TGIF

TGIF!  It is a world-wide feeling, I think.  Or at least it translates here in Africa.  I have found that Malians are sometimes even more eager to start the weekend than Americans… the cashier’s office at the Embassy closes earlier, people often leave work at lunch time (usually to go to pray at the mosque, as Friday is the big day for that.  I guess some of them just never make it back to the office?), and I called a friend today who told me he hadn’t even gone in to work!  Of course, I would leave work early on Fridays, too, if I was actually doing anything that resembled 'work'!  The point of this ‘intro’ is not to say that people here don’t work hard (though work ethic could be its own whole blog post), but to remark upon the observation that excitement for the weekend is certainly tangible here, as it is in the states. 

I am looking forward to this weekend!  Last weekend was good, but I was fighting a cold and did a lot of resting.  This week I started off feeling low, but my mood has seemed to improve each day and I am hoping that with the holiday weekend (yes, I WILL be celebrating Halloween in Mali!) the week will culminate with a weekend of fun and new friends!

In the past week, I have done some car and house searching, which have both been the source of some of my frustrations and low points.  The first car I saw was in great condition (i.e. nicer than my car in the states) and had a price tag to match at about $7,000!  Since then, I have seen successively crappier cars, concluding with one I have seriously considered buying—an old 4 door hatchback Corolla that costs about $1,500 (plus some work…. we’re talking $2,000).  I am still waiting on the opinion and estimates of a mechanic before making a decision.  A note about cars in Mali… they are generally more expensive than in the US.  This is because of “dedouanement” (I’m really not sure how to spell that… sounds like day-dwon-you-mant).  “Dedouanement” is basically a very expensive registration tax.  All cars have to be registered when they enter Mali before they can be driven.  Since all cars here are imported from Europe, the US, China, Japan, someone has to pay this tax before they are useable.  So, people who buy new cars and even some used cars are strapped with this extra cost to consider.  The tax itself usually runs $1,000-$2,000.  Oh, and it’s also a pain to get the paperwork, etc. completed, so some of that cost covers the bribes necessary to get your request sent through in weeks instead of months!  I have learned this week that it is worth buying a car that is “dedouaned” even if it doesn’t even run!  That’s because you can put buy a new motor here and have it installed for about $2,000—the same cost you would pay for the inconvenience of getting a new car registered.  Repair work here in general is cheap (I say this before I have to actually pay for work to be done)!  Replacing an axle (which cost about $300 for parts and labor on my Corolla in the states) costs about $10 for the part, and probably an equally minimal amount for the labor because everyone knows how to fix old Toyotas here!

I digress, but I am going to roll with it…. In general, almost anything is fixable here.  In some ways, this is quite refreshing, but in others it is really kind of sad.  In my opinion, it is a positive that people are not throwing things away and buying new replacements just because a part is broken or worn out.  I got rid of a perfectly nice mini-fridge in the states because I damaged the cooling element and it would have cost more to fix it than it did to buy a new fridge!  Here, that would never fly!  You see evidence of this mentality every day.  Driving down the road, you see cars that are so old they are no longer driven in the states.  You see people repairing televisions and computers that are no longer supported at home (they are definitely not digital cable compatible)!  Mechanical skills seem to be valued here more than they are anymore in the states… it doesn’t matter if you can fix cooling units for refrigerators back home, but here, I have friends who know a great “refrigerator guy.”  Of course, all of this also means that many boutiques and repair shops you enter are FULL of piles of parts and often plain junk (think ‘Hoarders’ or ‘American Pickers’).  You never know when you might need a spare axle for a 1978 Toyota Corolla (did they even make Corollas in ’78?)….

Now that I have rambled a bit… A funny story about car searching.  I was riding in the passenger seat of a BRIGHT green Toyota Corolla (this one was a 2-door with a stereo system) while my “car guy,” Malé, was driving along and waxing on about how great the motor was in this particular vehicle (it was a little too expensive, though, at just over $4,000).  All of a sudden, he pulled over into the median because smoke had started billowing out from under the hood on the driver’s side!  Malé and I have not had great luck while looking at cars… the first one we test drove together got side swiped by a Sotrama van when we pulled it out of the used car lot!  I was relieved to find out, however, that nothing terrible had happened.  The smoke was just coming from the battery.  Apparently, they were charging the actual Toyota battery back at the lot, so the owner had replaced it with one too big for such a small car.  The battery was touching the hood of the car, making things hot, and causing a lot of scary looking smoke!

Luckily, not everything this week has been quite as eventful as these test drives.  I had a lovely dinner with new friends on Sunday evening at a Peace Corps Volunteer’s cute little apartment.  I visited the office of a great grassroots NGO where some friends of mine work (check out www.malihealth.org) and had the opportunity to talk “work” a little bit, which was really nice.  I visited with an American friend, Devon, and some Malian friends (host families of Brian and Jackie), and I attended the 10 year old birthday party of my Malian twin cousins.  Yesterday I had a productive morning in the market following a positive Bambara lesson.  In the evening, I ate a delicious meal at the house of some embassy workers and played with a monkey.  Things have been looking up!  Tonight I am dressing up as a Malian taxi (pictures to follow, of course) and heading to a Halloween party hosted by some of my NGO worker friends where we are planning to carve watermelons!  I am looking forward to seeing Halloween pictures from home.  Don't forget to send me updates about what is going on in your lives... being in Africa leaves one feeling a bit out of the loop...