mysterious mali people, mysterious oahze

limping through the village has expanded my vocabulary.

i now know how to say, "i went running and i fell." and a few other useful phrases.

i haven't tried running again, except for once.

sofie and i were taking an early morning stroll through the village. instead of walking on the road, we weaved through the houses on the side of the road. we were in search of food, mostly. anything other than porridge and rice and beans.

"do you think there is any food back here?" she pointed.

"let's go see."

so we walked in the opposite direction of the clinic, towards the football pitch and the local elementary school. children were dressed in their uniforms, looking spiffy, carrying their chairs on their heads, or the little ones with just a notebook.

"akua!"

i heard a young woman call my name.

i turned and looked to see a church friend of mine. she was in her nightie and a hair net, outside her compound, with her girlfriends. they were all laughing at her.

"akua, my daughter will not go to school." she said in twi.

i didn't see any children around. "where is she?" i asked.

"oye ha. she's there. sitting in the field. she refuses to go to school."

sofie and i looked ahead, into the distance. her daughter was not yet 6 and she was already playing hookie. she was sitting in her little pink dress, all alone, with her arms crossed.

"akua... she is scared of you."

i knew this. a lot of the village children are afraid of me. my white skin is so foreign they don't know what to believe. if they aren't sticking their little fingers out waiting for me to bop them, they run away from me like i am a mad dog.

"akua, i'm sorry. but she won't go to school. i want her to go to school. can you please chase her into her classroom?"

"sure!" i said, then i lightly jogged in the direction of her daughter. i was close to 100 feet away when she stood up, alert. i kept jogging, slowly, and she began to turn and run. when i was close to 25 feet, she screamed and sprinted into school, straight through the entry way into her class.

all the women clapped loudly, laughed hard, and told me God would bless me for my good work.

"do you reckon we could do that every day?" sofie said.

"we should! let's make it our life work. attendance promoters. we could live in villages all over ghana and chase kids to school. maybe charge a small fee?"

we kept talking and decided to give up our search for food and go to work. "maybe tonite, let's look for something different to eat tonite." we decided.

our life had become very routine, and we needed a little spicing it up. collin's mother traveled to accra so we were left to find our own dinner, or cook it. we decided finding it would be easier, and more fun.

when we got to work, every body was up in a stir. "the mali people are here! the mali people are here!" Ma Vic, Vera, Kingsley, everyone was acting if they had just seen the easter bunny.

sofie and andrew had spotted them the day before, and come home elated. "have you seen them?" they asked me. "there are so many!" i hadn't.

sofie joined in with the enthusiasm. "they're sooooo cool."

efreeyeh walked around the corner. she looked gorgeous. her hair had been woven, intricate strands tying up into a high bun.

"efreeyeh you are looking sweet." kingsley said.

"ya, efreeyeh, look at you! beauty queen!" i said.

"you think so?" she gave us a look. a look that was glad to be reveling in beauty. a look that said she was having fun with her new do'. i liked this new sassy efreeyeh.

"uh huh." vic said "the Mali people have made your hair beautiful."

"the Mali people did that?" i asked.

she nodded. "they will do yours if you let them."

i most definately would let them. somebody went into town and called for one of the mali woman. she would come down later, they said.

we continued into a typical day, except that a severe rainstorm poured down. it was exciting. true hard thunder, flashes of bright lightening straight above our heads. i love the intensity of african rainstorms. i ran around barefoot in the heavy thick drops for a bit, got soaked, then went into the office with efreeyeh to learn a little anatomy from sofie. the clinic had been momentarily deserted, and the absence of people forced us all into rainy day health clinic arts and crafts.

she was drawing a human body, with attachable organs, and cutting them out.

the mali woman came in the middle of our project. i could see why everybody was so enthralled, she was exotic looking. very mysterious. very foreign.

