Week #3

On Sunday, we ventured out of the city to participate in a run/hike with the American Hash House Harriers Club of Bamako. Every other Sunday the group gets together and someone sets a trail, including dead ends, which the rest of the group follows at a run or more young family-friendly hike. There were all sorts of lingo and rituals that we didn't totally follow but was great to get out of the city.

It took a good 40 minutes to get out of the urban area. It's a crazy driving scene with motorcycles all over the road, overloaded mini-buses, goats wandering into the road occasionally, donkey carts, bicycles, people scurrying thru or trying to sell you something when traffic stalls. It's probably fortunate that traffic is usually moving fairly slowly. Randy is getting to be an old hand at the driving but I'm hoping to avoid it for a bit longer. Taxis are pretty cheap in a pinch...

Our adventure was east of the city, off the road to Koulikouro for anyone familiar with Bamako : ) It is rainy season now and all is very, very green. Gardens are lush with produce. The river is high, wide and lots of rapids. The track we were following took us thru' a landscape dotted with family gardens, goats grazing, houses in construction and some lived in. Gus started out racing with Daddy but soon took a comfortable place up on Daddy's shoulders. Jenna hiked with an AISB classmate - keeping up well with Magina's 5th grade legs! Here's a few post-hike happy photos. We have already planned a few more excursions out of Bamako in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.

Week #2

For this second posting on our now famous BrownsinBamako blog we celebrate the start of the school year for Jenna and Gus.

Jenna's first day as a big first grader was Tuesday, and Gus started in PreK program on Thursday afternoon. Both are quite happy to be back in a routine and making friends their own age. Gus has stopped asking, "has it been a year yet?" : ) Instead we hear about which bikes go fastest (the Fire Chief bike) and who got wettest at the water table. Gus' PreK program goes from 7:30AM until noon, and is in the same building as the Kindergarten. It has a fun playground and a lot of space for play. Jenna is very focused on learning to read, losing her front tooth (3 first-graders have already lost teeth during class this year!), and starting to pick up le francais. First grade has French classes every day - fantastique! Her class includes 13 students and at least 5 languages are spoken fluently. School starts at 7:30 sharp so it's lucky that we live right down the street - and that the neighborhood roosters start making noise early!

We tried not to bring too much stuff with us, but a priority for Gus was his sand digging machine and outside trucks. However, there was no sand around the house so Randy and our "guardien" Moussa (in the red outfit) coordinated with a local boy to bring a donkey cart full of sand to re-landscape a portion of the yard. The kids were very excited, and a little amazed, when the sand arrived on Saturday...

Jenna and Gus were almost as excited to pet the donkey as they were about finally having a place to use all their trucks and diggers!

Monster Mango! Although the mango season is fast coming to a close, they are still plentiful in the markets. This giant was as big as Jenna's head! Mangos are currently a staple in Jenna's diet, ad small sweet bananas are for Gus. We have a mango tree and coconut tree in the backyard, but no bananas.

Week #1

We are now settled in our home in Badalabougou, a quartier of Bamako located on the south side of the river. If you look zoom in to Bamako on GoogleEarth, our house is right near the new bridge. Can you see the small marker in the photo on the left?

Jenna and Gus are ajusting well to life here, exploring our neighborhood and walking down the block to their school to play on the playground. They are making good use of our swimming pool and getting very comfortable in the water!

Our school, AISB, opens for business this Tuesday (Yup! School starts on August 19th over here!) Both Jenna and Gus have met their teachers. Jenna has been making daily trips to the campus to pop in on Amanda. Gus' PreK teacher, Dana, was a Peace Corps volunteer in a village in the Mopti region of Mali, so Gus will be getting his preK lessons in Fulfulde!

Yesterday Gus and Stacy made a trip to see the new land that AISB has purchased for their new campus. The land is in the Sotouba quartier, located about eight kilometers east of downtown Bamako. Because we are in the height of the rainy season right now, the road out to the land was quite muddy. The land directly borders the Niger River on the North side, and because of the rains, the river is over a over a kilometer wide right now.

After exploring around the river we returned to our car to find that one of the tires was flat. After changing the tire and making our way back into the city, the car then died on us in the parking lot of the new bakery. By the time we got back to Badalabougou we agreed that the car will be confined to Bamako city limits for the time being!

Last night I went to a funky night club called "CaseRouge" to hear a Malian "Orchestra" featuring one of Mali's finest guitarists, Zina Diabate (No direct relation to Mali's famous Kora player Toumani Diabate). Most of the musicians were playing modern instruments (no Kora, Ngoni, or Balafon) but they were quite good. If you are not familliar with the sounds of Mali, probably the best place to start would be Toumani Diabate's new release "The Mande Variations," which can be downloaded on iTunes.