M, my older daughter, is a Peace Corp volunteer in Mali. She had access to email last week:

September 6
Today was a full day of training on the shea industry. We had a panel discussion on the politics of Malian shea with public and private sector players (they tried to do it in Bambara but didn't last more than one question before it switched to French), and sessions on marketing and cost-benefit analysis. We are supposed to write a business plan for a made up scenario in groups. [From the last entry: The last day of Ramadan here is called Seli fitini, small prayer holiday. They celebrate with everyone actually going to mosque in the morning for a big prayer session, and everyone who can afford it gets new clothes, and then people go around and greet each other and give blessings. Kids roam around in big groups in a Halloween kind of jovial atmosphere. They offer blessings in exchange for coins and candy.]

I got coins ready because T had warned me about it the weekend before, but then I spent that day in the Doctor's compound with my host sister D preparing dinner (she was, I was reading a New Yorker), so he was the one who had to hand out coins for the kids. The only kids I gave coins to were B, S and W (three girls from my homologue's concession). I gave them a mugan (100 CFA, about 20 cents) to split between the three of them, and that was considered a generous gift.

We ended a little early in the afternoon, so I went back to our hut and read Game of Thrones for an hour and then watched movies on my laptop, since I have electricity and therefore can. Electricity is great.

There is some talk of going into Bamako for dinner and ice cream tomorrow. We'll see if that pans out. I decided not to bring running shoes because I was already bringing so much other junk here, and the sessions all day are so tiring, but we've had a little more free daylight time than I expected, so now I kind of regret that decision. Oh well, nothing for it now.

September 7
Men and older women tend to pray five times a day, whereas kids and younger women often don't. You can pray wherever you are, but of course it's better if you can make it to the mosque all five times. They divide up where the men and women pray, sometimes men inside women in the courtyard if it is a small mosque, which many are here. You just have to face Mecca and have a prayer mat. Since most people don't have watches here, and there's no electricity for the call to prayer in village, they just kind of guesstimate the times.

We have a CSCOM (brousse hospital) and a Maternite. We have the primary Doctor B paid for by the government for the whole rural commune, and a secondary doctor paid for by the community. We also have a pharmacist, not sure who pays for him. We also have a primary Matrone, a Monique (from the book Monique and the Mango Rain) if you will, and then she has an assistant as well. I think there might be a second Maternite somewhere in the commune, but we're the main one. That's way more medical staff than the average village, again, because we are the commune capitol.

I can't believe it is the 10th anniversary of 9/11 this weekend. Some volunteer here pointed that out, but I'm sure they're pointing it on TV left and right there.