Chapter 3 - Transcript

tiguida: so are you gonna be there?

namassa: yes

tiguida: tuesday 4 at mamu hair salon – you gonna be there for sure?

question - what's going on?

tiguida: we having women focus group – sometimes monday tuesday talk about health issue with african women – she was asking me how to get health insurance and stuff so i told here when we go there so we talk about it tuesday 4 o'clock

namassa (fr): i came to the united states in 1993. i lived in new york for 3 years. i worked at my brother’s store. he then opened a braiding salon i worked with there. when his salon closed, i  moved here with my husband. i saw an advertisement for dieneba’s salon on the paper. i've been working at her salon from march 1996 until today.

namassa (fr): i can say that i've had good fortune because i'm working because there are people who come here and don’t know anyone - no one to show them how things work here, they suffer – its not easy

dieneba (fr): when were in africa people said that in the united states, there's money on the ground for you to pick up – they say its paradise. when i arrived at the airport to leave for the united states, i regretted leaving home because i started suffering right then - with the customs officers.

dieneba (fr): since i've come here, the work is very hard. we're slow right now, but when it gets busy, i don't get home until two in the morning. my husband and all the children are asleep. the next morning my husband leaves for work at six in the morning and i'm asleep. i leave at seven in the morning to take the children to school, and then i come here to start working - that's it.

question (fr) - so, that's life in america?

dieneba (fr): that's life here, from home to work and then back to home. that's not how it is back home. from friday night to sunday night it's the weekend. there's no weekends here except for events like this (pointing to the tv). we have social gatherings only during the. we don't have a chance to see each other the rest of the year - just going back and forth between work and home. that's why all of us women feel we're growing old because we are caged in at our homes. it's important that we see each other - we need to get together.

dieneba (fr): leaving for work in the morning without seeing my husband - by the time i come home from work, my husband and children are asleep. the next day, it's the same routine all over again. it's very hard here. on the other hand we're finding opportunities here. it's very hard here but what can we do?

dieneba (fr): we feel like we are caged in our houses - we women feel we are growing old here – we need to get out (unwind) and see each other - you leave in morning your husband works and the same routine starts over again.. we are finding opportunities, but its really hard – but what to do? that's it.

voice over (fr):

this was for the baptism of fatima toure. i was the godmother and i organized the baptism party. back home, everyone has their griot and my griot is asetou kouyate. this is how we celebrate baptism in bamako, the women wear beautiful dresses. the dresses were made specially for me because my friends wanted to give me a gift. they ordered the dresses from bamako, mali. i was really happy - i couldn't have done it without them.