rachel does mali

directionless and hot

2006-04-25T05:48:00.000-05:00

so yeah...don't have long to talk because i have to walk forever and a day to the national library to return a book...because it's just too much trouble for someone from school to come and pick me up...

oh...and i have no advisor now. I had a meeting with my former advisor on Thursday, and not only did he hug me again (despite my best efforts to get away) and call me his petite amie...he also asked me to take an entrance exam for an american high school for his daughter..! so yeah...i'm pissed off...i came home and cried to my family...then I called Modibo (the academic director) and he said he doesn't trust this guy now (no shit) and would call some people....that was THursday...it's Tuesday...nothing has happened. I called him yesterday and he said that the guy was supposed to call him back last night...but he hasn't called me...! I don't know what I'm supposed to do...I could kind of write the paper now, but I don't have that much information...so for malians it would just seem really obvious...and for americans it's all new, so i don't know...arghhhhhhhhhh!

just a lazy afternoon...

2006-04-19T08:20:00.000-05:00

so i'm in the internet cafe and have been here for over three hours...this is what avoiding your ISP looks like...i've been doing historical research, but i've avoided calling my academic advisor all week...and i have my first "interview" with my brother tonight..haha...but i made some charts, and they look impressive...even if the pos printer at the cyber can't print bambara symbols...

but yeah...it's hot...so hot it's hard to function...yesterday was better though...monday was hell...it's at least 40 everyday, and last week and over the weekend it was 45 most days (you can convert those numbers yourself)...but if i leave the house during the afternoon, i basically look like i've taken a shower i sweat so much...if my hair's in a ponytail, it's wet up to the band, like 4 inches...all the time its like i rivers running down my face...kam is getting a rash from the heat...it's not too bad if i don't leave home in the afternoon...but then i basically just lay on my bed and nap in front of the fan...that's seriously how i've spent most of the past week...monday we made the regrettable decision to leave at noon to go to the other side of the river to visit robyn. This meant changing sotramas (van/buses/public transportation) in centre ville at the hottest time of the day...not a good idea...jen/masta looked like she was in the midst of taking a shower...you know it's funny how the body works...i'm drinking exponentially more water than normal, but at most i pee three times a day...and sometimes when i get on the sotrama i have to pee, but after riding it (and sweating sweating sweating) when i get off, i dont' have to pee anymore...so like masta says, i don't pee anymore, i sweat

ok...more appropraite topic now...i'm researching sinankuna, or joking cousins, for my isp, and i actually got my act together enough to send in an honors proposal on saturday...but if i don't start doing stuff i'll never get enough interviews to do anything with it...argh! this whole lack of motivation thing is killing me...

oh! i went back to the tailor with my sister Maï yesterday, and my clothes came out really well...my malian outfit is very...malian...but it'll be a nice souvenir (meaning i'll probably never wear it at home)...but it's amazing how well the clothes fit...tailoring really is amazing...so i'm gettting more stuff made...and it's really really cheap here too....

i'm trying to think of anything else to write...things are just normal as usual...it's insane that i'm coming home in less than a month now...it'll be really really weird to leave...i'll probably eat everything with my hands and throw all trash on the ground, and pick my nose in public, and do all kinds of malian things when i go home...kam has almost convinced me that i need to bring a kettle home...she swears she's going to use one on the plane...but yeah...i'll try to think of something more interesting to write next time...

hot hot and hotter

2006-04-08T13:29:00.000-05:00

so yeah..back in bamako since thursday...it's hot..really hot...the more i say it the less it describes how hot it is...it's a land locked country...during the day you barely have a shadow because the sun is directly above you...you just sweat and sweat and sweat even when you're not doing anything...

so yeah...i'm complaining...but it's good to be back the grand excursion was basically one long shopping trip...parts of mali are sooo touristy! and they all want to sell you something...oh well

but djenne was definately my favorite...hopefully i'll be able to post some pics before too long...as it is i've spent way too much time in the internet cafe the past two days...stupid summer job..oh well...it's really hard to get anything done when it's this hot...i took a 2 hour nap today and my little brother told me that was a good thing...oh well...i don't really know how this whole independent study project thing is going to work...i'm a little intimidated my it...mostly because i don't know where to begin and i could befin anywhere...freedom...it's hard...

