La pelouse n'est pas interdit.

A sarcastic commentary on French vs. Malian culture: apparently Malians detest the French and their way of life enough to let us walk on the grass at the Malian National Park in downtown Bamako. This would never be permitted in Paris; along with the inalienable right to go on strike, one simply "does not walk on the grass" in Parisian parks. I wasn't quite sure what to expect in terms of French/Malian relations post-colonization, but there certainly seems to be a tangible animosity towards the French.  A few days ago while crossing the street, some guy on a motorcycle yelled what I assume was a derogatory slur at me, although the only word I caught was "Sarkozy." On the flip side, everyone is extremely excited to learn you are from the US, and even more excited when they learn you are an Obama supporter! Yet despite this animosity towards the French, there are definitely several cultural holdouts here from the days of colonization. For example, there are plenty of boulangeries in our neighborhood, and all of the soutrama/bus drivers were on grève (strike) last weekend over a proposed change to the bus routes. Ç'est la vie.

Let me back up a moment and explain our outing last weekend, which might aptly be entitled "Exploring Bamako: a study in cognitive dissonance". Our friend Baissu suggested we make a trip to the newly-redesigned Parc National du Mali. The takeaway message: damn. It's situated near the National Museum at the base of the hill where (Malian President) ATT lives, and in a different country it might rival the Huntington Gardens of Pasadena or Buchart Gardens of British Columbia. Everything is extraordinarily green and well-kept, and trash even finds its way into trash cans. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. (As an aside, one local custom I've found it particularly hard to adjust to is the habit of throwing trash on the ground, aka littering. As a bona fide pacific north-westerner, I'm often appalled by the lack of recycling bins in major cities around the US, and so you can imagine how hard it is to toss garbage into the bushes or a nicely compostable banana peel out the window of a Soutrama!)

Anyways, we had a perfectly lovely time, but everything seemed oddly out of place coming from the neighborhood where we've been living. The park had some nice re-creations of various famous buildings in Mali (such as the mud mosque in Djene or the mosque in Timbuktu), a few fountains, an interesting medicinal herb garden, a gym, and a rather upscale restaurant. There was a nice network of paths for walking, or in the case of the children from a (possibly French?) expat family, riding bikes/skateboarding. The demographic we saw there was definitely slanted towards wealthy Malians and expats, young couples, and families with visiting relatives. The weather was gorgeous, and all-in-all it was a very relaxing afternoon. Oh, and of course, you could walk on the grass too :)