What's This All About

I'm starting to have a routine and sometimes I actually know what is going on. So I thought I would try and summarize what I do.
My day starts with the morning call to prayer. Usually I sleep though this 4 a.m. wake up call. I am a little confused why the call to prayer for an event that takes places at sunrise (approximately 6:30 a.m.) happens so far in advance. But I have learned to be OK with a lot of things that confuse me, and this is a minor one. After a breakfast of bread from the bakery a block from my house, I head to 'work'.
Work involves me sitting in what we would consider an empty office; a desk, a table, two chairs, a mostly empty bookcase. Sometimes people stop in; fun when I'm the only one there. I can tell my language skills have improved at least a little. Now I usually know what people are asking for, and can sometimes even point them in the right direction. A month and half ago I just smiled and looked at them really confused (because I was really confused). Oh, I forgot to mention, this is the public works office/city hall. The marriage ceremonies are a fun. A lot of my time is spent just hanging out. Usually Amadou is there, and we have great discussions; about politics, pollution, the price of rice, religion, geography, disease, polygamy, all sorts of things. It is great French practice for me. He is incredibly patient because our discussions always involve a dictionary, and sometimes drawing pictures, or acting things out. We have to draw fewer pictures now to understand each other, but I still have to look up a lot of words. Occasionally my dealer stops in, no not drugs, plantains. I have a serious addiction and she knows it. She shows up with a tray full at least once a week.
After a few hours of this 'work', I head to my host family's house for lunch. Lunch is rice and sauce eaten out of a common bowl. My host mom makes a great tega dega na (peanut butter sauce). The bowl sits on the floor in the middle of the room and we all sit around it eating with our hands. I get the one chair; everyone else sits on stools, tomato cans or the bed. My host family is a-typical because men and women eat out of the same bowl. After lunch we watch some television. The Belle-Mere (The Mother-in-Law), was a great Brazilian or Mexican soap opera dubbed in French. It was incredibly cheesy, and fantastically bad. At the end of the show when things were getting exciting I think there were over 20 of us packed in an 8'x12' room with wall to wall furniture. This leaves about 4'x8' to pack 20 some people into, very efficient and adds to the air of excitement.
After this action packed 30 minutes of television, I drink some tea. Tea drinking and making is a national pass time in Mali. The tea is made super strong, incredibly sweet, and sometimes with mint (my personal favorite). It is served in a shot glass, and has been poured back and forth between the tea pot and glass until it has a cappuccino like foam on top. It is standard to drink two glasses of tea, the second glass being the second brewing. This second glass is less strong, therefore less bitter, and I think better. My host dad calls it Malian whiskey, and I like Malian whiskey.
Around 3 or 4 p.m I make my way to my house. The walk home includes some form of being mobbed by children (from mild to so serious I might have to hit you, or at least act like it). My walk also involves a lot of greeting. Sounds easy enough right, hello, goodbye. No, it is an exchange that takes several minutes. Hello involves how's your family, how did you sleep, how are your friends (if they actually know your friends you might go thru them one by one), how's everyone in your town (really)? Goodbye is along the lines of why are you leaving so soon, tell your family hello, tell your friends hello. There might be questions in the middle of hello and goodbye. These cover what is your name, where are you from, where is your husband, do you have kids, would you like something to eat. And then there are blessings, they are fun. May Alah grant you what ever you want and/or may Alah remove what ever is wrong. This makes walking down the street a little time consuming, but never boring. I do this in Bambaran with a little French thrown in, but this can also go on in Peuhl or a few other less common languages. I'll work on Peuhl next (maybe), I'm still trying to get the Bambaran down.