hiking with hash

Thomas and I have joined a “hash group” (where no hash is smoked). There are hash groups all over the world – these groups meet on a regular basis to do short hikes. Our friend Deb (she lives here and works here and I met her years ago through my cousin Nadien) has a car and so we all go together. Her daughter, Bintou, is 15 months old and Deb does the walk with her on her back. Total pro-star athletic Mom and such an adorable and happy kid! Most of the people in the hash group are French, but there are also some Dutch, some Québécois, and some Belgians. The drive to where we start hiking is never longer than a 30 minute drive outside of Bamako and it’s so refreshing knowing that there are hiking trails so close to home where you can actually breathe. Bamako is such a polluted and dusty city! The terrain surrounding the two trails we hiked is extremely dry and there are little bush fires in certain areas. Apparently the cultivateurs light these fires once a year….none of us is too sure as to how they control them. Once the hike is over, we all have a beer (or pop) in the parking lot. Good times.

photo exhibit

A wonderful event hosted by the city of Bamako every other year is the Rencontres de Bamako photography exhibit. Lucky us! Free cultural events! It opened a few weeks ago and runs for a month- til December 7th. Photographers from all over Africa and European and North American photographers who have taken pictures in Africa can show their work. Thomas and I attended the opening event at the Palais de la culture where free booze and nibblies were being served. Those attending were photographers themselves and expats. It seemed that there were very few locals. The following Monday I told my co-workers that I’d been to see some of the photo exhibits and asked them whether they planned to attend. “Pictures and photography is what you toubabous like! We don’t have time for that stuff!” I was slightly taken aback by the response and at the same time, I wasn’t at all surprised. That same week, we went to another event being held at the Centre de Formation de Photography which is located in a very residential part of our neighbourhood. Pictures were also being shown on a large screen outside of the centre and there was live music. This was such a great way to get ordinary Malians (and by ordinary, I mean those not involved in art and photography) to come out and see what was going on in the street near their homes. Along with the live music, came some incredible dancing- some of these steps would have put MJ to shame (may he RIP). Pretty soon the entire neighborhood was partying it up. If you can’t get people to the event, bring the event to the people….works every time!!

Market

Since we weren’t 100% satisfied with the freggetable salad that Bintou made for us last week, I decided to work from home today and show her exactly what we wanted. When she arrived this morning, I told her nicely and jokingly that we were surprised by the salad she made last week and I clarified the situation by retelling what we wanted. I also took the opportunity to go to the local market with Bintou to see where she buys the meats and veggies. I jumped on the back of her moto and she took us on a bumpy road farther from the closet goudron(paved road) for about 10 mins. People were looking at us and certainly wondering what this Malian young lady was doing with this white man on the back. We drove directly into the market honking so people would let us pass. In the middle of the market we stopped at a stand where 2 big pieces of meat were hanging with flies flying around. She asked me for the money and then gave the traditional salutations to the only guy at the market. It is so rare to find men at the market- working or purchasing. The man chopped a first piece and then a second, weighed it and added a few pieces of some kind of skin or greasy part to get to the right weight. Bintou paid him and she turned to face me and said “On y va!” I looked around and saw only women selling all kinds of foods: pieces of fish, bananas peanuts on plates. Then we stopped at another stand where there were a dozen tomatoes and a few other veggies I’ve never seen before. Bintou took 5 or 6 tomatoes and paid with a 50 franc coin which was so old that it was completely smoothe. Sometimes with some of the coins it is really difficult to tell, because people have been using them for so long that we cannot see anything on it any more. Also the small denominations of bills and coins are really difficult to find as the only place they are used is in the markets and if you live here and never go to the market you might never see them.
Finally we went to this other stand where there were a few bags of dry spices, a dozen cubes of beef broth, and a big can of tomato paste. Bintou ask in Bambara for ome tomato paste and instead of getting a whole tin, the women took a spoon of the paste and put it in plastic wrap. At the same time Bintou was looking at the cubes and took 3. She quickly negotiated the price and she finally gave her 200 francs. We jumped on the bike and went back to the house on the dirt road trying to avoid the big holes. A very interesting morning for me!
Thomas
PS For those who ask for the comment I changed the set up and now you can leave use comment as anonymous.

