What a week in Mali!

Hello! Well,where do I begin? There's so much to describe and recount and it's only been one week! After an emotional goodbye to Giovanni's family in Germany, we headed off on a night train to Paris, where we would be catching the plane to Mali. Already on arrival at the aeroport we were surprised by a massive spiritual gathering of Middle eastern men and women. There were hundreds of holy men and women dressed in traditional white tunics and skull caps. There were others from the community in Paris seeing them off with shrill female voices in the high pitched call they make with their tongue. The holy men and women kissed all of the community one by one with their traditional four kiss greeting!



The plane trip seemed endless, probably because we hadn't slept the whole previous night.The airline was a bit slack in providing drinks, so by the time we arrived in Morooco we were both feeling quite dehydrated! The plane was small and luckily we didn't have to get off or change planes. We just let off the passengers bound for Morocco and filled up petrol. In already distinct African timing we finally headed off to our final destination.

The winding Niger river was the first thing we saw from the plane of Mali, contrasting with the rest of the desert like land. The heat was the first thing we felt when the doors of the plane were opened and we descended onto the scorching tarmac. Getting through immigration was easy compared to the bombardment of 'helpful' men who could offer us all you need to have a good stay in Mali. After quite a hassle of trying to contact Giovanni's djembe teacher with a rare English speaking man's phone, we finally got the address and boarded a taxi bound for another part of the spread out city Bamako.

We passed through a little market and the taxi driver asked his way to Bourama's house. What a beautiful location! It's high up on a red rocky hill which gives a view of the whole of this part of town. A perfect place to observe Africa pass by, without being too conspicuous. That is until the kids see you and spread the word, calling 'Bonjour, Bonjour!'

The first taste of Africa was a steaming sweet green tea served in a small glass, brewed carefully for at least 20minutes over a small fire to make sure it is super strong. The constant pouring and repouring from high above from the teapot to the cup and back, creates a frothy concoction that is close to the feeling of drinking a bitter sweet expresso!! The reality of not speaking French hit us as we tried to communicate with Bourama. Luckily Giovanni is a trained professional in using his hands to express himself! The family lives in an open area with a collection of four cement boxes with tin roofs and doors and curtains hanging in the doorways. If you think it's 36degrees outside, imagine inside! In fact, the only time people go in doors is at the end of the evening to sleep. Everything else is done outside in the red rock paved courtyard. The washing by hand, moving water carefully from bucket to bucket. The regular washing of hands, feet and face before the Muslim prayers is done over the soil of the lonely tree, providing a little shade. The bathroom is a round space attached to the house with cement walls and floor, with a tiny hole for water to drain down and a larger hole for doing everything else. It's well organised, with a big cistern underneath where everything slowly decomposes. ( Like those eco-toilets in camping sites in Australia.) There is no running water in the town apart from at the local water stations, where people take their 20l containers for refilling. There are also young boys who deliver these on metal trolleys directly to the houses for a small price. So the showers are bucket showers and there's even hot water. ( If the container is left for an hour in the sun!!)

Bourama has a huge family, being one of 14 children. But only a few live at this house with his mum. She is so beautiful and I'm already very close to her; despite there being even more of a language barrier, because she only speaks Bambara, the main Malian language. But so many things go beyond words, like a morning greeting, asking how and where to do our washing, sharing food and showing family photos. I gave her a pair of earrings which she hasn't taken off since. So gorgeous! She's super active and strong and is always busy cooking on the little fire place, sweeping, tidying the rooms, washing or holding grandchildren ( and great-grandchildren!) I love her strong female presence as all the others around are males.

The food has been good so far, although we are looking forward to adding more variety, for we have seen quite a few different vegies at the market. We mainly eat beans and rice, noodles with hot onion sauce, casava and plantain(big bananas for frying), fresh salad with lettuce and tomato and baguette style bread. Also bananas and watermelon and litre after litre of water! We both feel parched almost continuously probably because of the huge climate change coming from wintery Europe to this desert heat.

It's true that music is an inseparable part of West African culture. The radio plays constantly a huge range of traditional music and blues-style song sung in Bambara by men with high sweet voices. The radio with it's constant static is the soundscape of our time here.

People manage to have their noon naps in wooden lounging chairs right next to it. Africans seem quite used to chaotic noise, but interestingly, they are really comfortable with long silences and just being together without having to talk. A beautiful thing to feel the presence of the people around you. They pass alot of the middle of the day relaxing and making tea. It's so hot, it's impossible to do anything else.

The women are strongly respected here as they are the faces at the markets, the ones who tirelessly transport their goods on their heads in perfect balance.( Not to mention with their baby strapped to their back with a simple cloth.) The women in Mali seem very patient but with strong characters and they take no nonsense from their many children, who help willingly, taking on responsibility from a young age. They are dressed so beautifully in their traditional colourful fabrics. A sarong like skirt, a baggy top that slides off the shoulder revealing strong black skin and a matching head piece. The legs are never shown but they are free to show their shoulders and the older women even do their washing bare-breasted. The men wear colourful long tunics with matching baggy pants.

Giovanni is going well with his Djembe lessons and although he is suffering from painful hands after 5 hours drumming a day, he feels he is making progress and is so happy to be in Africa. We went into the centre of the town to the Artisans Market, where Giovanni carefully chose and bargained fro a big Balafon ( similar to a wooden xylophone). He is so happy with his new amazing sounding instrument!

I started taking French lessons, which I'm loving. I've got two different teachers, one who comes to the home 4 days a week, for 2 hour lessons, and the other, where I go to his family's house the other days. With the excuse I get out and about abit. It's going really well and as always I'm fascinated to learn another Latin based language, with all it's similaries and differences. I understand alot already but it's really hard for me to get the pronounciation, which is so different to Italian, Spanish and English. There are so many new sounds to get my mouth around.

When Giovanni has finished learning his first full rythym, I'll start learning the traditional dance moves to match the beat.

Well, there's so much more to say but this heat makes one very lazy and I think I'll leave the rest to next time. Bourama's older sister is getting married tomorrow at the family home and we have prepared ourselves with african outfits and I've had my hair plaited too! Today the women are doing hennae tattoos in preparation of the wedding on their hands and feet, so there'll be plenty of photos and stories for next time!

Until soon!

We hope you enjoyed this little chapter of our life in Bamako, Mali!

Love and light
Jess and Giovanni