ok...quick summary of the trip than i have to go...
timbouctou - fun, touristy, cooler than bamako (which is surprsing)...camel riding was all it was cracked up to be...drank tea with some tauregs..very touristy

dogon country - good, but we couldn't escape the touristy aspect...also slept outside because it was hot and it was nice out, but my face got sort of scratched up by the wind...climbed an incredibly big cliff...almost thought i wouldn't make it

mopti - acutally stayed in sevare not mopti...mopti is dirty and smells like fish...we rode in a priogue (little boat) there's nothing to do there...sevare is just for hotels and ngo's and people visitng for two days

djenne - loved it...the vans had to ford the river (we crossed in pirogues) because the river was too low for the ferry....djenne jeno was amazing...but UNESCO aboslutely controls the city...would love to go back there for longer

segou - hotel was NICE...ie owned by lebanese...it even had a pool! there were a lot of coulibalys there (ie my slaves, because i'm a traore)...but ineresting..

had to cut the trip short one day because modibo had to get back to bamako to get money out of the bank before it was closed (maybe?) on Monday and Tuesday...Tuesday is the prophet's birthday...ok no time left...will write more later

more pics

2006-03-27T12:57:00.000-06:00

these are just a few pics from last friday...a bunch of the girls in the program went to a pool at Hotel Mande because exams were over (even though we had a full day of presentations today)...it was cool...a LOT of malian teenagers...and there was a fashion show there the next day so we watched the models practice...interesting...the water behind us is the River Niger...the hotel is right on the water...pretty...oh and we felt really cool in our one piece swimsuits that the program told us to bring (it said they had to be conservative)...all the malian girls there were in tiny little bikinis, and the guys were in little boxers (malian men often swin in boxers, sometimes two pairs at once...so we looked a little ridiculous in our sporty one pieces and speedos...like the american swim team or something...oh well..didn't come to mali to be a fashion icon...

police beating and reggae...what else could you want?

2006-03-27T11:29:00.000-06:00

so last night i went to the African Reggae Festival with Masta G/Jen and her sisters and their friends, and her sister's boyfriend...so 9 malians and two americans...i thought the concert started at 6, but we didn't end up leaving until after 8:30...malian time...so we get there and it's INSANE...there were people everywhere...it was put on my L'Association Jeunesse Pour Le Mali, so it's a bunch of young people...i thought it was just a concert thing, so i'm wearing a linen skirt...but all the other girls around are skanking it up in jeans and tiny shirts...but yeah...

so i thought we could never get in, but masta's sister evidently knew some guard, and he got us through the gates (i don't think we bribed him, but our other friends that went with french people not malians had to bribe the guards to get in) it was insanity...right after we got through the gates the police started beating the crowd with their belts (because they don't have clubs) to keep them back...i felt like i was experience some sort of revolution-type atmosphere, but no...it was a concert

so yeah...we get in and then the entire stadium is FULL compeltely packed with people, but someone (masta's sitser knew someone again) we got second row seats...well i mean kind of seats...we stood up for almost the whole time...people were pushing and shoving and dancing...it was sooooooooo freaking hot! i could feel the sweat drip off of me, which i'm used to, but last night there were literally lines of sweat running down my legs...and i was standing still! but finally the music started...it was such an odd experience...oh and as i think you can see from the pictures that will hopefully post with this, there was this big fence between the field (it's actually a sports stadium) and the stands...and they finally let people onto the field because there wasn't any more room in the stands, but some people jumped over the fence instead of going through the gate (because it was only open for a while)and sometimes the police would help them over, and other times randomly they would beat people through the fence...i tried to get pictures, but couldn't without being completely obvious...and i didn't feel like getting my camera taken away from me...but yeah..insane...the music was reggae, rap, and some malian women belting it out...i'm horrible with names, but i'll try to spell them out correctly here...tata pound is a malian rap group...they were really really good...political this is their website: http://mali-music.com/Cat/CatT/tatapound_en.htm

ok...no time...have to post this...off to timbouctou tomorrow...call me!

call me!!

2006-03-20T16:12:00.000-06:00

i got a cell phone today!!! my number is 685 79 60...i think you need the country code and stuff...you guys with your quick internet can figure this stuff out...just remember to add 6 hours...call me soon, before i leave in a week!

