1/30 : Who’s the new guy and how does he speaka da English so good?

Monday is our first day at the Winrock office. At 9:00am, Laya picks us up to take us to the office. Our hotel is right around the corner so it’s a short drive. We arrive to find Bengaly and Lala just as we left them, as friendly and warm as ever.

We head up to the “war room” and meet Alfousseni Sidibe, who works as an interpreter for the Winrock office. I take to him right away. He has a great sense of humor and is extremely intelligent. We discuss music and I find that we have a lot of the same interests, so we play each other our favorite songs within the hip-hop and rap genre, his favorite. He is fully connected with a Facebook account as well as email and Skype so we swap connection info. He creates business cards for us with the Winrock logo. We’re official.  I notice his Skype account has the quote “Le sourire est un bon rémede.” It means “laughter is the best medicine.” He quickly tells me “…and you are the doctor, Kevin!”

Alfousseni is my first model for my first illustrations. I decide to attempt a style that’s much simpler than I did last year, because the authenticity and detail of the pictures isn’t an issue this time. I photograph him standing and stooping and start there.

Alfousseni as my test model.

I spend the day gathering images, reading over the scope of the project as well as several PDFs that David has sent me about other companies that have used urea to improve straw. They provide a wealth of information and I find myself asking David several questions about the process while I’m reading it. He’s more than happy to provide answers.

At lunch we get caught up over beef in peanut sauce with rice. I’m talking to Alfousseni about the difficulty of learning French and start reading words out of my French dictionary, focusing on those that have more than one French word (like – comme and aimer) when I say “I bet there’s more than one way to say “épouser” as well” randomly picking the word from the dictionary. He looks at me and says “Say that to Lala” as he chuckles. I look at the book and it means “marry.” So now we’re all embarrased.

At dinner, we meet Deborah. She is here as an evaluator for the Farmer to Farmer program. David, John and I discuss our projects with her and hear all about what she’s doing. The program has all kinds of checks and balances, which is obviously necessary. We start to explain how effective our volunteer time has been and she assures us she’s not here to evaluate us individually. We laugh.

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1/28-1/29 : Aller de l’étang pour l’Afrique

Once again, I’m on my way to Bamako. The travel is the same. No new developments. Amy and Cameron drop me off and a quick jump east at 10:35am puts me in Atlanta for a 2 hour layover around lunch time. I’m sitting at a bar in the middle of a huge intersection that contains the food court with a man playing jazz piano right behind. While I’m eating my quesadilla,  the music starts back up and I hear some woman singing “The Rhythm is Gonna Get You” and ask the bartender if they guy and girl always play music this cheesy. He gives me a puzzled look and I turn around and see it’s one of those self-playing pianos.

I listen to muzak versions of The Beatles and James Taylor before David St. Louis shows up. After a quick catch up, we head over to the gate to meet Roger Grover, a volunteer from Auburn University. I start to give him the “new guy” treatment when I realize he showed up last year right as I was leaving and this is his third time to Mali.

The 9 hour flight to Paris lets me catch up on reading assignment materials, finishing up a novel (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and starting a new one (Steve Jobs biography). I also catch up with a season of Curb Your Enthusiasm. The French lady sitting next to me refuses to talk to me even after repeated conversation starters. After my second attempt (“No in flight movies? I was really looking forward to seeing the latest Miley Cyrus flick”) she takes out a book written in a language I don’t even recognize, so I’m questioning if she’s even French.

The 6 hour layover in France gives the three of us a chance to learn about each other’s assignments. Roger is an aquatic specialist, and is here to help local fisherman hatcheries. I learn alot about college politics in the conversation.

The flight to Bamako is full, which surprised me even last time. This flight has movies so after more reading, I start up “There’s Something About Mary” and sit back to laugh. The movie is edited, so the big laugh is during the infamous “hair gel scene,” this pops up on the screen several times while the movie switches back and forth from Ben Stiller’s scene. I crack up out loud every time it shows up.

There are several groups on the flight from the United States. I meet several at the Bamako airport waiting for entry. Two of the ladies are students at Harvard here for 2 years doing volunteer work. One is working with non-profits and General Mills to build a plant to make peanut products so Mali can be more self-sustained. Another group of college students just arrived for Study Abroad staying for 4 months. I talk to them, but seem nervous and keep looking around. They’re acting like I did when I arrived last year.

Arrival at the Bamako airport

The driver picks us up and takes us to the Hotel Massaley around 6:00pm. John and David head upstairs, but I unpack and head to the restaurant. I order a tuna (thon) sandwich and green beans (haricot verts). I ask for the green beans on the side and the waiter looks confused. He keeps asking “thon? Haricot verts?” When I get the sandwich, I see the problem. He’s had the green beans put on the sandwich.

They are just as good scraped off the sandwich.

I have a conversation with Amy via Skype and all is good. I talk to Cameron as he’s waking up from a nap, upset, and I inform him I left him a present in the house. I tell him to go look in my sock drawer. Squeals of delight and several “oohs” tell me he’s found the Miles Axlerod die cast toy car I left him. Amy says he’s beside himself.

Nice end to the evening.

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