I loved my life in Mali I spent my childhood in Mali without the luxury of having running water or electricity, it was not strange to me it was normal way of life to go down to the river to fill a bucket with water, as for lighting we had kerosene lamps [paraffin lamps] in family room, cooking was done on open fire in the family room, best of all we spent every evening together as a family listening to an battery radio and playing cards, snakes and ladders, lotto[bingo] and Jacks [fivestones] There were just 3 rooms in house they were the family room and 2 bedrooms dad had one bedroom & us 6 kids slept in other bedroom which only had 2 beds in so we slept 3 kids to a bed. There was no bathroom in house, toilet was hole in ground roughly 500 yards away from house and to have a bath well that was 2 kids standing in bucket of cold water while having another bucket of cold water poured over you. Temperature in Mali would go from 90f [32c] during the day and would drop right down to 35f [2c] over night. I use to lived in a village & there were 3 tribes that surrounded us the Kull tribe, Yemi tribe & Yomen tribe. each tribe had their own Witch Doctor. Nebri was the Witch Doctor in the Kull tribe, Doli was Witch Doctor in the Yemi tribe & Ashra was the Witch Doctor for the Yomen tribe.
We kids were warned by our dad to always bow when we pass the Witch Doctors, not to back chat any of the Witch Doctors & do exactly what the Witch Doctors told us to do without questioning them why.
All the Witch Doctors nicknamed me Little Monkey & they nicknamed my twin brother Mouthy, my other brothers & sister was always called by their given named, accept by dad we were always called boy or girl.
Nebri was my favorite Witch Doctor he had 6 wives, number 1 wife was kind & was the homemaker cooking lots of delicious meals. number 2 wife was the bread winner she worked as my dad's secretary, but was always having sex with my dad in his office. number 3 wife was seller she would go market or stand on road selling the wares [mats, bowls, craved animals, tourist stuff] number 4 & 5 wives would make the wares for number 3 wife to sell. number 6 wife was just 13 years old & was basically a child minder she would keep all Nebri children under control, even the children older then herself.
I loved my life in Mali & it taught me that family are more important than any expensive items you can buy.