2006-03-18T10:37:00.000-06:00

ok...I'm in a better mood today than the last time i wrote...well rested and with a full tummy...from a lunch I made (with the help of our bonnes/domestiques)...that's right I cooked malian food this morning/afternoon...it takes a really long time to make a meal here, I probably started helping at 11:30 or so, and we didn't eat until almost 3...but that's mostly cooking time...I was done with most of the cooking by 1:30 or so...but we had cous-cous and sauce de chou (cabbage sauce)...they tell me it was good...but for all the good tasting stuff we put in the sauce, i felt like it was a little bland in the end...oh and cous-cous not from a box takes a LONG time to makel..and it includes a fire, marmite, two pots, a cloth, this plant goo that you seal one of the pots with, two things to shift/silve/not sure of the english word here the cou-cous with, many bowls, some big spoons, two domestiques and rachel to make...so yeah...not exactly time efficient, but good overall...i think the family got a kick out of seeing me cook...bu i had to say i wanted to help the maids before they understood that i actually wanted to COOK cook, not just watch them cook...but it was fun...

so it's good to be back in bamako...although school is getty crazy, although even know it's hard for me to get stressed out...that's hopefully one thing i'l take home with me...not getting stressed out, because i haven't been since i've been here...or at least a lot less...but practically all of the homework for the entire semster was either due last week or this week...and exams are on thursday and friday of this coming week...after that i'm oan the grand excursion around mali for two weeks, and then it's indepedent study project time (isp)...so yeah...time is flying...but like i said, i'm a little less than impressed wiht the academic organization of the program right now...there's not much direction and our academic direction is just like, "you knew the duie date, what's the confusion?" when he says one thing, one sheet says another, and our booklet says another...argh! all this would be ok, i guess, but it's sooo weird/hard to do work now, becauyse up until this point i've done almost no academic work, apart from some bambara and french stuff...oh well...but i'm feeling lately that i can either be a good malian or a good student, not both...because it's either sit and do my homework by myself in my room (which no one else in my family does, and i feel really antiscoial when i do this) or not do my homework and go causer (hang out) with them....i normally end up doing the second, not surprisingly...

but yeah...so i'm avoinding homeowrk by writing this...so more people need to get back to me about what is up in their lives...i love getting emails...oh and you can send mail to me, so please do so! mom has my address, or it's on facebook, or just let me know you want it and i'll send it to you, i don't really want to post it...also my brother talked with some guy and i'm going to buy his cell phone that he doesn't want anymore...but my brother is going to bring it to our house sometime soon and then bring a guy that cells sim cards (the thing that gives you a nuymber) to our house so i can guy one of those...very malian...but this should end up being cheaper than me, a white girl, going to a boutique to buy it...the right price, not the white price...haha...so when this happens i'll post the number on here and you'll have to call me...i know i keep saying this, but this is how mali works...it'll happen eventually...no worries

so last night was a bit of a bust...we were going to go to to a play at the french cultural center, but then another girl heard about a traditional malian music concert...so i changed my mind and wanted to go to that instead...but i felt kind of bad because i had asked my brother if he wanted to go to the play, and the concert was a ways away, across the river...so he ended up not going, which is good, it turns out....so initially i was supposed to meet two other girls from the program at this monument and then from there take the sotrama (van, public transportation here) to another quartier to pick up a third girl and her malian sister, and then take a taxi together to the other side of ther iver and meet up with the girl who knew about the concert...but the first two girls were a really really late...and it was 7:30....but literally before i stoppped walking to stand beside the sotrama stop, two guys on motos came up and started talking to me...tu es mignonnr, blah, blah, blah...and then i got them to leave, and then this weird friend of one fo the girl's brothers came up to me and was like "mlle traore?" ugh! then he left...then another...you get the idea...so eventually this nice man (probably 50ish) who lives right near the stop came over and asked if i wanted to sit with him and his friends, intially i said nom but he was like "if you don't sit over here, you'll be bothered all night" so i did...and then the girls showed up 45 minutes late...then we took a taxi...then another taxi....then finally found the girl who knew about the concert...but the people (her friends) who told her about the concert were these dirty french hippies...ugh....but they had this one malian friend "joe" who was nice...i have a feeling that's not acutally his name though...but long story short, after a street vender dinner, a ride in an old station wagon and a huge van/bus thing that the diry hippies eidentally drove from mauritania to here...we ended uip at th concert...which was really just a restaurant/bar thing with a live band...but it was fun...we danced a little, and everone got a kick out of the white girls dancing...the singer sang to me a little and danced with me (he was at least 50, and had a really good voice)...but then we had to leave, and i thought the dirty hippies were giving us a ride home, but they didn't...so we took another taxi...and then from the main street, where the driver dropped me off, to my house (literally a distasnce of 600 feet or so) another stupid guy on a moto started talking to me...finally got rid of him, then had to explain to my brother and his friends (who always sit outside the door near the street) why this guy was talking to me...but they were nice and made me feel better...ahh...long story....sorry...but that's what my friday night was...

