The last week has been a party, mainly because it was my second semi-consistent week of classes this semester. Although, I did have two classes where my professor didn't show, one of them being a class that we wrote a paper for and prepared a presentation. After that class the other Americans and I had a bit of a freak out because the Semester ends mid-February, so we stormed director of our program's office. Hopefully, our semester will be slightly sorted out and include us learning a little bit as well.
Besides classes, the week wasn't exceedingly eventful. All six of us Americans are going to be helping a local middle school with their English classes We met with a few teachers last week to decide when we'll come, so Carlie and I will be helping a class Wednesday mornings. I think we were all just looking for a way to get involved in the community and do something potentially fruitful.
Friday night we took two our friends Aminata and Ousmane out for dinner to celebrate their recent marriage. I really enjoyed being able to take them out and show them how much we appreciate their friendship and their efforts to make us feel welcome. Plus, it was really entertaining because we forgot how to get to the restaurant, and we walked about two blocks extra (which was not very far in the first place) and Aminata was going on about how we should have taken the taxi. When we found the restaurant, they both said "we are here at last" about 15 times. I'm not sure how they'd fare on a college campus in the states where you have more than a five minute walk to class, but I kind of want to see...
Saturday night was the new student integration for my dorm building, and to celebrate we had a costume party. I went, as my roommate put it, as an American, although I was hoping for more a basketball player image since I was wearing a basketball uniform. In general, it was hilarious to see all the girls dressed ridiculously, mostly as men, and then dancing while staying in character. Earlier in the day, when we were all standing outside, a building of guys ran up with buckets fool of water and started dousing the girls of my building. I'm pretty sure I got hit the hardest because I was a little slow to react. Unfortunately, one of the girls in my dorm took a video on her phone and it shows everyone running away except me...she then proceeded to ask me what I would have done if it was a monster coming towards us. That question is pretty legitimate I guess, you should always know what to do in case of a monster, especially in Senegal!
Sunday I went over to a family's house after church where they fed me a lovely meal of brushpig, otherwise known as warthog. It was pretty tasty, a little tough, but what can you expect? During the meal I was forced to relive my choir concert because they filmed it, and I noticed how few of the song lyrics I actually knew. Fortunately, I can still practice, because the small church of 8 people is starting a choir, and I will be one of two current members. Haha, poor people, they don't know what they'll be enduring.
This week has been off to a relatively good start, my professor came to class this morning and gave me a bibliography so I can go read some books on my own, sad. Have a good week!
Monday, January 26, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
Mali continued
Wednesday morning was kind of a wild goose chase because we wanted to look into some other lodging that was less expensive. We found a hostel run by a convent, which was a couple of dollars cheaper and very nice, but we decided it would be awkward to leave our little apartment, and it was likely that my host mother would hurt me if we didn’t stay there. Just kidding, kind of… That afternoon we visited the Bamako museum where a very tall women, with curlers in her hair and eyebrows drawn on her face with makeup that started out normal and then nearly stretched to her ears, showed us around. The museum itself wasn’t much of anything, but it was fairly entertaining to see her grabbing the exhibits, such as a traditional booboo, and then telling us to feel the fabric. Plus, I got a special bonus experience out of the museum visit; I locked myself in the bathroom. To clarify, there was no door handle from the inside of the stall, and I had to call Carlie to come let me out; hence, it wasn’t totally my fault.
I almost forgot, the best part of the museum, the garden out front featuring decorative statues that were a little past there prime. I got a nice picture of a mermaid with half a head of hair, but I had to be sneaky because a sign said you had to pay 50 cents for a photo. The rest of the evening we wandered around the fabric market and informed several vendors that we were Senegalese, not French or American; I bet we fooled them. If I remember correctly, that night was New Years Eve, and we celebrated in style by going to bed early and listening to fireworks going off in the city. All in all, it was kind of a lame way to celebrate, but due to some poor choices we made involving tap water and drinking it, Maria and I weren’t in the best condition to party it up. Thursday was our token tubab day, mainly because we were in need of some a little rest, and the entire city of Bamako shut down for the holiday. Consequently, we trekked over to a French hotel and enjoyed a day at the pool. Since we were at a French hotel, we tried out some French cuisine, which turned out to be a little gross because I unknowingly ordered buckwheat crepe. To give you a sense of the flavor of this crepe, imagine a soggy sponge that has been sitting dirty water for a week; it was tasty.
