough to smother the flames. Makes you thankful for the Fire Department in America, what with their speedy arrival and hoses and extension ladders and all that. Shout out to the PTCFD. Do your thing.
So, like I said, Hannah & I (honestly, just Hannah) painted a mural on nutrition on one of the outer walls of my health center. It shows the 3 recognized Malian food groups: Energy, Construction, and Protection foods, with pictures going along with each group showing the benefits of each, as most Malians in rural villages are illiterate. I think it turned out really well and as soon as my camera chord arrives from the U.S. of A, I will upload photos. I have taken a lot lately and haven’t been able to upload them, my most sincere of apologies.
This past week also marked the end of Ramadan and the beginning of their celebrations known as Seli fitini, which will be followed by Seli ba in a few weeks. There was a 3-day celebration/feast, where no one worked, but there was a lot of going around, blessing neighbors to have a good year. Kids were all dressed up in new, fresh outfits, girls wore awful makeup. I even went to the mosque on day with my whole village, with everyone all dressed up, and went through the traditional prayer with them: going through the motions, placing my forehead to the ground. I had an overwhelming sense of community and loved that I did that with them on the holiday, but obviously am not converting to Islam. The whole celebration was like Halloween meets Easter meets Christmas, African village-style. Little kids would go around, home to home, chanting blessings, and adults would give them change.
A few days ago, I had one of my first tangible successes: I built my first working ‘Tippy Tap.’ It’s a structure we learned to build during our last training a couple months ago made of wood, meant to help people without running water to wash their hands more effectively. I built it in the village I go to weekly to do different animations and they were all super excited and proud to show it off to people. I almost cried, no lie. I’ll have to put up pictures showing what it looks like, but the idea is that you step on a foot pedal made of wood that’s attached to a 4L jug of water with a whole in the side, connected by a piece of string, that tips over and water comes out. There’s also a bar of soap on a string, hanging as well, to encourage hand washing WITH SOAP. It’s fairly simple, but it’s also combatting a huge problem here, which is behavior change. They aren’t accustomed to washing their hands after they go to the bathroom and when they do wash their hands before they eat, it isn’t with soap. So, this will hopefully encourage them to do so. It’s also sustainable (something we preach here) because I did not build it myself, I only oversaw and instructed the building of it, so a Malian knows how it’s built as well as how to fix it if it breaks. Also, the soap that is hanging came from the women who actually make soap in the village, so it’s not something that I purchased for them and when it’s gone, it can’t be replaced. If the projects we do cannot be replicated or continued after we’re gone, there’s no point in doing them. That’s why sustainability is so important. So, I feel like it was a great success, albeit initial. I'm planning on building 2 more in my own village in the next couple days, so hopefully the outcome is just as good.
Most recently: my host brothers are obsessed with the glow in the dark stars I gave them that I brought from America (because yes, I am afraid of the dark and I bought a pack of 100 of them before I came) and think it’s crazy that they have to be placed in front of artificial light to ‘charge’ them before they will glow.
GHANA IN 9 DAYS! AHHHHH! More on that after I return. Wish me luck. A half marathon, really? Who am I, a runner?
