What?

Just when we thought things were starting to make sense, everything got confusing again. We prepared a fun little rhyme to teach about multiple intelligences, but the class ran out of time and didn’t get to teach it. Here it is (hopefully we’ll get to teach it on Monday – don’t mind our poor grammar in French):

Theatre, jeu, dance, et chanson,
Ca sera super presentation.
Si vous parlez sans un jeu,
Ca sera tres ennuyeux.

Before class, we got a lesson in Bambara from our friend Baboi. While our French is coming along, our Bambara is not so hot. There are five different ways to say hello:

Ani Sogoma (before noon)
Ani Tile (12-4)
Ani Mula (5-7)
Ani Shu (7 pm and after)
Kanshi (just before bed)

The afternoon was quite different than expected. Right after lunch, we got a ride to town to break our 10,000 CFA bill (equal to $20). We haven’t spent any of our own money yet, because we couldn’t find anyone who had enough change. We haven’t found a bank or an ATM, so this was already borrowed money which we just arranged yesterday. With our fabulous chauffeur, we bought 24 bottles of water and a package of cookies, so we are now feeling quite stocked up. We also have small change now, so that we can buy mangoes and other fruit on the street now (there’s some fruit that is supposed to be sour and looks really funky that we want to try).

During afternoon camp, we thought we were leading an activity about our hippo song, but we ended up trying to fix the stereo because there was no electricity in Mississippi (the name of one of the classroom areas of the school). So, instead, we did an improv movement activity in Djenne (another classroom area) while the men made a mess of the stereo wires. After an hour or so, the second group was actually able to hear the music of the song: Malisadio (the hippo song). Once we got the music, some drummers magically appeared, the Bamanan teachers took over, and all of a sudden, there was a massive dance event of African song and movement. Then we sung and danced from Djenne to Timbuktu (the main classroom area). It was pretty amazing, even though we weren’t exactly sure what was going on.

After camp, we took a wonderful walk through Kati Koko, our neighborhood. We found a new main road that we hadn’t seen before, which we got to through a different route, other than going through the landfill. We saw beautiful birch-like trees, a herd of cows, a milk store, and a great sunset. On our way home, we got off track a bit, but we found the landfill and it guided us to our home chez Maria. During the last 5 minutes of our walk, we were bombarded by cries of Vatutu (white person) from a group of local kids. They kept shaking our hands and giggling with glee, just so excited to be touching us. We felt like celebrities.

It’s 9:40 PM and we are still waiting for dinner. Since tomorrow is Saturday, we are going to Bamako for the day (the capital) and we may dance at night. We also hope to buy material in the market, so that we can get clothes made.

Love to everyone at home – we miss you!