sorcery

hello again!

we had a lovely day today at Adama's house -- after a torrential rain, we walked with his friends through groves of mango trees and a rushing chocolate-colored stream behind their neighborhood. they showed us the street corner where they've talked into the night and sipped tea every evening since they can remember. back at the compound (which is lovely, old stone in pastel colors -- Adama's dad was a well-known filmmaker, and his mom is a coordinator for the SIT study abroad program), we discussed 24 (when does Jack Bauer pee? when off-screen he is always driving), and sorcery. poor guys -- when we assured them that wives eat their unfaithful husbands in the states, they were REALLY freaked out. there are good and bad sorcerers, not so much in Bamako, but certainly in surrounding villages -- you don't know they're eating you until they've eaten your head, at which point you check out for good. adama was really serious -- one of his cousins had baby twins who were visited by a bad sorcerer, and one was "eaten" and died suddenly. at the end of the evening, we met a friend who goes by "le dinosaur sentimental" (strong yet emotional like the mighty t-rex). we ran out of time to watch pirated nigerian dvds ("best world movies 88 on one dvd" including "The Holiday: 1 through 5" and the alluring yet family-friendly "Jennifer Lopez vs. Kate Winslet")

i got to talk to so many people today. Djallo, a man who works from 6 AM to midnight at an egg sandwich stand; groups of old men on my way to buy bananas in the market this morning; the sentimental dinosaur; many, many kids and mothers in front of their houses on the way to the office. it was lovely. current daily banana record: 4 (anticipating one when I get home tonight)

the economics of sikoro are cloudy: in the market, many women sell identical arrays of mangos from sunrise to midnight: tomatoes, bananas, dried-old-man-fish, all in small piles by price. it seems like magic: a trading circle of malian francs for mangos (they're in season) that leaves everyone better off, that lets so many women make a living. many men that aren't vendors in the Sikoroni market commute to the Grand Marche in packed green buses. one lady's in the Sikoroni market's competitive edge: alongside a pile of ripe mangos, a teetering tower of amoxicillin. get it while it's hot.

some more pictures of sikoro -- it's very beautiful, a rural-feeling slum in a capital of a million people, nestled among red rocks with vibrantly green trees after the rain. its rural feeling is deceptive, as it's actually one of the densest of Bamako's neighborhoods -- upwards of 30 people often live in one compound.

don't forget to write! i'll bring you back a 2-day-old baby goat. xxx Hawa

p.s. note to self: check if folks were pulling our leg re. goat head soup. ingredients: water. goat head. tomatos. onions. stir. chop into chunks. enjoy.