"Birthday"

It’s not my birthday, but tomorrow is. My “AQC”, we’re calling it. Almost Quarter Century. I’m approaching musokoroba (literally “woman old very much”) territory. At this point in time, the Breakfast Club stage has also bypassed the one year mark at site. In honor of this occasion, I took some quiet time to reflect upon my service, “Africa”, the nature of change, etc. I soon bored myself. Then I came up with this list:

After one year at site,

I still…

• Don’t eat mayonnaise sandwiches, a staple in the Malian PCV travel diet. I just can’t do it.

• Spend WAY too much money on telephone credit, the internet café, and the post office. I miss you guys!

• Wash my hands with soap before eating, unlike SOME people *cough* Amy aka Aminata Haidira *cough*.

• LOVE baby chicks. Baby goats. Baby donkeys. Baby anything, really.

• Don’t eat those brown, dried, all curled up bottom-feeder fish. I’d rather be protein deficient.

• Forget to call my Malian family when out of town (a bad habit, some will remember, got me into trouble in high school…) and bring back “city” gifts for them. Terribly culturally inappropriate.

• Flinch a little at rocks, hair, bones, skin, bugs, worms, and/or sand in my food. I mean I’ll still eat it but, blech. Come on, guys! I personally volunteer for rice-checking duty next meal.

• Have to laugh at the ridiculous stickers and t-shirts I see on cars and people. This morning’s example from transport: A photo of Osama bin Laden framed by the words “NEVER DIE” superimposed over an image of what I truly believe was a shot of Chuck Norris from that cinematic classic, Delta Force. I mean, I couldn’t make this stuff up.

• Kind of enjoy making African babies cry in sheer terror. Simply at the site of my face. From a distance. It doesn’t get old.

• HATE doing laundry. It’s torturous.

• Use toilet paper.

I no longer…

• Respond to children in my village who yell “tubabu” at me. You don’t know my name by now? Well, go ask somebody. You don’t get the Queen of England wave.

• Wave more than twice at any one child, no matter how many times or for how long he may scream my name. You MIGHT get three if I’m in a good mood. Which is rare.

• Eat in restaurants at every opportunity. $8 pizza or 10 cent plate of beans? I’d rather eat the beans and spend the difference at the cyber café.

• Take every baby that is handed to me. I’ll only hold your baby if I know you or if it is an especially cute baby, for a couple of reasons: 1) Malian babies will ALWAYS go to the bathroom on you. 2) Ever since fellow PCV Brooke aka Fakuru Kamisoko (kami sogo!) got stuck alone with a Malian newborn on the Kayes platform as his train pulled away, I don’t want to take any chances.