Friday Carlie and I visited the national museum of Mali. Honestly, this museum was one of the coolest parts of our trip, but I feel kind of sad saying that because it is extremely out of place in the fourth poorest country in the world. The museum was recently renovated, and featured some really interesting exhibits on fabrics in Mali and African artwork. Plus, we had free admission to the outdoor prehistoric museum, which featured caves with dioramas that I elected not to view after a flock(?) of bats came shooting out of the ceiling. That afternoon, we went on a hunt for a flight home and a small shop that featured some pretty cool crafty things. After visiting a travel agency, it seemed like we would be busing back home again (which I was really hoping not to do) because the price to fly to Dakar any day before Wednesday was $500.00, ouch! To try and cope with the thought of 50 more hours on the bus, we ate dinner at a restaurant/bar that was said to bring in an interesting crowd including Peace Corps volunteers and South African gold miners. I’m not sure about the gold miners, but there were definitely more Americans than Africans in the restaurant, not including us, and I decided to order something crazy and went with lasagna. I know that you all don’t really care, but I’ll share anyways, the lasagna was pretty good, but I think they forgot to add the tomato sauce.
Saturday we decided to check into the airline prices one more time, and found out they dropped about $300.00; hence, I returned from Mali Sunday evening by plane. After purchasing our tickets, we spent the rest of the day trying to find some shops our guidebook suggested, and after a wild goose chase in a $5.00 taxi (that’s expensive here…) we found what we were looking for, and it was closed! Sunday was another adventurous day because we decided to explore Mali’s “mountainous” terrain because it is so different from the incredible flatness of Senegal. To get to the top of a rather large hill overlooking Bamako, we took a taxi resembling the sept place I take between Dakar and Saint-Louis, but in this taxi we fit 9 people instead of 7! On the way up a man from Morocco explained to me that the drivers of said taxis have to be skilled because the cars have no brakes, haha. The rest of the day we milled around some markets, and then headed off to the airport.
We arrived at the airport about two hours before our flight was supposed to leave, and the airport officials told us we couldn’t enter the airport yet and to go sit next to our “papa” who was the other white person in the vicinity. Eventually, after some interesting sights, including several people bribing airport officials for various problems like not have the correct documentation, we boarded the flight. I hate to say it, but the flight was incredibly enjoyable! We were served dinner and had strange in-flight entertainment of a video of people pulling pranks on New Yorkers. That night we crashed at the apartment that some other Americans had rented, and the next morning we headed back to Saint-Louis. All in all, I think Maria’s comment, “It’s been real Mali, a little too real,” was completely legitimate, but it was definitely a great trip.
It’s been a while since my last post, and I can’t truthfully say I’ve been busy, but I’ve been finding a few more ways to keep myself occupied. Classes have finally started, and I’m only slightly worried about how I will pass my final exams in less than a month. Although, I’ve heard a few rumors that they will extend the semester because of all of the strikes. I’m planning on taking economic geography (with an oral final exam, uh oh), socio-anthropology of the economy (I’m confused too), and French on top of Wolof and my research. Speaking of research, the professors from Madison in charge of our program came to visit. Their visit was really nice because they had advice to give us on all kinds of levels, and they took out to dinner… I’ve decided to write my research paper on Protestant Christians in Senegal, and I’ll be starting with the church I’ve been attending here in Saint-Louis and working my way outward. I’m pretty excited about the project because I just get to basically sit and talk with people about their lives. It’s so much better than reading a bunch of musty books and trying to come to some conclusion about them like I’ve done in Madison.
