The month of November was chock full of celebrations, and reasons to party! I kicked off the month of celebrating by showing up to village with three boxes of school supplies donated by the attendees of Harrisonville United Methodist Charge Vacation Bible School. It was such a great feeling to walk around the school yard seeing the children showing off their brand new pieces of chalk, crayons, or pencils sent all the way from America! The kids were most impressed with the markers- tubes of paint like liquid they could color with that didn’t need to be sharpened. The elders of school board were simply in awe of pencil top erasers, obviously the greatest invention ever! Leaving the teachers to muse over the need for sticky notes, highlighters, and list all the possibilities one would need a glue stick.
The biggest Muslim Holiday of Tabaski is in November, and my village sure did celebrate! The day of Tabaski the morning is spent praying, and rest of day is spent greeting, blessing, socializing with friends, giving gifts, receiving gifts, and most importantly eating! In the days leading up to Tabaski, the village is full of nervous mewing and calling from goats and sheep who seem to know that their life on Earth is soon to be over.
I dressed in my Malian outfit, (matching Tenna’s ) headed to soccer field to in enjoy the peaceful scene of colorful Malians, bent in prayer as the sun is just peeking over the tree tops. As soon as the praying ended, I was bombarded with blessings for me, my family, my yet to be found husband, and children for years and years to come. I headed straight to Tenna’s with my bag of gifts, to greet and bless, and start chopping up veggies for our feast. Once all the garlic, onions, peppers, and tomatoes where properly peeled, chopped, and pounded I left to make my rounds in the village; timing my greetings perfectly, because just as I got to the Dugutiki’s house he was in the process of butchering, and dividing meat, setting aside a pile just for me! The same thing happened at the next two houses I visited. I returned to Tenna with handfuls and handfuls of raw meat, some goat, some sheep, and all packed full of glorious protein! After the cooking is finished, we spent the afternoon, evening and late hours of the night eating-no gorging ourselves on rice, sauce, meat, noodles, fried plantains, and sweet potatoes in-between courses greeting and blessing people and dancing. This continued for three days, by the third day I was so full from eating meat, my body loved being overwhelmed by protein so much that I hardly cared that I was eating, unrefrigerated three day old meat! I really think the Malians would continue partying for an entire week if it weren’t for all of sugared up children starting to get cranky, along with the old men, who cannot get any sleep as a result from drinking highly caffeinated tea for three days.
In the calm of celebration recuperation, I decided that painting my nyegen with my left over paint would fill the gap nicely before getting ready for my next celebration. My now, fun, happy, polka dotted neygen makes pooping in a hole so much more pleasant. I can’t even look at my neygen without cracking a smile-it is amazing how happy a little paint has made me!
The weekend before Thanksgiving, A small group of volunteers joined me in traveling to Segou to celebrate November birthdays. Segou is a beautiful city right along the Niger River full of artisans trying to sell you their over priced goods. The trip to Segou was quite long, and like any other trip on public transport in Mali, a little frustrating. The first hour of the ride was spent by us getting yelled at to close the window before the blowing air gives everyone malaria, but don’t worry, to make up for the stuffiness of a bus full of sweaty Malians with absolutely no air flow the driver played horrible Malian music at deafening volumes.-needless to say we were very much we ready to exit the bus and start our fun filled days yalaing around Segou. We spent time at a “bogolan” workshop where they weave cloth and die it with mud, wondering in and out of shops admiring wood carvings, beaded jewelry, leather wallets and shoes, all the while getting harassed to make purchases. While in Segou we ate lots of good food, and even spent one evening taking a boat ride up the Niger at sun set. All in all it was a great and enjoyable trip. After a few days we hopped a bus to Sikasso to celebrate Thanksgiving with 85 other volunteers. Thanksgiving was a huge success, complete with turkey, mashed potatoes, and all the fixings, followed by a day at the pool and a Mexican Fiesta .
I made it back to village in time to finish out the month of celebrations by throwing a huge birthday party for myself! The morning of my birthday Sekouba calls me over to ask if we can have wild rabbit instead of beef for my birthday supper- I readily agree, rabbit is by far the best meat I’ve eaten in Mali! In the evening I put my party dress on, and head to Sekouba’s to start chopping veggies for our rice dish, and buy all the other ingredients that are needed. While the meal was cooking, we listened to music, played cards and drank round after round of tea and hibiscus tea. As soon as the music starts kids swarm the butiki and dance their hearts out. When the meal is finished cooking, the women come join the party and we dance until 11:00pm, when Sekouba thinks it time to serve the food. Since it is my birthday I take all the women into the concession and make them eat with me before giving food to the men and kids. (this never happens in Malian culture!) When everyone is full, we then take the meal out to men and fill a few plates for the dancing children. The rice is followed up by water melon, and the night and month of celebrations ends with a seed spitting contest at midnight.
Now it is time to start planning December events, and all the festivities for my Mama’s visit!
