Joking Cousins and other adventures in training

Only three days left of in service training and then it's back to the real world in Djenne. This means no more showers, delicious food, or wireless internet, but I'm suprisingly ready to get back. Being at the training center is a little like what I imagine sleep away summer camp must have been like, with all of us eating meals in the refectoire and sleeping in little huts. All in all, it's been a lot of sitting in sessions learning about health/development, but there are a few things that have kept it interesting.
One being, I learned how to knit! My tentative plan, should I eventually become any good at it, is to knit a whole bunch of baby hats so that after educating women on the importance of going to the doctor to give birth (they currently prefer to do this at home) I can reward them with little knitted hats for their newborns! This may not fall into the category of sustainable projects (as in will be continued after I leave) but I think it will be fun and the women will really like it.
On the subject of joking cousins: In Mali, there are relatively few last names (as your last name usually indicates your ethnic group). In the history of Mali I guess there was a lot of infighting between these groups, and so in order to keep the peace, they developed the joking cousins system. Basically the way it works is this: If two people are fighting, or there is any sort of problem, and it is discovered that they are joking cousins, they immediately begin making fun of each other and the crisis is resolved. It may sound too easy, but I have actually seen it in action and it works! It is also just fun to joke with people, so they do it ALL THE TIME. For example, I was in the doctor's office the other day having some blood drawn (nothing major) and in the middle of everything another guy walks into the room. He of course asks my last name, and lo and behold we are joking cousins! So while the woman fills three vials with blood, he tells me that the reason I am sick must be because I eat SO many beans. In fact, he wouldn't be surprised if I had some in my bag right now! I called him a crazy donkey and said yes I do love beans, which he thought was so funny he about died laughing and the nurse almost kicked him out! hehe. Even in the doctor's office you can't escape it. Other common jokes include: "you are my slave" or "you are not a person." What makes it so entertaining, I haven't quite figured out yet, but it is pretty fun, and it never gets old!
One last anecdote from training so far. My homologue, Nana, who I work with in village has been here this last week (as have all the homologues to get some training). Today we were talking about when I first came to Mali, and she finally told me that when I rode up on a donkey cart the first day and all the little kids surrounded me she thought it was the funniest thing she had ever seen! A tubab in the middle of a circle of Malians, on a donkey cart, saying "Nana be min?" (where is nana?)and as she claims, looking very scared. I guess it does make for a pretty funny portrait, but I didn't ever realize how funny she thought it was. She then told the story to a bunch of homologues who thought it was equally hilarious! I probably shouldn't have, but I did tell her about a time in village when I had to ask someone where my own house was, because I had gotten lost and I knew they would know where the tubab girl lived (which they did! haha). When we finally got over our laughing fit, she at least did say I never would have been able to tell her that with how horrible my Bambara was before! At least I think that implies it is a little better now, right?

Holidays Mali style

First and foremost, I finally managed to post more pictures! I haven't figured out how to get them on my blog yet, but at least if you click on the link you should be able to find them. I'll work on adding some captions, but for now most are from the hike in Dogon country, Christmas and New Year's, with some of my host family and house thrown in. Also, thank you to everyone who sent christmas cards or packages! It really made my holiday so much better.
Now, since the last post I've mostly been traveling and getting ready for in service training which starts Monday. Over Christmas we hiked in Dogon country to see the villages that have been built up into the cliffs. There are some houses not in use anymore that you can see way high up and I honestly have no idea how the people managed to get up there to live. When we asked our guide, he matter of factly said, "Because they had a sacred language that allowed them to walk like lizards". Oh. It was really interesting to hear about the Dogon and Tellam (people who lived there before the Dogons) culture because they are pretty much the last remaining animists in the area. We had to go with a guide to avoid accidentally stepping on any sacred spots. If you should do this, the price is the sacrifice of a goat or cow (incidentally not cheap). Luckily we managed to hike all around without offending anyone or ruining any sacred spots. It was really amazing to see how these people live in the cliffs though. As we were slowly making our way up the cliff, some men practically ran past us with huge baskets on their heads. Turns out they were bringing our food up to the campement! Women also manage to climb around with buckets of water on their heads. For some of the villages they have to climb all the way down the cliff to get water from a pump at the bottom. Definitely made me appreciate the spicket outside my house.
As for New Year's, I spent it with a bunch of other volunteers in a village in between Gao and Sevare. We all had a good time, but it was a little sad that for the first time I had a little bit of a hard time staying up until midnight! Way past my usual 9pm bed time.
One of the pictures I wanted to add to the blog but unfortunately couldn't get to work was of Sally, the new addition to our household. We inherited her from another volunteer that left early. She is only a year old and pretty small, so we were surprised when we got her home and only a week later she seemed to have gained a lot of weight. Lo and behold, she's pregnant! So now my mission while with other volunteers for IST is to find homes for however many kittens she ends up having. I did find out though that there is cat birth control available at some pharmacies here! I thought she was a little young to be starting that already, but clearly I was wrong. Naive parenting on our part I guess, haha.
I'll be at the training center for the next three weeks, so I'll hopefully be able to post some more and fill everyone in on what else I've been up to since thanksgiving time!