Besides classes and meeting with professors, I’ve been trying to make a few friends on campus. I went to a dance last Friday, which is always interesting because it’s fashionable to arrive after 1 am and stay until breakfast. I made it until 4, I guess I’m a slacker. Additionally, last Sunday I attended the Catholic mass for students on campus and their new student integration ceremony. In general, the mass and ceremony themselves were not very interesting because the church was too small for everyone to fit inside so I couldn’t see or hear what was going on. But, my roommate, who I’ve title head of the Catholic party planning committee, gave me some food, and I got to talk to my other roommate Khady for like 3 hours. I really enjoyed that, and I thought it was interesting just because she is Muslim and still wanted to come to the integration.
Well, that’s a fairly long update on what’s been happening here in Senegal. Hope all is well back home, shout out to the nouveau President!
I almost forgot, the best part of the museum, the garden out front featuring decorative statues that were a little past there prime. I got a nice picture of a mermaid with half a head of hair, but I had to be sneaky because a sign said you had to pay 50 cents for a photo. The rest of the evening we wandered around the fabric market and informed several vendors that we were Senegalese, not French or American; I bet we fooled them. If I remember correctly, that night was New Years Eve, and we celebrated in style by going to bed early and listening to fireworks going off in the city. All in all, it was kind of a lame way to celebrate, but due to some poor choices we made involving tap water and drinking it, Maria and I weren’t in the best condition to party it up. Thursday was our token tubab day, mainly because we were in need of some a little rest, and the entire city of Bamako shut down for the holiday. Consequently, we trekked over to a French hotel and enjoyed a day at the pool. Since we were at a French hotel, we tried out some French cuisine, which turned out to be a little gross because I unknowingly ordered buckwheat crepe. To give you a sense of the flavor of this crepe, imagine a soggy sponge that has been sitting dirty water for a week; it was tasty.
Friday Carlie and I visited the national museum of Mali. Honestly, this museum was one of the coolest parts of our trip, but I feel kind of sad saying that because it is extremely out of place in the fourth poorest country in the world. The museum was recently renovated, and featured some really interesting exhibits on fabrics in Mali and African artwork. Plus, we had free admission to the outdoor prehistoric museum, which featured caves with dioramas that I elected not to view after a flock(?) of bats came shooting out of the ceiling. That afternoon, we went on a hunt for a flight home and a small shop that featured some pretty cool crafty things. After visiting a travel agency, it seemed like we would be busing back home again (which I was really hoping not to do) because the price to fly to Dakar any day before Wednesday was $500.00, ouch! To try and cope with the thought of 50 more hours on the bus, we ate dinner at a restaurant/bar that was said to bring in an interesting crowd including Peace Corps volunteers and South African gold miners. I’m not sure about the gold miners, but there were definitely more Americans than Africans in the restaurant, not including us, and I decided to order something crazy and went with lasagna. I know that you all don’t really care, but I’ll share anyways, the lasagna was pretty good, but I think they forgot to add the tomato sauce.
Saturday we decided to check into the airline prices one more time, and found out they dropped about $300.00; hence, I returned from Mali Sunday evening by plane. After purchasing our tickets, we spent the rest of the day trying to find some shops our guidebook suggested, and after a wild goose chase in a $5.00 taxi (that’s expensive here…) we found what we were looking for, and it was closed! Sunday was another adventurous day because we decided to explore Mali’s “mountainous” terrain because it is so different from the incredible flatness of Senegal. To get to the top of a rather large hill overlooking Bamako, we took a taxi resembling the sept place I take between Dakar and Saint-Louis, but in this taxi we fit 9 people instead of 7! On the way up a man from Morocco explained to me that the drivers of said taxis have to be skilled because the cars have no brakes, haha. The rest of the day we milled around some markets, and then headed off to the airport.
