The Children

50% of Mali's Population are under the age of fifteen.  Children are everywhere!  They are not very controlled and seem to have the freedom to wander around.  We entertain each other as I am curious about Malian culture and they are even more curious about strange looking white people.

Malian women start having kids as early as 14 and have lots of them.  Families are huge.  Since infant mortality rates are still very high in Mali, there doesn't seem to be as much emotional energy invested into children.  The death of an infant will not gain as much attention as the death of an adult.  Thats not to say that a mother won't be devastated by the death of her child, its just that the rest of the community may not take much attention.  Because of this attitude children are very independent and look out for each other.  Its not unusual to see a seven year old sister carrying a younger sibling on her back as if it was her own child.  Most children are very confident and have a blast trying to talk to us volunteers.  Their attention is usually a lot of fun.

The population pyramid above shows that Mali has extremely high birth rates and death rates.  A lot of volunteers put a lot of effort into teaching family planning and birth control.  Still, most Malian women, even the educated ones, feel like their purpose in life is to raise children.

My favorite part of Malian children is that their attention provides a stress free non formal way of practicing language skills and seeing how the Malian youth understand the reality around them.  My 16 year old host brother tried to explain that Malians are black because it is so hot in Mali, and (as I am tanning) I myself will become black after a few years in Mali.  That cracked me up.  The really young children hardly know what I am.  I've made lots of children cry just by being in their presence.  Some children really freak out and I think that they think that I will eat them.  Parents think its the funniest thing even when their kids are scared of me.  Other children HAVE to touch me.  Especially my hair on my head and on my arms, and my earring.

It makes sense that they would be so interested.  There are definitely some children in the rural villages who have never seen a white person.

They love to chant tubabu when they see me.  The term 'tubabu' originated during French colonization, but it has developed into a term used to refer to rich white foreigners (though the african american in my group will be called tubab as well sometimes).  Its interesting that countries have this word.  In Latin America the term in 'Gringo', and when I lived in Spain locals liked to use the term 'giri.'  Even though Spain is a developed European country my friends explained that the term 'giri' still meant "a foreigner who has more money than us."  The term tubab in Mali is usually harmless.  It is annoying when the children just chant it at you and don't want to talk, but it doesn't bother me at all when Malians call me tubab to get my attention.  I just don't like it when my family (or usually its friends of my family) are talking about me and use the word tubab instead of just using my name.

I have less then a week left of living with my host family.  On August 5th I will swear in as a peace corps volunteer and on August 7th I will permanently move into my village.  My first order of business will be hanging out with the kids and practicing my Tomokan with them.