Eating with your hands

So one of the things we learned in training was eating with our hands. You think it wouldn’t be that hard, but you try to scoop rice up without spilling it everywhere. Hard than you thought, huh?
Most Malians eat with their hands. There are forks and spoons in the markets but if you’re poor, with ten kids and two wives, that’s a lot of silverware. More money than necessary when you can just eat with your hands.
Malians gather around a big bowl, men crouching, women sitting on small stools. Men usually eat from a bowl and women and children eat from another. Often there will be a child or two at the men’s bowl. Everyone will wash their hands before digging in the bowl. The center of the bowl has meat and vegetable or more sauce and this area is up for grabs, but the general rule is to stay in the area in front of you- no reaching! You use your fingers to gather a clump of food to the side of the bowl, using your thumb to mash together into a ball. Then you’d curl the ball of food into your hand, into a half fist. I usually turn the half fist toward my face, and gather food in my mouth from the bottom of my fingers to the top. I end up with most of my fingers in my mouth. Some Malians get big handfuls of food and create balls in their hands and take bits from that ball. I can’t do that bc the food is usually too hot for me to take more than a small handful.
When you’ve had enough or the food is gone, one says “A Barika” to the oldest/head of the family down to the youngest. This essentially means thanks for providing. The response is “A barika Ala ye”- thanks be to God.