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first of all, theres a cat downstairs named troubador that weighs 30 pounds. im just putting that out there. apparently troubador is not just french but like literally, from france and rumor has it, troubador is blue. troubador lives with francois and francois. our neighbors on the 2nd floor are this surgeon and his mother. the surgeon is kind of awesome and heres why. yesterday we got a letter in our mailbox that, in 3 to 4 paragraphs, outlined his thought process on the idea of potentially buying a drum set: pros, cons, ways to reduce noise, the potential for building quiet hours, etc. we think its pretty awesome and are going to send him a letter back that says DRUM ON BROTHER! or something like that. would it be weird if we started an apartment-wide band? ill take guitar and that cool baobab fruit i got in mali. lucy's got keyboard and violin, and annemarie can play triangle! she can also sing the "dum dum dum" from that one regina spektor song AND she got this cool instrument in chile that might work too.

there was a huge neighborhood wide yard sale yesterday and i put all my junk out in the front yard for an hour or two and sat out there with a book. it was a nice day and i met a bunch of really awesome neighbors. this one lady bought my old moneybelt from when i waitressed at brandt's and one of my tshirts and the next time i saw her she was wearing both! we also have a bunch of kids in our neighborhood which is cool. i sold like 8 bucks worth of stuff and then just took a heap of clothes to rag-o-rama and they gave me 21 bucks and then i brought the rest to the clothing drive and counsel for the blind. point is, i got rid of a lot of shit! woo!

then last night we had our first potluck of the year in the mothership. the theme was that everyone had to bring something with a face. thing is, its mostly vegetarians. the faces were pretty awesome and thoroughly documented. the weirdest thing anyone brought was keith and alex who brought cow tongue. only, believe it or not, they made a face and didn't use the tongue to represent a tongue! very creative. lots and lots of people came which was great and lively. around 11:30 a bunch of us went outside and played KUB, this swedish game that i played like 10000 years ago! turns out keith and aLo have a set. that game is amazing. there were more games when we came inside too - that game where everyone puts a bunch of names in a hat and then you have to draw and describe the person without saying their name and see how many you can get through in a minute.

today was workwork worky but i did run like 5 miles when i woke up and i made new pants (snip snip). kaletomatogoatcheesequesadillas?! phishfoodwithannemarieandROOshy?! homework?!

LAFIA

school school home
st louis
the lou
farming
working
homework
already
running
hiking
silkscreening
organizing
gadlfkj
coffee
coffee
francois
francois
troubadour
honeybird
paint
blurb

where has the time gone?!

so its been quite a while since i last wrote... but i haven't abandoned the blog altogether. summer is almost over - my last summer, i realized, before i graduate. i have two days left of my job which is killllllller but not in a good way. i think thats why i havent been writing as much -- ive been so consumed in work and havent felt like writing about it.

but i have been doing lots of other cool things in my precious hours away from work, so ill just talk about that! living in the city was amaaaazing. i stayed in an nyu apartment AT union square which is the best location ever (and one that i will never be able to afford). i already knew lots of people in new york from home and school and everywhere so i didn't really meet many new people. but i did spend some real quality bintou time exploring and what not.

i will tell you that i have sipped coffee in just about every cafe on the lower east side (minus starbucks) and usually with a book or my journal. i read a ton (and still am) - my last few reads (in the past 2 weeks or so) have been 'the glass castle', 'the kite runner', 'a people's history of the united states' (which i havent finished yet), and 'half of a golden sun' which i'm reading now and its great. i also started running just about every day and had a nice little loop down by the east river that came out to 4 miles or so. go me! am i repeating myself? i think i might have written about this in the last entry. i did art and secret projects ;) to amuse myself and did spend a lot of time with my friends in the area... alex and david, ashley, danielle, and allison were all right in the lower east side!

poetry slams, concerts, oddly relaxing vegetarian indian food restaurants with only one option on the menu, live music in public spaces, intense west-african-dancing, long walks, a couple movies (hoooooly dark knight!), fruit to the nines, late night ted talks, afternoons in the park with jackie and ashley, sun sun sun!, etcetera etcetera.

i popped out of the city quite a bit too on weekends and such. got to see some family, including the PECKS (hehe uncle jim) and did some geocaching with jamie and mom and ben one day. beached it up at compo once or twice and scrabbled like a maniac with mom. we have an addiction.

last weekend was pretty cool. mom, dad, and i drove up to the adirondacks to go see what ben has been working on all summer. he's been interning for these 2 really great sculptors who both have pieces at the beijing olympics (only 25 non-chinese sculptors were chosen from thousands of applicants). it was really beautiful up there and nice to get away from the ussssual for a bit. the sculptors that ben worked for were having a show so we all went and met them and the art was sweet and we were all proud of ben because he did good (kid). there was some geocaching involved too-- including one that lead us on a beautiful hike through the adirondackian wilderness. i will tell you there was some bear skat involved.

work finishes up on thursday (thank allah) and im heading back to school on sunday. though im really excited to go back, i think the excitement is more to be done with work than anything. ive been having fun chilling with my family since i moved back home (im commuting for this last week) and it will be strange to up-and-out again.

then of course, the Clucemarie adventures begin and that will be a whole new section...

hErE (i miss my mali)
BINTOU

NEW YOAK

every now and then i get the strange urge to write in my blog again. indeed my posts have been dwindling, but for those of you who still check from time to time, (and mom and dad) heres whats new...

its been almost 2 weeks since i moved my butt into an nyu apartment by union square in the city (new yoaaak city). the apartment is basically just a dorm room with a kitchen, living room, and other bedroom attached - very simple - but its all i need. i dont spend much time in the room because hey, its new yoak city right?

my job in harlem has been okay. ill leave it at that. were painting a mural but today since it was forecasted to rain all day my boss said we could cancel work (the mural is outside). so i called all the kids and cancelled. and now its sunny as ever. free day! thank you weatherman!

in my free time, ive been busy as ever - running all over the place. ive been checking out parks and cafes like its my job. my favorite cafe is still the Cake Shop down in SoHo, but there are quite a few other ones that are up there. i hate the fact that coffee prices are ridiculous these days, so i only go to cafes when i plan on spending some time there, reading or writing or something. that way i at least feel like im getting my moneys worth.

ive been reading a ton. right now im reading the glass castle, small is beautiful, and africa trek. i have a laundry lists of other books i need to get to before school starts. ahhhh!

ive also been running a TON. i dont know how, but im suddenly a good runner! yesterday i ran 5 miles which is the farthest ive run since my track days back in high school! its really nice to run along the river and definitely helps me to clear my head from a busy day at work (we end at 330 so i can run while its still light out).

the other thing ive been doing is going to african dance! i found this place called Djoniba that is just 4 blocks away from my apartment and its pretty cool. i just got back from a af dance class actually and guess who was in it. tyra banks. yep. not kidding. the teacher was this cool dude named bangaly who is from cote d'ivoire and he speaks julakan which is basically the same as bambara so he had me speak to him in front of the whole class to prove to them that i can speak it. ohhhhhhh bambara!

the other nice thing about new york is that i know lots and lots of people living here for the summer. its so nice to be around friends again (philly did get a little lonely sometimes!)

but all that said, im really ready to go back to st louis. i miss my wash u friends oh so much! and i know it sounds dorky, but im really excited for the classes im taking this semester. i havent been in class for so long! ;aklsjdflakhhhh!

thats the update for now... if youre reading this, send me an email back and let me know what youre up to!
ciao
BINTOU

philly lately

things have been going going

saturday i drove to lancaster for katy's wedding... it was a bit of a trek but the wedding was really great and katy seemed so happy... it was also nice to see the fam and extended fam and boogie a little bit. there were some quotes that may or may not live on forever in bangser history. "well i made a mistake" (some of you will get that...)

sunday morning after a quick breakfast ben and i jumped in the car to drive back to philly (he came to visit!). we spent sunday walkin all over the place - exploring around south street, grabbing some crepes on 6th and bainbridge, chilling in the park, and eventually getting some indian buffet with a bunch of friends (including my friend alex from ny who was also visiting). why is indian food so effing good? ben 'bolted' out this afternoon to go home (boo... but ill see him in a few days).

