Our last morning in Siby, Thursday the 2nd, we woke up bright and early and ate our breakfast at the lodge, consisting of bread with jam and tea. (One perk of living in a country that was once under French rule is that the baguette is actually quite good!) We then got back into the vans and drove to Bamako. It’s really striking how quickly the view outside the window went from rural to “urban,” though it’s hard to call Bamako urban since it seems more like one gigantic, sprawling town. The vans took us to Modibo’s (the Academic Director) house, where we stopped to pick up luggage some people had stored before traveling to Siby. We all piled back in the vans, luggage in tow, to be dropped off at our homestay families. At this point, I was extremely nervous. One other girl, Maddie, and I were in one van with the staff and the luggage, while the rest of the group was in another.
The vans took off. What added to our nerves was the fact that we didn’t know who was going to be dropped off first. The roads were really, really bumpy due to the rains that morning and Maddie and I both really had to pee because of how nervous we were – a really bad combination! We ended up giggling nervously the entire ride as we watched the girls get dropped off. I was the fourth one to go.
My house is on the side of a soccer “field” (it can’t really be called a field because there’s no grass, just red dirt) where a group of children were playing. Three girls came out to greet me: my older sister and two young girls that cook and clean for the family that took my luggage. They led me into the room that would be sharing with my sister for the next 7 weeks: a small, somewhat dank room with a queen size bed. We have our own FLUSHING toilet (!!!) connected to our room which is glorious (many students’ houses don’t have toilets). The rest of the house consists of a living room with a television, couches, and a dining table, a large bedroom where the rest of the children sleep, a small “indoor kitchen” with a miniature refrigerator, and an outdoor kitchen (most of the cooking is done outside on fire-burning stoves) and latrine. The parents live in a separate house stationed above this one.
My family consists of four sisters: Aka, who is 23 and my roommate, Toussi, who is 18 and actually studying in Utah right now, Nene, 16, and Haby, 13. We have one little brother, Mahammed, who is absolutely adorable. Everyone in the family, including my parents, speaks French to some degree, but they exchange in Bambara which is…overwhelming and confusing, to say the least. It really sounds like they are always yelling at each other! My mother works selling clothes and my father as financier in a hospital. There are always children from the quartier in the house playing as well… here they truly treat their neighbors like family.
The hardest thing about the adjustment thus far, apart from the Bambara language barrier, is the fact that right now it’s Ramadan and everyone (except for Haby and Mahammed) is fasting during the day. They are all pretty grouchy and tired (understandably) and I feel really guilty when they bring me food or when I have to ask for something during the day. It’s also hard because I am sharing a bed with Aka, who has to wake up at 4AM to pray and eat before the fast begins. I’m also around when the family members pray and I’m not really sure what to do with myself during that time. Ramadan ends in 5 days, however, and there is a large festival at the end that is supposed to be really fun so I’m looking forward to it!
Oh! I almost forgot to mention that on my first morning here, I was given my new Malian name: Raki Bah. My family calls me Raki, and when I introduce myself to people here I say n togo Raki (my name is Raki). Just one more thing to get used to. Everything is an adjustment, but I do think it will start getting easier soon.
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