Tilekura ("new sun") is the daughter of Abdoul, the brother of Paul's Bloomington Bamanakan instructor, Boubacar. Mom, Flani is getting ready to join her husband, Abdoul back in Indiana in a few months after she gets their visas. Tilekura was born a week before I went back to the states. Malians like to put eyeliner and draw eyebrows on their babies, boy or girl, doesn't matter. I think it makes the babies look like little older people.
While in Chico I rented a car for a few days. I was able to go to the post-office, find an 220v iron at the thrift store for three dollars, watch episodes of "Blues Clues" with Reese and Marissa, buy groceries, and cook dinner all in a period of five hours—yeah for efficiency! All these endeavors would have taken at least two weeks to complete while in Bamako. I take that back, I don't think it's possible to find a three dollar iron or visit Reese and Marisa.
A necessary sanity mini-trip. Oh yeah, we took a trip to Segou, my favorite town in Mali! Bamako's bad air and heat was starting to wear on Paul and I. But, we weren’t the only ones who feel the urge to get out. Our friends, Jaime and Idrissa, were also needing to escape Bamako’s craziness and offered to drive their car to Segou for a little weekend getaway. We stayed at the Hotel Djoliba, which located in Segou's clean air, tree-lined streets of Downtown. The hotel also offers fantastic food in its indoor /outdoor restaurant and A/C in each room. Paul and I blasted the A/C all night, slept under a big comforter, and woke up cold. YES COLD! We stayed in our rooms as much as possible and went out for good food, bead shopping, card games on the terrace, and dancing at a near by night club.
On our way out of town we backtracked a bit (30km) to visit Markala, which is where the large Sansanding dam on the Niger is located. The French project was built with the forced labor of Malian between 1934–47; hundreds of workers died during it’s construction. The water supply is used to irrigate farmland for rice, cotton, and sugarcane under the control of the Office de Niger. At one end of the dam there is a monument, which pays tribute to the Malian’s that constructed the impressive dam.
MOOOOVE OVER!
During Sharon’s visit the three of us were able to experience the Djenne Mud Mosque in three different sizes.
The town Djenne is a World Heritage sight on an island in the Bani River. The mosque is the largest mud built structure in the world and looks like a grand sand castel. The dirt lot in front of the mosque provides space for Djenne’s Monday market...crazy busy.
As much as I like miniatures, I have to say the XXL mosque was my favorite. The scale was impressive. The two smaller versions were located at Mali’s National Museum in Bamako.
Paul and I took a trip to Segou this past weekend to attend the 5th annual Festival sur le Niger. Paul, Spencer, Jeremy, and I left town Friday afternoon in an air-conditioned Toyota Forerunner owned by Jeremy. Jeremy is a professor from the University of Madison and is in Bamako studying agricultural economics on a Fulbright. The ride only took three hours and was very comfortable in comparison to any taxi or bus in Malli. After we rolled into town, we went to the ticket booth and bought our three-day festival bracelets for 65,000 CFA ($130) EACH! A total of $260 for Paul and I! If you were a Malian citizen you paid 6,000 CFA ($12) or about one-tenth for the same pass. I could see one-fifth maybe. It felt abit like discrimination? No? Paul tried everything to get a better price all while speaking his best Bamanakan, but nothing worked. We shelled out the money and then ate and drank away our miseries at Guido’s Pizza Parlor. Guido’s is located on the Niger river. We got a table five feet from the water and watched sun go down. Here are a few shots.
The next morning, Paul whacked his head open on the bathroom sink at Amy’s. Split his forehead open real good. What a goof! We had breakfast, and then spent the whole day on the festival grounds. Here are some photos and videos from Saturday.
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