I ka kϵnϵ? Tɔɔrɔ tϵ.

So I've officially been here in Bamako, Mali for two weeks and one day. I've gotta say it's quite hard to believe that I've actually not been here much longer because it feels like I've survived at least a month's worth of happenings. It has been full of ups, downs and the like. This post is all about some of the happenings I've experienced since I got here and I'm dedicating this post to my Grandfather John L. Tackitt who past away while I was here on May 30th. I love you Grandpa...I've noticed the stars are shinning brighter as of late <3.

Well, phew...I don't even know where to begin. From the moment I arrived this country was trying to take advantage of the fact that I was "white" which meant that I wasn't from here, thus, I must not know what the rules, customs, and costs of things are...etc.After I landed I headed through customs on my way to get my bags and as I'm picking up my bags from the terminal a gentleman comes up to me, on my way towards the airport exit, and he asks me if I have receipts for all the things I've brought into the country because if I didn't I was going to need to pay tax on everything I had just "imported" into Mali. I was beyond suspicious and had to work really hard to get this guy to leave me alone. It wasn't until I finally got outside that he moved on to the next "sucker" to be. I wish I could say that the attempts to take advantage of the"Toubabou" or "white men" ended there but it hasn't.

I've had taxi drivers try to charge me two and three times more than I should have been charged. In fact that happened tonight when I was trying to get home from a restaurant. I said to a taxi driver who was trying to pick me up, "Ne be taa Baco-Djicoroni ACI, Soyatt station kϵrϵfϵ. O ye joli ye Bamanankan na?" It took about 15 seconds for him to realize I don't want the price in French since I can only understand it in Bambara which by the way is pretty uncommon. If you're a "toubabou" then you, with few exceptions i.e ME, speak French and have little or no understanding of the ethnic language Bambara. So once he realized it he smiled, laughed and greeted me in Bambara only to then ask me if I spoke Bambara well...when I said "Ne te se Bamanankan kosebe," he said ah "donin donin" meaning just alittle. Once we had an understanding he proceeded to say he wanted "Kϵmϵ saaba" or CFA 1500. I immediately replied "O ka ca!" Too much!!! He laughed and said well it's late at night and it's busy in Bambara. I told him "Barika, kϵmϵ." He proceeded to ramble on and I couldn't understand him and he just looked at me and I said "Kϵmϵ...Ne bena do wϵrϵ nini," which was me giving my final offer of CFA 500 or I was going to find another taxi. He spit off some sentence and opened the door for me to get in. I smiled and said to myself "Thats right this isn't my first rodeo."

It wasn't a bad experience it was actually good for me but it helps me reflect on the growth I've had in even just a short time here.  I went from knowing absolutely none of the languages here to arguing with a taxi driver about how much I was going to pay for a ride home in just two weeks. To me that is huge! When I first got here I had alittle bit of culture shock from being in Morocco and only hearing and seeing Arabic and French and actually getting ripped off pretty good twice. The loneliness there was intense towards the end of the day. After a good night's sleep I was over it but it only took five days to hit a much more intense, depressing, and very oppressive culture shock here in Mali. The city is in chaos on the streets...you wouldn't believe what the traffic is like. People constantly coming up to your window begging for money or food while others are constantly trying to sell you stuff. It happens 10 fold to me because I'm a toubabou and in their minds I must be rich and have money to burn. Again I must also speak French which they try and talk to me in. I felt very lonely and out of the loop because I couldn't communicate with people and I was super stressed out by all the madness I was living around and in.

The transition came when I went to a village that was 2+ hours away to the east. Things were peaceful out there and the people were very friendly and understanding of my situation. I got to work on my Bambara and I learned a ton and spoke a fair amount after just 2 days in the village with some friends and a Malian named Bartholomew who spoken some broken English but we could communicate. We taught each other language during our time together. For him it was English and for me it was Bambara. It was an amazing weekend with great people which helped me break through the culture shock, language barrier and "grew a set" culturally enough to start venturing out into Bamako to engage this community and culture. The ups have been great and the lows have been depressing but its been a mixture that has forged growth and progress. I've got 10 more weeks and I know I'll look back and think that I've grown so much more than I would have imagined.

Stay tuned...K'an bϵn.