Christmastime

So, we swear a delivery of charity goods made its way from Belfast, Maine to North Kayes region, Mali sometime in the last two years. The “Penobscot Bay YMCA” shirt in the little girl was shocking enough but now there has been a “Downeast Whitewater – Staff” polo shirt spotted on a woman there as well.
So, how’s this for an “only in Mali” experience? We had just finished our dinner. We could not move because Mark has just eaten his bodyweight in baashi and na, as he does every night, and had been rendered immobile. Normally we are in the middle of the concession but as it was we happened to be sitting in a different spot for a better angle on the Mexican soap opera dubbed in French to which Sam is addicted. It was a good thing, too, because as the ladies of the house sat down at their communal bowls there was a bit of a commotion down this tiny alley leading into the courtyard. We looked up to see what the commotion was just as two donkeys came crashing into the concession. It turned out that the loud braying was the lady of the couple trying mightily to spurn the amorous advances of the gentleman donkey, to a debatable degree of success. The end result was that these two fornicating donkeys proceeded to trash the concession completely. She ran amok right where we normally sat for dinner. He was undeterred in his pursuit. They flattened a poor little sheep tied to a post before barreling straight through where the women were eating. Peul women scattered in all directions! Baashi and sauce flew through the air! We sat frozen, watching in stunned amazement like Tom Hanks in the Money Pit when he placed a log in his fireplace only to watch the every brick of his chimney file past his face. We were probably nodding madly like him too. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of destruction although it was probably only an instant, the boys of the house found big enough sticks to begin driving out the interlopers. This sounds a hell of a lot easier in theory than it is in reality. Anyone with any experience with donkeys knows that they are rather stubborn animals. Sometimes you can’t move a donkey no matter how much of a beating is doled out, now picture it is getting lucky and see if you think it might move. Needless to say, our beau was not deterred by any amount of abuse. Alas, donkey love is mercifully brief and they managed to wrap it up and get out before any irreparable harm was done. Even the little sheep escaped serious injury. Well, if you ignore the fact that its throat was cut and it was eaten the next morning…
It is difficult to explain Mali especially when what we witness, we ourselves don’t understand. For example, one afternoon Sam spent the afternoon with the ladies, visiting a new bride in our concessions family. There were many hours of lounging, talking, eating, tea drinking and to top it off gum chewing. Side note – never just give American candy to the kids, the adults get offended as they want it as much as the kids do. In true Malian fashion, about an hour after the gum chewing commenced the gum was then found scattered all over the area we were sitting, on people’s shoes, on the mats on which we sat and even in the mouths of the children that had picked it up off the ground to see if there was any flavor left. The disposal of gum is treated like any other piece of trash here in Mali, when you are finished discard it wherever you are. I was amazed that none of the ladies were fazed or thought anything about the gum disposal methods as they watched the kids chew and cleaned it from their mats and shoes. The stuff that stuck to their hands they simply wiped on the same hanger post where someone had just wiped their kid’s snot from their hands.
We had a Merry Christmas with a day at a pool, great food and friends (our friends made homemade mozzarella cheese), wine and beer and calls from our families. We hope you all had a Merry Christmas and Santa was good to you. Happy New Year!