so this afternoon i was walking past this african grocery store and i decided to go in just to see what they had. and i talked to the dude for a minute and hes from cote d'ivoire and speaks Julakan which is a lot like Bambara so we were able to speak a bit in both languages which was cool. then when i walked out of the store there were three dudes eating a dish together (the fact that they were sharing one plate made me think theyre probably african too). i said 'hello' as i passed and kept walking, but then they called me over saying they wanted to ask me a question. i was kind of curious as to where these dudes were from so i stopped and talked to them. they asked where i was from and then i did the same and they said cote d'ivoire too. i didnt say anything about mali or anything and was about to walk away when they said "come eat with us" which is something you always have to do in west africa. instead of responding in english, i just said "A Barika!" which means 'no thanks, i'm satisfied thank's to god' (more or less) in colloquial bambara/julakan. The guys like, jumped out of their seats. 'I be bamanankan fo wa?' (you speak bambara?) "awo" (yep). then we had a whole conversation in Bambara/Julakan and it was basically the coolest move i've ever pulled in my life. they were not expecting that from me at all! mwahahaha.

i went to this thing tonight called 'books through bars' and it was really effin cool. its basically this program that sends book to prisoners upon request. they have a big collection of donated books (mostly used, but a few new ones) and prisoners from all over the midatlantic region, and california and florida, write to request books. so people go to volunteer for this program and what you do is you pick a letter from a prisoner and then try to find books that he/she would like. the program is meant to 1. promote self-education of prisoners and 2. educate the public about the problems in our criminal justice system (i.e. many of these places have no educational materials available!) it was pretty cool to read the letters from the prisoners. i fulfilled 2 requests in the time i was there, giving one guy 5 books and another one 4 (normally its just 2-4 but the first guy had so many interests i squeezed in an extra skinny one). of the letters i read while deciding the ones i was going to work on, it was cool to see that many of them were really interested in self-improvement, poetry, african american history, and languages. there are also tons of requests for dictionaries (malcolm x?). anyway, its too bad im just discovering this as i leave the city... they do it 6 times a month and i think its a really cool program and more people should get involved and donate books and stuff.

in case anyone was wondering, warthog is doing well. i discovered the other day that its really funny to say that word if you pronounce the "th" sound like "th" -- i think it gives it more character (though im not sure it will stick).

im excited to start the job in harlem just because im ready to be outside a lot again... but i which i could have some permanence in my life. im so nomadic these days!

bintou and warthog take on philly

yesterday was the longest day of the year and i took full advantage!
i woke up at 5:15 to see the sunrise, went to a few farmers markets all over the city, walked a few miles back to my house before lunch time, and then took my lunch (a salad with pears, farmer's market strawberries, gorgonzola, walnuts, and a strawberry balsamic vinaigrette, yum!) to clark park for the summer solstice festival where there was greaaat music and art stuff and it was a beautiful day and oh man it was wonderful! a couple people i live with came and we played frisbee on the field and ran around and i got my feet nice and dirty which is really the way i like my feet best. at 2:30 i took my bike to this place called the divine bike church which is this awesome biking co-op half a block from my apartment. you can go there to work on your bike - its all do it yourself - and they have new and used parts and volunteers with technical expertice so you can fix up your bike and get what you need from them. after 4 hours of solid work (i now understand how to put bikes together), Warthog was finished and ready to ride. Yep, thats my bikes new name (the perfect combination of speed and good looks). When I finished i went back to the park to hang out with my friend sam and we saw some people having a drum circle which was pretty cool.

then i went with mirah, jack, and their two friends who are visiting from out of town to the West Oak Lane Jazz and Arts Festival. It took us like, an hour and a half to get there (its in north north north philly), but when we did it was pretty sweet. the mainstage had a band called Mandrill playing and was situated smack dab in the middle of a primarily black neighborhood. Actually, we were pretty much the only white people out of thouuuusands of people there. so leave it to Bintou to get into a dance-off with this 65 year old black dude in the middle of the crowd. Yep, it was all out and the music was fast paced and there were all these people standing around us and cheering it was so funny and pretty exciting. it must have been a spectacle. and i got lots of smiles from the people standing around when the dancing cooled off. definitely an experience i won't forget.

This morning i woke up and decided to take Warthog out for a ride. we ended up going out for 2 and 1/2 hours, first biking around the city and then heading on the bike path that follows the schuylkill river really really far. it was so beautiful i just kept going further and further. i love being alone in this city because i just do whatever i want when i want to and can just keep going further if i feel like it. i saw some pretty great things while i was riding. like at one point i was riding next to a crew team in the river, and on the front of their boat they had a djembe player keeping this great beat for them! i slowed down for that stretch so i could stay with the music. i also passed this really cute little black kid who was probably 8 or 9 who was riding alone and just BELTING a song at the top of his voice!

After my ride, i made lunch and then headed to the park to grab a coffee with sam and then read by my tree (which has the perfect, back conforming shape) for a couple hours. there was
1. a cool yellow beetle on my leg
2. a people-watcher watching people, with a joint
3. a dude playing flute on a bench on the other side of the park
4. one bite of fair-trade dark chocolate for eatin'
5. a huge bag of handmade colorful ceramic beads that some dude sold me on the side of the street for five dollars (the whole bag!)
6. a topless couple (man and woman) in jeans, having a beer in the alley behind their house on my way home

tonight i got indian food (buffet) with my friend amy which was so filling but sooo good. tomorrow its back to work!

bintou spends six dollars

this evening (beautiful, sunny, 72) after my walk home from 30th street station, i dropped my stuff off at home and changed into a comfy pair of jeans and a tshirt plus scarf. as i set off on my non-specific adventure, i discovered $6 in my pocket. this, i decided, would be my capital for the evening. i just got home a few minutes ago and here is what i have acquired since i left around 7:

1. a fresh head of lettuce from the farmers market
2. a beautiful onion with long green stems (its probably a special kind of onion but i dont know what its called), also from the farmers market
3. a bag of really yummy granola (hand made, farmers market)
4. a lunch-size container with tasssssty vegetable curry (leftovers from the dinner i made with amy) - also containing a zucchini i got at the farmers market
   
5. a beautiful, rusty, skinny green roadbike (!) - acquired from the wonderful mirah and jack and their interesting landlord who no longer wanted it. the name of the bike will be revealed once im finished fixing him up (tubes, gears, chain, lock)
   
6. the song 'down by the river' stuck in my head from 2 cute neighbors having band practice on their front porch
7. a new liberian friend who speaks bambara and works at an african record store (no, he didnt physically come home with me)
8. a flyer that i'm probably going to throw away (ok, its a stretch)
   

not bad for six bucks huh?

oh also, the coolest thing happened when i got home. me and bike were just about to walk in the door when we noticed a group of people standing around outside the pinball arcade. i thought it was a fight at first, but then i realized it was just a bunch of guys that were having a freestyling battle. man they were amazing. it was like being at a really good slam at the nuyorican only it was on the streets and they were like, in each others faces. at first it was just 2 guys going back and forth and then a few other guys got into it it was basically just a gangsta rap battle (to quote flight of the conchords).

so that was my day after 7. minus all the details of what i did to aquire all those things. philadelphia is a pretty exciting place to be if you dont know anyone (actually, i have 5 friends! not even including the people i live with!). this saturday is the longest day of the year and i plan on using every minute of daylight in some really fun way. hopefully bike will be ready to go.

The Next Chapter

Its been a couple weeks since i'm home from africa and i've just started the next chapter in my summer... philadelphia! my life is still crazy and exciting and i kind of miss blogging so i figure, why stop? maybe my readers will dwindle... but hey, this is more for me than anyone else right?

so i just moved into the city on wednesday -- decided to sublet a room without seeing it first. mayyyybe not the best idea. while the location is good...i live... in a frat house. okay not really. not officially. but the NINE guys I live with are all in "SAMMY" (a frat) and i just found out tonight that this house is known as "SAMMY II." (Whhhhyyyy was this not posted on craigslist??) Anyway, its not a big deal... the guys are actually all really nice. My room is small and has an up close and personal view of the nextdoor neighbor's kitchen, but my bed is lofted and my fan is solid so im set. plus the kitchen is huge.

luckily, philadelphia is an awesome city so i've been out doing lots of exploring. i live right nextdoor to a pinball arcade and a restaurant that is called "CUPABANANAS" or something. its a burger joint. i know... what? just down the road theres tons of ethnic food -- thai, indian, senegalese, middle eastern, greek, italian, ethiopian, yadda yadda. i found a couple cute used book stores and bought "the end of poverty" by jeffrey sachs yesterday which ive been reading on the trains to and from work... its quite good so far! i'm also really close to penn and drexel so there are lots of young people around and lots of random truck restaurants that sell food out of the back or side.

so on tuesday at work (heres where my life gets crazy), one of my coworkers came up to me and said "hey claire, have you met Adou?" and pointed to this big black dude on the other side of the office. "no" "oh you should come meet him... i think he's from mali."... what??! i got all excited and went over to meet him. small world as it is, turns out hes from Bamako! he used to work for geneva global and has been living in the US for the past 6 years!!! we had a whole conversation in Bambara and he got really excited bc hes never met a westerner that speaks his native language. he wants me to teach his wife (who is american). I, of course, was excited because here I thought I had left mali and BAM! its back! Adou says theres a big malian population in Philly... who knew?

