More mice

I’ve had a few more mice.
After Madou’s innocent wandering into my hut, things started to get ugly. I was missing my ipod for a couple of days, only to be returned by Madou’s oldest brother, Adama. “I found this with your mouse’s stuff,” he said as he handed me the scratched up version of my new ipod. Still works though. Tcesalo, my host brother and accomplice to Madou, stole 5000 cfa (the equivalent of $10) on two separate occasions. Shaka helped sniff them out, with the help of a suspicious butiki guy that wondered where these kids would get their hands on that kind of bill. All was returned, but the ipod was stolen again, Koniba, the third party of the three 9 year old boys, coughed it up that time. And days later the boys were caught setting fire to someone’s straw hanger in the market.
Now these boys are like my own. I’ve grown attached to them. They drive me crazy but I adore them. Why are they stealing from me? Why are they skipping school and getting themselves into trouble like this? I know that my door sometimes tricks me and doesn’t lock when it should, but it’s always been like that and I’ve never had a problem. They’ve been beat and beat by their parents, but the stealing kept going on. Great solution right? Actually, Dafinie’s approach, seeking a traditional healer, seemed to actually have an effect on the kid. He calmed down and was gentler after that. What was in that tree bark medicine? I say we keep some on hand. On the other hand, Dalfinie also told me that she pinched Madou’s ear for two hours straight. That could also do the trick.
It all blew up one day when I noticed instant coffee, water, sugar, and my precious 0% fat powdered milk spewed all over my cooking hut. I didn’t know kids liked coffee around here.
Which one of you was it? I was pissed now, and also feeling incredibly stupid. How many times is this? And I can’t even make sure my door is locked. I went to my host mom at her rice stand in the small weekly market, not realizing I was attracting an audience. Daramane’s mad, Gneba is mad, none of the kids will fess up to it. Damn it Tcesalo’s a good liar. I’m beginning to believe him.
“My heart is troubled!” All the time, Gneba fusses about making sure all the doors and windows are locked. But now I’m realizing that it’s not just about me, it’s mainly about her reputation as a host in the village.
“I’ll tell Peace Corps! They’ll never agree to put another volunteer here!”
“Good! Fine,” says Daramane. “This is your fault anyway!”
“I know,” I came to my senses, “sometimes I don’t realize when one of the locks doesn’t work.”
“No. It’s because ever since the mouse first entered your house you told us not to hit him. Then they’ll just do it again. And ever since you first came here you let kids come under your hanger and play.”
So it was my fault for doing the only thing I knew how to do at the time-play with the kids. I looked at Shaka, he had a tear down his face. It was later I knew Gneba was accusing him as having a hand in the incident, never believing her own son would be involved. Yet moments later, Gneba and Shaka came to investigate. And there were the footprints, specific sandels, just like a cheesy mystery movie. They identified Koniba as the culprit.
“A banna” said Gneba, “it’s finished.” We were never to talk of it again and Shaka and I were to buy new locks for the doors on market day.
A baana? We went on a run and everything seemed fine after that. But those first couple of minutes hitting the trail I imagined myself slapping Koniba-hard. Every time this happens, my tolerance for hitting kids seems to slowly develop. How awful am I!
Forgiveness. I imagine all of the boys eating coconut under my hanger. Maybe friendship and generosity would humble them. Or maybe I’ll just become a troll, reading, writing, strumming my guitar under the hanger, shooting disapproving glances at trespassing children.
But since the past couple of weeks, things have gotten much better with Tcesalo and Madou. They are regaining my trust donni donni and I’m also being harder on them about lying and getting into trouble. I think they are starting to respect me more, but they keep coming back under my hanger, which means despite all this, we’re still pals. And I know they aren’t just coming back for the ipod thank you very much. I banished them for a while, but after some apologies and promises, they are back coloring and dancing like before. Shaka’s been especially good, and has made it his duty that his little brother doesn’t become a thief. All the kids look up to Shaka, so if he keeps with them, God willing, they’ll straighten themselves out.
I’m still keeping my eye on Koniba though. He’s shifty.