Around the Courtyard

Did laundry this weekend- got yelled at by the grandmother in the house for wasting water and money. Malians have a special technique of washing which requires you to completely soak yourself because you have to scrub so vigorously. I’m pretty sure I completely failed at the scrubbing technique so now its sort of hard to walk around because all my clothes are extremely stiff since the Sebenike (laundry soap) is impossible to get out.


<--Aba helping grind the millet in our courtyard with Batuma, the bonne (my favorite).






I had successfully convinced myself that in Mali, lizards completely replaced rats and mice. I was completely assured that even though lizards scuttle in the same way that rats do across the courtyard, they are much cleaner and are the sub-Saharan version of rats. And, I was completely wrong. Rats most definitely exist, especially in Sikoroni and more startling, even when I’m taking a bucket shower in the nyegen (outdoor bathroom), I’m not even truly alone because there are plenty of cockroaches for company.
This morning I helped Batuma- the bonne (servant), who Fifi treats more like a slave- prepare rice for lunch. We sifted through an entire bucket of rice, searching for the elusive grayish looking grains that apparently weren’t good quality. Since everything is going to be covered in a gumbo (okra) sauce (which looks like a greenish-grey baby food, but possibly more stringy) anyway, I don’t exactly understand the purpose of spending hours sifting through the rice. But Fifi had plenty of comments to make, and she frowned over our shoulders, literally pointing out little grey spots in the rice that we had missed.