Office Space…in Mali

I can confirm that Eid, or the end of Ramadan, is tomorrow.  You wanna know how I know?  
I walked out into my office courtyard a few hours ago only to see my colleagues hustled over a dead cow they had just bought sawing off in pieces for everyone…on…our…front…door…steps.  A few hours later, I went [...]

Scheduling Ramadan

This Thursday and Friday are marked off as holidays on our organization’s calendar.  Since I arrived, I had been planning on taking a mini-vacation and traveling the 8 hours or so to visit a friend in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.  However, earlier last week I was informed that the holiday may actually take place today. Monday. [...]

Classifying the Classes

I was reading a final report yesterday and came across the following descriptions characterizing of the classes in Mali:  rich, middle-class, and poor.  Thought I would share with you the descriptions as they are very different from our definitions of the classes (i.e. having horses versus horsepower).
Rich:
•    60 horses/donkeys and 40 carts
•    2 tons [...]

The Name Game

The Name Game in Mali has a different objective than the game we play in the States.  In the States, it’s usually played when meeting a person for the first time, and if that person has a friend that shares something similar with you (school, job, hometown), you proceed to recite a list of people [...]

Be Careful What You Wish For

By popular request, I thought I would finally share with you some of the development issues I am working on. As I am consumed by work and development issues 24 hours a day, I didn’t want to get into it too much via the blog, but I guess it won’t hurt anyone to get into [...]

African Fabrics – More than just a pretty face

Malians, in general and especially women, dress in beautiful head-to-toe ensembles made from colorful, intricate African patterns, rather than ‘nature colored’ Western-style outfits.  From afar, these ensembles look bright and bold, however upon a closer look you  often find they consist of an intricate pattern often depicting objects, places,  and even scenes depicting African proverbs [...]

Working Weekend

So, I made it home safely after a grueling 10 hour ride of which I spent 6 hours sick as a dog squeezed in between three colleagues with a very distraught meowing cat in the back.  Needless to say, it wasn’t fun for anyone.  Since then I’ve been busy with an all country, all staff [...]

Fanta! Fanta! Fanta!

Fanta = Popular soft drink substitute for cola in West Africa
Fanta = Popular girl’s name in West Africa
Fanta = My new cat
It’s a time for changes and on that note, I’ve adopted a cat.  Although initially I wanted a dog, I realized that given my schedule a dog would be too hard to take care [...]

Learning to Adapt

As one of the only species that can live either in arctic ice or desert sand, it is no question that humans are adaptable.  I’m used to getting questions from curious Americans who want to understand how I live in Africa.  Ironically, I receive even more probing from Malians asking me how I could live [...]

Learning to Cook in Africa

Out of the many goals I set for myself this year in Mali, one of my personal ones is learning how to cook from scratch. This goal is more of a matter of survival, but goal sounds much more pro-active and driven, and as an American rings better to my ears. I’ve been [...]

Where the Streets Have No Name

After a long week of working late hours, I rewarded myself Saturday by buying a brick of cheese, a half kilo of ham, and heading over to my colleague’s house to watch 6 hours of CNN coverage (beggars can’t be choosers). As we were veggie-ing out on her sofa, both with MacBooks on [...]

Malian music marathon

I listened to Malian music before I ever found out I was moving to Mali. I played it on repeat in the car, at dinner parties, at parties, bbqs, and even made dance CDs of my favorite tunes for OhMommy’s kids to rock out too.
You might be surprised to know that Malian musicians are [...]