Remember the Alamo
April 30, 2007
Back in Bamako, it’s both a relief and a bummer.
We spent the entirety of last week with my brother and his family in Texas. We had a really good time. He lives in Austin, but we also spent some time in San Antonio. We arrived in Austin late Thursday night and headed out for San Antonio the next afternoon.
We went primarily to watch my nieces compete in a dance competition. That was awesome. Although the eldest has done this sort of thing for several years, I have never been fortunate enough to bear witness to it. It was amazing! She danced in many different categories, taking home gold after gold. I was quite impressed.
In between acts we wandered out to the city, enjoying the Alamo and the river walk. I came to remember that San Antonio is really a beautiful place. It’s well planned and well kept. Although many of the sidewalks are in poor shape, the overall condition of the place is excellent. We had a blast.
Back in Austin we were invited to come speak to my niece’s high school geography class. That was fun. We put together about 150 pictures of Mali and showed them to three different classes, discussing different aspects of Malian life. It was really good for me to do as it gave me an idea about pictures I still need to take. The kids seemed genuinely interested and asked some excellent questions.
Other than that, our time in Austin was spent lounging, eating Bar-B-Q, and shopping. We packed our stuff, stealing one case from my brother, and flew out last Thursday morning.
It took four hours to get to New York where we had a six hour lay over. We had one last morsel of fast food (at airport prices) and rode the air train around in circles a few times before boarding our plane. Once on board, we sat for two hours before actually taking off. We landed in Casablanca the following morning, staring at a fourteen hour layover.
So here we are; back in Bamako. I am struck by the poverty and the stench of open sewers. I listen to the teachers here tell me of the opulence of the embassies. I remind myself that I am heading back to an environmental disaster in the midst of some hard core racism and I thank the Powers That Be that we are moving away from here soon.
Downtown Bamako
That's the sewer in that hole!
MJR
Back in Bamako, it’s both a relief and a bummer.
We spent the entirety of last week with my brother and his family in Texas. We had a really good time. He lives in Austin, but we also spent some time in San Antonio. We arrived in Austin late Thursday night and headed out for San Antonio the next afternoon.
We went primarily to watch my nieces compete in a dance competition. That was awesome. Although the eldest has done this sort of thing for several years, I have never been fortunate enough to bear witness to it. It was amazing! She danced in many different categories, taking home gold after gold. I was quite impressed.
In between acts we wandered out to the city, enjoying the Alamo and the river walk. I came to remember that San Antonio is really a beautiful place. It’s well planned and well kept. Although many of the sidewalks are in poor shape, the overall condition of the place is excellent. We had a blast.
Back in Austin we were invited to come speak to my niece’s high school geography class. That was fun. We put together about 150 pictures of Mali and showed them to three different classes, discussing different aspects of Malian life. It was really good for me to do as it gave me an idea about pictures I still need to take. The kids seemed genuinely interested and asked some excellent questions.Other than that, our time in Austin was spent lounging, eating Bar-B-Q, and shopping. We packed our stuff, stealing one case from my brother, and flew out last Thursday morning.
It took four hours to get to New York where we had a six hour lay over. We had one last morsel of fast food (at airport prices) and rode the air train around in circles a few times before boarding our plane. Once on board, we sat for two hours before actually taking off. We landed in Casablanca the following morning, staring at a fourteen hour layover.
Fortunately, Carrie is a practiced eavesdropper. She overheard a fellow passenger mention that he was continuing on to Bamako and that he was looking forward to the hotel the airline put us up in. We asked around and sure enough, Royal Air Maroc put us in a hotel for the day and gave us meal vouchers for our time there. We got some much needed rest, spent some time at the market in downtown Casablanca, and had a nice shower before heading off on the final leg of our journey.
So here we are; back in Bamako. I am struck by the poverty and the stench of open sewers. I listen to the teachers here tell me of the opulence of the embassies. I remind myself that I am heading back to an environmental disaster in the midst of some hard core racism and I thank the Powers That Be that we are moving away from here soon.
Downtown Bamako
That's the sewer in that hole!
MJR
posted by Bronx to Timbuktu at 4:29 PM
1 Comments:
That's cool that you got to see Treva dance. She's quite good.
I was surprised the first time I went to the Alamo. It was much smaller than I expected, and the dichotomy of the legendary Alamo sitting on a downtown suburban street corner just seemed a little off......like running into the REAL Elvis in Vegas.
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