Ami Diop

Like the kids who called me « She-ppy » many people have a hard time saying Shelby. It’s just not a familiar name here. I mix up the names of people here all the time, too, so it all evens out. However, there’s the funniest thing here, « joking cousins » where people make fun of each other – good-naturedly – of their names and where it implies one is from. I honestly don’t really understand all the nuances but it cracks me up since people find it hilarious.

I was given the name « Ami Diop » during my first week here and it’s turned out to be an easy ice-breaker, especially when people just don’t seem to « get » my name. In one village, while meeting with the chief and the other leaders, I followed the lead of my other American counterpart and introduced myself as Ami Diop and was met with cackles of laughter. One of them said « Au revoir, Madame Diop » as we left and, for a moment, I thought, « Who’s Mme. Diop ? » then remembered, « Hey, that’s me ! » Diop is actually a Senegalese name so in another village, one of the leaders told me, with a twinkle in his eye, that I must change the name for the day to Ami Nané, the common local surname.

I stayed with a family one night in Kolokani after my bout of illness while waiting to meet up with the team again. Once I introduced myself as Ami during dinner, I never heard Shelby again. They would say, « Ami ! » and look over, making sure that I’d respond, then ask me a question or tell me to eat more. It’s the most random inside joke when people know it’s not your name and they continue to call you by that name.

That day had the potential to be an incredibly frustrating day because everything was out of my hands, but I felt uncharacteristically relaxed. I had been dropped off at a supervisor’s house (stranger to me initially but friendly and served lunch right away, so all was fine in my world) in a town a couple of hours from Bamako with the assurance that the team would come by that evening … or perhaps in the next day … or so … to get me (the team had no cell phone reception wherever they were so couldn’t confirm). The team didn’t show by dark so I ending up eating guava fruit and watching the Mali-Côte d’Ivoire soccer match on TV outside (run off a generator while the rest of the house was dark and Mali lost 5-6 in OT … as they’ve won only once in the past 20 games, it was a big upset). Neighbors sauntered by and sat down, and I watched little boys give up their seats for older men while women stood in the back, nursing babies. At one point I counted 18 people huddled in front of the tube. I had been instructed to sit on a cot bed that had been brought outside for lounging. It was indeed comfy, but I felt absolutely ridiculous while everyone else sat on chairs or stood.

After the game, we ate dinner and I continued to hear questions directed to « Ami ». I took a bucket shower in the rectangular mud structure outside and admired the stars (if you keep your face – and most importantly, your nose – to the sky, it decreases the potentency of smells wafting up from the hole in the ground below), then crawled into bed, feeling full and clean. I slept on a mat on the cement floor under a mosquito net and conked out til 6:30 the next morning, when I awoke to these hilarious guys singing « She rises ! » in Bambara. I must have looked quite confused when I opened the door of my room and walked out to the living area because then they started talking to me in French, translating what they’d said in Bambara (as if that would clarify everything). I was again instructed to sit down and watched as fresh, hot tea was promptly mixed with 4 heaping spoonfuls of sugar (I cringed) and a few scoops of powdered milk. He poured it back and forth between two mugs to cool it off and handed it to me. I sipped the sweet tea and ate bread and butter and reconsidered the advice I often give to limit sugar. It just amazes me – the generous hospitality with which foreigners are greeted here, particularly uninvited, unannounced foreigners. (By the way, the team picked me up at noon that day at the health center.)