My friend Laura is really good at uploading photos and I clearly am not, so visit her picasa site to get an idea of the things I have been seeing and experiencing while in Mali:
http://picasaweb.google.com/laura.anne.paul/
Today is the last of three days at a hotel in downtown Bamako. While I will miss the central location, I can’t wait to get back to my family. I was home for a short while yesterday, and spending some quality time with four of my sisters caused me the desire to be at “home” with them. One of the things I know I am going to miss the most about my life in Mali is having lots of sisters.
Someone asked me yesterday what I thought my country (America) can do for his country (Mali), which was not the first time I’ve been asked this question. My answer was basically this: it is not the role of Westerners to dictate the activities and development goals of Mali. However, it is the responsibility of countries such as the U.S. and it is undoubtedly benficial for the U.S. to provide some of the resources, including but not limited to financial resources, to organizations and entrepeneurs in Mali who have ideas for projects that would meet the needs of communities but who don’t have the means to follow through with these projects.
Another thing that I have been thinking and talking a lot about is the idea of values, and how to be somewhat culturally relativist while also adhering to one’s values which are of course a product of one’s culture. I don’t know exactly how I feel about this, but I have an example that I think reveals some of my opinions on the subject. I was talking to a few other American students about excision (female circumcision), which is a really tricky issue here in terms of Western aid organizations. Someone was arguing that we can’t apply our Western values to say that women have the right to enjoy sex, because that is only what we think in terms of our culture. I think that we can’t say that excision should be stopped, because there are myriad implications for ending the practice and more harm can come than good if a group of people is forced to stop something that they don’t want to stop. However, I think it is appropriate to adhere to my values in remaining supportive of Malian organizations who work, through culturally sensitive means, to end excision. I also do not think that any harm comes from women enjoying sex, so I feel comfortable supporting that too. However, I don’t feel comfortable pressuring Malian women’s organizations to prioritize excision over other issues, because that is not necessarily the most pressing women’s issue in the country. Like, for example, feeding one’s children.
My computer is low on battery, more later.
Ciao.