Freggetable salad…

So, Michelle thought she would be able to deal with the girl (Bintou) who comes twice the week. Let me tell you what happen last week!!! So, last Thursday Michelle gave Bintou some instructions on what she had to wash, buy, and prepare besides the actual meal she makes every time. Michelle asked her to buy a pineapple and cut it up and add some other fruit to it. When we came home after work, I went to the kitchen to check what she had made for us. I found in the oven a dish of rice and another with beef peanut sauce. (Typically Malian) Then, I opened the fridge and found two metal bowls one with the washed lettuce and in the other one the fruit salad Michelle asked her to make. You won’t imagine what was in the fruit salad!!! Pineapple, bananas, apple and carrots, tomatoes, parsley and strange of all, ONIONS! Since then we’ve been trying to find the right name to call we thought maybe we could call it freggetable salad and en français, salade de fregumes. You may be curious as to how it tasted…not bad, but the tomatoes were too much. Otherwise the beef peanut sauce was really good. Finally, I said to Michelle that I would take over from now on and show her exactly what we want and what we mean when we ask for a fruit salad.


Bintou


Lots of people have been asking how Alou (our guard/house boy) is doing. I would say that it’s not that easy to have someone living with you and who barely understands and speaks French. This past week was quite interesting, one day he asked me for 1000 CFA (around $2.5) to buy a phone card to call hiswife who is sick. When he asked me I just thought “what!? you are married??!! (this was the first time we’d found out he was married. We honestly think he’s 17 years old!!) and you are also asking for money when we just gave you 15 000 CFA for food a week ago??” Don’t think I’m being cheap, because this is not the case; I’m just trying to be fair and help him in another ways. My concept is that you cannot always help someone just by giving him money because who knows what the future will bring and also the toubabous (us white people) won’t be there to help forever. Instead I’m trying to teach him new skills, buy him tools, and give him some kind of work ethic that will benefit him for the future to earn more in the future. After he asked for the money Michelle and I talked about what we should do. We were still surprised that he had a wife and kids in another village. The landlord hadn`t mentioned this to us and Alou was living in the house fulltime. We decided that I would talk to him and ask him, if he wanted to be paid every week instead of once a month. I ask Alou to come so we could have a chat. I had my note pad with me, so I could write down numbers. I started the conversation and told him we were worried because he already used the 15 000 CFA we gave him a week ago and we wanted to help him find a solution to managed his money. (Just a quick FYI- we always have a ^plate of food for him when we`re eating at home. The 15,000 CFA we gave him was for him to buy a meal when we weren`t eating at home- which is really just lunch time during the week. ) When he got the idea where I was going, he stopped me and said “attend je vais chercher mon frère”. Here he comes back 10 mins later with another guy his age. He presents himself as Alou’s brother who has a degree in computer science and has been looking for job for 3 years. I’m thinking in my head ; “ I`m sorry but I can’t help you. I’m already trying to help your bro.” Finally we chatted together and I explained to him that I want to help Alou and I’m also worried because we gave him 15 000CFA and he already spend it all. »I stressed that he needed to keep some of this money for himself in case we aren`t home. I told him that we might be away 2 weeks at a time and he`d have to buy his own food. After 10 mins of discussions we decided the 1000CFA would be an advance on his next pay check and that next month he would keep money aside in case something were to happen to him while we are away.


Alou

In the last two days we’ve been trying to decide on the limits we need to fix Alou in terms of what he can eat in our fridge . On Saturday when we came home at midnight Michelle went to the kitchen to get some water and he followed her. Michelle asked him if he had eaten something and he say no, so Michelle had to heat him up something. If you have any ideas/comments on how we`re dealing with this situation, don’t hesitate.
Thomas

