Rodney still had his watch set to the time zone in South Africa, where he has been living for a year so when he took a walk that morning he thought he had more time than he actually did to return and meet us. In his midday travels, and near heat stroke, he learned a lot about the neighborhood. There is a lot of construction in the area and most of it, he says, is being done by the children of people working in France. The parents send money home and the children construct near mansions from the ground up with it, complete with pools and elaborate terraces and balconies etc.
Rodney says he feels like people who come from places like Mali and are used to hustling are better able to take advantage of the rich resources in places like South Africa, which has seen an influx of immigrants from other African countries who do well while citizens of that country continue to struggle. I said this is no different from immigrants moving to the US or New Yorkers moving to places with slower paces such as the West Coast or the South.
Bamako reminds me of a small Southern US town in that it is dusty with low buildings and at first glance appears sleepy. But the traffic and the energy is definitely not small or Southern. The city stretches across and down the Niger River, which unlike the ocean does not offer a breeze. To get to our place we tell the taxi to go to the Baco DjiCoroni neighborhood past the bakery, make a right at the no name gas station painted blue and white and then we look out for the green mansion just before our place to tell him to turn in the driveway just after it. I do not know any of the street names and neither do most people.
I feel like I was worrying about the wrong things coming here. I could have brought my computer, my watch, or more jewelry with no problem. What I definitely should have brought though is all the things I was laughing at Andrew for having, especially since both his bags were overweight: an iron, a can opener, toilet tissue, paper towels, matches, dish soap, canned tuna and salmon,... Everytime I think of something we need this former Eagle scout has it already: Thank God.
Everything here is a paradigm shift for me. If I had known part of what we were doing would be like camping and being creative with resources I could have been better prepared. But everything I planned for was with the mindset of Western resources. There are unpredictable power outages. The tank of water for our house runs out daily. The dust is cloying. The heat is insufferable 100 degrees in the shade and 93 in my room with the air conditioner on. And that is life. And it is beautiful.
No comments:
Post a Comment