A good effect of climate change?

Mid-March, already? This means I have less than 2 months left in Douentza, almost down to a month and a half… I’m trying to be as productive as possible in the time remaining while still fitting in the last bit of time to hang out with my friends here.

Yesterday, something crazy happened. It rained. It’s not supposed to rain in March, but rain it did, and fairly hard too. It started when I was leaving the internet. I was nearly laughing out loud as I drove back through the light sprinkle on my motorcycle, feeling like those raindrops were washing away months worth of dust and sweat and stress. When I got home, it started raining harder, so I hid out in my room to make sure the roof didn’t leak. (It didn’t.) It sprinkled on and off for the rest of the evening, cooling things down a bit. Unfortunately, the cool weather didn’t really last, but it was good while it was here.

Around 8, we went over to Nicolas’s house, where I cooked up a fresh tomato sauce and some nice linguini my parents sent me for my birthday. It was M. le Maire, Oumar, Nicolas and I, kind of a strange group, but it was nice nonetheless. At least the pasta was delicious (if I don’t say so myself). I think Nicolas and I might go to the Tango tonight and just relax.

This morning, after transcribing another text about traditional Dogon funeral rituals, M. le Maire and I went over to my friend Fatimata’s house, the one who gave me the necklace. She was working on some leather cushion chairs; it’s always fascinating to watch her work. She showed me some of the things she makes, but since she was busy, we didn’t stay too long.

The house M. le Maire spent a lot of time in as a young man is right around the corner, so we went to say hi to his family. We went into the first second floor room I’ve been in in Douentza, where his uncle, Ende, was staying. He is a retired high school teacher who has lived and worked all over Mali and even in Cote d’Ivoire. I sensed the same wisdom in him that I feel in M. le Maire. We talked about American politics for a while, before railing on the Malian education system. People see the social problems here, but it must be that the people in power don’t care to do anything about it, since it never changes. I can only hope that some day these people with a passion come into power and whip Mali into shape.