July 12, 2003
Bonjour de Afrique!
It is Saturday, July 12. We are now in Bamako, the capital of Mali at a Cyber Cafe. We arrived last evening after visiting 2 villages 200 miles south of Bamako. The experience of living among the Togola tribe was amazing. People are very friendly and everyone wanted to shake our hands. The children just grabbed our attention, well we had theirs as well. Children would come gather around us just to get a peak at us. They would line up to have their pictures taken, like professional models, and would giggle hysterically upon seeing themselves on the digital screens of our cameras.
Our food has consisted mainly of bread, water, coffee, chicken for dinner, greasy french fries and green beans. It's a lot better than I expected. No one has gotten sick yet.
We have had the luxury of a hired driver and a nice SUV. Our driver, Mustafa, is an interesting guy. He was giving us lessons in Bambara as we taught him a bit of English. He resembles Eddie Murphy a bit, especially when he laughs, though Dr. Doolittle wouldn't poke at a lizzard on a window screen.
Violet is the contact person with whom Tim had corresponded from the Ashoka Fellows. She helped us out upon our arrival and arranged a nice hotel for us to stay our first night. She introduced us to Tom, an Englishman, and Ibrahim, both from the Mali folkcenter. Tom and a fellow named Jack escorted us to the villages where Mustafa got to put our SUV's 4WD to the test through huge mud puddles.
Today was the first day that we had to filter our water. We've also been lucky to have access to showers. Last night, however, I got locked in the bathroom of the house where we are staying. The bolt became disconnected fom the nob. It was at least an hour before Martin heroically kicked the door open. Now we have to find a carpenter to fix the door!
Tomorrow we are off to Siby. I hope to find another internet connection soon so that I may keep in touch.
Good bye for now.
