Days One and Two

Slowly settling in at the Djembe Hotel. I spent much of day one sleeping, but got up this morning to the sounds of a drum lesson out in the yard. Guest Gordon was taking a lesson with Drissa Kone, a fabulous drummer from the villlage of Kuruba. I wasnt ready to drum yet so just listened. Gordon is very good, he has studied in several African countries. Benge, the fellow who picked me up from the airport was playing the dundun part, sort of like a steady, repeating bass part played on two drums at a time. Benge is going to be Mali for me, I think. While I am here at the hotel, Benge will take me anywhere I want to go on the back of his scooter! Good thing Im already experienced on the bike!


After the morning lesson Benge rode me downtown to the big bank to change my Euros to CFA francs. We stopped at the Palaise de la Culture for a coke for me and a beer for Benge. This is a place where drumming and dancing takes place in an outdoor theatre of sorts. There was also a small workshop there where I watched men and women dying bogolon, mudclothe, all the colors come from different muds, used as dyes. The patterns are made using stencils and special brushes. I definitely will be bringing some bogolon home with me!

Riding through Bamako, the capitol, is quite an experience. Traffic is very heavy with public transport. sotromas, which are like vans with no windows and packed full with as many people as possible.Then there are private cars, taxis, buses, and hundreds of scooters like Benges. I could tell Benge was driving very carefully and slower than he would by himself. On the scooter you can weave through the traffic and get places much faster than in a car. Benge drove us along the Niger, which is the only place you see green here in the dry season. Very beautiful to me.

Visually I am totally overwhelmed. This is like no place I have ever seen before. There are little - shops - all chockablok everywhere, crammed together side by side. Its hard to tell which is selling what. There shops are made out of sheet metal, sticks, old tires, junk, row upon row upon row. Everyone is trying to sell a little something. The air is full of dust everywhere, there are fires burning, and LoTs of smog. City life!


Tonight Benge is taking me out again. This is his job at the hotel, schlepping people like me around! I asked him where we would go, he grinned and said We-ll see! So I guess Ill have to wait to find out.

Please pardon the lack of punctuation. My computer still isnt hooking up to the interenet here. I am using a house computer and the keyboard is French and very different and difficult. Still, I will try to keep posting. A biento!