One Month Down

            A month in this country and I’m finally beginning to feel like I’m settling in. Although I’m still not used to being gawked at walking down the street, something tells me that I will never be accustomed enough to not be bothered by it. However, I’m definitely getting used to the heat (which is hardly bearable lately; my room gets down to a “comfortable” 89 degrees at night), the constant loud noises and screaming in Bambara surrounding me, and learning how to navigate this city. I can finally successfully take a sotrama, the public transportation system in Bamako that consists of green vans that circulate the city, by myself. I can also understand bits and pieces of the Bambara conversations that occur in my house, although by no means do I know what is fully going on.

            I do feel settled in my homestay, but I’ve just had to accept the fact that I will never really feel part of the family, the language barrier being the biggest reason. In addition, my family doesn’t allow me to contribute in any way even when I offer to cook or wash my own clothes, so I automatically feel like a guest in my house. I’m also becoming increasingly frustrated with Aka, my roommate. She is certainly not easy to share space with, and although I feel somewhat guilty that she is forced to share her room with me, I can’t help but be upset with how she treats me. Every night she comes in at around 1 or 2 in the morning, turns on the light, gets ready to go out, and talks on her phone. I have to go to bed early since I leave for school at 7:00AM, so it’s very frustrating to be woken up for at least an hour nightly. She goes out clubbing at 1 in the morning and doesn’t come back until around 5 or 6 and often calls me to let her in.

            Apart from Aka, I do like the rest of my family. My two younger sisters are very sweet and always try to include me to an extent. I spend a lot of time playing a board game or watching TV with them. My little brother Mahammed spends the entire day running around the neighborhood – I see him go out when I go to school at 7 and he doesn’t come back until dinner time, covered in dust and exhausted from running around and playing soccer all day. He always eats dinner and immediately passes out in front of the TV, his eyes not even fluttering before he falls asleep, and must be carried to bed by a sister.

            My father…well, that’s another story. I spent the first few weeks at my house completely terrified of him. He does a lot of yelling: at his children, his wife, and the maids. He’s a very demanding man, and does very little for himself. In fact, he won’t even get up to get the TV remote when he’s sitting in the living room. I’ve talked to the other students about their fathers, and while some of theirs don’t yell at their families to the extent that mine does, none of them do any housework or cooking to be spoken of. My father is also extremely religious. Every morning I hear him drive to the mosque at 5:00. The walls in our living room have pictures of him visiting Mecca. Aka told me that she goes out so late because it is after he has gone to bed, therefore he won’t know since she knows he disapproves. Despite all of this, I’m beginning to see some good sides of my father. He always speaks French to me and is genuinely interested in me and my life in the United States. I’ve also seen him be very sweet to his children and his wife. However, I can’t really get past his bossiness and apparent cruelness to the maids.

            This past Thursday we went on our first overnight excursion to a town 110 kilometers away called Selingue. It was great to get out of Bamako and made me realize that I want to spend November, when we do our independent study research projects, in another town. There is just an ease and quietness outside of this bustling and very crowded city that can’t be found here. We spent one night in Selingue, staying in a hotel that was heavenly… especially since we had air conditioning! It was great to actually sleep a whole night through. The next day, we visited a hydroelectric dam that provides a great deal of electricity to Bamako. The trip was wonderful but way too short – less than 24 hours. Now we are back in Bamako, and the heat is really picking up which is uncomfortable and difficult to handle. It’s so strange to picture going back to a Minnesota winter at the end of the semester!