Je suis là!

I am here! (note..I wrote this my first day here; some information is old...e.g., lost luggage)~  I was going to begin this with a quote from an anthropologist who worked in Africa in the 60s.  But her book is in a backback somewhere between Chicago, Paris, and Bamako...and the adventure begins!  Thanks to the sage advice of my African friends, I had more than one outfit, my water purification kit, and other such essentials in a carry-on, but it will be interesting to see how long it takes my bag to come.  Maybe this will give me the chance to see that one can survive-quite comfortably-with less material support than one may think.  Anyways, I am in Bamako with 6 other American girls who are beyond interesting and purposeful in their lives in a way that many people our age are not.  Then there is Modibo, our program director, and his several assistants.  Their combined friendliness is overwhelming as is that of the Malian people in general. 
     So what have we done so far?  Day one was a whirlwind of our first bambara lesson (greetings), a short tour of our school and the neighborhood around it, one of the best lunches I have ever had (made at the school by our cook) and the "drop-off," an activity designed to immerse us immediately in the logistics of life here.  A conversatin with a phone company, two marriage proposals (plus a "call me when you NEED me") and the purchase of a beautiful straw hat later, I emerged overwhelmed from the "grand marchée" with my partner, Erin, ready to take a taxi back to our hotel.  We fumbled out the correct amount of CFA (west african francs) and went inside.
     So I am in Bamako and cannot believe it...still.  Bamako, the capital city that is neither as visible from an airplane nor as tall as any other capital I have ever seen.  Women pick through pieces of trash for items to wash and use later while men take other trash out of the city in donkey-drawn carts to dump in the fields by the airport.  I hate and love being American here.  I hate being served, asked to sit while others stand, given more food than I can eat when there are literally starving children down the street.  But I love the fact that children want to touch me, be held by me, and take pictures together...as well as the Obama fabric that many people wear as dresses and pant suits.  Once we make it out of the hotel and into the world, we shall see.