sunday morning

hey all!

lazy sunday morning -- poor caitlin is sick, so we brought her a Djalo (pinapple soda) and are going to spend a couple hours under the office fan before heading out to explore a movie or the artisan's market.

the pictures below are a few from one walk into work in the morning -- I'll post some more here. the morning walk is one of the loveliest parts of my day: everyone seems so happy to see us. i walked in with Soukeina the other day, and it took over an hour (she has cousins like woah).

highlight reel of the past few days:

1. i found a (i'm going to hold off on "the") love of my life: my bugnet has just enough room for me to pull in my fan with me, and my fan and i spoon, cuddle and whisper sweet nothings all night long. blissful.

haha we unfortunately have a third wheel: hereafter named charlie, a massive, fat lizard that chills out on my bugnet a couple inches above my nose, so his underbelly can share the fan's breeze. he's completely unbothered by pokes and flicks -- last night i scooped him out my window. now i kinda hope he finds his way back to me.

2. broadway cafe: an expat zone, but in a nice way. last night was the goodbye dinner for paul and nora, two wonderful north carolina-ans who are heading back to UNC psychology and Duke med, respectively. also: BABY ZONE! 3 of 4 women at the table -- who worked for save the children and oxfam -- had become pregnant in mali. i'm considering it, mom.

3. soukeina's cousin took me for an afternoon at her home on the other side of the river. i wasn't sure what to expect -- when I got back at about 7 pm, caitlin asked, "did you eat a massive malian lunch and then all pass out on the couches?" YES! exactly. in front of "extreme makeover home edition" and "love island" dubbed into french. for like 5 hours. it was actually super restful. we took a break for a meal of rice with a palm oil tomato chicken sauce -- it was delicious. pickles, too.

they are a very well-off family -- it was interesting to see such a different side of bamako, about 25 minutes away across the river. her husband is a government official who studied for 10 years in Russia (like many other well-off Malians 20 or 30 years ago). many malian families have "bonnes," young girls who live with the family and cook, clean, take care of the baby; this family's two "bonnes" were really lady-in-waiting-esque.

i was taken aback when Soukeina saw the guy who plays David Palmer on 24 ("that's Allstate's stand"). "Ca, c'est Will Smith."
"huh! i guess i could kinda see that but i think it's this other guy..."
"ah! c'est Eddie Murphy! oui, c'est ca."
it's funny that Soukeina's interest in the names of black American actors would result in the same mix-up that you'd expect more from a confederate great-great aunt.

now we're off to visit Adama -- an intern who's headed to Ohio University for six weeks next saturday. this week will be DAUNTING but could be really productive -- finishing our baseline survey, translating into bambara, writing up a contract with the clinic and selecting our list of essential medicines to give "prise en charge" to participating families. also downloading Ubuntu onto the 10 laptops we took through JFK security (thanks for the tech help, pop)

thinking of you in sikoro!