well time is almost up here at the cyber...a former american student is coming to visit the family tonight (she's working in burkina faso right now) so it'll be good to meet her...write me! there's only one week left before i'm on the excursion for two weeks! take advantage!

how i failed at village life...

2006-03-11T09:22:00.000-06:00

hello all...

i was going to call this post "village life SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!" but i decided that would be more of a reflexion of myself in the village than the village itself....

so yeah...i left the village this morning...i got sick...had diahrea (shouldn't i know how to spell that word by now?) from wednesday morning to friday morning...and then woke up without a voice this morning...i remember lying in bed in our compound in the village dreaming of bamako...i really really missed city life...

so we were in sanakoroba...a little south of bamako...i lived with a traore family again...even had some brothers with the exact same name..but the kids were younger in this family...two wives...our dad was the head of the family...one of the daughters had a kid and her twin was married and lived elsewhere...and then probably a dozen or more little kids....

the thing that got me about the village was being dirty...that and the donkeys with their stupid mating calls at all hours of the night...never did i dream that i would see so much donkey sex...but the frequent trips to the long drop were not helped by the fact that there were not only cockroaches, but also maggots thriving just below my bare bottom...but our family was pretty average income wise i think...oh and then on thursday night there was a toad in my bucket for my bath...i almost cracked...

i lived with another american girl...jen/masta guisse (malian name)...she goes to williams...she kept me sane...and the family started talking to just her...probably because i spent all my time at home in bed or in transit to the long drop...the wives pretty much only spoke bambara and jen speaks bambara better than me...so they would ask her "is habibata hungry?" "does habibata want to get up now? (hint hint)"...but it was ok...i have no one to blame but myself...i was a bad village daughter....once i got sick i didn't really try to assimilate, i just waited for bamako....most of the other girls got ill in some way while in the village, but for the most part it was just a little upset tummy...only two had to leave to go to the clinic in bamako....on and i think one of the girls, the one that's been sick for most of the time we've been here is going to go back to the states...she's the one from harvard and she was going to do her thesis research here, so it really sucks for her...but i haven't really seen her in over two weeks because she's been sick...so it's probably a good thing actually...

we visited a lot of NGOs in the village, SOS Village and School, Cooperation des Femmes, Plan Mali...etc...also there were these stupid canadians there...their town in quebec is sister cities with the village and they were having a big party they ahve every ten years this weekend...so we couldn't have our little sit dance that they always have because the stupid canadians already booked the drummers...and then they made fun of my upset stomach...and they couldn't get why i didn't understand their stupid accent...their accents really are horrendous...stupid canadians...they kept on telling us that we couldn't call ourselves americans because people from the US, canada, and mexico were all americans...we were etats-unis-ians...which sounds awful...stupid canadians...

we did get to make some cool textiles...i made a t-shirt, a tied dyed pagne, and some mud cloth...there was this dirty french hippy who worked at the cooperation des femmes, and didn't seem to get why we were confused that a dirty french man in tie-dye was working there...dirty hippy

obviously i need to catch up on my sleep...i'm also hungry...we eat lunch late at my house...there's more to say about the village, but i'm tired of typing...thanks to everyone for their emails...hope everyone has a great spring break!! i loved hearing from claire, and especially enjoyed the long emails from ellen and annie...also HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!! i'm an awful daughter...i tried to find a cabine to call you between bathroom breaks on thursday, but the international lines were not working...sorry....i'll post more soon...love you all!