Work has been woooonderful by the way. i love geneva global and they have put me on a really important project -- i'm creating a huge, comprehensive database of NGOs in 10 countries in africa. i've been cranking out a country a day and reading lots and lots of NGO descriptions... which is really interesting (i know, i'm a dork) and also pretty inspiring. everyone in the office is also really hilarious. our boss was out on thursday which happened to be his 50th birthday, so we decided to wrap everything in his office in wrapping paper -- his computer, stacks of papers, the stapler, the phone, pens, a dirty coffee mug, the trash can, EVERYTHING. Then we blew up a million balloons and filled up his office with them and covered it all with a huge yellow table cloth. when he came in this morning, we all surprised him and someone also presented him with a wonderfully photoshopped photo of all of us plus him in a kilt with a wig on. so funny. we had a big birthday potluck for him at lunch and he told us crazy stories about his past... like this time he was captured in Liberia... i know, crazy.

tonight i met up with my malian friend adou and we went to a malian restaurant that he knew of called "MALIBA" We were the only people eating, but there were a bunch of malians hanging out that worked there and they looooved that i spoke bambara and it was really fun meeting everyone. the food was also DELICIOUS and it was so nice to eat with my hands again-- i cant wait to go back. Adou invited me to a party hes having tomorrow that will be all malian people. he said i should wear a malian outfit since everyone will be dressed traditionally. i cant wait!

but before that, i'm going to a flea market with some friends i hung out with tonight at this artsy musicy party on hazel ave. it was actually my friend mirah's brother, and there were lots of very cool, laid back people i would like to hang out with again. i also might go on a bike ride with a few people i met there... one guy says he has 4 bikes and can lend me one...woooeee!

oh! i also made a friend today when i stopped to have some tea (i know, weird) at a coffee shop. he was sitting outside at a table near me and asked me to watch his stuff when he went into the bathroom. when he came back he jokingly said "so, did anyone try to take my books?" and i said "yeah, a few people tried to steal 'Balkans'" (which is actually the name of the book he is reading) and we both had a laugh and ended up talking for like 2 hours. his name is Sam and he just graduated from oberlin last year. he came to the party with us and seems like a cool dude.

so im integrating well into life in philly i think. this weekend should be fun, since it will be the first time i really get to spend the morning/afternoon time in the city (ive been working everyday since i arrived). this entry is looooong but ive been slacking on my journal so

hoo RAHHHH for printers!

youre invited...

hey all, im home from bamako (sad) and am spending a few days in westport before heading to philly on sunday

for those of you who are still checking my blog every now and then
and happen to be in the westport area...

ill be giving a short presentation about my research and findings at the women's market gardening cooperative in Mali
where: at my house
when: this saturday at 4pm (for no more than an hour)

call me or post on this blog if youre interested in coming!

hErE,
bintou

africa what?

so im gone now... no more bintou in mali...bintou must resume the name claire. the last few days in mali were intense and it was really hard saying bye to my friends and especially my family. but i will leave it at that i dont think its something i can really blog about.

anyway, im currently in capetown, south africa with the fam undergoing major culture shock. this city is suuuuper cosmopolitain and i feel like ive just been thrown back into the western, consumerist world with no fair warning (silly of me to expect it would be anything like mali). this place is really beautiful and interesting. it is so lush and there are huge hills and mountains dropping right off into the ocean... really incredible. its also crazy to see the after effects of apartheid... i cant even begin to understand the complexities of race relations here.

im having a hard time coping with consumption... i cringe everytime i have to flush a toilet and couldnt really handle the amount of water i was wasting when i took my first hot shower since january (i did cold bucket showers for all of mali). i had to turn the shower off to soap up because i felt too guilty leaving it on. eeerrrrg we waste so much in the west! its also weird not greeting every single person i pass and asking about their health/family/day. and eating food on individual plates instead of sharing a dish in one big bowl. i cant finish the huuuge portions they bring at the restaurants here and i asked tonight and the just get rid of the food that isnt eaten!!! ah! that killlllllls me! (i dont know if i ever mentioned this, but in mali, no food ever gets thrown away... walk outside your door and there are plenty of people that would love to eat whatever you couldnt finish).

anyway, i guess i have to adjust back to the 'west' at some point, it just kind of sucks when i think of how carelessly we can consume. i dont want to partake in that. it would be interesting to try to lower my consumption to malian levels back in the US. i think im going to try. any joiners?

oh man!

grrrrr! i just got in this mega-lose-your-cool kinda fight with this idiot in the cyber cafe who was trying to tell me that there are 52 states in the US. ARRRRGHHHH he treated me like I was stupid and kept saying things like "you should go study your country theres a lot you must not know" and oh man what an ass. and he kept using things to prove it to me like "why would they put 52 stars on the flag if there were only 50 states?" AH DUMB! and then he said "havent you ever heard of B-52's? thats bc there are 52 states!" at one point he said some random place in the US ive never heard of where he must have a relative or something and he asked if i knew of it and i said no and he goes "wow you dont even know your own country!" oh man at first i just laughed at him because i thought he was kidding or just misinformed but he was so STUBBORN and RUDE and DISRESPECTFUL to me i cant wait until he goes home and looks at the american flag he has on his wall and decides to count the stars...

anyway, other than that mean man making me angry, things have been great and super busy lately. im all over the place trying to close things up before i go home. basically that means spending lots of time on the hill playing music with les rasta friends. bob marleys bday came and went... good times. there were loads of rastas at this great cultural space (called carrefour des jeunes) jumping and dancing.... dreads flying everywhere ahhhh! those boys are so silly!

cyber times almost out so i must be running. love to my homies in the 50 nifty united states!
bintou

ps - mom can you guys bring me another memory card or two for my camera? gracias

Bintou goes to Bamako and looses her booty

This blog entry has 2 meanings:
1. my cell phone got jacked on saturday night! boooooo! (the last week!)
2. my butts gone! i dont really have a mirror in my house so i didnt realize. but then i went to my friends house and was commenting on how all my clothes feel huge and went to take a look in her mirror and OH MAN! no butt! it just doesnt feel right...

today was really awesome... my paper is done done donnnne and handed in (hot fire!) so it was a celebration of sorts. my friend aida and i went to the cooperative to work a bit with the women and show them my finished product (all nice and bound). then in the afternoon, we went to our rasta friend ablo's house.

oh man his house is so great... he lives right at the bottom of these huuuuge hills and rock formations. we went up to the roof and there was this incredible wind and the sky got all dark and the red color of the rock formations became brilliant. plastic bags from the ground were swept up and flew in the air like birds. we had his gonie (this amaaaazing instrument) and played some songs (i can play one!) and sang and drank tea. my friends bidé and ibra were there too it was a big music fest. and THEN it started to raiiiin! the rain felt cold it was soooo wonderful! we kept playing and aida and i danced in the rain. i never thought i could appreciate water the way i do in mali.

leaving ablo's house, all the roads (dirt roads mind you) became rivers of mud that felt great to sink your feet into. every few minutes, lightning illuminated the sky making it daytime for an instant. its still drizzling and im just so happy for all the farmers in this country that are getting an effing break! woo!

the last few days have been craaazy. time is disappearing!!! i went to this awesome free concert a few nights ago... it was a mix of slam poetry, traditional malian music, and griot! soooo cool! there were probably 10 or 15 people on stage (including a few white dudes) and everyone was soooo talented, from the griot who sang to this one slam poet/rapper dude who slammed in bambara, to a sweet beat boxer who could mimick a sax solo while it was being played (!) to the most amazing kora player. djembe player, balafon (tradish malian xylophone), calabash, everything. im really going to miss the music scene in mali.

