Sadio et L'Hippopotame

We have a project and we are so excited! This morning we read the myth of Sadio et l’Hippopatome. This famous Malian legend is the story of a young girl named Sadio, who is best friends with a hippo. Even though Sadio is intelligent, kind, and beautiful, no one wants to marry a woman with a hippo. So, Sadio remains single and lives happily ever after with her friend, the “hippopotame.” FYI—Mali means hippo in Bambara. In the next week, we will perform the myth with the campers, create costumes and sets, and do an African ballet dance (don’t worry - we won’t be choreographing this part). It’s wonderful to finally feel like we have a task and can be useful. We do love a plan. As we teach, we also hope that we are able to model good teaching practice for the Sikasso women who are doing their teacher training with IEP. This afternoon, we taught our first lesson in French with Bambara translators. Students retold the legend in Bambara, and then illustrated a children’s version of the story that we wrote in French (we had some help from our friend, Baiboi). Our first lesson felt like a success, and after we played on the slides with the campers and went back home to Maria’s for more fun with side walk chalk.

The way of life here is starting to feel comfortable. We are getting used to the food, the constant stream of people coming in and out of our house, and the walks through town. For meals, we generally have bread or crepes for breakfast, rice and sauces (veggie and meat and whatever else) for lunch, and then dinner varies – but generally looks a lot like lunch. The neighborhood where we live feels like less hectic than the center of town, and there are no paved roads in our part. It’s lots of wide red dirt roads and cement houses and people sitting in front of their homes with their goats, donkeys, or video games. We live in a strange world. We have to be careful when we walk in the road, because motorcycles come screaming by, honking when they turn the corners.

Our house is actually a compound – sort of a like a bunch of houses around a common courtyard. We share a few bathrooms and open space with 18 regulars, plus 4 other volunteers. Everyone is family, even if they aren’t really related. Maria, who likes to wear her “Hillary Clinton ‘08” t-shirt, is the queen mother. Debbie is an American woman (now Malian) who shares the compound and co-runs the school, and she is amazing. For volunteers, there is Sam (master organizer of all), Claire and Emma (two college students who lead sports, arts, and health at the camp), and Bonnie (a Peace Corps volunteer who has been here during an evacuation from Guinea, but will leave next week). Additionally, there are tons of beautiful and playful family kids who you can see in all of our photos. We don’t know all of their names or how they are related, but we are getting it all slowly. These people are starting to feel like our family too.Chalk play today :)

Sam and Jean Antoine

Playing on the Slides