First Impressions

We landed in Bamako, Mali almost three weeks ago and are getting over culture shock more and more everyday. The first week here, we wrote down some things that were "new" to us. Here are some of our initial oberservations:

• it's not that hot (this time of year!)
• it's dark by 7 p.m.
  
• there are tons of people walking around all the time
  
• if you say "no thank you" with a smile, vendors leave you alone and smile back :)
  
• you don't have to barter for produce (Harmony was dreading having to negotiate prices!)
  
• Malians are very friendly
• little kids point to us and call us "toubabou" (i.e. white person)
• little kids also run up to us to shake our hand our give us five
  
• the paved roads are amazingly smooth and wide
  
• the dirt roads are wide but full of large pot holes (it makes for a very bumpy ride!)
• there are no street names
• driving in Bamako is insane; there are seemingly no rules of the road
  
• our house is bigger and nicer than I expected
• we share our house with a couple of geckos
• we have lots of toads hop up on our porch in the evening
  
• we are about 200 yards from the school where Harmony works
• there are lots of goats, sheep, chickens, and donkeys freely feeding along the dirt roads
• a baby goat was born on our road last week
  
• our neighborhood market is a maze
• the market is mcuh cheaper than the grocery store (4 apples cost $10 at the grocery store but only $2 on the street)