May 15 – The first day
This was
our first full day in Bamako. Our trip began Friday the 13th with
frantic packing and a flight to morocco. Our flight on Royal Air Maroc was
good. During our flight to Bamako we flew into a monsoon – literally. We ran
across the tarmac to the shuttle bus, all of 200 feet, and were soaked head to
toe. The bags that were missing we discovered were left in Casablanca due to
weight restrictions on the planes. We spent a couple of hours trying to get all
of our bags together which communicating with Malian supervision through 1 translator (for 20 people). Everything in Mali is French. As we go to our
accommodations, the rain had stopped leaving red muddy clay puddles for us to
drudge through. Murphy’s law was at play when we discovered we had no
electricity and not enough beds… Welcome to Africa.
Mali
On our first night in Bamako we arrived at the house close
to 2:30 a.m. local time. We spent a ton of time determining how we could best
survive in a muggy 100 degrees F without ventilation or fans. We attempted
placing mosquito nets over the windows – we failed. We then had no choice but
to suffer. After NOT sleeping in the stifling heat, we rose at 7:00 a.m. when
the power returned and the AC began chugging along – YAY SLEEP.
Since we were only able to fall asleep at 7:00 a.m., we got
2 hours fo sleep before the alarm went off and my roomies awoke. I, however, continued to sleep until 11:00a.m. We spent
the afternoon as tourists: we got lunch and we went to the market. Then we shopped …
5,000 Franc
= $10.00
At the beginning, the shopping trip was going very well. As we turned a corner we were suddenly mobbed with men speaking
mostly French and some broken English trying to convince us to buy their goods.
They would shove them in our faces and ask “how much will you pay?” We were
surrounded, we were scared, doe-eyed Americans. It took a solid 45 minutes to round
us up and get out of there! The mob followed us to the bus and continued to
harass us through the windows until we started the engine and left.
3 Bracelets: 7,500 f = $15.00
1 Necklace:
5,000 f = $10.00
Time spent
at market = Priceless
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