tonight theres im going to a big outdoor concert that my friends and i have been excited about for a couple weeks now.

tomorrow our rasta friends' (from my hill) band is playing a bob marley tribute show because...

may 11 is bob marleys birthday! ahhhh! thats a really big deal here and everyone for the past like, 2 months has been asking 'so, what are you doing for may 11?' appently there are lots of festivities at the cultural spaces around bamako, so hopefully ill be doing some dancing...

anyway, i dont know what to do about this whole time disappearing thing. the worst part is how much worrrrk i have to do! i had my isp presentation today and it went just marvelously. now i have to finish the paper which is quite a feat. ive learned so much from my work at the cooperative, and plan on going next week even when the paper is done. thinking about leaving makes me sad.

oh guess, what? i was in a car accident yesterday. realllllly not a biggie, it was in the sotrama. we hit another sotrama that was next to us and it made a big ol crash and their mirror came off, but it didnt even shake me up at all. i just got up and left the sotrama and walked the rest of the way to my destination. it was so anticlimactic, i forgot to tell anyone about it (so you all are the first to hear!)

sporradic jump-rope games with street girls (m+d, bring some long jump ropes)
little Mamadou cuddling with his 7 foot uncle (my brother), Sa
really really dirty money
patchwork fabrics
first-call-to-prayer-hour bird songs hoot hoo hoo hoooot hoot
boys that help grandmothers in gardens and sing the whole time
barefeet covered in mud
photographs taken by people who have never held a camera

BT

its raining!!! ahh!!! its rainnnnning!
the rainy season isnt supposed to start until june! good ol' global dubs.
ahhh i have so much paper writing to do ahhh help me!

a nice image

i really should be writing this 20 page paper thingy buuuut yesterday was the best day ever so let me leave you with this image:

dancing on the side of my hill to the djembe beats of my new rasta friend Yege (who is apparently an internationally known drummer) and the beautiful music of the kora, with my friends from all over west africa (and my american friend aida), barefoot in my yellow dress, at sunset (with a breeze), looking out over bamako, under the mango trees

a little external celebration of life in da afrIKa
(reminded me of the last scene in "black orpheus")

i dont wanna gooooo

because tim wants to procrastinate...

heres a picture of Lala (my neice, left), me (the white chick), kadi (the adoooorable next door neighbor that likes to hold my hand and walk with me, right) and aminata (the maid who is wonderful and has the best laugh, standing)

so yesterday, my phone rings and guess who it is? (you wont guess) nikki stennes! my wash u friend studying in scotland at the moment and the worlds greatest weather woman. it was super exciting to be talking to her (ohhh technology!) andddd she told me her mom reads my blogs which is kind of exciting... shout out to Mrs. Stennes!

anywho, i worked at the coop for 4 hours yesterday and had some really solid interviews with the women. i think my research is coming a long just lovelyly. then theres the whole paper writing thing... well see how that goes. i was going to do that now but tim wants to procrastinate and all...

malians really love mayonnaise too much. who knew? very popular: mayonnaise sandwich. there are these really horrible billboards for mayonnaise that say the brand at the top and then have a picture with 1. a salad 2. a dead fish with its eyes missing (on the salad) 3. 5 large globs of mayonnaise on top of it all. its really the most unappetizing thing ive ever seen and somehow several mayonnaise brands have chosen to use the same image. yuck.

beautiful things of the day:

1. people that hold strangers' children on their laps on the sotrama because the stranger has more than one (not uncommon)


2. little bright red furry spiders that emerge in the garden after it rains


3. adiaratou's (woman at the cooperative) laugh when i say something surprisingly complex in bambara


4. the song: dunuya sira ka gelen by my rasta friend ablo


5. koran classes held under street lamps


6. women that get down on their knees to pray in the middle of the garden in 110 degree heat


7. fire hydrants that arent near anything even remotely flammable


8. refrigerated mangoes


9. oranges squeezed into orange juice right before your eyes

i want to upload pictures from the cooperative but this computer is being a butt.

mom- i cant believe tomorrow is your bday... can we skype video chat? perhaps in the morning? call and we can make a date.

Bintou works at cooperative and gets increasingly hardcore...

OH MAN my body hurts! The past few days at the cooperative have been intense... but that's a good thing because it means the women are giving me more and more responsabilities. Yesterday one of the women couldnt come to work because she had hand problems (she's 80). So guess who watered all of her plots. Yep, me! Intense. I felt really honored by the fact that they put that much confidence in my abilities.

Last night, thank allah, it poured! We had to bring everything inside (were always sitting in the courtyard outside) and the roof to my house is tin, so we literally had to yell to hear each other... but it was great! All I could think about was Aminata Mariko (the lady whose land I took that morning) and what a blessing it was that she wouldn't have to come to water her land today either!

Anyway, when I came this morning, everything was uber-green and lots of the women didnt come because they didnt have to sooni ke (water) anything. I asked how I could help and they werent sure at first because they said "i te se ka sene ke" meaning 'you dont really know how to cultivate' and I was like "n be se! n be se!" (I can! I can!) I told them I wanted to learn so they showed me and then skeptically handed me the hoe. When i started mirroring what they had just done, they were pretty shocked.

"BINTOU BE SE KA SENE KE!" one woman screamed across the farm! "A BE SE!"
(Bintou can cultivate! She can!)

All the women got really excited and it was really funny. They gave me one whole plot to dig up with that hoe and MAN that was some work! I guess the women are used to it, and at first it wasnt bad -- you basically just hack away at the earth and pull up lots of roots -- but then the heat kicked in. I was dripping with sweat (even in my new cool boubou i picked up from the tailleur yesterday). By the end of the plot, my hands felt ready to fall off. Now I have 3 hugeeee blisters just waiting to be popped. yum!

I'm certainly building up some strength at this cooperative and I really have a huge appreciation for the women who are there working constantly. Its really incredible how much they do and dont complain at all.

I've also been doing lots of research about how important women are in development, so being there and talking with them first hand is a great learning experience. My bambara isnt amazing, but today and yesterday i could say and understand everything at the cooperative which was pretty huge. granted our topics of conversation were all farming related, but still... yay!

Tonight i'm going to my friends' house for dinner and theyre making gnocchi! I'm pretty excited about that. I miss western food sooo so much.

Beautiful things of the day (inspired by Annemarie) :

• bright yellow african fabrics that have birds on them
• wood carved objects
• the cool breeze you feel for 5 minutes when you cross the bridge on sweaty sweaty sotrama rides
• children with eyeliner
• avocados
• pick-up rasta dance parties
• children that come up to shake your hand and yell "bonjour madame!"
• the little 3 year old neighbor named Kadi that holds my hand and walks with me as far as I will let her
• dirt roads that are, today, mud roads (heyyyy rain!)
  
• malian greetings and cousinage
  
• 2 minutes each evening as the sun sets when everything gets this amazing orange glow and you feel like youre in a movie about africa
  

this is my new dress...

the tailleur made it for me for 7 dollars

win!

also, this is the top of my hill

sometimes when im just walking absent-mindedly i stop and look around and think 'wow, this is my life right now' and it seems pretty crazy. in the same way that its easy to take for granted the place where you live at home (you see the same familiar things everyday), im getting really used to here. but then sometimes i clear my head and im just like 'yeah... this is pretty awesome'. today i realized that when i was on the sotrama and we had to stop for 4 cows crossing the road (no biggie) and then later the sotrama broke down and half the men inside got out and pushed us all the way to a gas station. all that kind of stuff is pretty normal until you think about it in comparison to home.

also, im loving my cooperative. even though its a million miles (2 sotramas) away, its just so great. and despite the language barrier, im starting to feel like i really belong with those women. i know the routine now, i know most of their names (not easy mind you), and they all know me and get a huge kick out of my bambara. today a film crew came from UNICEF belgium to take footage of cooperative farming for a big project theyre doing in mali (not at kalikan specifically though). they were interested in talking to me since im this weird intermediary that looks like them but carries buckets of water on my head and communicates with the malian women (the unicef folks dont speak a word of bambara). it was great talking to them because i felt knowledgable enough to explain the coop and talk about the needs of the women there (from what ive learned in my interviews), like a better irrigation system, better fencing, and consistent transport to the big market.

