Living the life.

The second week in Bamako felt like having real holiday. I came home and had nice dinner again, I swum in the swimmingpool which is surrounded by palmtrees and I had a nice bed. We filled our days with going to the local market with the maid to buy our dinner: fish from a pile of fishes shining in the sun. We also went to buy a ‘pagne’, the traditional clothing. I chose one and went to the courtier. I drew some top and skirts and gave him the order to make some pieces of clothing. I just picked it up and it came out very nicely. However, having three pieces of clothing of the same fabric is a little bit too much. Not very original anymore.

At Tuesdays the parents of Ingrid always have a private Cuban salsateacher coming. This week we could join so that evening we danced in the living room and created our own small party. I got enthusiastic immediately and it got me realizing I’m missing dancing here. Maybe I have to dance zouk again after I come back…

That week we also got visited by another Dutch girl that was studying the local language for 1,5 month. She was longing for some company and Clazien, the mum of Ingrid, invited her for dinner. So we had a nice dinner on Thursday evening and afterwards we went to discover the nightlife of Bamako. After a real dip we left the house and ended up in a salsabar ‘la terrassa’. Also our salsateacher was there but we didn’t really dance and only looking is not something for me so we went to another place where we could shake our own booties. ‘Le Biblos’ was the next location. A stylish club, a little deserted though. We went in for free. (because we’re white…?) and ordered an pineapple juice that costs us 4,50 euro. At first there wasn’t really a lot going on but we could watch the not attracting 50-year old white men hanging out with the beautiful 20-year old Malinese girls. Damn, that’s nasty and quite sad also. After an hour the music got better, more bubbling, R&B and we stood up and danced our ass off. So nice! Around 2:30 we left the club and had to walk home. The good mood was over very fast. Next to the club, on the pavement, slept like fifteen men outside on the street in the dirt and small children were still awake begging for money. Yeah, back to real world, that’s Mali.

On Saturday it was time for the next trip and we went to Djenne, the town where the famous mosque of mud is, listed at the list of UNESCO’s world heritage. With the landrover we drove in nine hours to Djenne. We had a stop at San were we had lunch. We arrived in the evening and slept at a real nice campement of a Swedish woman who fell in love with Malinese. We slept on the roof again and here I’ve seen the most beautiful stars at the sky. I laid down on my back and stared, listened to some Shponglemusic and it really felt special. The next day I could witness that Djenne also have one of the nicest sunsets in Mali. At daytime we went to the mosque. It was nice but not that special as I expected I have to admit. Later that day we went to a next small village by carriage. It seemed they didn’t see a lot of tourists over there because the kids went crazy!

After the weekend we started the way back home. We slept one night in Segou, were I’d already been. And then we returned home. Home sweet home.

One day we could have rest a little bit and tomorrow Ingrid and I will go again. Together we are going to a small village close to Bamako, called Sibi. It seems there is beautiful nature and a nice waterfall so we will hike a day and the day after we go visiting the market. I have to say, visiting markets is my favourite thing to do. Watching all the locals and products, bargaining hard so now and then… Yeah, I like it.

So another short trip is coming up and then… teaching computerlessons to deaf kids the last weeks.Today I went to the deaf school to check out the three brand new computers, given by the Chinese. (Chinese do a lot in this country. Probably because they want to control the rice harvest and other food resources but on the short term they do good things. They build good roads and are financing projects) Anyway, we went to the deafschool and I got excited for teaching. Clazien also got signlanguage lessons at home and I watched sometimes. It’s so interesting. I already can say ‘Bonjour, ca va bien? Mon nom est Elles. A demain’. It’s probably not enough but with other signs we will understand eachother… Isn’t that amazing?

Photo’s of the second week: the house, Djenne, our dinner and pagnes are submitted.

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