My house

Here's where I lived but I didn't spend much time inside. The shelter, made with long grasses, was much cooler.

Making bricks

Most houses are made from mud bricks. These are made in the village by mixing mud with straw and letting them bake for a few days in the sun.

It's hot!

It was often over 40°C - the hot season (March to May)

Sleeping outside

It was too hot to sleep inside, so I used to set up my mosquito net and matress outside.

Some of my teachers

Everyone gave me lots of opportunity to speak in Bambara - some liked making fun of my mistakes too!

Threshing the millet

Most meals are based around millet or rice. Once the millet is harvested it needs to be threshed to break loose all the grains.

Winnowing the millet

The millet is then winnowed to get rid of the chaff.

Grinding the millet

People bring their millet to be ground into flour. In the same machine room, there's a machine to husk rice.

Well, well, well...

No taps in the village. Water came from the well in the middle of the courtyard. It could be rather muddy, but I filtered it before drinking.

Work in the fields

Most men work on plots of irrigated land, growing rice, tomatoes, cabbages, green peppers, and onions.

What's for dinner?

Meals are cooked outside using firewood. The pots are balanced on three large stones. No... I didn't do any of the cooking!

Pigs

It was the children's job to feed to pigs every day.