Aw ne che,
Hope everyone is doing well. It's been a great month and I have a few stories to tell. About 140 of my best volunteer friends and I, as well as thousands of Malians, West Africans, and other travelers descended on Ségou, the old capitol of the Bambara Kingdom, for the Festival sur le Niger. The music and cultural festival is an annual event in its eighth year and featured some of Mali's and Africa's best musicians. Admittedly, this year missed a few of the biggest headliners (eg. Vieux Farka Toure, Baba Salla, and Amadou & Miriam). Regardless, it was still a great time with some awesome performances especially from Salif Keita and Rokia Traore. The main stage was literally built in the shallows of the Niger River, the largest river in West Africa and 3rd largest in Africa after the Nile and Congo rivers. There were beer gardens set up above the river banks where we'd take breathers from dancing front stage on the shore, enjoying sunsets on the Niger and partying on through the wee hours of the night. I don't think the music stopped for 96 hours. In addition to the four days of non stop live music were art shows, cultural demonstrations, and an amazing artisan market featuring traditional clothing, sculptures, fabrics, jewelry, foods, musical instruments, and other wears from across Mali, Ghana, Niger, Burkina Faso, Benin, Mauritania, Guinea, Senegal, and Cote d'Ivoire. I was able to pick up a few souvenirs and perhaps a gift or two. Ségou is a large fishing center and home to the Bozo ethnic minority group, themselves being renowned fishermen and masters of the Niger. Throughout the week traditional pirogue fishing boats, oftened manned by only a boy, carried on as usual fishing for a living. We took a boat ride one of the days and spent about 4 hours cruising around the river, unfortunately my camera was (and still is) out of commission. As is often the case in Mali, I'm ever thankful that my sense of smell dies after about three minutes of exposure to whatever the aroma du jour may be, in this case the lovely bouquet of dead fish and human feces strewn around the Niger. In any case, the festival was amazing and I look forward to next years as it'll be one of the last things I do in Mali.
The day of the festival's opening ceremonies, I hosted a hāngi (traditional New Zealand method of cooking in the ground with hot rocks) at a local bar, Espace Mierra. We ended up having about 70 volunteers and 10 or 15 Malians. Putting it together was a lot more stress and work than I anticipated but everything came out awesome and who knows, perhaps this is the first hāngi Mali has ever seen. With some help, I spent the day before digging out a meter deep pit, finding plenty of wood and rocks, and some last minute haggling for pigs and vegetables. The morning of the hāngi I built up a huge fire with about 10 rocks the size of soccer balls in the middle and kept it aflame for 2 and a half hours. Afterwards we spread the rocks out, wrapped the dressed and shaved pigs, two of them, in soaking wet, white, cotton sheets to keep the dirt off, placed them in baskets made of chicken wire and placed them on the rocks. Next I had 10 k's of potatoes, 10 k's of onions, 5 k's of carrots and 5 k's of yams wrapped in the same manner and placed on top of the pigs. We covered everything back up with dirt and let it cook in the ground for 5 hours or so. I'd also made a couple of bbq sauces. We feasted on delicious pork flesh and drank shitty beer for hours as I cemented my legend into the annals of Peace Corps Mali history. Churs to my New Zealand friends, especially Kai Waka for giving me the inspiration!
I've really come to appreciate market days in Kolondieba. It's the capitol of a cercle (roughly analogous to an American county) and home to about five or six thousand people. It's one of the brusse-est (in the freaken' bush) of cercle capitols. In fact, I believe it's the only one left in Mali that doesn't have a paved road. Moreover, it's a 60 k trek down a dirt road/dried river bed from the paved road. Nevertheless, every Monday Kolondieba comes alive. The market, normally quite empty, is overflowing with vendors and customers from all over the cercle. I like to get there early with my homologue and sit with a couple friends, usually right outside the food area of the market, drink tea, exchange stories, and watch the day unfold. After awhile, I usually roam about a bit, greet friends and members of my women's association, and see if any of the fabrics or clothings catch my eye. In spite of hot season being underway, there's still a great selection of fresh fruits and vegetables. Women meander through the crowd selling ginger juice from huge bowls balanced on their heads, the butchers chop away with their machetes at indiscernible flanks of raw animal as their young apprentices keep flies at bay. Tailors take seats under the shade with their foot powered sowing machines. The smells of street food, fish, and livestock abound. Fried plantains, yams, and dough balls, fish heads, fresh bread, and ground cassava are always in abundance. Other venders are selling metal cauldrons or clay water canneries, freshly made in town. Along the main road is where you can find all your hardware and farming equipment needs. You can even stock up on all your favorite West African aphrodisiacs. Vendor and customer haggling for a better deal whether it be for a new dress or a half k of dried fish. Mangoes ripening overhead as the sun beats down. Ah Mali, it's not the worst place to be, ya know?
After a bit of a hiatus I've finally started another batch of wine. This is batch number 3 after successful experiments with mango and garlic wines. I told my homologue that I made wine and much to my surprise he was so excited about it he suggested I teach the women's association and see if they can start selling wine in addition to their shea products... a most obvious of product combinations. So last week I held a formation where I started a batch of papaya and ginger wine. I kinda made this one up as I went along so we'll see how it turns out. Even though Mali is 90% Muslim they're very open to a lot of ideas including alcohol. This could be a great opportunity for my women to hit an untapped, niche market. Hopefully it'll work out and they can earn a bit more money for themselves with an unusual skill set for Mali.
The oldest class of volunteers currently in Mali are coming to the end of their service. In a few months I'll be saying goodbye to a lot of great friends whom I've only have known for 17 or so months but in many cases feel like I've known far longer. Weirder yet, that'll mean that in a few months my class will be the oldest remaining in Mali. I know I say it in just about every blog post but it's crazy how quickly the time is passing. Just the other day, it hit in for the first time that I'm already on the back end of my service. Feels like I was just bumbling about here in my first week, absolutely dumbstruck and trying to figure out how I'd spend the next 2+ years in one of the poorest of countries. Now in June, the 3rd new class since I came in to country will arrive... Damn newbies. But, it's a bit early to start reminiscing just yet. Without a doubt, the past two months have been my best in country. But I'm finally gonna get a well deserved break from Mali. I have a 16 day vacation in Morocco coming up April 16th. Can't wait.
That's me for now,
Peace & Love
Rege
