Mali

Thursday 1/15/2009 - Paris to Boston

After dozing for most of the night on the plane, we arrived in Paris at 6:20 am. We went through the long but very efficient security line (a single line which only splits into several lanes at the very end) and then had to take the subway tram to get to gate E38. It felt very familiar and we wondered if this had been the same gate where we spent time and first met Tina and Susan on the way to Bamako. It turned out to be right next to it - that one had been E37. Though only two weeks ago, it seemed like so much had changed within that time.

Tina and Susan were now in different gates, on their way to Austin and Seattle, respectively. Pam would be on our flight back to Boston and we enjoyed her company at the gate. We saw a gorgeous sunrise out the terminal window - the entire tarmac was bathed in a golden orange glow with planes silhouetted in the foreground. Once again we marveled at the architecture of this terminal, the wood, glass, and chrome which formed a half cylinder turned on its side. Leaving Craig with the carry-on luggage, Pam and I took a walk to a shop to buy some Crispy M&M's, and then we went to a little coffee stall for some cafe au lait. Craig wished they had had plain M&M's. A little later, Pam and Craig went into a little bookshop, and Pam bought some European newspapers for her father, who enjoys newspapers from different countries. It was a long layover, and we finally got to board the plane for our 1:15 pm departure.

The plane had seatback TV's with many movie options. Craig and I wanted to stay awake for this leg of the trip to get back on a proper schedule (there would be work tomorrow, after all - and it would be the night of our office's holiday party, so we were in for a long day!) To try to keep ourselves awake, we watched some movies that we had seen before and enjoyed: "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight." They kept us entertained for the majority of the trans-Atlantic flight. Even after a second viewing, despite popular opinion, we really thought that "Batman Begins" was the better movie.

As we passed above the Maritime provinces of Canada, Craig enjoyed looking out the window and seeing the stark winter landscape. We noted that it's not very often that you get a good view like that from a plane, due to either clouds or darkness. We arrived in Boston at 3:25 pm. We collected our checked bags and went through immigration. Then we gave Steve a call to let him know that we were home, and he picked us up at the airport at 4:20 pm.

Epilogue

January 16, 2009
The next day we went to work a bit jet-lagged, and my boss found it very amusing that my eyelids were very heavy during our weekly Friday group meeting. But we still managed to get dressed up to go to our annual work holiday party that night. Instead of wandering around much mingling, we pretty much parked ourselves at a table and let people come to us. When we described the Festival to some workmates, they told us that they had seen Habib Koité in concert the previous year, and he had been amazing. They pointed out that he was coming to play in Somerville in April. We made a mental note to look into buying tickets. We managed to stay awake until the end of the party, and then we had an entire weekend to recharge.

April 11, 2009
On April 11, 2009 we saw Habib Koité and Bamada in concert at Somerville Theatre. After enjoying their performance so much at the Festival au Desert, it was a great treat to be able to see them in a more intimate venue. Here is an excerpt from our blog:

The band was excellent, and played tracks mostly from their latest album, "Afriki". They were dressed in mudcloth outfits and seemed to have a lot of fun performing. Habib sang and played guitar, and he was accompanied by Keletigui Diabati on balafon (similar to a xylophone) and violin, Souleyman Ann on drum kit and calabash percussion, Abdoul Wahib Berthe on bass and the stringed kamale n'goni, Mahamadou Kone on talking drum, doum doum, and caragnan, and Boubacar Sidibe on guitar and harmonica. They played with tremendous energy and enthusiasm. They danced around and even invited some women from the audience up to dance with them. The sound quality was great and you could hear every nuance of each instrument.

Habib remarked on the cold weather, saying that they are from the Sahel and they are not used to weather so cold that their nylon strings go out of tune. He also said that he just discovered a new state called "Maine", and that the name was misleading because it sounded like it was the most important one. He says that all he really knows about it now is lobsters and cold.

After the fabulous show, they were selling CD's in the lobby and soon Habib came out to greet fans. I was wearing my Essakane Festival au Desert T-shirt and Tuareg silver jewelry, and we brought a photo of the Festival for him to sign. When it was our turn, I showed him the photo and said "We saw you in Essakane." He looked at the photo and said "What year?" "This year!" we replied and I pointed to my shirt. Craig said "You closed the show on Saturday night and rocked out!" Habib jumped up from his seat and gave Craig and fist-bump and handshake. He signed our CD and I asked if we could get a picture of him. He said sure, and then he also signed the Festival photo. I told him that we had done some volunteer work in a Dogon village in Bandiagara and he said that they are trying to start a music festival in Bandiagara as well. He said "Thank you for visiting my country!" and gave us a big smile. Craig told him that it was a bit different to watch him from a theater than from a dune, and he laughed. It was an excellent night and it brought back happy memories of our time in Mali.

There are some additional pictures and a couple of video clips on our concert page.

Postscript Regarding the Travel Warnings North of Timbuktu

Upon arriving home, we tried to research the travel warnings that had come out while we were gone - to try to figure out why the UK group had not been allowed to go to the Festival au Desert. The most recent U.S. travel warning against areas north of Timbuktu was issued on December 10. We had seen this one before our trip. But the UK Foreign Office had issued an updated warning on January 7, and this was ostensibly what had prevented the UK group from being able to proceed.

A week after arriving home, we read in the news that on January 22, four European tourists (two men and two women) were kidnapped by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) after visiting the Tuareg cultural festival at the desert town of Anderamboukane in northeastern Mali, near the Niger border. We followed the story, and the women were released on April 22. AQIM threatened to kill British hostage Edwin Dyer unless the British government released a prisoner. When their demands were not met, Edwin Dyer was killed on May 31.