Observations from the week

A list of random interesting, amusing, distressing, etc. things that have happened this week.

- The sheep that are now truly everywhere, on every street corner, in every courtyard, on top of many vehicles, make for plenty of amusing moments. Yesterday I saw the biggest sheep I have ever seen in my life it was quite literally the size of a donkey or a motorcycle. Everyone in the grin (tea circle) watched it go by in a way that reminded me a lot of how our friends at home watch a Ferrari or a Lamborghini.

- On a more upsetting note, one of our friends/friendly acquaintances appears to have gone missing. We realized over the last couple days that we hadn't seen Chapé, one of the guys who works at the tire “boutique” next to Robert's coiffure in almost a week. This would be strange for anyone since people here tend to be in the same area most of the time, but for Chapé it was particularly weird because he is normally the most dependably present of any of the usual characters. You could pretty much always find him reclined in his chair in his enormous Dior knock-off sunglasses supplying everyone in the area with tea and/or peanuts.

Normally when someone disappears in this manner it means he or she has gone to visit family, started university, gotten a job, gone to Mecca, etc and we as non-Bambara speakers just haven't caught on. Nobody seemed that worried, so I had kind of assumed Chapé's absence was of this nature. Unfortunately, when I asked about it last night Baïssou got a very worried look on his face and said no one has seen or heard from him in days and no one has any idea where he went. This is very uncharacteristic of him, and Baïssou thinks his boss needs to start checking the hospitals and police stations. The situation is most likely grave, but I hope we will see him again soon.

- To end on a lighter note, Baba and I both have our outfits for the fête, which you will get to experience in all their glory in the many pictures I'm sure we will post on Monday. There is just one small problem, which is that we don't understand (at all) how Baba's pants are supposed to work. We are quite sure this is not a tailoring mistake but, as with many things in Mali, there is clearly a trick we haven't figured out.