Pedi Party!

Oct 1, 2009

My first two weeks at site are over, so I went to Sevare for a couple days for a break - and to go to a meeting for a region-wide project we're doing on Oct 15th for Global Handwashing Day. A lot of Malians believe that using soap washes your luck away, so they don't use it. It's a real challenge, especially when half of the diseases they get are caused by spreading germs by hand - they eat with their hands, all out of the same bowl. When you go to the bathroom, you wipe with your left hand here. But then the left hand touches the right hand, the right hand brings food from a communal bowl to your mouth...bam, instant GI sickness. So soap is really important. We're going to do some skits at 3 different schools in Sevare - in Fulfulde. Then - this has been around a while so we can't take credit for it - we might do a demonstration where we put sticky honey on a couple kids' hands, and then have them shake hands with everyone in the class, so everyone's hands are sticky. Then they rinse with water - but it doesn't get the honey off. After explaining that the honey is like germs that make you sick, they wash with soap. Voila, honey/germs gone! It's a good way to concretize something they can't see - the germs.

But I'm back at site now. I forgot how boring sitting around can be. I finally motivated myself to go out and greet people this afternoon (it's really hard sometimes when you don't speak the language!). But I actually had so much fun! I walked past a group of five women just hanging out, shooting the breeze, so I walked up and joined them. And yeah, I can't say much, but we still had fun talking about boys and braiding hair and all that fun stuff. That's what I love the most - those moments where everyone is just having a good time and laughing, and I actually get the joke (even if it's about me, which it often is - my Fulfulde amuses them to no end, and rightfully so, my grammar is atrocious). I had nail polish with me, so I whipped it out and did my toes, and then shared it with all of them - which they absolutely loved. For a moment it was almost like I was at a pedi party with all the girls at home or something. And since American companies invest their resources in things like never-chip nail polish, American nail polish is superduper awesome compared to what you can normally find here. So good day for the ladies - their toes will be hot pink for weeks. Not exactly world-changing or anything, but it certainly brightened their day (and mine). One of them is going to braid my hair sometime soon (ouch!) - I keep putting it off because I know it's going to hurt, but I know she'll get to me eventually. She's pretty determined. But then again, so am I... :)