also, if anyone happens to be watching belgian TV, look for me :)

this afternoon, i went to a free outdoor concert at the art museum and it was amaaazing. the group is Mam Sidibe and her orchestre and it was this great mix of more current malian music with a heavy traditional base. one of the dudes in the group was the best african dancer ive ever seen. he could even contort his body and still be dancing to the beat. and he could breakdance to the beat! and this old dude came out and danced a little and it was cute and then all of a sudden he did a flip! it was so willy wonka of him! lots of kids danced too... the music was very djembe oriented which i love. and the crowd was roaring and moving the whole time. anyway, it was so great im going to see them again tomorrow night with my friends at the palais de la culture. this ones not free, but hopefully its equally as fun and dancey (dancey?)!

tomorrow i have an interview with this dude at the union for farming cooperatives in mali so im pretty excited to get some big information. research is hard here, without having a computer all the time, but its going.

oh also im feeling a lot better now :)
n ka kènè

write back to my posts people! i like that!

sumaya ani typhoide tun bè ka n na, nka sisan n ka kènè

(i had malaria and typhoid, but now im healthy)

sooo yeah... just got out of 5 days at the hospital. i woke up on thursday morning feeling awful and found out a few hours later at the clinic that i had both typhoid and malaria. JUST when i was thinking i might sneak out of mali without a scratch!

this is what my experience was like (from my journal)...

five days i spent in one bed. five days horizontal. there were some good things about that room, though, like the one way window serving as a mirror to outsiders (and providing me with some light entertainment). the air conditioning became my good pal and its remote too. i got to know the inside of my head a lot better and the lengths of my imagination in desperate measures. i got better at shadow puppets and shallow dreaming. one of the nurses named moussa had a shirt accidently embroidered with the word mousso. that was really funny it made me laugh outloud alone in my empty space. bob dylan sustained me. i had a cleansing oil detox and a clearer head because of it. as moms daughter, i made lists. i practiced bambara sentences in my head. i looked up words in my french dictionary. i read l'amant. i got a plant from lobo and i put it outside so it could taste the rain. it rained. i watched the wind and rain from my one way window. my room smelled of bananas. i slept a lot. and wrote.

now im out! FREE FREE FREE! i have so much life to live! no but really, after being in one space for so long, its strange to leave and exciting. i felt like i was seeing africa again the way i did when i first got here... noticing all the bright colors and the smells and the sounds. its a lot. i have lots of things i want to do that ive been ittttching to do all week. i cant wait to get back to the cooperative. i love it there. the women are so amazing. did i mention that last tuesday when i went they gave me a whole bag full of freshly picked bissap flowers (below) and mint and citronella. bissap juice is one of the best things ever in mali and especially when its frozen. that night i went home and made my own bissap juice with mint and citronella. yum!

anyway, some of you parental types are probably still stuck on the whole malaria typhoid thing but donnnt worry im AOK. and im taking it easy for the next few days anyway because im a smart one... no african dancing while carrying water on my head in the 100+ degree weather (at least for a week or so).

peace and glucose solutions

BINTOU

a few family pictures from yesterday...

1. Me and Mamadou
2. Lala, Bintou, et Diami (Lala's mom, my sister)
3. Tell me Mamadou isnt the cutest child youve ever seen (sorry I dont know how to rotate this image)
4. Maimouna (my sister) and me

Turns out I have another sister that lives with us too. Her name is Aida. Shes been at our house for a few weeks and I thought she was just visiting because sometimes family members come to visit for a while, but turns out she lives with us. Figures.

sooo voila! proof! this is me earlier today at the fields where im doing my project. (you cant get a great view of the fields this shot bc i was near the edge) i spent a good 2 hours going back and forth from the water basins to the vegetable plots with water on my head. today i was working with/for aminata mariko - the oldest member of the cooperative. shes 80 and still she works there everyday, twice a day! these women are so strong. it took about 2 hours to do all the watering (with my help) this morning (and i can carry as much if not more than she does), so i imagine it would take about an hour more had i not been there. its so incredible how much these women work!

im on a relatively fast computer right now so im going to try to upload more photos in another post.

I went back to Sanankoroba this weekend to visit the family there and bring them some of the pictures I had printed. Even though it took wayyyy too long in the blistering heat to get there, it was really great once I arrived. Everyone was so excited to see themselves in the pictures. Most people in villages here dont have pictures of themselves, so it was pretty cool to see their reactions. A small dance party broke out too :)

Yesterday I spent a lot of time at home with my Bko family, since I feel like Ive been out a lot. I made them guacamole and, after a long hunt, found some tortilla chips. The dish was devouuuured. My host brother told Matou (my 16 year old neice) that she needs to make that so she can get a good husband. Now I want to make more food for them since they seem to like it so much. Any suggestions of things I can make that dont involve an oven?

some things

Bamako doesnt have that many billboards, but if you see one, you can be sure that it will be for one of three things: a bank, AIDS, or powdered milk. If its for AIDS it will usually just be a big ribbon that says "SIDA: pensez-y!" (AIDS: think about it!) and Im not sure how effective that is if people dont know what it is. There are also some pretty great AIDS billboards that have a picture of a condom with two fingers in it. Im also not sure how effective that is. The powdered milk ads are the best though, because despite all the cows there are, everyone here just drinks powered milk. My favorite is for this brand called Laicran. Its just this picture of this woman smiling and below her it says "Laicran: la plus belle preuve d'amour" (Laicran: the most beautiful proof of love).

The best word that weve learned in Bambara is "ka jigin" which has 3 definitions: get down, get off, give birth. Its like a Malian public service announcement and I think its more effective than the AIDS billboards.

Bintou meets Baobab and they are very happy together

or:

Bintou discovers easier way to put pictures on her blog and finds herself feeling surprisingly computer savvy. Mmm.

back in bko

just got back from the grannnnd excursion today. even though we were traveling in a huge pack (which i was dreading), it ended up being a great time. we went to segou, djenne, the dogon hills (sangha) and mopti. i looooooved the dogon hills especially. if anyone wants to come with me next time i go back...

basically the hills are these huuuge rocks that you can hike through and people live in them and the area is sooo remote and beautiful. for the most part there is no electricity, so at night you can see a bazillion stars. i slept out on the roof both nights even though it got really cold. it was soo wonderful. since i only have a few minutes left of cyber, im just going to highlight dogon country. basically, im ready to move there (sorry mom and dad). for the 3 days we were there i was at total peace and it was really perfect. one morning we got up early and went on a 5 hour long hike through the hills. there were tons of baobab trees which are the best kind of tree because theyre soooo huge and wise. you cant climb them though because there are snakes. but in dogon, every family has their own baobab and every baobab has a name! how cool is that?! malians dont even name pets here... just goes to show how great the baobab is.

another highlight of dogon country was attending a church service one night with a few other students. it was SO beautiful. it was all in the dogon language and the preacher sat among us and it was all done through song. really beautiful song. african church music...mmmm.

im in the process of trying to get some pics up from djenne and dogon (a lot, but just a few compared to how many i havent gotten around to putting up). OH ok ooooh it just finished yayyy! im going to send yall an email with the link to see my pictures because i dont really want to put them on this public blog.
hErE mogow (peace, people!)
bintou

Mamadou's favorite activities (age: 18 months) :

1. Pushing things: chairs, wooden stools, push-toy with wheels that dont turn, buckets, the game of cards you were playing (off the table)
2. Kicking things: stuffed dog that scares him, the couch, people, food that is being prepared, buckets
3. Sticking his hands in things: trash, other peoples food, his mouth, my hair
4. Running: with his hands flopping like a doll and his lips bobbing
5. Being naked or at least bottomless: in any and all circumstances

Mamadou's really a little devil but he's so incredibly cute you can't not want to still play with him all the time anyway. Ive learned his tricks though and i think that finally, FINALLY, i have learned to outsmart him. Here's an example: Bintou (me) and Mohamed are playing SET. Mamadou approaches (dun dun dun). BUT WAIT... there is a wooden stool next to Bintou. She reaches out her hand and starts pushing it. AH HAH! Mamadou sees stool and gets jealous. He grabs it and starts pushing. Diversion accomplished! Mamadou pushes stool contently for 10 to 15 minutes. Game continues. (little does Mamadou realize that pushing off our game of cards would have been WAY more satisfying than pushing that little stool... sucker).