"proper african hippies." sofie called them.

vic said she liked them because "all of them, they have everything they need in their bags. they won't ask for anything, they have everything, their own bowls and blankets, you see? they move around, with little little, they are free!"

kingsley claimed them all to be "very fine, very fine indeed."

the woman was wearing long flowy clothing and her wrists and ankles were wrapped in colorful beaded jewelry. she spoke no english, no twi and was shy as a doe, peeking out from a beautiful cloth draped over her head, exposing her face which was tatooed. little bursts of ink, where wrinkles from happy eyes form, covered her cheekbones and temples. her bottom lip was tattooed in blue also.

she walked over to my hair, and i took it out of the rubber band. i wanted my hair like efreeyeh's, spiraled braids working their way up my head.

she began her work, but after 5 minutes stopped.

"akua, your hair is too greasy." efreeyeh said.

"it's wet." sofie corrected.

"no, it's that your hair is, how do you call it? not slimy, slippery! it's too slippery. you must have hair like mine, rough rough, for this style, you see?"

"can she do mine?" sofie asked.

"let us see."

the woman could do sofies, and worked her hands all around her head while i cut out the large intestine, kidneys, a uterus. i was happy for sofie, her hair looked great. "all my life my hair has been such an issue." she's said. and on this trip, it appeared to be her daily disturbance. she stopped washing it the first day she arrived, and kept the shampoo fast going for almost 2 months. everyday she would ask "how's it look, manky?"

no, i'd say. her hair is dry and brittle, bordering african. in this case, she said, it was an advantage.

"she will come tommorrow to do yours. when it is dry." efreeyeh said.

sofie and i went out that night, into town, scavenging for dinner, something out of the norm. we passed the mosque, which was full of the mali people. they brought more life and energy to that mosque than i had seen since i arrived. they were outside, with the teapots, huddled in groups, peacefully enjoying each others company.

"i get it." i said to sofie, referring to my own thoughts of why all the townspeople can't take their eye's off of us. all i wanted to do was stare. these strangers were so interesting.

a patient at the clinic earlier that day said "i saw one of them eating rice. i saw them eating rice!" as if they caught a dolphin in the midst of some typical human behaviour.

we walked by, foreigner staring at foreigner.

"the thing is they have it all mixed up." sofie said awhile later, referring to the food search. "they sell egg sandwiches and hot chocolate at night, and rice and beans in the morning. who eats eggs at night?"

the street was dark, but lively, music was blasting from the local bar, kids were hopping all around. we found a stand selling a certain something she had only tried once. "it's delicious, let's get some."

after we finished our meal, a man walked over holding a pot filled with more food. he lifted the lid and steam rose out, like he was magically charming it to expose itself in swirls. it smelled delectable.

"what is it?" we asked, mesmerized.

in a low voice he said "oahze."

he gave us the bowl, although neither of us asked for it. both of us were excited to try it. "i'd like to pay him." sofie said. but the man had dissapearred. "it was a gift." i reminded her.

he reappeared with 2 spoons. and sofie handed him some cash. "oh please" he said "oh please, you take it. enjoy."

then he left.

we dipped our spoons into the bowl and each took out our tidy servings. we ate it slowly, tasting each bite to the fullest.

"it's so good." i said, closing my eyes and humming with delight.

"it is isn't it? i wonder what it is?"

we kept eating, and letting out little moans of approval. we both came to an agreement it tasted a lot like rice pudding. african rice pudding.

the man came back. "ah i see, you have enjoyed yourselves."

"yes, thank you. please, can you tell us where you got this?"

"oh yes yes, from that woman there. you see? she is selling the egg and bread. she has the oahze there. she sells it from the pot. you can buy some any night. whenever you like."

we beamed with satisfaction. both of us found oahze to be very comforting, and familiar.

"let's go ask her what it is."

we walked over to the woman and i told her her oahze was amazing. we needed to know... what exactly was it?

she laughed and said thank you. then she held up a cylinder carton that i knew all too well.

i looked at sofie and started cracking up.

"sofie? do you see that?"

"what?"

"it's oat's. we were eating oatmeal."

the market woman lifted the lid of her boiling pot and there it was, a pot full of bubbling oatmeal, white and goopy.

"it was so good though!" sofie said, unsure of why oatmeal could taste that great.

"i know?!"

we watched the woman make another bowl of oatmeal. she put about 6 heaping spoonfuls of sugar inside, added some condensed milk, and stirred.

"OHHHHH" we both said.

the allure had vanished, but my desire had not.

i wanted to eat oahze every night that night, and sofie and i made a pact to do just so.