Category: Mali

Hello from Bamako!

 

We feel like presidential candidates because we must have shaken hundreds of strangers’ hands over the past two weeks. Many of them belonged to little kids, excitedly shrieking “Toubab” (Whitey) “Ca Va?” (How are you). Wherever we go, we are our own little spectacle. We are happy to cause so much excitement, even though the follow-up line is often “give me a present” or “give me some money” or “give me candy” or “give me your shirt.”

 

For Malians, greetings are very important and elaborate. A typical exchange might go, “How are you? Did you sleep well? And your family? And your children? And your village? And your health?”  For a group of friends meeting each other, this whole process can take some time. Yesterday, a fabric seller who we re-met on the street added, “And how’s your country? And how’s your president?”  This was confusing, because the usual answer to each question is in the affirmative.  When we hesitated, he had to ask “who’s your president?” But then he agreed, not so good.

 

We’re getting pretty comfortable in Mali now and slowly adapting to the pace of things here. For example, something as seemingly simple as changing money can easily become a whole day adventure. For the first few days we were definitely experiencing culture shock. After all, Mali is the 4th-poorest country in the world (paradoxically, it is also very expensive for tourists). The pollution is wreaking havoc on our sinuses, the minibuses have been retrofitted with special half-size seats to cram 25 people into a 16-passenger van, no bus can depart without at least one heated argument, everything is dusty, the food all comes drenched in Maggi (bouillon) because they love meat here but generally can’t afford it, and often at a restaurant you have to order your meal 24 hours in advance.  Although they reuse almost everything, there are piles of garbage everywhere and rarely a garbage can. Being the conscientious recyclers that we are, we’ve felt really guilty about throwing our garbage on the ground, but really there’s usually nowhere else to put it. But also, little kids here eagerly collect our empty water bottles and it pains us to imagine the countless containers that get thrown away back home. 

 

In fact, one of the things that’s impressed us the most is the ability of the Malians to fix everything. For instance, on one of our 1st days here we had just arrived at the bank on our rented bicycles when a speeding mobylette (moped) driver ran over Josh’s back wheel and smooshed it beyond recognition. A crowd gathered, and a distinguished gentleman (the local veterinarian) helped us figure out what to do. He sent his chauffeur to take us to the bicycle repair hut, where a man (using his feet and a tree stump) made it as good as new – all for the very reasonable sum of one dollar.

 

In general, the people we’ve met here are some of the most friendly, hospitable, and helpful folks we’ve encountered anywhere. It’s not uncommon, when asking directions, for someone to drop whatever they’re doing and actually take your there. People routinely offer us food, even though they don’t have that much themselves. One of the guides that we hired for a boat trip down the Niger invited us home to his family’s house for Tabaski. This holiday, the same as Eid-al-Khebr in Morocco, commemorates the biblical story of God commanding Abraham to sacrifice his son Ishmael (or Isaac, for us Jews) but accepting a sheep instead at the last minute. It was fun to witness the preparations for this huge festival when we were in Morocco, then to get to participate in Mali. The fun started at 9 in the morning when the boys in the family killed and butchered three sheep. They were excited to have Phil photograph the butchering. Then, for the next few hours (or several days, for some) everyone sits around cooking and eating A LOT of meat. Meat with couscous, meat with spaghetti, just meat… Fortunately, we told them Phil is a vegetarian and, while they couldn’t understand why anyone would willfully choose not to eat meat, they happily served her bowl after bowl of maggi-flavored couscous. Throughout the day, friends, dressed in their newly-tailored finery, visit each other bringing meat if they’re rich, taking meat if they’re poor. In the late afternoon, little kids do a version of trick-or-treating that seems to involve wearing funny sunglasses. In the town we were staying in, the day culminated in an adolescent motorcycle rally. The hordes of kids who couldn’t afford the tickets to the kiddie matinee at the nightclub stood around outside checking each other out and watching teenagers do extremely dangerous-looking stunts on their motorbikes in the dirt.

 

While we’ve been doing all the regular tourist stuff, one of the most enjoyable parts of our trip has just been all the people we’ve talked to. Being able to speak french has really made this aspect of traveling a lot more rewarding than previous trips. Here’s a quick cast of characters:

 

Baboucar – helped us figure out how to get on our 1st bus. Was back in town visiting his family, but seemed to prefer to spend his evenings with us, explaining Malian culture.

 

Dave – another Brown grad from Boston. The poor guy didn’t speak a word of french, had american travelers’ checks that no-one would accept, and was making a last-ditch effort to get to the rumored ATM in Ougadougou.

 

Sophie – a swedish newly-minted hotelier. She’d only been open for a week when she gave us a special deal on the “bridal suite” in her beautiful new hotel outside Djenne.

 

Eric – the amazingly friendly, amazingly muscular Togolese guy who worked at our hotel in Segou. We tried not to deflate his elaborate fantasies of a better life in America, and advised him to start looking for an American girl. Anyone interested?

 

Betty - (nicknamed Betty la Fea by us) we were initially impressed by this older american woman traveling extensively on her own, but as we talked to her we realized she thrives on her hatred of everything! We just ran into her again a few minutes ago, and she told us a crazy story of having provoked one of her traveling companions into hitting her!

 

The list could go on and on, but there are too many mosquitoes in this cyber and we are off to the movies. Hopefully it’ll be a better experience than the one in Fes!

 

We’ll be home in a few days and can’t wait to share the rest of our stories. In the meantime, please keep us posted on your doings back home. We love getting little notes – thanks to everyone who’s written us back.

 

XOXoxoxox Josh and Phil/Sarah aka Toubab Homme et Toubab Femme