Tomorrow, it's "A plus, Douentza"

Tonight is our last night in Douentza before taking the bus to Bamako. I’m feeling ready. Yes, I haven’t started packing at all, but most of my stuff I will just leave here anyway. For me, it’s just a month break. For Abbie and Jeff, it’s the definitive end of this year’s fieldwork. It will be strange to come back without them, for sure.

I tried to come to the internet yesterday, but met with no success. Around 3, Minkailou, Seydou, Ramata and I walked across town to her lodger’s house to discuss the prospect of her living with us this fall. On the way, it started to rain pretty hard, but we had a couple of umbrellas. I had my computer with me to go to the internet afterward, so I was more concerned about that getting wet than myself (contrary to popular belief, I don’t fry in the rain). The lodger was okay with it, so long as someone was there “to watch over her. After all, she is a young girl, her behavior is very important. If she deceives you, she deceives us all.” Basically, don’t let her run around with boys.

Anyhow, after that, Ramata and I split off to go to the internet, and got totally poured on. We slipped our way through the mud, trying desperately to keep as much water off of the laptop case as possible. We showed up soaked to the radio, only to find that because of the rain, the internet was down (not sure why, but this seems to be the logic). Jeff was already there, also waiting, so I thought I too would just wait it out. Unfortunately, after an hour and a half of waiting with the sun setting, the internet never came, so we just had to walk back in the penumbra empty-handed.

Tonight I am going to attempt an Italian feast. We’ll see how it goes. And by feast, I mean simply that I have a can of stewed tomatoes and artichoke hearts from Bamako that I will try to make into a sauce with the rudimentary cooking implements I have.

More from Bamako.