Work and Alimata

July 12^th

Apparently all I needed to do before now to ingratiate myself with my staff was to do just this, being somewhat more active in helping them with their work. I'm only weighing women and then writing down the observations that Sali calls out to me from the other side of the curtain in the exam room, but my major seemed quite impressed when Sali told him that I now know what medications a woman is going to be given based on the size of her uterus. There were quite a lot of women and we got started late because Sali was attending a birth and I was speaking with Abdoulye (the owner of my house who helped me remove all my weeds), so we didn't finish until nearly 1pm but we did manage to see all the women who had been waiting. On a tangent from the morning, I wasn't sure about proper protocol for thanking the owner of the house you're renting when he does your yard work for you, but he refused all offers of coffee, tea, breakfast, and only used the water I left for him to wash his hands when he was finished. Hmm. Still, he was very nice. He said a woman asked if she could plant peanuts in the plot of land next to my house, and I said that would be just lovely.

Instead of going home and taking a nap, I headed to the marche, but got waylaid talking to Alimata for an hour and decided that I didn't really need onions that badly so I headed home with my samsa and galettes. I'd missed talking to her – it was really nice, especially the Moore/Francais mix that lets me try and pick up new words a little easier. We talked about what I did in the US (didn't work, just was with family), Lauren's visit (her Moore was very impressive), my eating habits (I've gotten skinny and should never travel again – I need to stay in village and get fat and strong so I can find a husband – have some more galettes), and her family (her daughter is sick, they just started planting a few weeks ago but it hasn't rained in 4 days and everyone is a little worried).