Holiday Concert and Day on the Town

Another week gone, another week closer to Christmas! Yesterday, Sarah and I spent the afternoon in downtown Bamako on what could be considered our first "date" on the African continent. We had heard through the ex-pat listserv that there was going to be a holiday rendition of Handel's Messiah at the local branch of the Catholic Church. At some point I realized I had never heard this performed live, and so being a Classical music enthusiast, I piled into a rickety sotroma with Sarah and off we went to the Bamako Cathedral.

The Bamako Cathedral: one of many colonial landmarks.

Surprisingly, our sotroma ride was very pleasant. It wasn't crowded, and it even stayed on the right route. Typically, our luck runs out just before we cross the river, and we end up having to take a cab to get to where we're going. But, like clockwork, we arrived at the Cathedral 15 minutes early!

I'm not sure where our expectations/understanding of the event got mixed up; we had assumed it would be free and very low-key (who in their right mind would pay to see Handel's Messiah in a Cathedral with no organ?). Instead, we felt under-dressed, and the Cathedral was completely packed with primarily anglophone toubabs (white people), along with the occasional french or german family.

As for the music? It was put on by an English ex-pat choir. They were very earnest, and hats off to them for assembling a modest orchestra and choir in Bamako to do a holiday production of the Messiah. When they finished, the crowd was quick on their feet to give a standing ovation. Let's just say the bar for a standing ovation must be very low here; I was expecting the Hallelujah chorus to start only after the choir had stopped singing. But, as abysmal as it was, the concert was still very lovely and we had a fun time.

Afterwards, we took a short detour to the French Cultural Center, where there was a photography exhibit about the Malian Hunters, who play a large role in the Sundiata epic. Apparently our last name (Traoré) is a hunter name. There was also an artisan market out in front, where we purchased a very beautiful Tuareg creche (nativity scene). The man at the booth also threw in a free pair of earrings for Sarah, because he and I shared the same name.

The evening concluded with another visit to our favorite Bamako chinese restaurant, where we stuffed our faces with delicious chinese food. It always happens that our eyes are bigger than our stomaches, but true to tradition (Sam, Austin, Mark, you'd be proud!) we finished all of the food, hopped a return sotrama, and rather quickly collapsed into a food coma at our apartment. A lovely sunday, indeed.