a hot friday afternoon

2006-03-03T11:51:00.000-06:00

so i'm here in the cyber with some friends...it's hot...and everyone says it's only gonig to get hotter...i had a friend stay the night last night and evidently i'm assimilating more than her...which i guess means that i stay up late with my brother and his friends drinking the tea....but that's ok, right? you can't assimilate too much right? i doubt it...

sounds like the flu is going around mac...watch out! wash your hands...write me more and let me know what's going on...soon...because i'm leaving monday morning to go to a village for a week...so i'll be without email from monday until saturday...hopefully i'll be getting a cell phone this weekend...i'll post the number when i do...all of you should start buying phone cards now...another girl said that her dad used www.therichcom.com....but feel free to look around...also look for skype...not sure about the spelling....this is a program that you download and do through the computer, so you have to have a microphone...

i got a good response on my idea to do joking relationships from my advisor, so i think that's proably what i'll be focusing on...she says there is a lot of new interest in kinship in anthropology right now, and she gave me some ways to make it applicable and meaningful...so yeah...should be good

it's insane, but we only have two weeks of regular school left...because next week we're in a village, and then two weeks of school, then two weeks of the grand excursion (travel around the country), and then the isp...so yeah...things are going quickly

i'm not really sure what to describe anymore...life is actually starting to become a little routine, but we go on trips enough that it's never boring...i do feel that i'm completely cut off from world news, but that's my fault....because i tune out the french news when we watch it at night...

tomorrow we're probably hiking up this mountain behind kam's house (mimi's friends' friend) and then maybe swimming (probably pool, because some of the girls are scared of a little bilhazria (sp?))...and probably at some point a cell phone purchase...but things are a little up in the air at the house right now because there's a cousin visiting from out of town...he's here because his fiance lives in our quartier (neighborhood) and the father of his fiance called mohammed and was like...where is my daughter's fiance? what's up?...so now he's here visiting...but it's all good...i've realized that i spend all my time with either the american girls, doing homework, or with malian men in their twenties...which is weird, but my sisters are just enough older than me that i don't have a lot to say to them...and the little girls just want to play cards with me...so i do...but all my brothers and his friends speak pretty good french, so they're pretty good to talk to...but...as my younger brother aboubacar informed me, i'm much to old for any of them...he was quite surprised when i said that mom was less than a year younger than dad (he asked)...and he was even more surprised when i told him about walt...but he's cool...he teases me a lot...very homelike...i've never had a younger brother, it's kind of fun...well my time is about to run out...love you all and write me quick! becuse i'm leaving monday morning...

translation

2006-02-26T10:22:00.000-06:00

sorry annie...you're completely right...mohammed comment in english is "you have american skin, but a malian heart"...it sounds less cheesy in french...

shana, you're officially my idol now..you met common! that's crazy! even my malian brothers will be impressed...its weird, people seem to like a lot of american rappers (i live quite near the DMX coiffure...or DMX hair salon) and 50 cent and wu tang clan are written on about half the buildings in bamakom but no one has heard of kayne west...and he's on overkill in the states...oh well...such is pop culture

yesterday there was a soccer game between the sit girls and a malian girls team...it was organized by one of the moms of another sit girl who coaches the malian team...somehow or other the americans one...probably because there were quite a few malians on our team....

more about american pop culture...one of my brothers...the middle one that doesn't talk much, abdallah, is convinced that wwf wrestling is real...as in it's a real sport that people actually compete in...ive tried to convince him otherwise multiple times, but he says he can see the blood so it must be true...if you have any ideas on how to convince him otherwise let me know...

i hope to be getting a cell phone this coming week...i can't handle life without it...once i do i'll post my number and where you can buy phone cards to call me...that's right, it's free for me, but you have to pay...sorry! but i'll put that up when i have it...

saturday

2006-02-25T04:38:00.000-06:00

so things are going pretty well...life is starting to feel routine and im really starting to feel at home with my family...last night mohammed even told me...tu as la peau ameicaine, mais tu as une coeur malienne...quite the compliment if i do say so myself...i even made tea, all three cycles, all by myself, with a lot of instruction, the other night...it took the better part of three hours, but it was good...

