Leaving Mali.....

So, this update is full of traditional Malian events...

As you can see in the photos, these Malians love to dance! It's so natural for them in a traditional event, like this wedding, for the men to play the amazing music and the women to take turns getting up and dancing for just a few minutes alone and then cracking up and running back to their seats! They pretend to be shy but they're not, at all! There are also group dances where all the women stand up slowly and join the circle and slowly shuffle around in the circle dance together until the music gets faster and they start to dance, faster and faster, lifting the dust until the rythym ends and they all happily return to their seats. Not to mention that all this, including the solo wild dancing they do with their baby strapped to their back if it's sleeping, or otherwise if the child is a bit bigger, they leave them for a moment on their chair. It's interesting that only the women dance, not the children or the young adults, it seems to be a role that only the women play. They dance amazingly, with arms flying, feet going wild, throwing their heads back and moving fantastically to the traditional rhythyms. The music is wonderful and we've filmed alot of it, when we get back we'll show the films. Giovanni loved the wedding, as it was the perfect place to see the culture of the djembe ( the traditional drum) and how it is used in Africa. Not for jamming or free style, like in the west, but purely for the tradition of passing on the music of hundreds and hundreds of years of these same rythyms that are original to Mali.

The night before the wedding, there were lots of beautifully dressed women with their babies on their back, helping to prepare the food and to carry buckets and buckets of water up to the house, which would be needed having so many guests the next day ( for hand washing, the bathroom, drinking, washing the pots, preparing the food...... all this water carried up the hill on the womens heads, carrying babies! Amazing!) So, when the jobs had been done and everyone had eaten together and the night fell, Giovanni and I were really tired, after having been looked at all day and talked to in Bambara, which we don't understand! So we headed off into the hot oven, which is our room, and tried to head off to sleep despite the disgusting heat! After awhile we started to hear a banging in a constant rhythym outside in the family courtyard and low female voices. At the time we didn't understand and felt grumpy at being woken up. But when the voices started getting louder and we realised there was something special going on, we got up and went outside, where we saw all the women in the darkness sitting on chairs in a circle and the men in a different area listening. There were two women in the middle of the circle sitting on the floor facing each other, banging a rythym together on a big dried half gourd( like a big thick pumpkin skin dried in the sun and used here for carrying grains, and washing rice and many other things.) Anyway, on this hard gourd, turned upside down, two women were playing a trance-like rythms together, one of them leading with a gentle traditional chant, while the other women responded in a chorus. It was so moving and sacred that moment of ancient tradition, played out by the women of the family of the bride, probably for thousands of years, the words of the chants being passed on from generation to generation. It was such an amazing moment, for both of us, Giovanni sitting with the men from afar, in that traditional separation of men and women, which is still very strong here. And for me, as I was immediately welcomed into the circle of women and tried to learn the contratempo difficult rhythm they were clapping and joining in in the high pitched excited shrills over the top of the soft call and response of the chants. What an unforgettable midnight experience!

During the course of the three days before and the three days after the wedding, there were hundreds of visitors coming up to the family courtyard. The day of the wedding was full of music and dance, then a meal eaten together, all the women and children together and all the men separate. Eaten together from big plastic containers full of tasty rice, with no cutlery just fingers licked contently and put back in for more (not very appetizing, I must admit!), follwed by oranges, then bananas, then homemade iceblocks. Knowing how poor the family is, we knew what a big expensive this would have been, to feed so many guests. The gifts that people brought were mainly the 6metre colourful fabric that one buys to maker a traditional outfit. By the end of the day, the bride had two chests full which will probably last her a lifetime. It's the mother and the family that slowly add to the bride's dowry over the course of the daughter's adolescence. The days that followed the wedding, the women all came back to help sort out all the gifts (casseroule sets, big aluinium pots, straw hand brooms, sifters for flour and other grains, plastic buckets, wooden grinders and pestles, you'll see in the photos the other things, all very practical for the lifestyle here... a bit like a simple, not mechanical version of the typical white goods!)

So we were quite happy when the fairly intensive wedding fuss was over and we settled back into our tranquil routine of Giovanni learning 5 hours a day of Djembe lessons and me taking my old fashioned style French lessons, as you can see with the chalkboard and all! So, in the next update I'll tell you about the big Muslim holiday that has been celebrated here last week, which was quite a new experience for us!

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the stories!

Lots of love to you all from the dusty, hot land of Mali.

Love and light

Jess and Giovanni