The New America

So I’ve successfully spent a month at site so far. A month with two trips to Segou. or America rather. In Segou we have hot water, meat sandwiches, wireless internet, and cold sodas. It’s amazing. The first month at site went well. My counterpart tends to yalayala a lot. Which is to wander aimlessly. Except he does it all over the Segou regoin. He has a third wife in Djoro that he visits every so often and perhaps a fourth wife in Segou (or so his Makili wives say). 

The trip to Segou was a good one though. It was Amy’s birthday on Thursday so I rode my bike to her site that day after I finished working in the Doctors in Yollo. She met me half way, which was awesome and we sat under a tree talking for a bit. I gave her the bag I made her with my new sewing machine and she dug it. Then we headed to Tiby for the night where we ate beans and watermelon for her birthday. It was awesome. Beans? Awesome? Yes. Why? Well the food in my village is particularly horrible. I eat it of coarse but not before I fantasize about eating meat sandwiches in Segou. The other night I was so hungry that I went to the boutiki, purchased a package of macaroni and a bag of powdered milk. I returned home, second guessing my decision to put off buying the tomato paste, and started by boiling water in the only pot I had; a teapot. So I made my milk noodles, and then added the only food I had brought from america to it. Natures Seasoning. Which I believe is possibly the best addition to any meal. I added enough to make me sneeze and then ate it. The noodles were half cooked of course because water kept boiling over the teaspout but I deemed it good. And then proceeded to make another batch. 

But anyways. We left Tiby friday morning early to find transport into Segou from her market town Djoro. Unfortunately we were 15 minutes from catching, in all probability, the only ride to Segou from Djoro that day. We waited for another car to fill up but people never came. We later decided it would be our best bet to bike to Marakala to pick up transport there because then have many cars coming in to Segou daily. So just to recap. I biked to Amy’s site (20 kilometers) then we biked to Djoro (10 kilometers) and finally to Marakala (30 kilometers) for a total of 60 kilometers in the span of 24 hours. 60 divided by five is 12 times three is around 36 or more miles. It was intense but we stopped from village to village along the way getting water and resting. The bike ride wasn’t too bad, although we started the ride to marakala at noon, the hottest part of the day. We managed to find a car. Or rather something comparable to an Astro van. I would say. I counted 27 people sitting down inside the vehicle and possibly 3 hanging out the back or riding on top. It was pretty great. We made it to Segou around 4 maybe where we directly went to the Golf Restaurant for a beer and a meat sandwich. It was so amazing. 

Mom called me Friday night and I got to talk to her for a bit. She said she was a Jo-ann Fabrics. I said cool. I told her about my bags I’ve been making and the curtains and it was good. I also talked to Lucas for a good amount of time. Our conversation was funny. It was kind of like story time back and forth at first. Then whats going on for Halloweeen. Then some blessings. It’s funny. I laugh. Everything is good. 

I go back to site tomorrow morning for the Yollo market day. At which there is always excitement. Bags of macaroni and frozen juice. What could be better? Right now I just look forward to Halloween in San, where I’ll see kids I haven’t seen in months. 

But now I sleep.