We arrived at the airport about two hours before our flight was supposed to leave, and the airport officials told us we couldn’t enter the airport yet and to go sit next to our “papa” who was the other white person in the vicinity. Eventually, after some interesting sights, including several people bribing airport officials for various problems like not have the correct documentation, we boarded the flight. I hate to say it, but the flight was incredibly enjoyable! We were served dinner and had strange in-flight entertainment of a video of people pulling pranks on New Yorkers. That night we crashed at the apartment that some other Americans had rented, and the next morning we headed back to Saint-Louis. All in all, I think Maria’s comment, “It’s been real Mali, a little too real,” was completely legitimate, but it was definitely a great trip.
It’s been a while since my last post, and I can’t truthfully say I’ve been busy, but I’ve been finding a few more ways to keep myself occupied. Classes have finally started, and I’m only slightly worried about how I will pass my final exams in less than a month. Although, I’ve heard a few rumors that they will extend the semester because of all of the strikes. I’m planning on taking economic geography (with an oral final exam, uh oh), socio-anthropology of the economy (I’m confused too), and French on top of Wolof and my research. Speaking of research, the professors from Madison in charge of our program came to visit. Their visit was really nice because they had advice to give us on all kinds of levels, and they took out to dinner… I’ve decided to write my research paper on Protestant Christians in Senegal, and I’ll be starting with the church I’ve been attending here in Saint-Louis and working my way outward. I’m pretty excited about the project because I just get to basically sit and talk with people about their lives. It’s so much better than reading a bunch of musty books and trying to come to some conclusion about them like I’ve done in Madison.
Besides classes and meeting with professors, I’ve been trying to make a few friends on campus. I went to a dance last Friday, which is always interesting because it’s fashionable to arrive after 1 am and stay until breakfast. I made it until 4, I guess I’m a slacker. Additionally, last Sunday I attended the Catholic mass for students on campus and their new student integration ceremony. In general, the mass and ceremony themselves were not very interesting because the church was too small for everyone to fit inside so I couldn’t see or hear what was going on. But, my roommate, who I’ve title head of the Catholic party planning committee, gave me some food, and I got to talk to my other roommate Khady for like 3 hours. I really enjoyed that, and I thought it was interesting just because she is Muslim and still wanted to come to the integration.
Well, that’s a fairly long update on what’s been happening here in Senegal. Hope all is well back home, shout out to the nouveau President!
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
"It's been real Mali, maybe a little too real..."
That’s what Maria, one of the girls who voyaged to Mali with me said as we boarded the plane to return to Senegal from Bamako, Mali. Truthfully, I was thinking the same thing at the time, but that was the end of the trip, and Mali really is a great country.
Our trip started on a bit of a strange note, because buying our bus tickets turned into a very shady exchange with a man working out of his car…We arrived at the train station the day before we were leaving to buy tickets, and we were slightly disappointed when the workers there told us that you can’t buy bus tickets there. But luckily, this man sitting next to his car in the parking lot sold us bus tickets for $50.00 and told us to return to the same place the next day at 9am. So, Saturday morning we arrive on time, and the man informs us that the bus is somewhere else, throws our bags in the trunk (it doesn’t close all the way), and tells us to get in. A few minutes later we arrive at the depot where we catch the taxis to go back and forth between Saint-Louis, and I have since decided that we could have skipped the middleman. Oh well, next time, haha.
Upon arrival at the “bus depot,” the bus departing to Bamako appeared to be nearly ready to go, so the timing seemed almost perfect. As it turns out, we were supposed to exchange the tickets for other ones; consequently, they didn’t let us board that bus and told us we had to wait for the next one. Five hours later, we hit the road; I guess it paid off to wait such a long time because the bus had so few passengers that we each had 2 seats to ourselves almost the entire trip. During the trip the rest of the day, we made a few stops, including a dinner break where we paid 30 cents to use a toilet that turned out to be a room with no hole in the floor (at least that I saw).
