Bandiagara Day 11 (26/07/09)

This morning there didn’t seem to be much to do, which was ok because we were a bit tired from hiking on the escarpment yesterday. We hung out in the office for a while and then decided to go outside. It was a surprisingly nice day; I can’t say it was cool, maybe temperate (which means in the mid 90s instead of 100+). While were sitting out there a girl carrying a tray or what turned out to be Shea fruit on her head offered us each one to try (I never actually ate it because I was worried about washing it and then someone else ate it, oh well). A little while later Liz began to feel pretty ill (no she didn’t eat the fruit later) and she managed to get someone to take her back to the house early. After she left I went to help Tolo check for documentation errors in the study and file away papers. I was a bit shocked at the lack of organization in their paperwork, but I’m probably a bit rigid after working at a pharmaceutical company that was a bit anal in its documentation practices (I think if I were here longer and maybe if my French were better I could help them reorganize and save them a lot of time and errors).
When we came back from lunch Liz was laying down and still feeling pretty crummy; later Dembele and Dr Kone came in and checked her over (they wound up giving her some antibiotics). After lunch I stayed at the house; Badry left for the clinic before I could catch up with him, but that’s ok, I was pretty tired anyways. I spent the afternoon watching the end of the tour de France, playing solitaire and watching a movie on my computer. The team came back to the house for dinner and after eating I left with Tolo and Dembele to go to a bar/restaurant (we were going to a wedding party afterwards too, but never made it). At first Dembele didn’t want to come, but I was worried that going with Tolo alone might be misconstrued as a date, so I insisted he come too. We had an interesting conversation on the walk over; apparently here they see no problem with having a girlfriend one place and dating other girls somewhere else without informing their girlfriend (however, they argued that it wasn’t ok for their girlfriends to do the same thing). At this point I decided it was a good idea to make it ABUNDANTLY clear that I was not interested in dating anyone while I was here. That I didn’t think it was ok to lie to your boyfriend/girlfriend and that I tell my boyfriend everything (I think this is when the idea that this might turn into a date ended).
When we got to the bar (I think it was called Auberge Kanzaye) it was surprised that there seemed to be a whole group of toubobs there. Later I wound up talking to a few of them (an older British couple) who told me that it was a trip they signed up for on the internet and the group had started in Burkina and was traveling over land to Timbouctou. It sounded like a fun trip (28 days long I think they said), but they didn’t seem to have been able to mix with the locals and find out about the culture (which I think is quite a loss). I explained to them about malaria (they had no idea that pretty much ever African gets malaria as a child and develops immunity) and about the medical system here. They were very friendly and it was nice to have a conversation in English. The music was good, it was a local Dogon band and some of the African kids were surprisingly good dancers. I danced for a while and even got Tolo and Dembele to dance for a bit, but it was pretty hot so we only danced for a few songs. It started getting late, so I suggested we head back. On the walk back I got to check out the stars and even got to see the Milky Way (it was amazingly clear). After a shower I crashed.