The work

Hi all,

Many of you have asked about our work here…

Work is going well. Because Thomas is working on a project which has been going on for a while now, it’s easier for him to jump right in than it is for me in my organization. He’s already been to the field (la campagne) twice to meet with the cooperatives…I’m a bit jealous because I LOVE the field…but at the same time, I think that there are some interesting opportunities for me where I am.
My partner organization is called Group Pivot/Droit et Citoyenneté des Femmes (GP/DCF) and it’s composed of 8 different organizations all of which work for the rights of women; it’s a bit like a working group. Their mission is to Influence the definition and the implementation of policies, strategies and actions which promote and defend women’s rights and citizenship. Already, they’ve asked me for trainings on the concept of gender…which makes me think that they aren’t comfortable with the theme that is supposedly their raison d’être. Over the course of my first week here, I read the last 2 annual reports, midterm reports, and their strategic plan. It all looks great, but I’m finding it hard to see where the capacity is to deliver the programming and fulfill the mission let alone this year’s work plan. I’ve been pushing them to set up meetings for me with each of the 8 member organizations but because the GP is run by volunteers, I hardly ever see the same people who have authority two days in a row. Last week I finally got the secretary (one of the only two paid people) to email the 8 orgs asking them for a time that I could meet with them but of course we haven’t heard back as most places don’t have internet on a permanent basis. Yesterday I asked if I could phone them myself but “African formality” says that I have to be officially presented by the GP/DCF Presidente. So…things are moving slowly. In challah (or as they say in Bambara, “Allah sonama”) I will get a chance to meet with these 8 member organizations at some point soon. All travel is done on the back of a motorbike. I’ve been borrowing helmets but will probably invest in my own.

There is also another component to my placement. CECI Mali (who is responsible for all of the volunteers’ partners) wants me to meet with all their partners (about 7 associations which consist of NGOs, city hall, and 2 ministries) and see what their understanding of the gender approach is and to see whether they’re incorporating Egalité entre les Femmes et les Hommes (EFH) into their programming. For CIDA, this is a must!! I need to identify any needs or gaps they might have so that I can put together some sort of training/workshop in the New Year. Ideally what I’d like to do is get GP/DCF to be the resource organizations when it comes to gender for all of CECI’s partners….and get them to put together training modules for all the others. I know that my strength is putting together workshops and giving them but my weakness is getting things off the ground and getting it all started. Thank God I have Thomas to bounce my ideas off of….


Michelle

finally settled

Last Friday we received our living room furniture as well as our table and chairs and so we finally feel as though we are getting settled. None of this was easy of course….

Furniture is sold on the side of the road and the choice is variable but everything is expensive!! Thomas and I constantly think we’re being ripped off because we’re toubabs but we’ve been told by Malians that we’re actually paying a pretty fair price. A simple (and ugly) wooden table with 4 chairs costs at least $400. Wood is costly because it has to be imported from Côte d’Ivoire. A sofa is also about $400 but by bringing it into your home, you’re also bringing in tons of dust. This furniture sits on the side of unpaved roads until it’s purchased. At the beginning of our search for furniture, we began to wish for old school Becker’s milk crates…that is, until we discovered bamboo. A couple of CECI volunteers who had arrived earlier had gotten all their furniture custom-made. We ended up ordering a salon which is a set consisting of a three person sofa, a two person sofa, and two armchairs. All of these seats come with cushions covered with really tacky fabric of blue and yellow flowers; like a very cheap provençale look. We also ordered a kitchen table and 6 chairs. The best thing about furniture made of bamboo (besides being somewhat affordable) is that it’s relatively easy to wipe down and clean. We ordered all of this furniture on a Wednesday and the man promised that it would all be ready by the following Tuesday at 4:30pm. Last Tuesday the CECI driver took us to the workshop to pick it all up and take it to the house and of course…it wasn’t ready. The owner wasn’t even around. We called him and he told us he was at a baptism and couldn’t finish them. (this is a common occurrence in businesses…timelines for orders are ignored because someone is getting married or there’s a community meeting. No planning ahead here!) The worst part was that none of the work had even been started. We couldn’t even take 1 chair home!! We ate our first home-cooked meal in our new home on the living room floor and listened to our voices echo throughout the empty house which is much too big for us.

Around mid-day on Friday, Thomas and I went to pick up our furniture which was ready 3 days later than it had been agreed. We arrived prepared to negotiate that the furniture guy pay for the furniture delivery. Our argument was that we’d had a truck to help us on the Tuesday and no vehicle on the Friday. Thomas persuaded the man to pay for two taxis. Here in Bamako, believe it or not, it’s illegal for taxis to transport things on the roof. The taxi driver asked us if we had 500 francs to pay the police if ever he was stopped. I guess that’s the price to get out of a jam. $1.23 CDN!!

Friday night, we had our first party! Sorry you all missed it. We wish you’d been with us. 

The house is way too big for us and our voices still echo throughout but with the curtains we’ve just had made, it’s a little less.