We made pretty good progress that night, and then during the day it was slow going because much of the road wasn’t paved, and we had frequent stops to pay of various police like officials. I’m not sure why we paid them, maybe because our bus didn’t have the appropriate papers? One particular instance had us worried when they told us to get off the bus and give our passports to some random man, but we quickly realized that we were at the Senegalese/Malien border and they needed to stamp my passport. A few hours later we crossed the border and arrived in Kai, a lovely town that suffered from and outbreak of dengue fever last month, where the bus driver informed us we would be spending the night and leaving the next day at 4 am. Theoretically, I would have been a little worried about this unknown stop, but after the previous few days I didn’t really think twice about it. Ok, I did think twice when I realized I would have to sleep outside on the floor of a gas station because the bus turned out to be at a sauna like temperature. Hence, my first night in Mali was a little bizarre, and with worries of dengue fever and spending a whole week in this country, I slept for about an hour.
Monday evening around 7 we pulled into the Bamako (the capitol of Mali) “bus depot” and proceeded to collect our belongings. After the 54 hour voyage, our backpacks that they stored under the bus were completely covered in dust, more specifically, my backpack, which is a dark red, was bright orange when they removed it from the storage area. Once we got our stuff, we attempted for about 15 minutes to escape the throng of crazy men yelling at us about how they know a nice hotel and strange things. Finally, we found a telecenter because my sim card from Senegal apparently doesn’t work in Mali (who knew?) and we called the woman who we would be staying with. Amazingly, she arrived 5 minutes after we called her in a very nice car, and brought us to her apartment right in the heart of Bamako. We had our own room with three beds, and we shared a bathroom, with running water!, with the rest of her family. The woman renting us the room is the sister in-law of my host mother, so she gave us a good price (at least she told us, it was like $12.00 a person per night), and she runs a restaurant downstairs where they sell Senegalese cuisine. To clarify, when I say restaurant, I mean they have a table with benches and lots of bowls of food. Furthermore, I just wanted to point out the irony in the fact that I went to Mali and spent the week living with Senegalese people and eating Senegalese or French food.
The following day, Tuesday, we got up, enjoyed a nice change in our breakfast habits with croissants instead of baguettes, and then we learned that the woman hosting us, Sokhna, asked her friend to show us around the city. As a sidenote, it was nice having him help us out because he had a car and he spoke english, but we felt slightly awkward because we were afraid we would have to pay him like 50 dollars. Anyways, the first place he took us was the Bamako zoo, bet you weren't expecting that one. I wasn't either, but it was really fun since I haven't been to a zoo in years, and I got to experience an African zoo. The zoo was complete with camels, donkeys, wolves?, hyenas, lions, and an assortment of really freaky looking birds. Oh, and I shouldn't forget to explain how most of the animals were kept in cages/pens, but we had a few awkward runins with camels and donkeys charging down the path at us. After the zoo we had a nice driving tour of Bamako, which is fairly different from Dakar, for a city so near to Senegal and with similar French influences. First of all, the ground is a dark red color, which is strikingly different from the light sandy color in Senegal. Plus, the region surrounding Bamako is very hilly and looks alot like the rocky terrain of Arizona minus the cacti. Another stark difference is that Bamako seems to make an effort to clean up trash off the streets, and on the street running past most of the government buildings there are legitimate trash cans.
