Sunday night



We’ve spent the last two days walking around Bamako’s various neighborhoods to get a feel for the city and to figure out where we want to live. The Niger river flows right through Bamako and people living on either side all think their side is best. Originally Badaladougou , an area across the river appealed to us, but everyone we speak to has told us that we should live on the same side of the river as our workplaces. Apparently traffic on the bridge during rush hour is insane.


Imagine that! The lion has his own security guard. The "lion keeper" has his little spot where he can make his tea and keep on eye on the big cat. And it just all smells soooo bad!


We’ve done a ton of walking and have narrowed it down to a few quartiers. We’ve got a “coxer” who will begin looking for us tomorrow. A coxer is a non-formal real estate agent of some sort. We’ll keep you posted on our efforts in finding a living space.



Walking through the streets of Bamako, we came across a group of women dying fabrics (pagnes) which will then be sold in the markets. Once the fabrics are dyed, they need to be ironed. This is actually done with a hammer. The fabrics are beaten flat! Picture of this to follow soon.

This morning we had planned to go to the museum but ended up slightly further up the hill at the zoo. What a depressing and stinky place!! The only uplifting thing about it was seeing fathers with their 10-15 children strolling around the grounds.

Arguing in plane

Greetings from Mali!

The trip here was long.
The plane ride from Casablanca to Bamako was pretty hilarious. Thomas and I were dead tired but still found humor in what was going on around us. It’s always interesting to observe people’s behavior on planes…the Germans drink too much, the Dutch applaud and the West Africans argue.

The flight from Casa to Bamako had been cancelled the night before so the flight was completely full and everyone (mostly Malians) had way more than just 2 carry-on bags. There just wasn’t enough room for everyone’s bags!! When the flight attendant asked passengers if they would agree that one or two of their bags go down below, they refused. I’ve never seen people argue so intently with flight attendants! They were waiving their arms and snapping their fingers in the attendant’s face….it was quite the scene!
Then, as the plane was getting ready to land and the pilot asked everyone to take their seats and fasten their seat belts, about a dozen passengers (all African) decided that they had to go to the bathroom! Again, more arguing! Of course, as soon as the plane hit the ground, everyone got up. The poor flight attendants said nothing. They’d lost the battle.

Welcome

So here it is! The much-talked about and anticipated blog! We’ve been talking about it since the second week of August, when we heard that we’d both obtained postings in Bamako, Mali for the same period of time.
We’ve both lived and worked abroad before, yet the process of getting ready when you’re a home owner is all the more over-whelming. Between getting our home renovations done, finding a tenant for our house, finishing up in our previous places of employment, finding a storage locker for our stuff, packing it up (again), storing it (again), hosting family from overseas, and deciding what to bring to Mali, we’ve had little time to mentally prepare for our year abroad let alone get a blog started.
So without further ado, we’ll start off briefly introducing ourselves and telling you what we think our placements in Bamako will entail. One thing we’ve learned in the past is that Terms of Reference provided at the beginning of the hiring process are rarely the TORs which are followed and which apply to our jobs.
Throughout this year, we will do our best to share our thoughts and experiences with you. Once this blog is set up, the next step will be finding a place to live in Bamako. We will have a guest room and welcome anyone for a visit.

XO

MICHELLE & THOMAS (les Routards)



For those who don’t know me that well
The people who know me have always seen me as a routard, a person who is always on the road looking for new adventure and meeting new people.
My life started in France where I spent my youth and beginning of my professional life. After high school, I decided to go out on my own and make my own way and I went to to Vierzon to do a technical degree in Industrial Ceramics and discovered a really interesting wine region call Sancerre. At the end of my studies, I found a job in the central west coast of France close to Nantes, where I lived for 8 months. Then my feet began to feel itchy and I decided to look for a job somewhere I had never been before. I moved to a small town close to Bordeaux, between St-Emilion and Sauterne. I was in paradise! Two years went by and my need for new adventure came back to haunte me, so I decided to move to Nantes where some of my best friend where living.
I found a job as Manger of Production in a company producing temperature sensors, where I worked hard and crazy hours. Over there I met Michelle with whom I had so much in common. We shared the passion of seeking out adventures and meeting new people and sharing with them.
The day we got engaged was the turning point in my life. We started talking about going on a trip to Morocco. This trip was the beginning of road trip around the world. We moved to Toronto for 4 months and then she got an internship in Peru, where I was able to discover Michelle’s second country and her passion for development. Over there I volunteered with a local NGO which helps Andean communities produce and sell handicrafts.
After seven months of work and some traveling in Argentina, tasting some nice wines in Mendoza, visiting the majestic and gigantic falls of Iguaçu and seeing amazing landscape we finally came back to Toronto to go back to school. I went back to University to do a Bachelor in Business Economics. After I graduated I found a job as an accountant.
Last December we became the proud owners of a small home which needed a lot of TLC! So much had to be done before we could even move in. Over the winter Michelle and I, with the help of friends, spent all our spare time doing home renovations. Everybody thought this was the turning point for us and we would settle. In our minds we had this common dream to go back overseas and offer our experience and work with other people. In April ,while Michelle was in Burkina Faso, I was laid off from my job. Seeing her so enthusiastic about the work there gave me the desire to finally realise this dream to go back overseas. Over the summer we applied to CECI ( www.ceci.ca ) and found two amazing postings.
I will be working in Mali for the Ministry of Promotion of Women, Children and Family as a cost analyst consultant on the project Karite(www.projetkarite.org)

Thomas

Over the last ten years, I’ve been on the move quite a bit. I began my travels right after high school when I went to Peru and developed a long love affair with the beautiful and mystical country. In university I took every opportunity I could to take courses abroad. I was able to spend a summer studying linguistics and Mexican politics in Cuernavaca. I spent my final year of university in France and met Thomas, a man whose feet, I discovered, were as itchy as mine, and whose sense of adventure and work ethic were in synch with mine. Before settling in Toronto, we moved to Peru together so that I could complete an internship there with World Food Programme and we traveled throughout and fell in love with Argentina.
Between then and now, we’ve gone back to school, had jobs, and bought a house. I really think that once we got the keys to our new house in January, people thought we were finally settling down. Nope! Think again! Having a house just means we have a pied à terre somewhere. Thomas was laid off in April while I was in Burkina Faso for work. It was when I returned to Toronto that we discussed looking for positions abroad. I will be working in the sector of gender equality. My interest in applying for such a volunteer placement with CECI stems from my professional experience, my educational background and my desire to acquire more experience in a more specific sector than project management itself.
Getting ready to move abroad to embark on adventure has always been quite easy for me. This time it was all more difficult than I imagined it might be. Although Thomas and I were doing it all together, it was still a daunting time for me. This time, I found saying good-bye to people more difficult that I had in the past.
As I sit in a hotel near the Casablanca airport waiting for our flight to Bamako, I’m surrounded by sooooooo many different people. There are no back-packers. There are some business men and then common people like us. I think they might be from West Africa (their robes and “caps” give it away). The hotel is large but it feels a bit crowded. Thomas commented that he can already see that people are “warmer” and aren’t afraid to get close to others. For example, we were all served a buffet lunch and to line up for it Thomas and I both felt as though people were breathing down our necks. I think Thomas likes the feeling. I know it’s the kind of environment I’ll be living in over the course of the next year…and I’ll get used to it and adapt. That’s all for now. Maybe it was a bit of a ramble. I’m exhausted and off to have a snooze before the final flight.
Michelle