I had my every hope and dream crushed today when I found out this horrible news: Mali has no pangolins. Now, this is terrible for a couple of reasons. First and most obvious, I do not get to spot their primordial silhouettes bumbling across the night brush. Second, Wikipedia is fallible. Nooo. I retain the blog name, though, in honor of my fallen dreams. Perhaps when traveling elsewhere in the region, I will be vindicated.
Aside from such things, life is good. Ramata continues to open up and I think it will be fun to work with her. I learned some practical things, like how to ask people's names, plus a bunch of verbal paradigms. Today, Jeff sat with us and we learned the names for about 14 different kinds of grasshoppers. I didn't even know that many kinds of grasshoppers existed, much less that there would be different names for them. People even eat some of them, but I hope I will not have to face that. But who knows? Maybe grasshopper is an undiscovered (at least in the US) delicacy.
Jeff and Minkailou took Abbie out to her village in Bunu yesterday, so it was just me and Seydou, another of Jeff's assistants, around the house. Got up at dawn, as usual, did elicitation for about four hours, had lunch, took a nap, sat in the AC room and crunched some data, had dinner, listened to Akon and Lil Wayne on my computer with Seydou, then Jeff came back and I went to bed. It was very windy on the roof last night, not sure if that's best for Bug Hut 2. I may have to descend.
Anyhow, it's off to the village for me tomorrow. Seydou will come with and spend a couple days to make sure everything gets settled okay, and Ramata is coming with me too. I'm definitely nervous--there's no AC room or refrigerator there, no electricity at all, for that matter. We'll see I hold up. My plan is to spend a week and then run back to Douentza to regroup for however long. I think that will be fine, since Jeff wants me to spend a fair amount of time in Douentza while he's still here.
Some things I like: a herd of sheep wandering into the house courtyard; mangoes; stars; cold bucket baths on a hot day; the slow pace of life.
Things that could be better: the heat, worrying about water/infectious diseases; being away from people I love; the lack of privacy.
Thank you for all of the comments! They are the highlight of my day.
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11 comments:
i know i shouldn't laugh but i am.
epic fail.
love you!
ahhhh, no pangolins how sad! Well perhaps you will discover them yet, or even some other more awesome beastie. It's kinda crazy that there are that many types of grasshoppers. The mangoes sound delicious! Scott and I completed our road trip successfully, I wrote a really long entry so if you have time you should read it! (www.musingsoftheicequeen.blogspot.com)
miss you!
CURSES. i'm looking at all the websites we consulted and trying to figure out where we thought we learned that pangolins live in mali. apparently Giant Pangolins are around -but way south closer to the equater, a la Congo, Cameroon, Uganda, etc.
Haaard. Anyways, have you seen any goats? Some baby goats might make up for it.
I hope all goes well in the village! i will buy a calling card and phone you up one of these days. yay!
I'm thinking you could find out the name of the biggest, grossest grasshopper and remake your blog (even if you keep the name) as 'that thing'-watch. I don't know about everyone else, but for me, I think pictures of big gross grasshoppers would help ease the pain of not having any pangolin action.
There's a Oaxacan restaurant a few blocks from me that has grasshoppers on the menu, and my consultant's restaurant does too (Spanish chapulinas, Valley Zapotec bsh:àady). Bsh:àady get loose. So if both sides of the Atlantic independently converged on giant grasshoppers as the edible insect of choice, that can only mean they're extremely tasty, right?
Sounds like things are picking up... I can't wait to hear about your village. :)
well it's too bad about the pangolins but I'm still optimistic. I think you're going to turn out to love the village. I have faith. I'm debating starting my own blog for when I'm in costa rica. Whataya think?
I thought of you today. I was cleaning my sheets and when I was taking the cover off my comforter a quarter sized spider fell out and started crawling on the floor! I was NOT amused and a bit creeped/freaked out so I squished it. Anyways, I hope there aren't any crazy spiders to go along with those grasshoppers, if there are just go "liiiiiindsey" and I'll be on my way!
Mmm, grasshoppers! If you're lucky, you can find some fried termites! They are a delicacy on the other side of the continent.
Great to hear that things are starting to come together. I would be less worried about infectious disease out in the countryside than in the city. I didn't get malaria at all in Kenya, and the only time I got sick was from some fucking amoebas in Nairobi. Probably something I got at a restaurant there.
Gotta love the mangoes too ...
And tone ...
I totally agree -- mangoes and tone are two of the best things in life.
UPDATE ALREADY. i check like twice a day. I'm excited to hear about the village and all your adventures.
They may not be in mali, but we still got to stay strong for the pangolins. In fact, can we get matching tattoos of pangolins?
I'm thinking the less time I can spend around giant grasshoppers, cooked or otherwise, the better. Grasshoppers are no compensation for a lack of pangolins.
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