Every few weeks or so I like to go out to Marks village, Madiama, for a few days. Clear my head of the “city” life, have a chance to just sit around the tea set and joke around. I was starting to feel the anxiety that builds up with having a work schedule so I took a week off and went out to visit the village.
First off, I received a lot of questions while I was back home about how I travel around the country. Public transport can very from company to company and bus to bus. I usually take Bittar, I’ve never had major problems with them and they are only about an hour late most of the time. I chose Bittar again this day and had problems the entire way. I go to the bus station about 45 minutes before the bus is supposed to be there; 11:30am, bought my ticket and batted flies. They don’t announce busses when they come in so you have to rush up to the bus and find out where that bus is going. Every bus that came by I would jump up and ask, hoping to hear Mopti the direction of where I was going. Around 2:30 pm my bus just pulls in. I run up, give the man my ticket and go to jump on the bus but am pushed off by the entire bus load of people. Normally bus stops are around 2-5 minutes, so I thought that is what it would be. I was wrong! We had to fix not one, not two but THREE TIRES! That is never a good sign!
Finaly around 3:00 we are off. I push my way on and find a nice old man to sit next to from Timbuktou. I have a general rule I like to abide when bussing alone. Buy candy or a treat for the person next to you so they will watch out for you and make sure you don’t get left somewhere. I don’t think my rule has ever saved my butt, but I don’t ever want it to come to not being polite that I get left somewhere.
We truck along for a bit and then stop, in the middle of the bush. Nothing around us, not even a latrine to pee in. Another tire has broken something or other. I’m not to keen on my mechanical French terms so I didn’t understand a lot. But I go under the big mango tree and sit with my new friend. We sit and wait for 45 minutes and then after a few fights (that I stayed away from) we got back on the bus.
Mark was expecting me around 5 and I wasn’t even halfway there by five. We went without problems until I was going to get off. The bus driver jokingly didn’t want to let me off in the village he wanted me to continue just until the city. I convinced him I was in fact getting off in Madiama and it sure helped that I had a fan club of Marks friends there to pick me up. An easy 5 hour trip can shortly run into a 9 hour day from hell.
Marks village is a small mud village. Everything, or at least almost everything is made of mud. Its amazing what you can do with mud. We spent the first day just walking around and making sure I said hello to the village chief and town mayor, the lady that is in charge of the watering pump and the tailor. It’s a great feeling to be welcomed back into a village, I don’t get that in Segou.
I also spent two days learning how to make rice and sauce. Here is a recipe for all of you daring cooks out there. This is one of the best dishes here in Mali.
Peanut Sauce
5-6 small onions, chopped
5-6 small tomatoes
3-4 small eggplants
2-3 globs of peanut butter
1 cube Maggi
salt and pepper to taste
optional--fish or meat, cooked well
prior to adding
potatoes, ignames, or manioc, boiled
separately until soft before adding
Boil 2-3 cups of water, add eggplant and
cook. Add peanut butter. Stir frequently
until peanut butter is fully blended, adding
more water if necessary. Add onions,
tomatoes, Maggi, salt, pepper, and other
desired vegetables. Continue boiling until
sauce becomes thick and the oil from the
peanut butter surfaces abundantly. Keep
stirring over low heat. Serve sauce over
rice.
Mark and I also went out to Nericoro, a neighboring village where Mark is working with his community to build a school and finance the desks and chairs. It was about three kilometers out of town so we woke up very early, walked out there and Mark showed me the school. It only took about five minutes to see the school since there is no roof or floors right now. Then we walked about a quarter of the way back with a herd of sheep. We also climbed giant termite hills and a bayobob tree. And the final thing we did on our walk back was help plow a field.
Its rainy season which means everyone is out in the fields all day. We saw a great opportunity to help a man out. A child was leading two cows/oxen (I don’t know how to tell the difference) and an old man working the plow. Mark jumped in and grabbed the plow and his line was very crooked. I thought I could do better than that so I took over. My line was stick straight, however my line ended up half way to China. Lord knows I don’t know how to plow a field but I think with a little more practice I could be an amazing plow women.
The other big thing that I did “au village” was markets. Markets are a once a week highlight for villagers. It’s the day where everyone comes out to buy and sell their livestock, produce, or other products. We went to Sofara, a larger town about 45 minutes away. They have ice and bread!
No comments:
Post a Comment