In Bamako, but it sort of feels like New York.
1. The taxis are yellow.
2. Taxi drivers drive like maniacs.
3. It rains every day, and it is super humid but not unbearably hot.
4. The people are warm and welcoming.
5. I am surrounded by people who are so much like me in various ways.
6. It feels like home.
N togo Rokia Camara. My name is Rokia Camara. My older sister was in Brooklyn this summer visiting a former SIT student. Go figure.
Yesterday I moved into my Malian family’s house, and they gave me the Malian name Rokia. They are pretty wonderful. I have five older sisters, two of whom speak very good French and thus we have a pretty easy time conversing. Hopefully I will be conversational in Bambara, a native language of Mali, soon so that I can speak to everyone. There are four little kids in the family who are tons of fun; I gave them some bubbles and blew their minds. One of my little brothers is two and he literally never stops laughing.
Modibo, the academic director of my program, has been a really calming presence throughout all of the chaos of the past few days. Every day, he wears clothing made from fabric with political statements on it. Yesterday he wore a matching set with the phrase “Tolerance zero pour le FGM/Excision” (Zero tolerance for FGM/Excision) printed all over it.
Rad.
I think that all of the students also just feel generally taken care of because Modibo is constantly telling us that if we have any problems at all, he is here to help. Tuesday we went for a hike, and he said that if we are allergic to height we should make sure to let him know.
I brought some photos of friends and family with me, but I haven’t looked at them yet. I think it’s too soon.
Oh- I am actually moving my bowels quite nicely! Most of the other students have had some digestion problems, so I am congratulating myself for making it this far.
The food is almost always good, albeit extremely unhealthy. White bread, sugar, etc. At school, they give us salads and rice, fried plantains and some meat and other things like that. It is pretty tasty. I didn’t have school yesterday, and my sister served me some nasty, Fear Factor type shit for lunch, but then our dinner was delicious so I got over it.
A ka ni! I ni ce!
