So, let me begin with a thermometer update… I put it in the sun thinking, this will be so interesting to see how hot it gets! FAIL. I broke it. Well, I suppose if I am to be technically correct, the beaming rays of the African sun broke it. I guess that means it past 120F… I’m sorry I can’t give any more temperature reads!
Village life never changes much so I forget what I wrote about. I’ve moved on to rough embroidery instead of weaving with my neighbor lady. She’s nice but apparently the only reason we were weaving was because she had the money to buy the grass. Which is actually me buying the grass for her in an attempt to be nice but she was selling the hats and mats we were making so I didn’t feel like I should buy all her materials for her ‘business’. I don’t know what she did with the money she made but it didn’t buy more grass so I got a piece of fabric and yarn and we’re embroidering that now. It’s not beautiful but works. That’s most mornings.
I was eating lunch with my homologue and his family but with Ramadan, we switched to dinners. Ramadan! I fasted one day and kinda liked it! I was super thirsty but it wasn’t bad not eating for a day. We broke the fast with dates, as is tradition, and then ate rice and sauce. I’m getting pretty used to their food. Definitely not scrumptious but not terrible ;)
This past week I spend away from site in Sevare and Bangiagara. My friend’s birthday is a few days before mine so we had a birthday party in Bangiagara! We got there Saturday evening, spent Sunday at the pool nearby, and Monday we hiked to the Falais, the cliffs in Dogon country where the pigmy people build houses into the cliffs. It was beautiful and really interesting! While everyone else went back to Bangiagara, a couple friends and I stayed and hiked a bit more in the cliffs, built a fire and camped out. Tuesday, we spent my birthday morning scrambling over big rocks and hiked back to Tile where there is a hostel. We ordered lunch, went for a walk and then tucked in to a 2.5hr lunch complete with giant fried dough balls – birthday cake! It was definitely a birthday to remember. We caught a ride back to Bangiagara Tuesday night and Sevare yesterday. It’s back to site today but my friend is coming to hang out with me for a couple days at my site which should be really fun.
