Monday, July 27, 2009

Gift registries and dancing

July 16, 2009
Well, I moved in with my host family yesterday! I am officially a part of the Coulibaly family, and was named Sitan after my host mother. My host dad has at least three wives and many many children. He is a traditional healer, and it's really neat to observe his work. Women bring their sick babies to him, and he says a blessing over some herbs, and then gives them to the woman, who will make tea for her baby out of them, or bathe her baby in them. I really want to know what the herbs are. I think they are more for peace of mind and mental health than an actual medical solution, but any little bit helps here. People go to him instead of a medical center because he doesn't charge them if they can't afford it. I think he refers bad cases to the medical center though. Either way, he's a pretty cool guy.

I have my own room with a bed, screened-in window, screened-in door with a lock (and metal door on the outside - hot!), PC trunk, and...wait for it....electricity! My family lives right by the main road, so in addition to having light and a plug in my room, there is also the light from the street lamps in our concession (courtyard). It's very nice. My host family are incredibly nice and do a great job of taking care of me. Despite that, though, they speak Bambara, and I'm learning Fulfulde. And only one person, my host brother, speaks French. So it is a pretty extreme language barrier, which can be pretty isolating at times. I like to call it confusion immersion instead of language immersion. It really makes you realize how fundamental language is in our lives. How many things a day do I say just to say them? You don't realize that until you can't talk at all. But I go over to my friend Eliza's house a lot - her family speaks Fulfulde, so I get a chance to practice, and she lives right across the street.

Last night there was a huge dance on the village's soccer field. My host sister grabbed me after dinner and we ran down to the field. We had a great time dancing to what seemed like Malian rap music. They had certain groups of people stand up and perform this one dance - about 200 people were seated aruond them in a circle watching. About five girls in one line, then 5 guys across from them a little while away in another line. When the music started, they would dance across one by one and trade places. My host sister convinced me to dance once, and now everyone in the village knows my name and starts dancing when I walk by. It's pretty comical.

One more quick story - today at cross-culture training, we were discussing American and Malian practices of gift-giving. And Eliza, Emily, and I literally laughed until we cried - about the idea of gift registries! Try explaining a gift registry to someone from another country - and the third poorest country in the world at that. It still makes me laugh. Think about it - could Americans be any more lazy AND efficient at the same time? Lazy - the gift-giver has to do nothing, you can just order it online if you want to. You don't have to leave your couch. Efficient - the gift-receiver gets exactly what they need/want in an orderly fashion, and doesn't get more than one of the same gift. It's great, in the most ridiculous fashion. Maybe you had to be there. :)

1 comment:

samurai said...

ironic! when i was in tx visiting some family, my aunt took me to some big shopping center and kept asking me about registering for the wedding. I told her I felt a little weird making a registry to which she replied, well, you're making more than one aren't you?

ah!! again, i miss you! but so glad to hear that you're loving every minute of it so far! <3