Mali + Me

Malian Modernity (The Post That Almost Never Was)

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 20:55:40 -0400

(Written 1/19/12)

I keep thinking about Eduardo Galeano’s “Divorces”:

“Our system is one of detachment: to keep silenced people from asking questions, to keep the judged from judging, to keep solitary people from joining together, and the soul from putting together its pieces.”

Why do I think twice about bringing out my iPhone, iPod, laptop? Is it just because I don’t want to flaunt my wealth, highlight our differences, make Malians feel bad or jealous, or open myself up to theft? Or is there another more insidious reason? Maybe we don’t want them to see what we have, want it for themselves, and start asking why they don’t.

Mali is not in the Stone Age. Even though it is one of the top 10 poorest countries in the world, Mali is very much in the 21st Century. There are paved roads (although not nearly enough), cell phones (even smartphones!), and people know about computers and the internet. They understand that Mali is poor. People do not live in some untouched, pristinely primitive state, ignorant of other possibilities.

So why not show Numan (host mother), CeKoroba (host father), or Famoury/Issa/Batou/Mariam (host siblings) my iPhone? Not sharing these things is not keeping them in comfortable ignorance. Stop imagining that you’re somehow protecting them. People know that they are poor and that others in the world are not. And if given a choice between their “modest” lives and the world of affluence, privilege, and money, what do you think they’d choose? Which would you choose?

I’ve been hiding - hiding my wealth, comforts, pleasures. We’re taught to hide it, to downplay our wealth, and to emphasize that not all Americans are rich. How convenient! If the world’s poor don’t really know all that we have, then they won’t demand it for themselves. Everything can remain as is, and we don’t have to share.

Why is it uncomfortable, scary even, to show Malians how much I have? Does it mean there’s something not right about what I do have and consequently how much they don’t?

And maybe (probably, in my opinion) more money or stuff wouldn’t actually dramatically increase quality of life in Mali. But this still can’t be brought down to cultural relativism. It’s not about preserving, respecting, valuing Malian communal and social culture. It is about Malian people who are not able to buy medicine for their sick 3 year old, kids walking around with red hair and skinny shoulders because they don’t have protein in their diets, and mothers with cracked hands burying their husbands and children.

We have too much, and we have too much because most of the world has too little. Mali is just not a place “over there” in Africa, remote and separate. People are here, in 2012, listening to the new Rihanna album and watching “40 Year Old Virgin” (actually hung out with Malian friends and neighbors who were doing these things.) Mali is in the modern world - hell, Mali is in the world, our world. So as an American, I have to remember: we are not alone.

It will be easy to point at me and say, hey if you believe all this so much, then why don’t you just give up all you have? Why not donate all your possessions, bring all the kids over to America, and renounce your privilege? If you don’t do this, then aren’t you a hypocrite? Unfortunately, I have no easy answer to this. Maybe I am a hypocrite, or maybe there’s a way to make the world more just without losing your entire way of life. At this moment, I’m not sure, but I will stay uncomfortable and keep questioning with the hope that one day, we can find the way.

(Note: I did end up bringing my iPhone out to play people some American music and to play Fruit Ninja with the kids. It was pretty awesome, and the boys were amazing at Fruit Ninja.)

asianbabiesyesss: fuckyeahyerin: 항상 밝게 웃는 예린이… she’s getting...

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 14:43:03 -0400

asianbabiesyesss:

fuckyeahyerin:

항상 밝게 웃는 예린이…

she’s getting so big!

Mali Sealed Off Financially After Coup

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 05:53:40 -0400

Mali Sealed Off Financially After Coup

Photo

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 17:04:28 -0400

playing with my puppy

hanging with the kids

Mariam and me

eating some lunch

Issa! a favorite

buurutigi! (bread seller)

Batou :)

Sleepy Ollie

The rise of the $1-a-day statistic

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 16:46:02 -0500

The rise of the $1-a-day statistic:

“Instead of promoting prosperous economies, it’s about ‘How do we identify and target and get transfers to the few people under this penurious line?’ which just isn’t the way, historically, anybody has ever eliminated poverty…

We should look at the whole distribution. That’s what I’ve said from day one,” he says. ‘What I’m also saying is that our highest priority must be the poorest first…

The whole condition of living on $1 a day has much less to do with that average than with the ups and downs. So it’s not surprising that households are very actively trying to save,” he says.