im trying to decide about my isp topic..im really intrigued by the joking cousin relationship, but that doesnt really have anything to do with gender and development, the theme of this program...but i could probably make it work...my bambara is SLOWLY improving...i can almost make sentences...my french is not really getting that much better, i think ive resigned myself to the fact that i suck at languages...also im convinced my french teacher exists to annoy me...he is sooooooooo bad!!!

ok, im trying to upload pictures with this post, lets se if it works!

in centre ville

2006-02-22T10:24:00.000-06:00

i'm downtown with some of the other sit girls and i'm at a cyber that 1. has air conditioning and 2. is fast and 3. has an english keyboard...in other words life is posh right now

we came to centre ville for a little tour around some places of interest....the national library, and french cultural center, the american library (in which no one seemed to be american and they made us, the americans, leave our bags at the door??) and a supermarket, which was horribly overpriced....so after that we went to eat at a slightly pricey patisserie for lunch where they forgot only my meal out of everyone's...but it was fine...we just had an interesting experience...we attempted to buy some western-esque clothes to go out in (becuase despite the fact that everyone dresses conservatively during the day, and sit said to bring things like that, when people go out at night they dress like they do in the states) and the 6 of us girls ended up being followed around by about 5 malian men trying to tell us which tank top was really the absolute best one for us...i didn't buy anything, but the other girls ended up getting fairly good prices, despite the store owners' best efforts...we talked them down from 22000 francs (44 dollars) to 6000 (3 dollars)....yeah....life as a tubabu...and then there was this guy who seemed to take it upon himself to be our guide, yet he was not employed by any store...very sketchy...but there seems to be a lot of people who just kind of wander around...and they're all harmless...and then they drink tea

one of the girls spent the night at my house last night and before that we, two of the girls that live nearby, and my brother mohammed went to a movie together...it was the matador with peirce brosnan, but it was dubbed in french...not really that great...but it was airconditioned and only 3 dollars...

classes seriously kind of suck....my french teacher still hasn't really learned our names (there's 5 in our class and i have the same last name as him) and he's really condescending...the lectures are mostly in french so i understand about 68.4% of what's being said, largely because everything so far has been a lot about ngo's and everything has an acronym, so i think they're saying a word, but it's really PMI or something...ok...i should go....send me emails and tell me what's going on! especially those of you at mac!

being a tubabu

2006-02-20T12:08:00.000-06:00

so...as per usual I dont have long to write...i have almost gotten used to being a sight as i walk down the street...the kids yell tubabu which means white person in bambara, and then try to talk in french...no ones thinks we are american...especially when there is a group of us SIT girls, we are quite a sight...but my family has told me some things to do...such as how to say i will kill you in bambara...havent used that one yet...but its actually really safe here, i have never felt unsafe...starred at yes, unsafe no...

theres not really an easy place to start describing the program, but lets just say im getting more used to the life here and really starting to like it...every night i drink this specific kind of really strong foamy tea with my brothers...its sort of a thing that men do, but being a tubabu i do it too...they tell me malian women dont drink it because it causes insomnia...but thanks to my love of coffee it has no effect on me....theres a lot of just sitting around and chilling...reminds me of mimi..oh by the way the girl thats on my program that mimi knows just got over malaria...fun...and i helped take care of her, so i now have first hand malaris experience...time is up...more from the tubabu later...

sikasso

2006-02-18T12:45:00.000-06:00

well i'm in sikasso right now...we left early on friday morning and got here yesterday afternoon, after getting stopped only 5 times...sikasso is located near the borders to cote d'ivoire and burkina faso, so people in transit between the places come here...i just visited the market and bought some fabric for pagnes...very beautiful and only 1000 francs...or 2 american dollars....we're leaving tomorrow morning first thing...i'll try to write something more descriptive tomorrow evening....

dimanche

2006-02-12T06:20:00.000-06:00

hello again everyone...i just tried to import some pictures, but it's not working...evidently this comuter does not recognize my camera. maybe another time...but yeah...since writing last things have been going well...except for my stomach that is...but even that's not that bad...