More blog postings to come later today or tomorrow….

Michelle

the reason for my freckles....

This morning I got to work at 8:10am and the door was locked. I’ve been told that working hours are between 8 and 5, but I’m still getting used to African time (which means adding another half hour (at least!) to any given time). I wait at the door for about 20 minutes and a colleague shows up, lets me in and then buys me breakfast. Froufrou…a deep-fried something-rather that tastes delicious.

When Alima, the secretary arrives, she tells me she’s had a terrible weekend. On Friday night, her 6 year old son became very ill and began to hallucinate. Malaria. She herself is also suffering from a bout of malaria but tells me that she’s forgotten how sick she really feels to look after her son properly. One of the interns here also thinks she’s coming down with malaria. Her body hurts and she feels feverish. I tell her she should go home and she tells me she’ll head to the doctor tomorrow. I ask my colleagues whether they sleep under mosquito nets. “Why bother!” they exclaim. “If the mosquitoes don’t get us at night, they’ll definitely get us during the day.”
I show them the spray I carry around with me in my bag and they laugh and tell me that the reason some white people have freckles is because they use too much insect repellent. I smile and tell them that the good news is that if they use the repellant, the freckles won’t really show on their skin AND they’ll be more protected from the mosquitoes.

Finding house help…y a pas de problème!!

In Mali, anyone who can afford to rent a house is expected to employ a guard and a maid/housekeeper to do some cleaning and cooking.
Having help around the house sounds so wonderful, but getting it organized has been a bit of a challenge. I’ve always managed to avoid employing house help. In Peru, although we lived in places with maid’s quarters, we never hired one. Here in Mali, with both of us working, we figure we should be contributing to the local work force. Our idea is also to try to increase our guard’s or our housekeeper’s skill set so that they can eventually find a better job or charge more.
It’s a bit awkward for us. We’ve never hired help before and we’re not sure what the “job descriptions” should look like. We’d also both like our privacy. Tons of questions are running through our minds…some of which include: “What’s a decent salary? Where will the guard sleep? Will the guard be in the courtyard while we’re enjoying it or using the pool? Do we feed him even though we never know when we’ll be home? “

When we agreed to rent the house, the land lord told us he had a guard and asked us whether we would keep him. We said yes. The landlord has been paying Alou (the guard) 20,000 CFAs per month (about $50) and provides him with a place to live. Alou is more of a houseboy than a guard. He lives in the garage and has been helping the landlord with the upkeep of the house. The CECI driver we were with told us afterwards that 20,000 is little for a guard and suggested we find some other work for him to do around the house and increase his salary. Our yard is big and has a lot of greenery which needs to be trimmed on a regular basis. There was also quite a bit of clean-up in the yard which needed to be done before we move in this coming Tuesday. The landlord asked Alou to do the clean up and paint the kitchen cupboards. “Pas de problème!” was Alou’s response.

Saturday morning, a painter that the CECI driver recommended came to meet us at the hotel. The three of us jumped in a cab and headed towards our house. Because our street has no name and we’d only been to the house once before, Thomas and I were afraid we wouldn’t be able to tell the taxi driver where the house was. Thankfully, the painter had been to the house the day before so he was able to instruct the taxi driver. Once we got to the house we discussed colors and prices and the painter agreed to go to the market to get the paint color samples and bring them back to us in 2 hours time. One thing I didn’t like is that while we were discussing with the painter, Alou was lurking around as if he was supposed to be involved in the conversation. Neither Thomas nor I said anything, but we now realize that we probably should have. He really doesn’t need to know what we pay for things and services!

Thomas asked Alou if he could trim the hedges and create more of a path for us to walk up to the house so that we don’t have to bush-wack to get to the front door. “Pas de problème,” he said and then proceeded to tell us he didn’t have any scissors but said he could get some for 10,000 CFAs. Things here are super expensive as they all have to be imported from elsewhere so I wouldn’t be surprised if gardening scissors were that much, but we wanted to check for ourselves first. Thomas told him to hold on and wait until we decided what to do. “Pas de problème!”
We left the house to explore our new neighborhood and returned two hours later with a bottle of bleach, a broom, and some rags for Alou to do a bit of cleaning before we move in. Alou had his friend were in the yard doing the gardening with a machete. We were glad that he’d taken initiative but I also immediately got the feeling that this was going to cost us. While Alou showed me how he was cleaning the closets, he told me that we’d have to give his friend 10,000 CFA for his work. I must have looked stunned because he asked, “C’est beaucoup?” I ended up giving the guy 5000 CFA and as Thomas and I left the house we realized we’d just paid a guy $12 for cutting our hedge….which is way too much! The fact that Alou had originally asked me to pay 50% of his own monthly salary also really ticked us off. I’m sure he was testing us. He’d overheard how much we were paying painters and may have thought that $12 was nothing for us.

