Bamako

August 18, 2005

We are staying in a beautiful hotel right on the Niger River. The people are very nice and refuse to allow us to do anything for ourselves. We went to a BBQ at the boss’s house last night where we fraternized with the AISB teachers. They are all very nice people, many of them from the Northwest. We will be sad to leave them behind when we fly off to Sadiola (Sadjola).

The rain here is amazing! It pours from the sky and creates red mud everywhere. Driving seems insane as most of the roads are dirt/mud. We leave Bamako tomorrow morning for Sadiola. We are anxious to get there and find our own space. All of this living in limbo is getting really old. We are working on our French as very few people speak English.

We will fly in a turboprop plane to the mine. Zachary has never been in a plane of this sort, I’m excited to see how he likes it. It will be loud and I know that he doesn’t usually like loud noises, but there will be cool things to see out of the window. He has done exceptionally well with all of this change. He takes to new people as if he has known them forever. He is my PR secret weapon.

Today we got a nice lunch with a fellow named Rusty. He is the music teacher at AISB. Ironically, he went to college with the boss at PLU in Parkland. He is married to a Malian woman and has lived here for some time. It was a nice connection to make. Many of our new colleagues asked when we would see them again. They did not understand that we will be isolated at the mine for about three months before we will be able to venture this way again.