my name here is habibata traorem and i live with three brothers and three sisters. their family is bigger, but that's who lives in our compound. their parents are both deceased. there's also two girls, daughters of one of the sisters, and their dad, her fiance eats dinner with us every night. there's also la bonne...our the family's donestique. i spend most of my time talking with mohammed, the oldest brother (but all of the sisters are older than all of the brothers)...he's 27...at least i think so, i can't really remember. he teaches what's sort of out equivalent of 9th grade, if 9th grade were grouped with 7th and 8th grades. he teaches geography and history (including russian history, haha)...but he studied german and english at university...so we switch off between english days and french days so we can both practice. my french is really really horrible...i have a lot of trouble understanding people...but everyone just keep telilng me to work on my bambara and it'll all be ok...

speaking of bambara i know how to greet...which is actually fairly complicated compared to our hello...say what my name is, where i'm going, where i'm from, thank you...and some other little things...only people who went to lycee here can speak french, but pretty much everyone in bamako speaks bambara (even if it's not their first language) so if i can actually learn some verbs...i am, i have, etc...it would probably get me pretty far.

i get picked up by a van (driven by my bambara teacher's brother's wife's little brother...got that? now try understanding that when it's explained in franbamlais, what we call our mix of francais/bambara/anglais) and then we got to school. we get picked up because i live on the other side of the river from the school (the river niger) and public transportation would take forever to go that far (over an hour) so we have a van...the school is in a new suburb (my word, not their's) of bamako and is really, really nice and new...the classes are mostly in french...so i get about, oh, 75% or what's said...but it's all good...

the girls on the trip (15 girls) are all nice and easy to get along with...

wow, this is getting long...so bamako..it's a real city, not just a small town...in fact the pollution is awful. mohammed took me all over on his moto yesterday (prehistoric jardin, zoo (with donkeys to feed the lion), up to the top of a mountain to see the white house (think ATT, their pres), and then back down again...and then to his school...and then to the french cultural center to see some of the sit girls...and then at night to an amusement park...which was decidely different than ours in the states)....anyway...on the motorbike at night it's so polluted it looks smokey and people wearthings over their noses and mouths so they don't inhale it all...but i still really like it...

the food is good, lots of rice, potatoes, beans, with sauce...and occasionally a fish cooked intact (face and everything)...sorry for the exotification but yeah...i've eaten so much meat! maybe that's why my stomach is rebelling...

i've been rocking the bucket bath and the long drop toilet, and so far so good...my academic director is really amazing and kind...he's a little older than mom and dad, and he has kids our age-ish...and he seems to know everyone we meet in the street...so yeah...he's great

oh...so i sort of had to go to the doctor already...when we were in a village for orientation, i woke up one morning with bites all over my arm...we thought they were mosquito bites, despite the net...but they didn't itch and didn't go away...two days ago modibo (academic director) took me to a skin doctor and he gave me some cream and now they're practically gone...so all is well and no worries...

so my hour is almost up so i have to go..but i'll try to write soon, because there's more to say..email me! miss you all!

bamako!

2006-02-03T04:19:00.000-06:00

ok...don't have long to write..but i'm here. I think i emailed some people already...let's hope it all went through. the trip was very long but fine...we got in last night and bamako seems great! it smells amazing more than anything and the people have been very welcoming. the hotel we're staying at is sooooooo nice compared to what i was expecting...a real toliet and everything. i think i'm too much of a bleeing heart....while we were waiting this one guy that was trying to sell us stuff said that i was "la plus gentil" of the group, probably because i spoke to him in french...oh well...i'm an easy target...the fifteen of us girls make quite a spectacle walking around bamako in a line...ok...i need to go...but if you want to email me, send it to my macalester address and to my consolidated.net address because macalester seems slow and it isn't really working well...ok...we're leaving day after tomorrow to be gone for the rest of the week from bamako, so i'm not sure when i'll be able to get in touch again...miss you all!

hmmm...

2006-01-24T20:25:00.000-06:00

ok...i'm admitting defeat...this is the first time i've ever attmpted to keep any sort of record of my life online, despite the fact i've had a live journal for almost three years....but my lovely friends have guilted me into keeping a record of my time in mali...i leave next wednesday...so between now and then, it's slip fittings, imodium buying, and meat eating for me...