I'm doing well over here, forced to get into a bit more of a schedule with class and work and structure, but for the most part my life is going very well. The food is very basic, like normal, but for some off reason I have definitely not lost weight. A standard diet of rice, sugar, bread, butter and ketchup with bananas and cucumbers. Sounds delicious, doesn't it?
The 14 other students (in my group) are absolutely wonderful and Nick (program director) is rather swank himself. We all get along miraculously well (is that possible?). The work is good, a lot of reading which I am doing (surprise!), interspersed with hearty discussions and interesting tangents. In our free time we all jam and make all kinds of art together. Amongst the group we have yoga instructurs, wine drinkers, guitarists, #1 old-time banjo player in Florida, painters, drummers, dancers and watchers. Music and art are all over--many people brought instruments and there are plenty of drums and koras around for those of us that don't have anything. the house is always pretty lively! We spend a lot of time on the roof, which overlooks Bamako (the capital city). Our house is located at the foot of a small mountain (more like a big hill) that affords an even better view of the city and the surroundings. The area is pretty pretty from up above; on the street life is exciting but pretty polluted (think serious exhaust and not great sewage and no trash cans). At night there are enough lights to make for a beautiful view of the surrounding area but not too much to pollute some seriously intense stargazing. Sometimes we (me and others in the group) do a bit of yoga on the roof before a glass of cheap, not-so-great red wine and gaze out into the wild world of West Africa.
During the day we have language class in the AM (I take Bamana, the local language, with a few others while everyone else works on their French), followed by lunch and then the afternoon lecture/seminar arts and culture class. The class is pretty interesting, and a few students present the assigned articles each day followed by a joint lecture by Nick and Sekou (lecturer/translator--into english/french--for researchers). Sometimes we have afternoon activities (dance class, museum trip...) or we have free time.
Meals are cooked nearby and delivered. We all eat together and clean-up duties are divided up each day. The house we are all residing in belongs to Sedou Coulibaly, who is a Malian man, married to an American woman. He teaches West African drum and dance and culture at Brown University but he is back here, helping Nick with some technical details of the program. He is creating the space for future groups to be able to come and do similar projects and spend time in Mali.
No comments:
Post a Comment