I've also found that making a tickling motion in the direction of Mamadou's stomach accomplishes a temporary break in being hit/drooled-on/pulled-at/offered-prechewed-mush-on-lap/and-so-on, though I think he secretly likes being tickled because he always, always comes back. I'm telling you, this kid is sly.

The cutest thing ever is that when I fill up my cheeks with air and then "pop" them in his face, he always giggles... and hes gotten so used to it that now, he makes a face like hes bracing himself for the wind even before my cheeks pop. Hes smart, you see.

Anyway, Im in good spirits because i finally got to the bank today so im not running on empty and borrowing money from everyone anymore. woooo! it actually took 5 banks and several hours before I could find a place that can do anything with Visa, but you have to expect that sort of thing here. btw mom and dad, travelers checks arent going to happen here... boo.

Oh so craziest thing ever happened. So i have this friend named Mama Koné. Hes the dude that plays djembe at the place where ive gone to dance a few times (centre togola). Hes chill and we've also hung out a few times outside of the dance stuff and climbed my hill and what not. and hes told me hes kind of internationally known as a drummer, but lots of people say that kind of thing here because like, "one time they went to senegal" or something like that. so i kind of blew off the claim. and THEN (yesterday) im searching through my ipod and HOLY ALLAH it says Mama Koné! ON MY IPOD! The album is "Danse de Bobo" and his ethnic group is Bobo and THAT is the music i bought on itunes last semester to practice west african dance to (mom- its the music we used in the DR) So basically, ive been dancing to his drumming since long before i knew him and i juuuust found out and jl:akdsjmf im still freaking out about it really. waa!

Anywho, gotta run. Im leaving for the 10 day excursion tomorrow so i may or may not be on computers. Si non, ill have lots of good stories when i get back.

K'an si

eeesh sorry did that last blog freak you out?
yeah that man was creepy and said he wanted to marry me so i said sorry i have a boyfriend and he goes "oh is it the rasta you referred to you in your blog?" THE NERVE!!! he had been reading over my shoulder!!! i wanted to smack him but instead i got up and left. probably a smart choice because he was huge. anyway, this isnt really a blog entry... its just a tease. mwahaha! sorry i gotta get back for dinner!

"i cant dance... because... theres a cow"

context: at rastaman abdoulaye's casa with my friend lobo and a bunch of other rastas. everyones got instruments. most of them are handmade by the players themselves. lots of djembes... oh man this is going to be good. BUT WAIT... theres a cow. yep, just standing there in the middle of things, peeing somewhat frequently. uh, i think i just got a little bit on my foot. they all know i dance djembe. the music starts. "ey! bintou! i ka kan ka don kE!" (you have to dance!) i survey the space: person, person, person, cow, person, person. hmmm. "n tE se ka don kE... misi bE yan" (i cant because... theres a cow there). it makes sense. then lobo and i break into laughter. i just dont think ive ever used that as a viable excuse for not dancing. this is life in mali now. sometimes there are farm animals in the way and you simply can not dance.

one of the girls from our trip went back to the US last weekend for an interview for a scholarship that might pay for grad school. we were all so freaked out about the idea of leaving here and going HOME and couldnt wait to hear about her experiences there. among other things, it was particularly interesting to hear about her friends and familys reactions to her photos. the fact is, weve all gotten really used to the way things look here, but when you all see the pictures, youre going to think 'wow, you really lived in poverty'. people here are poor, but it doesnt feel that way the way you would imagine. everyone is getting by together. there is an amazing sense of community and family and the people are so inviting and welcoming. here, people consider wealth to be in numbers -- the more children the better. while that may be contrary to our perceptions of wealth, you can see how family is sooo important to malian life and begin to understand a bit as you live here.

ok i have to sign off now because theres a creep next to me saying he loves me trying to get me to give him my information and reading over my shoulder.
bye!

ze news wif me

this morning when i woke up, mamadou was pooping on the floor outside my room and eating matches. ohhh mamadou!

things are really good here lately...ive been uber-busy. ive been going to lots of concerts (boubacar traore on sat night was amazing!) and doing my share of dancing. there are these "cultural spaces" where theres always traditional music going on and people relaxing or dancing its great. weve made some cool rasta friends that we go out with a lot which is nice because they love to dance and be silly too. and ive still been climbing my hill just about every day. it turns out that my hill is aka-ed as 'rasta hill' hahah... all the rastas live there, but not in the part that i pass on my way to the top! its mango harvesting time which means you can get 2 for 5 cents...yum!

im very accustomed to malian life now... bucket showers are heavenly now rather than inconvenient and i think i prefer peeing in holes in the ground to western toilets... as long as you cant see the maggots at the bottom. toiletpaper is like a silly past-time as is silverware and spacious public transport. here, we get around by sotramas - big green minivans with the backs gutted. you wouldnt believe how many people they can fit in just one sotrama. we can seriously squeeze like 20-25 and just when you thought there was absolutely NO space left, two fat ladies enter and somehow squeeze in. you might get sat on a little bit, but thats just the nature of the game. you can get most places taking only one or 2 sotramas and each one only costs 125 cfas which is about 25 cents. its a good deal. if you want to take a taxi you might have to pay as much as 4 dollars (thats if youre going like, 40 mins away) and that is just completely unacceptable!

speaking of money, having bills are a curse here, even if theyre only 2000 cfas (4 dollars). if you try to pay for something using a 2000 cfa bill, people will look at you like "are you kidding me? you want me to give you change for this?!" and depending on who you talk to you, they might even just say no because they dont have enough change for you. our prog director gives us money every month for transport and food and such, and he gives it to us in 5.000 and 10.000 cfa bills and were all like NOOOO because we know noone will accept such bills. its like paying for a banana with a 100 dollar bill... they think were crazy!

nonetheless, im def getting good at the system. i know where to break a bill and i will argue in bambara with a sotrama apprentice over 5 cents if i know hes ripping me off because im a tubabu (whitey). its the the principle! classes are over next week and im excited to start isp. i think ive found a really great womens coop to work with. its in a village just outside bamako so i can still live here, and its a farming coop that also does fabric dying and literacy programs for its members. i think there could be a lot there...plus i just really want to farm. im determined to be good at bambara because i know the women there wont speak french...so ive been working hard at that!

i have a busy weekend coming up and tonight were going dancing, so i best be heading off.

k'an si!

salut

so i just added a couple pictures from the village... id put up more but it takes a really long time. today was a good day because i think ive finally decided on my isp topic: womens cooperatives. k so thats really broad i still have a lot to narrow down, but im excited i at least have a starting point. on wednesday (we have wednesdays off from school) one of my teachers is taking me to a fabric dying cooperative and im really excited. i also want to look into agricultural cooperatives but i have a feeling if i do something with that i wont be in bamako so well see what happens. if anyone reading this can share any information about this sort of thing with me, articles and what not, it would be much appreciated!

anyway, my bambara is getting a lot better lately so thats nice. tonight my family asked me in bambara if im afraid of mice and i answered in bambara: no, im not afraid of mice, but mamadou (the baby) should try to catch the mice. this was a big step and they all got really excited and my sister diami clapped and lala the 4 year old danced. they were like HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT! it was pretty exciting.