After a lovely Senegalese lunch of ceebujen, our friends younger brother who is an actual tourists guide, took us to the Niger river for man powered boat ride. Our captain paddled our small canoe with a long pole that he pushed off of the bottom of the river with, evidently the river is not very deep. In general, the boat ride was very nice, but after we negotiated a price for two hours, the boat driver was intent on holding us to the two hours. Consequently, when it started getting dark at 6:15, the mosquitoes came out in full force to punish us for wanting to enjoy the scenic beauty of Mali. By 6:45, we told the driver to take us in and we'd pay him for two hours anyways...moral of the story, bring bug spray? Mosquitoes were a frequent companion during our stay in Bamako, probably because the daily temperatures in the mid 90s and overnight lows in the 70s kept them very happy. In fact, at night they were so bad, that Sokhna would spray our room with some scary toxic chemical that we had two wait 5 minutes before even entering the room, and then we would play a fun game of run into the room as fast as possible so fewer mosquitoes could enter. It seems to me that the mosquitoes in Mali are just alot more courageous because I got several mosquito bites in the shower.
That second night was little rough because Carlie got a nasty bout of stomach problems that could have been from our bad choices of drinking tap water the night before or the various strange things we bought from vendors on the side of the road during the bus ride. My theory is, you gotta keep things interesting, so might as well eat the sketchy meat sandwich from the woman shouting in strange languages at you. Although Carlie did have a good point, that if we get in a bad situation and someone asks if we made some bad choices to get us in that position, we would have to say, "um,which one are you referring to?" Just kidding!
I'll continue our adventures in Mali in my next post, but at the moment I'm back at school in Saint-Louis awaiting my benevolent professors and hoping they will decide to grace us with their presence. Although, I heard that tomorrow is another holiday celebrating the Muslim new year, so who knows really.
Our trip started on a bit of a strange note, because buying our bus tickets turned into a very shady exchange with a man working out of his car…We arrived at the train station the day before we were leaving to buy tickets, and we were slightly disappointed when the workers there told us that you can’t buy bus tickets there. But luckily, this man sitting next to his car in the parking lot sold us bus tickets for $50.00 and told us to return to the same place the next day at 9am. So, Saturday morning we arrive on time, and the man informs us that the bus is somewhere else, throws our bags in the trunk (it doesn’t close all the way), and tells us to get in. A few minutes later we arrive at the depot where we catch the taxis to go back and forth between Saint-Louis, and I have since decided that we could have skipped the middleman. Oh well, next time, haha.
Upon arrival at the “bus depot,” the bus departing to Bamako appeared to be nearly ready to go, so the timing seemed almost perfect. As it turns out, we were supposed to exchange the tickets for other ones; consequently, they didn’t let us board that bus and told us we had to wait for the next one. Five hours later, we hit the road; I guess it paid off to wait such a long time because the bus had so few passengers that we each had 2 seats to ourselves almost the entire trip. During the trip the rest of the day, we made a few stops, including a dinner break where we paid 30 cents to use a toilet that turned out to be a room with no hole in the floor (at least that I saw).
We made pretty good progress that night, and then during the day it was slow going because much of the road wasn’t paved, and we had frequent stops to pay of various police like officials. I’m not sure why we paid them, maybe because our bus didn’t have the appropriate papers? One particular instance had us worried when they told us to get off the bus and give our passports to some random man, but we quickly realized that we were at the Senegalese/Malien border and they needed to stamp my passport. A few hours later we crossed the border and arrived in Kai, a lovely town that suffered from and outbreak of dengue fever last month, where the bus driver informed us we would be spending the night and leaving the next day at 4 am. Theoretically, I would have been a little worried about this unknown stop, but after the previous few days I didn’t really think twice about it. Ok, I did think twice when I realized I would have to sleep outside on the floor of a gas station because the bus turned out to be at a sauna like temperature. Hence, my first night in Mali was a little bizarre, and with worries of dengue fever and spending a whole week in this country, I slept for about an hour.
