Soggy "Sougula" May 20, 2011

Saturday May 21 2011

Today we had salad for dinner!  Hooray!  This morning  when Fanta and I “ambata sougula”(otherwise known as walked to market)  she bought a large quantity of lovely, green looseleaf lettuce, along with the usual fresh meat from the butcher, the soup cubes, the “tomati”,  "concon" (cucumber) and onions.  (That is about as much Bambara as I have learned, except for the days’ greetings, and don't count on my spelling being correct. There are 3 or 4 extra vowels and an extra consonant or two that we don't have in English.) At first I thought that Fanta was buying it for Claudia, as she bought some tomatoes and cucumbers for her last week. But 4 bags of greens makes a LOT of salad, so I asked and she pointed to herself and spoke something that I did not recognize.. .You know, it is absolutely amazing how much communication 2 people can have when neither understands more than a few words of the other’s language.  Fanta speaks only Bambara (HER second language behind another Malian language, I found out today) and I speak only English with a little bit of French (with way too many Spanish and Pennsylvania Dutch phrases  mixed in.) … Anyway, she was getting all that lovely salad to make African Salad for all of us.

“What is that” you ask?  Africa Salad is greens topped with a mixture of tomatoes, onions and cucumbers and dressed with a rather salty vinaigrette.  Quite tasty actually, especially if you have had no salad for 2+ weeks, and didn’t think it was a possibility.  We thoroughly enjoyed it, eating it with our hands right along with the boys. (I hoped that we looked a bit more dainty than we probably did. LOL)

Oh, and another thing about market this week: It was WET! Or at least I was before I got home.

Saturday dawned overcast and with the very threatening promise of rain, but Fanta sent word that she was ready so off we went.  There were few stands open and even fewer shoppers when we arrived.  The open soccer field, usually dotted with the bright colors of villagers clothing as they are coming and going from all directions, was virtually deserted.

We went directly to the stand of Fantas favorite butcher where she was first in line as he and a helper were unwrapping and hanging their meat for the day.  He cut her 2 nice looking loin chops that I was admiring—until he proceeded to whack them into niblets, deftly chopping thru meat and bone with the wicked looking scimitar he wielded.  He added a few bits of meat and fat from another portion, wrapped it all in a piece of brown paper that his assistant tore off an empty sack, tucked it into the infamous little black bag used everywhere, and handed it to Fanta.  I decided to speak for a portion of meat off the fresh hind corner (I had seen it freshly hung and hadn’t seen many flies on it yet.)  My 500 cfa coin bought me a couple quick swipes with that same scimitar, yielding about a ½ lb package of fresh beef  for me.

Tomatoes, cucumbers, white yams, and Irish potatoes for me; a quantity of onions, okra, (greener) tomatoes, and seasonings for Fanta, and the market began to bustle as people apparently decided that the rain was going to hold off after all. A few more stops for those lovely mangoes (1 of them yields 3 generous servings), some bananas, celery and carrots, that lettuce  I mentioned, and a bottle of vinegar and we were ready to head home.  Just in time, because the rain began.  Fanta wanted to offer me her wrap, fearing that I would be cold (as she was) but I was enjoying the refreshment of the rain. And then it turned into a downpour that would have done credit to a small Niagara. We bent into the rain, sloshing thru several  new formed streams that coursed down the roadway.

At least the walk home was a whole lot cooler than last week.  Then I was dripping with sweat by the time we got home in the 100 degree heat. By the time we got to the gate today my only dry spot was an inch or so under the Hale shopping bag that I held clutched tight to my chest.  Drenched again!   

I certainly am thankful that I come with ‘wash and wear’ hair.  Thank you God for that!