The past 5 days...

This morning I went in search of avocados and chickpeas...the elusive chickpeas...I saw them ONCE and passed them up thinking, next time...darn it! They looked super yummy. Looked kinda like a chunky hummus. They were put in a small plastic bag and then she squirted a dressing on them that looked like citrus juice, oil and a little spice. I'm so annoyed I can't find them.
Anyway, a man who I pass when I go to the big market where I look for these things greeted me and said, "Hey, long time no see!" And I was like, "Not really...kinda!" And he responded again with, "No, really, its been a bit, close to a week, what have you been doing?" And I couldn't recall, really, what I had been up to. Its been one of those weeks. Not bad, but perhaps more of a reflection of life becoming a bit normal and routine around here. I've been tending to Marshall, shopping other places, cleaning the house, nothing spectacular.
But apologies to my faithful readers for the lapse in my writing. I really thought only a day or two had passed...
Anyway, here is a list of random things that I recall thinking about writing about over the past few days...

On Saturday, I went to toss some dirty water outside and looked to my right only to see two camels being ridden about 100 feet down the street...This is a common sight even in larger villages/towns up north, but not here in Bamako. I thought there was maybe a circus around for a minute before I realized that I was, in fact, in West Africa...this is a normal means of transportation...I just really can't understand how they were able to navigate downtown traffic. Horses and donkeys are all over town, but camels are a bit bigger and sluggish...

There is a little "diner" of sorts that has opened down the street and turns into an outdoor dance club on Saturday nights. You know, there seem to be so many connections to our little urban artist enclave to those in the states. Kids are free spirited and educated in strange little things, like able to speak all sorts of wild languages. Various cultures all live in harmony. There is a mix of all sorts of socio-economic levels. Ladies are on the cutting edge of fashion, taking all sorts of cool risks in their clothing design and choices. Folks hang outside their house and play music, dye fabric, cut cloth, and pursue other creative endeavors. And there is cheap and quick food all about at all hours, and dancing into the wee hours. And on Sunday morning, after all the partying, people emerge red-eyed from their slumber and all take to the streets in search of a greasy breakfast they don't want to cook themselves. I found this out as we were out of internal breakfast options and I went to the frufru lady to get something just to put in my belly. Typically, she takes my money, puts some in a bag and I'm on my way. Well this time, she was surrounded by people and I had to wait 45 minutes for a kid to bring me my order. She was filling big orders.

Marshall continues to cruise around the house. He can MOVE. A couple of days ago he was doing his new favorite thing of grabbing the lip of his bathtub that he finds in the hallway, lifting it up with the leverage and then letting it drop. Well, he got some serious leverage at one point and actually flipped the tub over and on top of him, like a turtle shell, we rounded to corner to find him still scooting along, only seeing an overturned bathtub making its way towards the wall with a little hand and foot sneaking out here and there. He was still giggling as he went along. Right now he is exploring the whole living room. He's covered just about every square foot with a great big smile on his face.

Have you ever seen the movie, Smoke? Great art film with Harvey Keitel and a few other greats...anyway, Harvey Keitel is the owner of this tobacco shop in Brooklyn. Its on a corner and something he's done for 30 years or more is every morning at the exact same time, in the exact same location just outside the door to his shop, he takes a picture. I've always loved this concept. I think I'm going to start doing it and sharing the pictures with you here on this site...will be something to put on on the days I don't have time/inspiration for much else.

We saw another white baby a few days ago! He was HUGE! A big chubby French baby. Marshall lit up when we saw him. His mom had him in a similar South American fabric carrier to our own. I can't believe she hadn't thrown her back out. He was at least twice as big as Marshall and maybe only a month or two older...Marshall also responded great to a sweet little baby girl named Ami this morning. He was chatting it up at her while her mom, me and another woman all responded to his loud sounds back with funny ones ourselves...this is a universal thing. Anyway, its been decided that he and Ami will get married and go to America together. I think we actually have to buy a cow to make it official.

Ian might be on Turkish TV! He arrived in the market yesterday to quite a commotion as a Turkish film crew, who spoke no French, were trying to get footage of the animal parts vendors who they had only paid some of only 1/10th the typical fee paid for such things...turns out they are with a news magazine show in Turkey and are exploring "magic" in Mali and they interviewed Ian. They are coming back today for some time with his teacher. I hope he blogs about it...I'm sure it will be a good story. He was able to arrange a $250 fee to be paid to Kara. He's such a good student. Speaking of Kara and his growing business, stay tuned. Ian suggested the internet to him and he's all over it. Before you know it he'll be on late night TV with a 1-900 number and the fortune telling sands...