“They are not living hand to mouth; they are thinking about the future.”

Yes yes and yes.

Photo

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 18:27:39 -0500

Numan's butiki

Market day

trading bean jokes

making tea-what we do every day all day

Dr. Maiga (my work partner)+host dad

Ollie! my new puppy

“The Danger of a Single Story” If you do anything...

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 17:55:00 -0500

“The Danger of a Single Story”

If you do anything today, watch this.

And then you should go read her books because they’re amazing.

A little of what Chimamanda Adichie has to say:

“The single story creates stereotypes.And the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.

Of course, Africa is a continent full of catastrophes. There are immense ones, such as the horrific rapes in Congo. And depressing ones, such as the fact that 5,000 people apply for one job vacancy in Nigeria. But there are other stories that are not about catastrophe. And it is very important, it is just as important, to talk about them.

I’ve always felt that it is impossible to engage properly with a place or a person without engaging with all of the stories of that place and that person. The consequence of the single story is this: It robs people of dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar.”

As a white American raised, Korean born Buffalonian living in Africa, it strikes me over and over again how it has never felt okay to bring all these worlds together in a complete way. Is it even possible? Perhaps not, but it has never felt right to try. And to not tell all of these stories, selves really, with others robs me of my whole and true self. Is it just my choice or is there something, someone also complicit in this censorship?

Make a person separate who they are over and over again, make it not okay to be everything that you are, and you have, in the end, brokenness. And what is the opposite of brokenness? Solidarity. Strength. Wholeness. If you can’t even pull yourself together, how could you ever join with others in common cause, heart, humanity?

Which is not to say that is it impossible. No, if you only look at the histories of Haiti, Egypt, South Africa, you will find plenty of strength. It’s just that bonding across created and perceived divisions becomes that much more difficult. It makes it possible for people of good will and clear conscience to sit comfortably while watching the evening news, clucking sadly at the victims of reportedly far away tragedies.

And the balance of power stays the same.

The Worst Killer of Invisible Children is Not Joseph Kony

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 16:57:00 -0500

The Worst Killer of Invisible Children is Not Joseph Kony:

Click mee

Banksy in Bamako?? Must find this!

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:29:00 -0500

Banksy in Bamako?? Must find this!

Listen to this to hear Bambara! This is an example of a...

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 13:07:04 -0500

Listen to this to hear Bambara! This is an example of a greeting, and I say all these things like 20 times a day. A lamen (listen to it)!

The official 2 year countdown has begun! So far, I’ve spent over a month at my site. Luckily,...

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:58:23 -0500

The official 2 year countdown has begun! So far, I’ve spent over a month at my site. Luckily, in just one hour, I can go from Diago where I live without running water, a toilet you can sit on, electricity, internet, or a bed to Kati or Bamako where I can almost feel like I’m back in America (except for the tragic absence of CHEESE).

There’s no government run public transportation system, so I stand by the side of the road and flag down a “sotrama” which is essentially a van with the back seats gutted and benches installed around the sides, packed with as many passengers, buckets, tires, bags of rice, some chickens or goats as possible. My record is 30 people, including kids, in one sotrama, flying up and down paved and dirt roads, passing cars, dodging motos, and me sitting right in the “doorway” (a misnomer, there was no door.) Instead, I was being held in to this moving piece of metal by a single chain that was strung across the wiiiide opening. Makes you very zen about life and the whole concept of living.

There’s a pretty stark contrast between the regular rhythm of the day to day and the contentious political situation developing in Mali right now. While I do not feel comfortable commenting on what is happening in Mali, it’s seems remiss to not even mention it. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, then please go search the news for information or look at the story I posted.

These first 3 months are supposed to be exclusively devoted to integrating into my community and figuring out what they want for themselves, which means my entire job is learning Bambara, meeting people in village, and just figuring out how things work. It sounds deceptively simple, at least to me. Soon I’ll be starting my health baseline survey, which means I’ll be walking around talking to as many households as possible about things like, hey, do you wash your hands with soap and do the kids pee in the nyegen?

