Fifteen days in my mud hut.

It was awfully great that Amy and Kyle decided to come to my site with me. Kyle had to move out a bunch of things from his/my house he’s moving out of/I’m moving into. And Amy and I just hung out. 

Unfortunately my iPod ran out of batteries within the the first 3 days. So did my computer. This left me much time to read Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran twice, almost. I walked around aimlessly for a good amount of time, just greeting people, talking about how I have no cooking skills. 

The first 4 days were a little rough because my counterpart was still in Djoro visiting his third wife. But It was doable and was done. Thursday I went to weigh babies at the Doctors in Yollo which is only about a 5km bike ride. Lassana (my counterpart) and I went. It was pretty cool. The babies got vaccinated, weighed and measured and some of the moms were given mosquito nets if they didn’t have them. 

Typical Day:

6:30- Wake up, drink coffee, possibly run

9:00-Shower, Hang with the Coulibaly family and eat Moni which is kind of like millet porridge. Tasty with lime juice and sugar. 

Then I would do laundry if I had to or I went to walk around. I hung with the blacksmith one day and the guys that fix motor bikes another. 

Lunch is usually at 12 or so. Sometimes they bring me lunch sometimes I go there. Its weird. My family is weird too. I don’t live with them. I live across the village in my own concession that’s pretty nice. I have two rooms and a pretty big outside with a hanger that’s kind of falling apart. But it’s cool. 

Sometimes after lunch I take a nap, although it doesn’t help with staying up later because I still go to bed at like 8. Everyone always says stay and talk and seriously I like to talk but I like to sleep. And Amy said she got stung by a scorpion the other night and I’d rather just not be wandering late. 

Then sometimes I go to the store get some oil for my lamp or sugar for my moni. 

My favorite part is around 6:30-7 when the sun sets. Then I usually lay on a mat in my concession watching the stars. Which is awesome because there are so many shooting stars. 

Then it’s dinner time at the Coulibaly ka so. Where it’s usually not that good. Dinner is finished usually with a quick chat with zen master Sidi Coulibaly. Usually I tell him what I did that day or what I bought at the market. This guy is pretty old though. Pretty hard to understand too. But I feel like because he is so zen (and may or may not rival the Dalai Lama) some how I understand him. It’s awesome. 

Then usually I go to bed. Because I’m tired. Then I do it again. Except on Sundays insert Go to market and on Thursdays I go to the doctors.