Following the brief tour of Bamako, we were brought to the Hotel Mandé, the place where we had almost two hours sleep on the morning of our arrival in Mali a week ago. Six hours, and then off to the airport at midnight for the flight out of Africa. Andrew and I will be sorry to leave; it’s been a great time here – a fascinating series of rich cultural experiences, a brilliant time with Andrew (he is excellent company!) and a great break that has certainly been different from the everyday pressures of running a school. The highlight? Too many to mention, but the Tuareg dance out in the dunes of the Sahara, the visit to Mopti’s port, the mask dance in Tireli village in Dogon Country, the sunset pirogue trip on the Niger River and the market in Djenné would have to rank as highlights. But perhaps the main highlight has just been simply experiencing the environment and culture of this wonderful but obscure country, and most particularly, having the opportunity to share that experience with a highly appreciative 12 year old named Andrew.
Andy (age 12) writes:
I thought that I should share with you some of the interesting things about Mali that I’ve found. Some of these things are: Dad sticking to his apparently limited quota of two or three full films each day (ha ha!), flies on every piece of meat that is possible to see, children sprinting and riding on the occasional bike from everywhere just to be in a group photo with me but adults being afraid of having their photo taken so they stop whatever they’re doing if you’re close to them (dad has a huge zoom so it’s no problem for him), and wave their hands wildly in the air. The annoying fact that some people think I’m a girl (they also don’t have any optometrists over here.) Every time you get out of a car, about 10 salesmen come up to you showing you all their products; many of them sell very deadly but also very conspicuous knives. (You’ve got to wonder about your safety in this place.) Every tour guide that we had (Sory and Alice) seems to know everyone in every part of the country. If a local person’s car gets a broken wind screen, scratched doors, dents or torn material inside the car, they never repair it or clean it; this seems so for every person in every part of the country. One of the most interesting things about going around the world is the diversity of power points. In Mali, it seems to be very confusing where to put the plug in.
