There are a lot of annoying people here that pretend to be very friendly and stop tubabus (white people/gringos/muzungus) on the street and try to be friends and talk with us and what not, but most have ulterior motives (selling drugs--i am a "rasta", selling drums, food, tours, CD's....). there is one malian man in particular who is very not like this. he is my Bamana (local language) teacher and we have this very quirky, joking relationship. he's very bright and a quick thinker. I was talking about how I don't like children and explaining in frambana (a mix of Français and Bamana) about how I worked in Israel as an aupair. He quickly asked me if I knew about the lost jews in Mali. I perked up and said, "do you mean Uganda?" He replied with a smart, "Non ma amie (no my friend), if I meant Uganda I would have said that. There are a lot of Jews in Timbuktu (Northern mali)!" He told me all about his trip with the Klein and Berkson (sounds jewish, eh?) families to Northern Mali to meet these jewish communities.

I smiled.

There was no more to the story besides the part where he mentioned that they come from Washington DC and will be playing at this years music festival (which I will be attending with ma famille)!