I’m missing Ameriki so much, all the time! A friend put it best, “Peace Corps: Turning Cynical Americans Into Patriots” :)

Mali: extensive drought-induced food insecurity and pasture shortages; conflict between Tuaregs and the Malian army; and the resulting displacement of thousands more Tuaregs

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:33:00 -0500

Mali: extensive drought-induced food insecurity and pasture shortages; conflict between Tuaregs and the Malian army; and the resulting displacement of thousands more Tuaregs

"Let’s see what we can do in one little place."

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:10:00 -0500

“Let’s see what we can do in one little place.”

- Paul Farmer, “Mountains Beyond Mountains” - Tracy Kidder

Photo

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 20:18:17 -0500

showing off the foronto - hot pepper

my favorites <3 host brothers

my more annoying sister, still cute

they insisted on a pic with my loofah

Photo

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:51:13 -0500

CSCOM - health center where I work

toloman - yum

Numan - my host mom

Dr. Aboubacrine Maiga, work partner

gabugu - kitchen

the kids eating lunch

First 3 weeks at site!

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:17:26 -0500

my room #1

bedroom + bug hut/bed

waking up/breakfast time

my 2 rooms outside

my family concession

my nyegen

soaking moringa seeds

the (in)famous selidaga

My site!

First 3 weeks at site!

Photo

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 09:22:20 -0500

Painting handwashing mural!

"Wash Your Hands With Soap"

Last day in Muntugula!

At Ministry of Health

Photo

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 09:16:16 -0500

Photo

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 08:54:55 -0500

Joking Cousins

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 15:29:00 -0500

Before I came to Mali, I heard over and over again that Malians are the friendliest people in the world. I kind of brushed this off thinking, yeah yeah but you could probably say this about anyone. After 2 months, I’m definitely eating my words because everyone in Mali is shockingly friendly. Not only are people good natured, constantly smiling, and ready to offer help at any moment (a fellow PCT in my home stay actually had a man help her onto public transportation and then take her to her stop even though he wasn’t going there himself) but they have one of my favorite things ever: senekunya - joking cousins.

Joking cousins relationships are one of the most important and conspicuous parts of Malian culture. Meeting someone for the first time, you will learn their name (my Malian name is Kaja Konaté) and then there’s a good chance that you’ll be called a bean eater (i ye sho dunna ye), told you eat lots and lots of beans (i be sho dun cosebe), or simply that you’re bad (Konaté a man ni!) all with a hearty laugh.

Based on your family name and ethnic group, you have certain people who you can joke with (as a Konaté I joke with Coulibalys, Doumbias, Samake, Tanara, Sissoko, Cisse, Toure, and Maiga).Think the bean equivalent of yo mamma jokes. This joking is used to ease any tensions between people in the community and creates a general feeling of familiarity and family. You can also call your joking cousin out if they’re out of line without worrying about overstepping or creating resentment. Of course it’s not always so easy and tidy in real life, but this is the basic idea and it works pretty well.

An example: One day last week while washing our hands and brushes after painting our hand washing mural, a woman about my age walked up and greeted us. Since she was my joking cousin, we argued a little about who eats more beans. She then put her bucket under the pump as I was pumping water for everyone to wash their hands with. I was like, um excuse me? Does this woman really think that I’m just going to pump water for her? In America this would definitely not fly and I was really annoyed. But since we’re in Mali, I laughed and told her completely seriously “I ye salabato ye!” (You’re lazy!).

She looked really surprised (possibly thinking she could capitalize on our confusion and eagerness to please Malians) and let out a hearty appreciative chuckle and ran over to pump her own water. Then, as if to prove that she is not lazy (and truly Malian women are the FARTHEST thing from lazy ever. I’ve never seen anyone work harder than these women!), she came to me speaking in super fast Bambara and started scrubbing the paint off my hands. At this point we were all giggling at the whole situation, and I had a whole new appreciation for joking cousins relationships. Back home I could never just outright call someone lazy, mean it, and walk away laughing with no hard feelings, but that’s exactly what happened.

** Side update: I’m almost done with PST (Pre-Service Training)! Yesterday was my last day at home stay, and next week I’ll be moving into my permanent site :) Happy New Year everyone!