lee and al come to town

As i rack my brain every time I'm near Internet to try to think of something interesting to write about, I always feel like I have nothing new to share with anyone who's reading. When my parents and little brother visited for two weeks, I got to see Mali through fresh eyes again and I felt it was really beneficial to my commitment to working here and my inspiration.

Lee Al and Evan arrived in Burkina Faso on the 14 and had lots of valentines goodies for me. Their first experience of an African city was slightly muted because they were in the center of town but they still faced the constant and persistent barrage of vendors, selling sunglasses, phone cards and magazines. They also had their first test of patience in waiting for food at a restaurant near by. Waiting for things and the slow pace of life here is a standard every day fact of life for me but they hadn't adjusted from the American frame of mind yet. My counterpart in Gossi often jokes around with people working with us, that "time is money" to remind them that they need to get to the meeting less than an hour late but its true that in the US, a meeting is supposed to start when its scheduled to start and its your responsibility to get there. Here everything is "inshalla" or godwilling, so you get there when you get there and you leave when you want. Its just a more relaxed way of taking things and realizing that money, meetings whatever isn't everything. If it takes you extra time to greet everyone you know on your way, then so be it. Its more important to check in with your friends and family than to "be on time" for a meeting we've got all day for.

We left for Mali after two days in burkina and after the five different border control stops (3 on the burkina side, 2 on the Malian)they got their first taste of Mali as we drove through Dogon country. I'd seen it for the first time a few days before on my way to pick them up and I would gladly go through again and again. Its reminds me alot of Arizona and New Mexico and then other parts remind me of what I think the badlands of South Dakota would look like. Pictures to come... (I left my camera cord at site!)

We stayed overnight in Douentza which I think is hands down the most beautiful part of Mali (the northern part of the cliffs that also pass through southern dogon country)Evan was taking lots of pictures from the car trying to capture the immensity of these cliffs which just rise out of nowhere to huge heights. Id been told on the bus on my journey down that there was a village on top of one of the cliffs, that they access by climbing up a steep ravine, so we spent some time trying to look for little people scaling cliffs.

Gossi was so incredibly welcoming to my family and i was so proud of my village and both my families. We were there only two days and everyone wanted to stay longer. the funniest part of the trip was the boat trip on Gossi's lake. We were supposed to be going "birdwatching", a gift from me to al for xmas, but unfortunately something was lost in translation. As we get farther and farther from land, i discover that the boat driver can't speak French or tammasheq so we're literally up a creek without a paddle. I made a complete idiot out of myself flapping my arms to try to indicate that we wanted to see brids. by the end of the trip we will have seen three, two of which were next to the place where we'd initially launched the boat. The wind picked up from the direction we'd come from after about twenty minutes on the lake, making it virtually impossible to backtrack. We had to go over to the other side of this huge mare with waves pouring into this small wooden boat powered by a man with a stick and two bailers ( dad with my water bottle and the other boat guy, who only knew two more words in french than the first guy, neither of which were oiseau or retourner). Apart from the disappointment in not being able to come through on the Xmas present, we were soaked and freezing but laughing hysterically. definitely the highlight of the trip. We also saw the elephants and rode a camel. I thought i might buy one ( a camel that is) after, but the logistics would be a pain.

We headed out to Dogon country and had a great time hiking there, although ev and mom did get sick so we got to do less than we'd planned. We got harrassed a fair amount by the vendors again, selling Dogon and other crafts, which is an unfortunate turnoff to the area, but the natural beauty of the region and its people makes up for it. I want to write more about this but I'm running out of time here n bko so i'll fill in more on their trip with pictures when i get my camera cord.