Randoms of village life

Despite Mali being so safe and practically no crime in village I am forced by my homologue to keep my bike indoors at night. I wanted to leave it outside in my little concession chained up but he refuses to let me. I compare this to other volunteers who can leave their bike outside all the time without any security measures. I am also forced to lock my door everytime I leave the area. When I know that everyone is watching my house anyway. My neighbors know anytime someone comes into my concession. I feel so safe here, but my homologue insists that occasionally people come from the neighboring town to do crime at night. Culturally, if anything were to happen he would feel responsible and shamed so I gotta keep things locked up even though I feel the safest I've ever felt in life. However I do realize that my bike is nice especially compared to Malian bikes. It's like having a new BMW amidst a sea of jalopies.

Kids in Mali know how to have fun at low costs. Some kids I know have created 'chi-chi'ing machine. It's basically an L shaped piece of metal attached to a stick with some elestic. There's also a piece of elastic with a nail attached that goes from the stick to the metal tip. Kids put match heads in the metal tip and then bang the metal tip/nail on a rock which creates a loud bang similar to a firecracker. Sounds confusing, but it's simple and brilliant. Here are some pics of it.