Yangasso Tugunni

Morning: I slept in a bit, went out to San Lait and got some EXCELLENT frozen yogurt. I wondered if it would be as good as I thought it was when I was living here. I always thought my standards dropped, but it was still really tasty. Bought some meds at the pharmacy to relieve my aching stomach and headache... I think I forgot to mention I got ameobas while I was in Senegal. Although I wasn't excited to have them, the timing was pretty good. I was totally healthy all the way through the Putney Trip and only after dropping off the last kid did my body finally give out. Anyway, I got a Doctor friend in country to give me an armchair diagnosis of ameobas and I'me starting to feel better.

Rest of the day: Finally made it back to Yangasso. I basically got there and dropped my bag in the main boutique in the center of Yangasso. I walked around and tried to find my host family who moved out to the outskirts of Yangasso. When I finally got there, I found my host sister (Fatumata) sitting next to the road selling woso (sweet potato fries). She took me by the hand and started leading my back to the house... my host mother (Awa) saw me and came running out after me. It was a little ridiculous. After that, there were a bunch of people I don't really know and I was sat down in a chair for a good long while. My host dad (Bocadari) finally came back from the fields and was clearly happy to see me but the excitement lasted a very short amount of time and we quickly fell back into the same routine we had three years ago... it was equal parts cool and weird.

I then headed out to greet Diarra Coulibably, my Peace Corps work contact in Mali. I showed up at her house and somehow (accidently) snuck up on here. She was sitting there talking with her son and I ended up standing behind here and said good evening... she turned around and nearly fell over. I'm not entirely sure if it was the shock of seeing me or just seeing a white guy standing a foot away from here in the pitch dark. Anyway, she refused to let me go away without feeding me, so I ate a really great salad with some bread.

I then finally headed back out toward my host family's house and got royally lost on the way. In terms of where their new house is... over the river, through the woods and about five miles past grandmother's house. I had the added difficulty of a late rising moon, so I was walking around in the pitch dark. By the time I got to the right area, I sort of new where I was supposed to go, but there were guard dogs everywhere and they were all very displeased to see me. It took some trial and error and a couple of stones thrown in the direction of barking, but I finally made it to their house.

It was a bit late, but we started in on what our nightly ritual was back in the day... Balo, a friend of Bocadari's, starts talking about how much I like to eat beans (the national joke of Mali) and how he caught me once eating beans and licking the oil as it dripped down my arm. I then tell everyone the only reason Balo says that is because I caught him eating beans once with both his right hand AND his left hand (which is your poop hand). We then vehemently deny whatever the other says until we stop laughing. Soon after, Balo and Bocadari pull out a printed piece of paper that has the info for the day's horse races which I think take place in France somewhere. Every single night they go through this quasi-scientific ritual of deciding which order the first 4 horses will come in. I then mildly make fun of them for wasting their money and do quick calculations of how much money they would have if they saved that money versus losing it every night on the races...

600 CFA per week x 52 weeks = 31,200 CFA per year (roughly 80 USD)

31,200 CFA x 3 years (since I left) = 93,600 CFA (roughly 234 USD)

Anyway, I don't think my calculations ever impressed them enough to stop before, and it doesn't look like they are going to stop anytime soon... despite the fact they have NEVER won.

This is all a very long way for me to say, it is great to be back in Yangasso, and it's almost like I never left. The only major difference is the size of the family which has increased and decreased. Here is the tree...

Bocadari Coulibaly (Father)
m. Awa Coulibaly (Mother)

1. Fatumata (f, 13)
2. Aminata (f, 11)
3. Assita (f, 10)
4. BaDjenne (f, 4)
5. Aloo (m, 3)
6. Oumar (m, 2 months)

The decrease is Aminata who was promised to Bocadari's sister a long time ago (news to me) because she is unable to have children. I definitely thought she might have not made it, considering Mali terrible statistics of mortality for children under 16, but she is happy and healthy and apparently likes it better with her aunt (according to Awa).

Rock and roll.

TW