OH lucy asked me the other day what the weirdest foods are that ive eaten here. they are:
1. there is a dish which is hardboiled eggs coated in ground beef. yum.
2. in the village i expressed once to my host father how much i love bananas (yes, its true, im no longer afraid of them). that night for dinner we had a pasta kind of dish with some variation of tomatoey meat sauce and GUESS WHAT HE DID?! he put 3 raw bananas right on top!!! for me! here all meals are eaten with everyone over a big communal dish and you use your hand (the right one to be specific). so i couldnt offend him... i ate that banana with the pasta and meat sauce all together... yuck!

other than that, there isnt anything too wild about malian cuisine although im eating lots of things i dont eat at home. i love eating with my hand and im starting to get good at it. theres a real cuppage technique that takes some practice. i miss some american foods though and especially cheese. mmm cheese.

hErE

my hill

so i only have a few minutes to write
but
i would like to let my readers know
that there is a marvelous hill behind my house
(much closer than i thought it was)
and since first climbing it
on sunday
i have been up everyday since
and at the top you can see all of bamako
and you can look down at the birds
it is so windy
there are no people
it is so wonderful
there is a village half way up called lassa
at the top, i always drink a mango juice
that i bought at the bottom
this is how things are
lately
love bintou

in sanankoroba, it is best to abandon all germ theories

so i just got back from my one week village stay in sanankoroba, a village not far from bamako. i will start from the beginging.

on monday we arrived and were paired off and sent to families (i was with my good friend youma and we were with the traoré family which is nice bc we both live with traoré fams in bamako.) the village is a lot different from the city. our house is made out of mud and barely has electricity (just a few lights in a few key spots... not our room). we put down mats on the floor and hooked up our mosquito nets, not without noticing about 20 huuuuge hairy spiders on the walls! the area where everyone hangs out outside is just a dirt ground and there are chickens and donkeys and stuff all around. the bathroom...oh man... i dont think most americans could fathom this bathroom. basically, its this outdoor, semi-closed off space with a hole in the ground (the toilet) that smells like death and is FULL of maggots and hugggge cockroaches. it is a really horrible experience to be avoided at all costs... especially at night when the cockroaches come out and are just all over the place. but believe it or not, by the end of the week (aka today) i actually got used to it and have figured out ways to get the cockroaches to run away. haha take that cockroaches!

our family has 6 kids ranging from age 2 (sadio aka. BOOGERMAN) to age 12 (Yaye). They have a set of fraternal twins who are 4 and adoooorable (asiatou and mahamadou) and they also parent Yakuba, this really wonderful little boy who is actually their nephew but his father died. Yakuba is 7 and he is deaf and paralyzed from the waist down. here, that means he drags himself around using his hands. this boy has the most beautiful smile and is so sweet and gentle and loved playing with me and youma. its really hard to think though, about how hard his life is and will always be. the family is for the most part really nice to him though so thats good.

so at the beginning of the week i just really didnt want to be there. the critters freaked me out and the family didnt really speak annnny french (except the dad, dramane, who was out a lot) and the heat seemed even more excruciating than in the city. plus i just didnt really understand my purpose. during the day, all us american students would go off and do art projects and i just felt so awkward coming home to a mother and children, who had worked all day, and not contributing at all. plus, even when youma and i would offer to help with the cooking, etc, theyd just say "no, have a seat"... they meant it in a nice way but we really wanted to do something!

the turning point for me was wednesday night. first off, i took my first shower (i rushed home before dusk so i could shower in daylight before all the cockroaches came out of the maggot pit) so i felt relatively clean and cooled off--by the way we shower using a bucket full of well water and that stuff iffy. then, at night, i started dancing around with some of the kids (in addition to the 7 kids at my house, the neighbors live so close there are always like 20 kids around). at first we were just clapping and singing and showing off some moves and they all wanted to see me and youma dance. but then, some little 12 year olds came over with some tin cans and sticks and made some AMAZING african dance rhythms and it became a legit dance party! it must have lasted like, 2 hours and it was sooo much fun! youma didnt really want to dance a lot so she ran around pretending to be a monster and the kids were SO scared of her it was hilarious. i picked up yakuba to run around because he wanted to participate but cant walk.... he was so scared of youma that he peed on me. haha. anyway the dancing/running around/pee fest went late into the night and i went to sleep feeling really happy... like i had finally integrated with the family despite the language barrier. that is why dance is wonderful.

thursday, i woke up feeling good. youma didnt though, and she ended up going back to bamako in the morning because she was sick. so that left me alone with the fam for the rest of the week (which would have been hard at the beginning, but i felt really good about things by thursday). that day, my host mom fatmata let me help cook and do laundry and i played a lot with the kids from the night before and they all wanted me to take photos of them so i filled up an entire memory card with pictures. at one point i went out and bought about 20 bananas to share with everyone (for like 50 cents) and after i did that all these people were like, offering me their children to take home. its weird but people here do that. at night there was more cooking and of course tea and ceaseless handclap games with all the children...good times. its a good thing everyone goes to bed early in the village because the days are so tiring.

yesterday, friday, there was a village dance in the evening. it started out kind of lame to be honest.... lots of people stood in a big circle with 4 djembe players and the african women would pull in the tubabus (white people aka us) one at a time and try to show us some easy steps. it wasnt high energy though. BUT after a little while some african women showed off some steps a bit and then asked if any of us wanted to come up and solo. it was high pressure but i was just thinking its now or never! so i got up and soloed like 4 or 5 of my favorite steps from my west african dance classes and it was great! everyone cheered a lot and it was sooo fun! im really proud of myself for stepping up. more people came in to join me and the dancing that continued was a lot more upbeat. when it all ended, a lot of people came up to me and said nice things and i left with a huge energy boost. hoorah!

on the way out though, i took a step and OW! i looked down and there was a stick coming out of my foot. i screamed but all the other people from my group had gone so i was just surrounded by kids. it hurt so bad and i pulled the stick out-- i think it was like, half an inch deep in the side of my foot. i almost fainted...it was scary. there was a lot of blood and i hobbled over to this old lady who helped me clean off the area and then i stumbled home and put on some disinfectant and such. all the million kids from my fam helped me and were so sweet about it so that was nice. i think it will be fine so long as i keep it clean.

i was really sad to say bye to everyone this morning. we bonded a lot since wednesday and especially the kids are sooo cute. asiatou is just the most beautiful little girl and she just gets up really close to my face and makes this huuuuge smile. and yakuba...i am really sad to leave him too. im definitely going to try to print some of the photos i took of the kids while im here and hopefully i can go back to visit and bring them the pictures. i think its in the cards...inchallah.

so i got back to the house in bamako and was really happy to see everyone. my sister diami even said "you are welcome" in ENGLISH when i arrived! compared to the village, here seems sooo clean and sooo urban. i guess its all relative. of course seeing mamadou put a huge smile on my face. that little bottomless boy seems to be a little older each time i see him (i think its becase hes growing in teeth). theres a baptism across the street from our house so there are lotssss of people in the road, listening to music, playing cards, and drinking tea.

my cybertime is running low so im going to go back to that scene. by the way, the new baby is named sekou.

love to all and keep sending me the news with you!

bintou

n ye jirimөgө ye

the title of this entry is i am the tree person.
weve learned a bunch of verbs in bambara now but not really any nouns so this is one of the few i know which i use in almost every sentence. also, balon, tabili, jakuma, sugu, wulu, sogomogo balimamuso, sogobalimamuso (ball, table, cat, market, dog, meatman, sister, meatsister).
things are still going swell here. even though classes are way too long, we get wednesdays off which is marrrrvelous! my friends and i have been going to lots of concerts--- there is alllllways something musical going on. yesterday was a really fun day... after school i met up with a friend who goes to the INA (art school in bamako). hes a story teller and djembe player and he hooked me up with a dance practice in another part of the city. it was the first organized dance thing ive done (although were always groovin at concerts and what not) and i had such a great time! it was exhausting but i kept up with most of it thanks to west african dance class last semester. im so glad ive gotten the in with this dance troupe because its really cool and everyone was so nice and the place is close to my school. also all these kids from the cartier showed up to watch and dance along and stuff... it was sooo cool! when i got home i relaxed for a bit and then went out to a nightclub with my brother Sa (that means snake in bambara because hes like 1000 feet tall). a bunch of my friends were at the night club and we were there until 4 in the morning. sa's a sick dancer so he showed me all the specific dances for the different countries' songs. there are very specific dance moves that you use for each contry... for example, the cote d'ivoirians are major booty shakers! you should have seen how excited i got when soldja boy came on...
oh man right now in this cyber cafe the thong song is playing.
ANYWAY
i know that i write about mamadou in just about every post, but he is just so effing cute. i just look at him and laugh. it seems like every time i come home he has a new tooth coming in. his smile is so cute. the other day when i was leaving to meet up with some friends, mamadou followed me out and tried to come zith me (he does that a lot). so i picked him up and gave him a big hug and was like k'an ben mamadou! (bye mamdou!). and when i picked him up he grabbed my cheeks really tight with both hands and pulled really hard and one of them got cut! little devil! i have a scab but you cant really get angry at this child. lala is sick at the moment but i think she will be better soon. she still plays handclap games with me all the time so thats a good sign.
the weather is getting bloody hot now, and they say it will get a lot worse. even at night i just sleep on top of my sheet and im sweaty. luckily im always tired enough so that doesnt prevent me from sleeping...
i have a lot more to say but only 1 min left on my cyber time so i will have to continue a la prochaine fois.
keep writing me emails... i miss you all!
xo
bintou

i dont know how to title this entry

hey all... i have finally made it back to the cyber cafe! this place is not fun so i probably will not be here too often,,, its mega hot and the internet connection is suuuuper slow and this keyboard is mocking me. anyway, let me give you some updates...

