chronological order

did i mention how much i LOVE coke here? it's addicting.  

Kat

we made it a jean and flip flop kind of a day. it was very americana of us.

Mary, stop it with the pictures. LET'S EAT!!

chicken and mashed potatoes 

burrito and fries. (i'm blaming my mexican food craving on life in san diego) 

dessert #1-chocolate cake 

where the magic happens: Broadway Cafe, Bamako 

just outside the restaurant. the very un-western streets of bamako: street vendors, old railway tracks, and those green van things are sotramas--it's how i get from kati into bamako. 

why yes, you will kind the goats and cows right next to the street. don't you have that where you live?

ICE CREAM!

it was sooooo good. 

back at the Bureau, Kat and all our loot. we done good. 

my mailbox in Bamako! ain't it cute?

a view of the PC Bureau and the grounds. pretty swanky huh?

look ma! i'm in mali! and wearing jeans!

nothing says the end of the day like pasta and wine

Ok, so I know it’s been a while. And whenever I have these lapses in postings, and stuff is actually going on, I never know where to begin. This time I’m going to work my way in chronological order, and catch you up on Bamako, school, sickness, and how to explain going to bed early.

Last Thursday my fellow Goodfella and neighbor Kat came into town. What should have taken an hour, or two at the most, became a five-hour ordeal. With her travel excursions and the fact that the entire city of Kati lost its electricity, trying to keep in touch was quite a feat. But, finally, two and a half hours after her expected arrival, Kat made it, and we celebrated with burgers and fries at the prized Kati burger joint near my market. Our plan was to hang out Thursday night (check) and make it into Bamako Friday for errands. Saturday was to be a do nothing day and watch eight hours of the mini series Little Dorritt, and then Sunday she would head off home.

We decided to head out early for Bamako on Friday to sneak into the mailroom at the Peace Corps office and see if we had any goodies awaiting us. Luckily, we were able to find a sotrama and a taxi without too much trouble. We made it to the Bureau in time to get packages, return library books, and raid the med office for bug spray. Our next stop was the bank. Oh la la. Soon I will have a bankcard and not have to enter the bank unless I want, but for now, we wait. I walked in and the teller number read 621. I was number 738. It was going to be a long morning. Kat and I tried to hide in the back of the room, out of the way to speak English and not be bothered, or so that was the plan. We were sought out by a Malian man from Gao who proceeded to tell us his whole life story, present occupation, and the lineage of our last names. It became quite the one sided conversation. Finally, with noon quickly approaching, the bank decided to open more teller space to take care of the masses waiting. Kat and I went from thinking we were going to be at the bank all day to being out in an hour and a half, quite a surprise when operating on Malian time.

Our travels and bank encounters made Kat and I ready for lunch so we headed to our favorite spot: Broadway Café. A typical Malian toubab restaurant it has a little bit of everything. We were very happy to be back, and to have the whole day in front of us to eat, get ice cream, and do some grocery shopping. (Check out the above photos for some details on lunch and dessert—which we had twice.) I got a burrito, Kat got chicken. Both of us got something new, and think we may go back to our regulars (Kat’s favorite is the roast beef sandwich and mine is a fish burger). In Mali many stores take lunch breaks, and our go to grocery store didn’t reopen until 3:30pm. We knew we had tons of time, so we decided to order cake at Broadway. It was quite good and really hit the spot. We lingered some more, watching the ridiculous music videos that the restaurant plays against one wall, and people watching through the big front windows. Finally we decided we had let part one of the eating marathon digest well enough to venture out to get ice cream. I love ice cream. I love it even more in Mali. I love how cold the shop is and (Duh) how cold the ice cream is. I love that you can get a waffle cone in Africa. I love that it all costs about as much as Cold Stone. It’s ridiculously Western and simply wonderful. I will probably never go into Bamako without going to get ice cream. It’s an addiction. This trip I got chocolate chip, coffee (the best coffee ice cream I have ever had period) and double chocolate. YUM!

After ice cream it was time to do some grocery shopping. We found another store before our go to spot opened. Turns out this grocery store is a bit cheaper and we were able to find some stuff there. Now, let me tell you a little bit about money in Mali. Like everywhere, money rules, but here there is a little hiccup in the system. Everything may cost money, but money isn’t everywhere. What I mean is that finding change is difficult. In the US if you walk into 7-Eleven and buy a pack of gum you can give the cashier a $20 bill you can expect change even if the change is $18.50. Not so in Mali. I cannot walk into my local butiki and spend the equivalent of $1 and pay with a $5. I’m not guaranteed change. Sometimes in the bigger cities it gets better. In Bamako at the grocery store, it’s supposed to be much better because they get so many people in and out their registers should be equipped with change. OK, now let me add that when you go to the bank you are given bigger bills. Now, sometimes I ask for small bills and sometimes I get them. Not last week. All they had was big bills and it was going to be up to me to break them.

So, all this being said, I go to check out. And both times, at both grocery stores, I got sassy cashiers. Let’s say my total was $22.60, I paid with $30. The cashier looked at me asking for change, I told her that was what I had. She huffed. One of them actually was like, ok and made the change (she had it! I could see it in her register!). The other one huffed and puffed and required me to find the change! It was chaos as Kat tried to help me out. Needless to say it was very frustrating feeling like no one was helpful. And here I am spending, in Mali terms, a lot of money, and you want to sass me so that I never want to come back?! I was getting my feathers ruffled and my relaxing lunch was becoming a faint memory. Luckily Kat was there and let me get all huffy. In the cab ride back to the Bureau to collect some of the stuff we left there I was able to calm down and vow to wait as long as possible until I had to deal with all that again. (That being said I already have a list of things I want to get and it’s only been a week! So much for vowing!)

By the time late afternoon rolled around Kat and I were ready to collect our things and head back to my house. We were ready to leave Bamako. So we did. We got all our loot and took a taxi and a sotrama to Kati where we then walked the 15-20 minutes from the drop off to my door. We were pooped. The perfect end to that day was our mac and cheese dinner and the cheap bottle of red wine we found. We topped it all off with the Whitney Houston/ Brandy version of Cinderella. Don’t judge. We needed to unwind.

Friday came and went.

In the planning of the weekend I had been most looking forward to Saturday. I wanted to lie on my couch and not move. Kat had said she would cook and I was looking forward to that as well. Late Friday Jamie had texted to say she would also be coming in Saturday in preparation to go to Bamako to visit her boyfriend, the adorable McCoy, who was going to be in the city. Saturday became a party. Kat and I decided to make the long walk to the market to grab a couple of things for the day. We promptly headed right back home to make French toast and prepare to not move for the rest of the day. Jamie joined us for our Little Dorritt marathon and the day continued quite well. I was happy to not do much, though I did have to break out some school stuff for the first week was quickly approaching, but really, it was a great day of rest.

Sunday morning we all headed back to the market to drop Jamie off to get to Bamako and to go to my favorite bread guy. Kat decided to not leave until after lunch. We continued to hang out, take pictures, and I made a “no bake” dessert, which turned out very well (I would have had pictures but we ate it too fast to bust out the camera).  I was sad when Kat finally had to leave. Whenever we plan these great mini vacation weekends, I am always bummed that they have to end. But we had already discussed another trip to Bamako to do some shopping, so we had something to look forward to for sure.

By late afternoon I was left to my own devices. I had a couple of things to do for school, but really, I just had to mentally prepare for the start of the school year (more about that next).

It was a great weekend and a good way to celebrate the end of summer and the start of a whole new adventure! Du Courage!