So there's this really scary woman who lives near the boutique in my village, and if there is any such thing as witches, she is definately one. Whenever I am near, she comes out of her house with her crooked long back and droopy face and bulges her eyes out to look at me. Then she gets right into my face and swirms her head down like a snake to meet my height.
"Look Aminata- I'm sick, what are you going to do huh? You have medicine, I know you do, you have money." If I refute, she cackles, yes cackles. She questions why I have come and why I cannot speak Bamabara, and trying to do my job, asking her questions about the problems of the village she tells me only, come here tomorrow morning and see our women's gathering.
Well, at least she didn't ask me to come at night, or else I'm sure she'd cook me in her stew. As I pushed by bike down the path to leave, I saw her whispering something to herself, and shooting me a cursing glance. I'm not really scared of the snakes here, but this woman, geez.
But happily, I arrived the next morning to a lovely group of sitting in a circle, most of them ignoring the witch-lady prancing around the outskirts. I'm not exactly sure the logistics of it, but they each give a little money, and they can borrow some from the safe and every so often some one gets a big lump sum to stimulate their small personal buisness of selling their goods in the market. It's pretty cute too, they have a name and a little yaya sisterhood clappy song and handshake they do at the end. Even though I don't quite know how it works, or if it works, I saw a weekly gathering of women who were amenable to the idea of me doing health talks at their weekly meetings.
All these little things I'm discovering in the depths of the millet fields- who wuddathought?
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