Bamako Saturday

Today we spent our first full day in Bamako, the big city. In the guide books, they call it “the most African of African cities,” whatever that means. We rode there in a bache, which is a 15 passenger van that has all the seats taken out, so they can cram upwards of 25 people in there. We were lucky that our first one wasn’t too crowded, but then we got dropped off in the market and were thoroughly overwhelmed. It was so hot and we could barely walk with all the people. We hadn’t yet been to the bank, so we couldn’t buy anything. We did see local medicine men selling monkey heads and other dead animals, which we walked by as quickly as possible.

We set out to change money, which involved three banks, a lot of walking in circles, two taxi rides, and a handful of frustration. When we finally found the ATM, we considered staying in the air conditioned booth to hang out for a while. We were also tempted to buy some fruit across the street, but couldn’t cross (too much traffic!) so we journeyed back to the market. With money in our pocket for the first time since we arrived here, we conquered the market (sort of), managing to purchase some beautiful fabrics. We will bring them to the tailor to get clothes made soon.

After more unsuccessful meandering involving the purchase of some bananas, we finally made it to the Grand Hotel, which was very grand indeed. We had lunch on the patio, which was good, except it was expensive and we waited a long long time. However, we did get to listen to a CD of American hip hop looping over and over. Then, we went swimming in the hotel pool!

We were surprised to see our Malian family show up – though it wasn’t really a coincidence since they had recommended us to go. Debbie brought 7 of the family kids – Djenneba (Alice), Sebastian, Christiane, Sire, Catherine, Moise, and Miriam (Mami). They are watching me type and just helped me spell all the names. Anyway, we played in the pool for a long time with them, and it was fabulous! Christiane had never swam before (she is 7), so we helped her learn and gave her piggy back rides. So sweet! We had given them a big beach ball that I got from our homebase pool party, and they brought it along to play with in the pool. We played and danced and had a great time. It felt so different to see them in this setting, which is totally different than anything in Kati.

We got a ride back with the family, and we are exhausted now, from all the sun and walking. (We realized our sunscreen is not waterproof. Whoops. We managed not to get burned somehow.)

We decided not to go out dancing tonight, but perhaps we will join the others another time.

love, Sara (Zoe is already asleep)

Christiane on her first day of swimming

Playing with the Beach Ball

Mami in the pool