This week i think a lot of us have felt somewhat flat and exhausted as we are reaching the halfway point. This has however been cheered up by the discovery of a new ice cream parlor with amazing flavors (pear and truffle anyone? and definitely no food poisoning :) ) and a trip out of town on Saturday morning to the town of Kati. On Saturday a few of us braved the marché de Medina to find a sotrama to Kati. We got bounced about with lots of people trying to sell us taxis instead however we found the right sotrama and embarked on a very cramped hour journey to the town. It still beats me how 23 people can fit into the sotrama, and this was no exception as we were sat on and crammed into the corner for the one hour bumpy ride.I lost feeling in both legs and got tons of bruises- I still love people watching on the sotrama however! The people on it were laughing at us as we got used to being so very squashed. Despite our lack of Bambara I still love communicating with the locals through smiles and giggles. It was amazing to get out of the city and see some of the rural communities circling Bamako.
Kati is a small town 15km away from Bamako, it was just nice to leave the capital and immediately we noticed how friendly everybody was. Amazingly we perused the beautiful fabric stalls with ZERO hassle and were even able to politely say no and walk away without being chased down the road. The fabric here is so beautiful and we all got a bit excited buying bright designs to take to the tailor. I'm not sure exactly what i am getting made as all my fabric was taken away and my measurements taken...watch this space. We then moved from the beautiful, non Western town ( with the exception a number of packets of Obama biscuits- he gets everywhere!!) of to the Hippodrome area of Bamako which is the hang out of the local "tubabu" (white) community. It is however comforting to find familiar faces and products and food so in the afternoon we all indulged in pizza! (simple pleasures).
In the evening we went to a fancy dress party at a USAID workers house. The villa was beautiful (yet funded by the US embassy). It was a fancy dress party for Halloween and I once again surprised myself on how resourceful I can be when i have none of my normal things with me. In ten minutes hair was backcombed, ears were made and make up done- resulting in Alice the cat! The fancy dress costumes were amazing and itsinteresting to see how much effort all the Americans put into their costumes! It was slightly surreal to be at such a party, there were so many spirits, dancing and crazy antics yet it was a slightly welcome departure from daily life. The evening took a less good turn however on the decision to go to a nightclub. I still hate the nightclubs here and the one we went to was no exception. Women were scantily clad and men were everywhere. I felt like they were scanning me with their eyes and i hated it. I find it so hard to see women behaving like this with these men, especially as in my daily life I see women working hard keeping their families and homes. Its such a departure from the perception of the Malian women here and I found it really uncomfortable. I think if I knew the women were there for fun (not money) I would feel better but I know there is a slightly shadier side to the nightclubs and I can't grasp it. I still think it is difficult to compare such wealth and materialism (Absolut vodka and champagne bottles in ice buckets) with the poverty I see everyday. Sorry for the slightly sobering thought.. I think being here is bringing out the closet feminist in me! The position of women here is so very different to that in the UK and whilst this is not always negative it paves the way for a slightly mismatched collision of cultures with an (often) negative Western influence slowly infiltrating onto the women who choose to accept it and then men who want to embrace it.
Apologies for the uninspiring writing this week..the week has been quite uneventful ( and i am currently running on 2 hours sleep..) Next weeks installment should be more interesting as next week it is the Tabaski festival and armed with our new clothes (it is custom to get new outfits made) we have been invited to celebrate with a feast at one of the IS staffs family homes. I am really looking forward to this insight into Malian culture. I am sure there will be plenty of stories to tell..
Missing you all this week
X
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