Monday evening around 7 we pulled into the Bamako (the capitol of Mali) “bus depot” and proceeded to collect our belongings. After the 54 hour voyage, our backpacks that they stored under the bus were completely covered in dust, more specifically, my backpack, which is a dark red, was bright orange when they removed it from the storage area. Once we got our stuff, we attempted for about 15 minutes to escape the throng of crazy men yelling at us about how they know a nice hotel and strange things. Finally, we found a telecenter because my sim card from Senegal apparently doesn’t work in Mali (who knew?) and we called the woman who we would be staying with. Amazingly, she arrived 5 minutes after we called her in a very nice car, and brought us to her apartment right in the heart of Bamako. We had our own room with three beds, and we shared a bathroom, with running water!, with the rest of her family. The woman renting us the room is the sister in-law of my host mother, so she gave us a good price (at least she told us, it was like $12.00 a person per night), and she runs a restaurant downstairs where they sell Senegalese cuisine. To clarify, when I say restaurant, I mean they have a table with benches and lots of bowls of food. Furthermore, I just wanted to point out the irony in the fact that I went to Mali and spent the week living with Senegalese people and eating Senegalese or French food.
The following day, Tuesday, we got up, enjoyed a nice change in our breakfast habits with croissants instead of baguettes, and then we learned that the woman hosting us, Sokhna, asked her friend to show us around the city. As a sidenote, it was nice having him help us out because he had a car and he spoke english, but we felt slightly awkward because we were afraid we would have to pay him like 50 dollars. Anyways, the first place he took us was the Bamako zoo, bet you weren't expecting that one. I wasn't either, but it was really fun since I haven't been to a zoo in years, and I got to experience an African zoo. The zoo was complete with camels, donkeys, wolves?, hyenas, lions, and an assortment of really freaky looking birds. Oh, and I shouldn't forget to explain how most of the animals were kept in cages/pens, but we had a few awkward runins with camels and donkeys charging down the path at us. After the zoo we had a nice driving tour of Bamako, which is fairly different from Dakar, for a city so near to Senegal and with similar French influences. First of all, the ground is a dark red color, which is strikingly different from the light sandy color in Senegal. Plus, the region surrounding Bamako is very hilly and looks alot like the rocky terrain of Arizona minus the cacti. Another stark difference is that Bamako seems to make an effort to clean up trash off the streets, and on the street running past most of the government buildings there are legitimate trash cans.
After a lovely Senegalese lunch of ceebujen, our friends younger brother who is an actual tourists guide, took us to the Niger river for man powered boat ride. Our captain paddled our small canoe with a long pole that he pushed off of the bottom of the river with, evidently the river is not very deep. In general, the boat ride was very nice, but after we negotiated a price for two hours, the boat driver was intent on holding us to the two hours. Consequently, when it started getting dark at 6:15, the mosquitoes came out in full force to punish us for wanting to enjoy the scenic beauty of Mali. By 6:45, we told the driver to take us in and we'd pay him for two hours anyways...moral of the story, bring bug spray? Mosquitoes were a frequent companion during our stay in Bamako, probably because the daily temperatures in the mid 90s and overnight lows in the 70s kept them very happy. In fact, at night they were so bad, that Sokhna would spray our room with some scary toxic chemical that we had two wait 5 minutes before even entering the room, and then we would play a fun game of run into the room as fast as possible so fewer mosquitoes could enter. It seems to me that the mosquitoes in Mali are just alot more courageous because I got several mosquito bites in the shower.
That second night was little rough because Carlie got a nasty bout of stomach problems that could have been from our bad choices of drinking tap water the night before or the various strange things we bought from vendors on the side of the road during the bus ride. My theory is, you gotta keep things interesting, so might as well eat the sketchy meat sandwich from the woman shouting in strange languages at you. Although Carlie did have a good point, that if we get in a bad situation and someone asks if we made some bad choices to get us in that position, we would have to say, "um,which one are you referring to?" Just kidding!
I'll continue our adventures in Mali in my next post, but at the moment I'm back at school in Saint-Louis awaiting my benevolent professors and hoping they will decide to grace us with their presence. Although, I heard that tomorrow is another holiday celebrating the Muslim new year, so who knows really.
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