La vie bamakoise

First off, here's a video I took in the streets of Douentza driving out of my house:


Minkailou indeed arrived Sunday night, at around 1:30 in the morning. I had dozed off and felt like a zombie when he got in, but he got in safe and with my suitcase, so that's what matters.

The next morning, we went to the grocery store, where I stocked up on a week's worth of groceries: ground beef (which has unfortunately already spoiled), eggs, cereal, beans, flour, milk, yogurt, etc. Then we got produce at a little stand outside: potatoes, tomatoes, green peppers, cucumbers, onions, bananas... I love Bamako. When we got back to SIL, he took me to the little boutique around the corner, where there is another woman who sells produce. I finished my kitchen stock-up there with lettuce, carrots, peanut butter, garlic and ginger. And then the boutique owners speak Fulfulde, so it's like I never left Douentza!

That afternoon, I went to the embassy to try and use their computer to insert some final fonts into my slideshow. When I got out of the taxi, I realized in horror that I'd forgotten my passport. I called the Public Affairs Officer, and she said I could get in with my driver's license, which (thankfully) I could. Unfortunately, after a lot of hanging out with Casimir, a Dogon who works at the embassy, and insulting a Songhay guy (since that's what Dogons do), it turned out that there wasn't any computer I could use. Fail. I went back empty-handed, but that's all right.

To feel productive, I made... meat pies! I saw the recipe in my Mali cookbook and felt the need to try it out. I amended the filling recipe a bit--curry ground beef with potatoes instead of beef and greens--but otherwise stayed true. Much to my disappointment, my yeast was dead, which I didn't find out until I'd made my dough and it didn't rise. But I folded them up and backed them anyway, like little curried beef-filled calzones. They looked beautiful and were quite delicious.

Around 8, Minkailou and I headed to the airport to meet Jeff. It had started to rain a little, and we had to wait for an hour in the rain for Jeff to get his bags and get out of the airport. It was good to see him, but strange as well, since it brought back a lot of memories from the summer. We went back to SIL and hung out for a little while before going to Amandine, Jeff's usual haunt, to stay awake until Abbie got in.

He asked if I was planning on coming back to Mali, and I said probably someday, but I wasn't about to make any plans before I saw where grad school took me. He seemed satisfied with that.

At 2AM, we got back into the taxi and headed back to the airport where we waited another hour for Abbie to get in. I was exhausted by then, having not slept too well the night before, and napped on the waiting room chairs for a bit. Abbie eventually got in just fine, and it was so nice to see her. She really is my "grande soeur". We chatted non-stop all the way back and stayed up until after 4AM chatting some more. Eventually, we both had to hit the hay, since my presentation at the embassy was the next morning.

9AM came early, and I rolled groggily out from under my mosquito net to prepare for the talk. I called Stephanie (the PAO) to make sure Abbie and Jeff could get into my talk, which she arranged. I headed over there myself around 11, wearing the same Dogon indigos that I wore to my presentation in Leiden back in August. Casimir and the Dogon tech guy, Timothé, met me and helped me set up my PowerPoint. Everything came through just fine.

People started to trickle in somewhere before noon. It was a pretty decent showing. The American ambassador even came! The PAO honored Jeff with an introduction as well and I launched into my talk, which had three goals. 1) Introduce the audience to what it is that you actually do when documenting a language, i.e., how do you learn a language for which no materials exist? 2) Introduce our Dogon Languages Project and what we're all about. 3) Talk about aspects of the culture I learned about through doing this work. People responded really well, both during my talk and during the question period afterwards. I felt really positive about it. Jeff even complimented me much later that night (I thought he never would).

We ate at the embassy (bacon cheeseburger) with my Fulbright friend Spencer, who had come to see my talk. Afterwards, we went back to SIL, where Abbie and I caught up and talked until we both crashed for naps. That evening, I worked through some receipts with Jeff, then we braved the then near-torrential downpour to get to Amandine for dinner. Abbie and I split an avocado salad, then I had Nile perch with bananas and broiled tomatoes. Yum. Not to mention another mango milkshake.

This morning, Abbie and I went out to Broadway Cafe to have brunch with Paul, another Fulbright that Abbie went to school with and had Bambara class with. It was fun, and I stuffed myself full of pancakes, eggs, and bacon. When we got back, it was time for her and Jeff to hit the road. She wanted to stay another day, but Jeff was weird about it and wouldn't let her. I saw them off to the bus station, then headed back. Jeff was uncharacteristically complimentary, telling me I had done terrific work this year. It made me feel really good.

I've been on a mission to make banana bread the last few days, but I can't get my hands on baking soda. Small stores here have no idea what it is, the pharmacy was out of it, and the big grocery was closed. I might try to go to another pharmacy later in the afternoon or to the grocery store. I just have all of these overripe bananas and nothing to do with them.