Sophie and her dad Maxime
Blowing out candles
Me and the bday girl
All smiles after eating cake
Tuesday was Sophie's birthday and that of my grandmother as well. I started out the day still not feeling well from the night before. (And I actually thought I was going to leave Mali without a bout of traveler's sickness.) The day before at work Coumba had asked if I was really not feeling well or if my morale was low. Could be a little of both, but morale certainly had nothing to do with the minor earthquakes I experienced. So I called in and spent a leisurely day in bed reading, sleeping, and taking Immodium - all of which turned out to be the perfect cure for all that ailed me.
When Rodney came back from work he and I went to the market and although he wanted to cook, I started first so I could make a huge pot of food that would last for many days not just one or two nights. The night before when we had come home Andrew had two plates of rather tasteless food (only enough for one serving each) waiting for us. While I was cooking Rodney leaned in and asked if I would please remember to spice the food. I said I don't cook without spices and he was satisfied. Just as I finished cooking Constance's brother Jacques came to our door. He said Constance had sent him, that she hadn't seen me that day and that they were at the house ready to celebrate Sophie's bday. I had already been planning to go so after grabbing a quick bite to tide me over I set off on foot. Of course Jacques left as soon as he stopped by so he could head to town to listen to music and discuss politics with his friends.
I rounded the corner of Constance's street and before I could even see that the door to the courtyard was open a shout pierced the darkness. Fan-ta!! And then a figure came running at me and barrelled into me. I picked Sophie up and wished her a happy birthday. And of course she spied the gifts in my hand before I'd even walked in the courtyard. I had with me the gift Rodney gave to her, the Akeelah and the Bee DVD (it has French subtitles) and I gave her a small coin purse filled with American coins which she kept removing and replacing, saying I'll use these when I go to America. Cringe! I guess she'll find out later what the coins are worth. While I was momentarily worried about my gift since she got real Malian money, the folding kind, from some uncles and cousins, the novelty of my gift was perfect. We sang and Sophie blew out the candles on her delicious chocolate cake fresh from the bakery. We ate the cake first and then dinner and amazingly after a little more excitement Sophie declared she was exhausted and excused herself to go to bed. No kids were in attendance except Sophie's brother Jean. Just various family friends and some country music playing in the background. US country music (Maxime talks a lot about Texas.)
After dinner Maxime exhaled a big loud sigh. I asked if everything was okay and he said no. Maxime was overseeing the exportation of Malian gold to his business partner in Switzerland and somehow the weight of the package was mislabeled and so it was held up in customs, tangling the business deal. Yikes! Until that moment I hadn't known what he did but Rodney and I figured they were well off comparatively if for no other reason than the fact that Sophie just turned 7 and is already learning French and English. I stayed and talked a while longer with Constance and Maxime. Constance pulled out a bag of shoes, saying she had seen a pair of sandals that she thought would look good on me and bought them when she bought her own. I tried them on and oooh were they comfortable. I've already gotten several compliments. How is it Sophie's birthday and I get a present?
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