heat and babies

I can't believe how the days have gotten even hotter here.  It has been hott, but normally we aren't dripping sweat in the morning at 9am already!!  So to work on our last big Cultural Anthropology project, we sat in our room with the fans blasting.  It's a bit cooler this way.  This morning we didn't have class, thanks to Uncle Joseph.  He let us off because of the half of our team traveling to Bamako for Easter.  Anyways, so we woke up to crying babies this morning.  And I just had to see what was going on---you know, its me!  So i put my clothes on and didn't even put my contacts in and just walked outside.  Matthew was sitting on these big bags of fertilizer (poop) and eating a mango.  He was a bit crabby and completely exhausted.  Then there was this other baby who is SOO cute but has so many fat rolls! So we call him the "old man baby"; we think he looks like an old man, but he's soo precious.  Anyways so the kids wanted me to put Matthew on my back so that he would fall asleep.  So I did, and he literally passed out while wrapped on my back.  At one point his head was hanging backwards and it looked so uncomfortable.  I can't get used to holding babies on my back...they don't seem to stay up on me because I don't have many curves (haha) so I'm always holding the towel up so it doesn't fall down all the time.  What a perfect morning.  Except it was so hot I was dripping with sweat..and I knew it was going to be a long exhausting day.

It is so hard to be motivated to do anything here.  Sure I can play with kids all day, but then to go sit down and study.  First of all I'm always so ansy here, even in the classroom I just have to stand up and walk.  Secondly its not easy to study and think when its so so hot outside.  

As Americans, we have so much stuff.  What we brought with us to Mali doesn't seem like much, but its alot!  Sometimes I'm so embarassed to carry my computer outside or to hold my nice camera in front of their faces.  I feel so unpleasantly wealthy and even very guilty at times.  What am I supposed to do with that feeling?  I've felt like this so much since the first time I went overseas.  My heart changed and my mindset of "stuff and money" changed.  I dont want to be that wealthy white american here.  But i can't change that.  It makes things all the more difficult!