me and my sister in Bamako, Mariam "Laveille" Konate


Bonjour mes amis,

Phew, what a week! So much has happened since I last wrote, I will have to just go over the highlights. Last week we spend our time in a village called Sanakoraba, which is only about 45 minutes outside of Bamako, yet like a whole new world. Courtney and I lived with an adorable young family in their compound, in the part we actually stayed at their was the dad, his wife (who we concluded could not be more than 4 years older than us) and their five kids. Also living on the property was at least 4 older women, two other couples, brothers and lots and lots of children. Needless to say, it was a lot of fun. Sanakoraba also has the SOS school for homeless and orphaned children, which we visited one day. However, the public school system is quite shocking as I learned the classroom size is typically one teacher to 150 children. Something that makes you feel privileged for the access to education. The children are not as educated there as Bamako, and for the most part, farming is the way of life. There is a program being introduced there that helps organize the fields to switch out crops throughout seasons to take advantage of soil nutrients, in addition to introducing better seeds with higher nutritional value. All in all, it was an eye opener out there and also highlights how western Bamako is. I know this is not what you all probably want to read, but I find it fascinating. Here’s some photos for your enjoyment!


dance circle (and yes, we all had to show off our white people dance!)


our compound (suprisingly empty in this photo)


there are also more on Facebook... check it!

Oh, Africa

Ok , Ok it has been way to long since my last update but they say, never start with an apology , so I’ll dive right in with a story.
There is a television show here called ministar, think African style American idol with children. They dance, they sing, they entertain the masses. Well today was the finals and Hannah and I were very excited and decided to make it down to the centre and be a part of the live audience. Usually, all the other weeks, the filming started around 10 am so we thought we were giving ourselves a substantial amount of time trekking down there at 7 am to get a good spot in line. However, ministar wasn’t buzzing with the attention it deserved, and after talking to the only 5 other people there, we realized the doors didn’t open until 1 pm! This is another case of West Africa wins again, but I encourage everyone to google search ministar and check out how awesome it really is.
Oh, and there is a ministar dance. I will teach you all upon returning.

Not that it was a bad day at all, the woman who I greet at the corner gave me free flou-flou today (these are fried little balls of dough that are ideally served hot or in monnie, a milky millet drink) and a bunch of us checked out grand marchee, and the Mali photo exhibit at the Musee (and let me tell you, I could take some of those pictures myself!). Actually, I will share the wealth a bit when I have access to a laptop, because the updating does take quite a bit of time.

It is beautiful here, the red dirt with the green trees. Everything is bright because it is the end of the rainy season, and it is slowly getting more humid (phew!). But pagnes are beautiful and now I currently own three (I bought two, and my togoma- the woman I am named after- sent me a beautiful tie-n-dye outfit yesterday. I am actually going over to her house to thank her and probably get some photos in!)

Now comes my apology, I am bad at blogging but hopefully can keep it up better now that some of the craziness has worn off. On Monday, the students are all going to spend a week in the rural village outside of Bamako- it will be completely different from city life! I know you’ll get an update after that.

To those who read this, I love and miss you! I hope everything is going well and I am thinking of all of you. Until next time,
Gnouma Konate/Brittany