Happy "Mali"days!

Bonne année! Happy new year! Sambé sambé!

Well 2010 was a pretty epic year for yours truly. It went something a little like this:

• Get a once in a lifetime job working for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver as a dispatcher, something I never thought I'd get the chance to do again.
• Fail at getting another job in the spring and with my personal life in shambles, begrudgingly leave the coast.
• Move myself, what's left of my stuff and my cat to Red Deer for 1 month while looking for work.
• Go to Mexico with BFF to soothe my soul with frothy beverages.
• Get a contract job with the feds and move to Calgary. 
• Meet a slew of stellar people there. 
• Develop a Rock Band addiction.
• Officially get my Master's.
• Volunteer in Léogâne, Haïti and meet another slew of stellar people there. 
• See Neil Young.
• See Van Morrisson.
• Buy a sweet car. 
• Buy a sweet banjo.
• See Arcade Fire.
• Climb copious amounts of mountains.
• Move to Mali for 5 months starting in November to finish off the year.

Yup, EPIC is the word. 

Also, this year ended with my most unconventional holiday season to date. The almost complete lack of Christmas music/decorations/commercials/snow etc. made me appreciate how engineered the Christmas spirit can be. Nevertheless, I still missed it, but not enough to trade my sandals in for snowboots.  

I had a week long break from work between Christmas Eve and New Years, which I used to not stay at home like une bonne fille, but rather to walk my feet filthy around this complicated but fair city. I did take my little sister and nieces (? I never can be too sure of how I'm "related" to most of the people I live with) to the zoo one day, and even snuck some hiking in which somewhat curiously, included meeting a palm reader who lives in a shack 3/4 up the mountain.

I snuck one last hilarious misunderstanding in before 2010 was over by traumatising a young maid from "en brusque"** with nothing but my scary, pasty pallor. It's ok though, we became friends but then she left, because for whatever reason, this family is expert at chasing away maids.

**I have been writing what is used to describe "the country" in French as being " en brusque", since that's what it sounds like to me. Anyway, turns out what people were saying was "en brousse" which translates  to "the bush". However, I don't believe this accurately reflects the conditions out in the bush, so Imma keep calling it "en brusque", since that can mean "rough" and hope it catches on and the Académie française adds my new idiom to the dictionary.

As for NYE, it was in many ways very similar to every NYE ever, except that I got to wear a little dress and flip flops and not be cold even once during the night. My AMPJ colleague and I headed to the other side of the Niger to meet up with the Kilabo interns and their local counterparts at their base. This took an eternity because everyone and their sheep was out in Bamako, so I felt like I had to drink whiskey like Don Draper to catch up when I got there.

From there we headed to another Kilabo base and awaited the new year. At midnight, I gave and was given la bise by so many Québécois and Africans that I lost count and then no one sang along with me when I started into Auld Lang Syne. I was a lonely Anglophone in Mali for a moment there. In fact, after going to a "grin" last week at "Chez Thierry" (AKA, a party organized by the Canadian Embassy at some over-priced toubabu joint) and meeting dozens of other compatriots, I realized that I am indeed (probably) the only Western Canadian in Mali right now.

Anyway, aterwards we roamed the streets of Bamako with open liquor until we found another party and danced to marvelous Malian music until we got kicked out because they were serving food at 2am (?). We then returned to the first base, and argued about where to party next while I used up all my credits sending out semi-coherant international text messages under a heavy champagne/whiskey fog. The club was in my hood of Hippodrome, so I said I would come along as a guise to get myself back to my side of the Niger and into bed. Unfortunately, when I got home the door was locked and my little sister was still out so I had no way of sneaking in. I banged on the door until my maman woke up and begrudginly let me in. She told me that next time I come home at 4:30am she will not wake up to let me in; rather, she would leave a mattress for me outside in front of the door. I never know if she's joking or not...

New Years Day, I did my best to sleep in, but it's an exercise in futility when your window faces the courtyard where absolutely everything happens and absolutely everyone passes through and everyone has to enquire about absolutely everything . When I finally dragged my weary, sorry, self out of my creaky, endlessly uncomfortable bed, I realised that I was too busy partying like Don Draper to have taken any pictures, but unlike Don Draper, I apologise.

After a weekend-long hangover, I went back to work Monday of last week. I started working on my bi-weekly report a week late and in doing so got a little down about my progress on my mandate. I'm supposed to try to get 2-3 projects ready for funding, revamp the l'AMPJ website and raise its profile within the community and world at large before April. So far, I feel like all I've been doing is reading, editing, and re-reading and re-editing the same 3 grant proposals, which was making me worry that I would epically fail on my mandate. Not a great feeling to start the year with.

Nevertheless, a meeting last week confirmed that my pace is ok, my local partner and I trudged ahead on one of the projects so it is almost ready to be sent to prospective donors, and a more qualified intern will be coming to help me with the website. In the meantime, if there are days where I do little more than work painstakingly on this blog and my super awesome playlists (another one's coming up!), I'm told that's ok. The work to be done here will outlast my mandate, so all I can do is my best when the occasions to do so arise.

Finally, most people here now think I am married to my male coworker, since there's no such thing as "just friends" in Mali I'm told. As a result, the marriage proposals have stalled as of late. However, my first marriage proposal of 2011 came from a potential suitor in a karate uniform who ran up alongside me earlier this week. It went like this:  

"I togo?" (What is your name? in Bambara).
"Né togo Thea" (My name is Thea, see, I'm getting good at this! No, not really.)
"Je peux venir à ta maison?" (Can I come over? in French)
"Non." (I had just upped my pace and had every right to be "brusque"!)
"Mais je veux que tu sois ma femme, et pourquoi je ne peux pas venir chez toi?" (But I want you to be my wife, and why can't I come over?)
"Parce que j'habite chez ma mère." (Because I live with my mother.)
To which he inexplicably responded:
"Je fais karaté." (I know karate.)

I ignored his last comment and we continued to run side by side for a few more awkward moments until he sped up and left me in his ninja wake.

I think that takes my total to 9.  Now for my "Mali'days" Pics:

 

My fav lunch spot, a Moroccan-run café called Burger-Time, was all decorated-up.

Getting our fortunes told by young soothsayer.

He said that I would get everything that I ever wanted...provided that I made some "sacrifices"...

The Artisan's Market on Christmas Eve.

Also my favorite place to "discute."

Fine, not-so-costly, wares.

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The famous "Fetish Stalls" at the grand marché complete with dead birds, shrunken heads and other unsavory wares.

Don't worry, your shrunken head is in the mail :)

Making Christmas dinner in the kitchen at the hostel.

Skyping as Santa

Wine, chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy...my stuffing was a bust :(

Taz got our bones.

Dessert was marzipan and cookies.

Presents!!! 5 of the 7 were booze.

Adam having fun with the presents.

We found a tree after swimming on Christmas day! Just in time.

The Parc national on Boxing Day.

Adam on his "marche japonaise" that he built.

Sundays in Bamako are all about weddings and this one was no exception.

Taking my little sister and nieces to the zoo during my week off.

Look ma, it's permanent!

We bushwhacked up this hill only to discover there is a road that takes you to the top...our way was more fun though.

Our way also had a palmreader 3/4 of the way up. I didn't care much for his advice though. 

You can see almost all of Bamako from here.

Picnic and "bissap" under a tree at the top.

Chilling with my sister and maman before our NYE feast.

 Maman whips up some flan.