Days 15 and 16 (11/07/09 and 12/07/09)

Saturday we slept in late and in the afternoon went to the artisan market in downtown Bamako. Sanoussi our drive took us and showed us around the market (he also did all out bargaining for us). Where we walked in walked in there was a traditional medicine stand. It was kind of creepy with dried monkey paws and the head of something that may once have been a lion. As we went further into the market there we so many interesting stalls. We went into a jewlery shop (Malian gold is very beautiful and seems to be much more yellow than any gold I've seen before), but Liz and I decided that we were too poor for that. We went into many stores with carvings and textiles and beaded jewlery. I wound up buying a Taureg made necklace (though the one of the men at the shop was puching me to buy more) and later a map of Mali painted onto a piece of fabric. There was a man working a large loom and I wanted to take a picture, but he wanted 1000CFAs (which really isn't all that much, a little over $2), but I didn't have any small change. Apparently here taking pictures is not something done lightly, you need to ask permission and often pay a fee first. There were many amazing leather shops and we were able to watch a lot of the artesans at work. It's interesting, though there's no real recycling here everything is used to its fullest; I watched one man smoothing some leather with an empty coke bottle. We didn't buy much there this time, but we're planning on going back after we return from Bandiagara and before we leave.

In the evening we watched Taxi Driver (that was interesting, there's a huge collection of VHS tapes here) and waited until it was late enough to go out. We headed to a bar with the Swiss entomologist that is staying here. He found it on a cultural website and it was supposed to have local music (which I've still been trying to hear). The drive seemed very long, we crossed the river and I swear we were out of city limits; when we finally got there it was a dive (a local truck stop I think) and the patrons didn't look glad to see foreigner, plus there was no music. So we left and headed to a bar in town that Fredrick (the entomologist) had been to before called Akwaba. It was nice and the music (though not Malian) was pleasant and had a latin inspiration, which Fredrick said was likely due to some influence Cuba had had in Mali some years ago. After a few hours we headed to another bar next door called The Terrace (which Liz and I had been to before), interestingly the bar seemed to be closing down for the night (it was after 2am, though I've been told that's early by Malian standards). Liz was tired (I was too, though I hadn't realized it yet) so we called it a night and caught a cab back to the guest house.

Sunday was a lazy day. We slept in a bit and had breakfast. I did some laundry and we sat around reading to waste the day away. In the afternoon Liz and Fredrick went for a run and after they came back we went out and threw a frisbee in a somewhat rocky field. I have the feeling that they really don't have frisbees here, many people stopped to stare as they walked by. I also got to be the frisbee expert (which was a bit of a surprise), but liz and Fredick picked up quick and we had fun. After we went back to the house and showered and ate left overs. We watched the Great Gatsby and turned in a bit early (still a little tired from the night before).