Thomas’ blood boiled for about an hour and we decided that this was strike 1. We’d give him one more chance and that’s it. I told Thomas that he’d have to deal with the situation. I’m too nice and soft and, although I’m here to “promote and support gender equality”, I think it might be better to have a man dealing with a man. Thomas has a tendency of being more diplomatic and stern. He agreed, but if/when we get a housekeeper, I have to deal with the logistics. Pas de problème!

Michelle

Under a tree you’ll find a house!

Our new street

After a week in Bamako we finally found a house. We knew house-hunting here would be different and certainly non traditional, but not to this extent!

Bamako can be off-putting and confusing. Most streets don’t have names and if they do, people don’t know them. If you want to go somewhere, sometimes it can be really tricky to get there quickly. Before we go anywhere we always make sure we ask someone who really knows the city to give us some reference points. Don’t think that a Roundabout with a huge statue of an elephant or hypo would be sufficient to tell a taxi driver!! Here we really need to think outside of the box. For example, when Michelle went to work for the first time, she tried to explain to 3 taxi drivers that she had to go to the rondpoint avec l`hyppopotame. The taxi drivers did not know what she was talking about, so she called the CECI driver to ask him for another reference point. He told her to tell the taxi driver she had to go to the TOTAL gas station by the pharmacy. She found a driver who understood. Every time we go out and have to take a cab, it`s a real adventure, most of the time either we have to show the guy the way or rhyme off a bunch of different reference points until a taxi driver knows one of them. The problem is that we still don`t know the city very well.


After spending a few days trying to find our way and trying to get our bearings, we decided to look for a place to live either in the neighborhood of Badaladougou, quartier du Fleuve or Hippodrome. There`s no Craigslist and there`s no newspaper ads!! There are 2 ways to find a place here, either a real estate agency or the so called “coxers”/demarcheur . Our first step was to go the more conventional way… what we thought would be the simplest way. On Monday, I asked the CECI office where I could find an agency and someone gave me the number for an office close by. I went to the office and after a confusing and quick meeting, I exchanged numbers with people and never heard back. We finally decided to go with the CECI driver to look for a place to live. We told him which neighborhoods we were interested in and from there he drove us to the first one. We stopped at a booth…like a kiosk selling cigarettes and drinks under a tree and the driver exchanged a few words with the guy and called someone then we went two streets away where we stopped under another tree where 3 men were drinking tea. The driver exchanged a few words in Bambara and one of the men got in the car with us and showed us a house. The house was big but quite dark and we decided to keep looking. The custom is that you pay a coxer a few thousand CFAs for every house to thank him for his time. If you`re picky, house hunting can become expensive!!! This particular coxer told us that there was nothing else in this neighborhood within our price range. We decided to cross the river and keep looking. We stopped near the center and the driver asked a few men if they had heard of anything for rent but again, nothing was available in our price range. Finally, we went to Hippodrome and stopped at a tree were a man was sitting. He got in the car and we went to see a house.
After seeing the house Michelle and I talked a bit and ask the coxer to call the owner. Half an hour later he showed up and together we went through the house asking him a few questions. We finally made an offer and began to negotiate the price which we were able to lower a bit. The following day, we signed the agreement. There are 4 bedrooms, a living/dining room, 3 bathrooms, a small kitchen, a lovely yard with a mango tree, and an empty swimming pool which we will eventually fill.

So, for those of you looking wondering where it is we live exactly, get into a taxi and tell the driver to take you to Hyppodrome, go up the Bla Bla (a bar) street until the paved road ends, continue up 5 blocks (carrés) on the dirt road and turn right at the street where there’s a carpenter’s workshop and seamstress’ workshop. If you make it, we’ll have the mint tea brewing for you. 
Thomas