my fam is wonderful. i have 3 brothers and 2 sisters that are older than me, plus 2 neices and a nephew (matou, lala, and mohamadou) and we have a servant who is like anohter member of the family (aminata). you might be thinking "wow a servant" and its true that my fam is not poor, but to give you some perspective, most of my friends fams have 5 or 6 servants and they are not treated well so i am glad that aminata is so loved and repected in our household.

i have found more than ever here that you cant make ANY assumptions about other cultures. not in the least. everything is different. here are some cool aspects about malian culture:

1. last names are very important and people will judge you by them. since there are only like, 12 malian last names, each one is paired off with another (or several) and these groups are called "joking cousins". as a traoré, my joking cousins are the diarras. and when you meat a joking cousin, you are compelled to make fun of them BUT there is only one insult you should make... you have to say "ahh! cousin! you eat beans!!! haahaha" and in response they will say "no no no, it is YOUR family that eats beans!!" effectively, everyone eats beans in mali and it is one big fart party but noone will admit this. i personally love this tradition and have had a wonderful time accusing people of eating a staple food in malian culture.

2. bambara is a tonal language and we have had some good fun messing up in class. but it is effing scary if you mess up for real. for example, you might try to say "how is your family?" (an important greeting with everyone you see)... but DONT MESS UP! you might accidently say "how is your meat man?". this is considered a grave insult and you better not say it. there are lots of things like this but im currently forgeting them because this cyber cafe is horrible.

anyway, let me think of some stories.

so the other day i got home from school and i looked at our big beautiful mango tree and decided to climb on up. this is like THE perfect climbing tree, im telling you. so i climb up and matou (my 16 year old neice) starts CRACKING UP. im convinced she will soon pee her pants. she calls out the fam and everyone has a huuuge laugh party. (weve learned very quickly here that malians love to laugh and its not an offensive thing). im up in the tree laughing at the fact that everyone is having laugh seizures and my bro mohamed is going "WHERES YOUR CAMERA?! WHERES YOUR CAMERA?!" it was a wonderful family moment. afterwards we took lots of pictures of each ohter and perhaps i will sometime be able to put them up. we shall see.

oh, i know im jumping around, but last weekend we went to this city called sikasso that was about 6000 hours away and we climbed really high on these huge cliffs and it was awesome. you could see so far and it was sooo beautiful. we also saw lots of dead animal skulls because that is one place where they are sacrificed. mmm.

so, my little nephew mohamadou is basically the cutest child ever. he is only 17 months and at first he was scared of me but now hes my little buddy. when i get home he runs over to me and jumps into my arms. its always really great when he runs because his arms flap around like the marionnettes in team america when they run. his head is still really huge and hes usually wearing a little tshirt and no bottoms and he only has a few teeth but is smile is contagious. today as i walked to my bus stop on the way to school he followed me out and didnt want to leave my side. it was so cute. oh man.

lala, my little neice, is wonderful too. shes 4 and she is suuuuper musical and wants to sing and dance with me all the time. you should see how she dances. any time you start singing shakira she breaks it DOWN. she like, gyrates her hips and lifts up her shirt and stuff. in the US everyone would think this was far too sexual for a 4 year old but here everyone just claps to the beat and sings for her and laughs and comments "oh yes, lala is a very good dancer, oh yes i taught her" weve also been playing handclap games up the wazoo and the other day i taught her and some neighborkids ring around the rosy and we had to play it like 30 times before they would let me stop.

my brother mohamed is 29 and hes the leader of the family. hes super cool and takes me everywhere with him so ive gotten to meet a lot of his friends. we drive around on his moto all over the city and each take an earphone of my ipod and jam out. its great because on these bloody hot days a little wind and a little music is all you need.

so yesterday i was very sick but today im better. the doc gave me 4 medicines and a little sleep did a lot of good.

this weekend i have some exciting plans. my bambara teacher manages a malian hiphop group and this friday they are having a concert in kati so we are all going. its going to be so fun!! this teacher is the shiiiz. on saturday were having a party at amadou and mariams house because its one of the students birthdays. hopefully we can chill with them some more. did i mention i played guitar with their fam?! also this weekend im going running with mohamed up a hill in bamako. hopefully the heat doesnt kill me!

well, thats all for now, my time is about to run out. ill try to give some updates in another week or so.

love to all.
hErE.
Bintou

so right now im in amadou and miriam's house. THE amadou and meriam. yep. they're my friends host parents. i just hung out with amadou. now were chilling in their megahouse and they have internet thus the update. anyway, things are going quite well for me n my modest home in hamdallaye (old city). we dont have 8 bathrooms like this house but im happy to be getting a realistic home experience. sometime i will have to explain the bathroom situation here but right now, were off to play some guitar with the fam.
k'an bEn

call me bintou

a ni sogomo friends and fam, Im here in mali safe and sound and I love this place! so far everyone has been so nice, the weather is perfect (really not that hot) and it is so beautiful!
the first 2 days we spent near bamako, going to class in our wonderful, open air class building and meeting lots of people from the area. day one they set us loose in the crazy marketplace in center city and we were paired off and had to find certain things and buy certain things and then find our way back to the hotel. it was completely overwhelming without knozing bambara but we all made it!
weve met so many warm people who are very welcoming and invite us to join them in food or dance or the likes. (this computer is so hard to type on so excuse my mistakes).
ive spent the last 2 days in siby, a small village about 1.5 hours outside the city. it was very remote with no electricity or running water and we had a great time... meetng the locals, playing soccer, etc. the first night there after dinner we heard very loud music coming from another part of the village so some of us followed it and found a huge dance festival with hundreds of villagers. they invited us to dance so we ended up being there for hours, playing zith the kids and dancing a TON. it was so great... i even busted out some of the dance moves i learned in african dance class and they were cheering and joining. everyone just has this great love of life and its contagious.
today we returned from siby and ive just met my host family and seen my home for the next 3 mnths. i love it! its very simple but i have a small room to myself. most of the house is an outdoor area zith a beautiful mosaic floor. there are lots of people that im not sure my "relation" to yet including some adorable little kids; a little baby named mohamadou and a little sis named lala who is 4. there are some girls who are about 12 or so and more people that i will meet tonight zhen they return from work and such. i should tell you now that im not claire anymore... here i am BINTOU TRAORE. i love the name bintou so im having everyone call me that... even the other students. hehe.
so, there is so mcuh more to tell but my internet clock is running low and i need to leave so,e time for this thing to send. from now on, ill post updates when i can on my blog: dumali.blogspot.com. check it out and feel free to subscribe. im not sure that i will be able to use internet so mcuh here but i will try when i can!
feel free to write back and i will try to respond!
miss you and love you all.
hErE (peace),BINTOU
PS annemarie and lucy... there are mango trees everywhere!!! its all we eat!!!

the countdown begins...

im leaving in just 8 days. hollllly shit. at the moment my packing pile is lame-o. soap, deodorant, backpack, some skirts, and OH a water filter. i still have a lotalot to pull together. luckily, i have no friends (home) so all day every day i COULD be going to get stuff. at the moment im thinking the pack will be filled like so:
1/8 clothing
1/8 books and school supplies
1/8 miscellaneous - flashlight, small fan, host family gifts, yadda
1/8 sun protection
4/8 PILLS
ill be careful not to pull a heath ledger with those. too soon?
lately ive been trying to gather all the contacts i can get while im there. if anyone reading this blog can help me out that would great dude.

ps

one more thing... I just got skype!
so if you, my faithful readers, have skype... add me!

musique en afrique

http://mali-music.com/index.html

i just found this website with music updates in mali and i want to remember it so i can go to concerts and such while im there. one of the things im really excited about is the great art and music scene in bamako. some of the most internationally known african musicians like ali farke toure are from there. plus i really want to go to places where i can dance! in my west african dance class this semester a lot of the dances we learned were from mali...wooo.

my dream: my host brother plays djembe and my host sister dances...
...buuuut i dont even know if i'll have host siblings so i wont get my hopes up quite yet