the couches are here!

We got our couches from Bamako finally! Here is a picture of Jean-Patrick making sure that they work alright for taking naps.

Update - progress made

Sometimes it seems like things move so much slower here than I would like, but as I look back over the last few weeks I can see that there has actually been a lot of progress made. 

We now have a fantastic wooden armoire to contain all of our clothes in our bedroom. And we have a big wood kitchen table to eat and work off of. We are still waiting on the bed frame. Our carpenter does a nice job, but he takes a long time to finish things.

We have a stove and a fridge in our kitchen. We bought living room furniture and it is waiting in Bamako. Someone that we didn’t even know before, a friend of a friend, is going to be bringing it to us soon. He also transported the fridge for us – and free of charge.

We were given the rare opportunity to buy some used furniture at great prices from someone who is leaving town. Our house isn’t so empty now. J I was so blessed by this because it seemed to me like we wouldn’t have much furniture for a long time, I couldn’t find a solution to not having enough money to buy enough furniture. But instead of having more money, we found things to buy at a lower price – its like the money was multiplied! 

All of these things that seemed overwhelming or impossible to me before have worked out – and not because of my efforts. I am very blessed and so thankful.

Getting to Bamako

Jean-Patrick was part of a concert tour here – a musician came from Switzerland to do concerts in 7 different towns in Mali and JP was on the team of singers. The last concert was in Bamako, so I took the bus to meet him there. I got to be at the last concert and then we stayed a few days after that to do our shopping.

The bus I took left at 7am. It usually takes around 7 hot uncomfortable hours to get to Bamako. People in their private air conditioned cars can get there in 5 hours. (I hope to be one of those people one day!) So I should have been getting into Bamako around 2pm. That would have given me time to wash the layer of dust off myself and get some clean clothes on before going to the concert at 4. But the bus broke down. We were about and hour and a half out of Bamako. I sat with everyone else on the side of the road in a tiny village town. 2 hours later it didn’t seem like the bus would be going anywhere anytime soon, so I hitched a ride (along with several passengers) on another bus that was going by. They asked 1000cfa for the 1 ½ hour trip. That’s about 2 dollars, so I think it was money well spent to get off the side of the road. I arrived in Bamako at about 4 and grabbed a taxi to go straight to the concert. The taxi got flagged down by the police (a man standing on a street corner waving his arm and blowing a whistle) and the taximan had to pull over and discuss his car registration or something (or probably give a bribe) for about 20 minutes while I sat in the taxi. Finally I got to the concert and it was fine because there were still some opening acts playing.

Buying our big ticket items

The first morning we were in Bamako we were going to go in town with a friend who has a truck. The friend was going to show us some shops that sell fridges so that we could do some comparison shopping. As often is the case here, things were running late. I was ready to go pretty early, but it was after 10 by the time we climbed into the truck. But it wouldn’t start. I sat there for awhile and the guys tried different things to make it start, but it still wouldn’t start. They decided to call a mechanic, and we should think about preparing some lunch in the mean time. The truck did get fixed in the afternoon, but a lot of shops close early, so it was decided to wait until the next day to go shopping. I felt a bit frustrated by this “wasted day”, but I tried to stay calm about it. That night we got a phone call from someone to tell us that they just learned about a used stove for sale. If we had gone shopping we would have already spent about $500 to buy a new stove. Because of the inconvenience of the truck not starting we were able to buy a used stove for $120. 

So we bought the stove and then went to several shops to find a fridge. The fridge we had already picked out last May still seemed the best, so we went to that shop to look at that one again. Last May it was marked at $750. Now it was marked to $700. And then JP used his bargaining skills (this is expected here) and got it way down to $600.

AND THE COUCHES

The next day we went to a place that someone had recommended to look at living room furniture sets. They sell bamboo or cane furniture, which seems like the best option for us in finding a suitable couch here. The other options would be to have the carpenter build a wood frame and then we could cut up a foam matress and upholster it for a couch, or it is possible to buy a couch that looks more like a regular couch - but those are made with wood frames and very little padding and are not at all comfortable. The place isn’t really a store, its just a spot on the side of a road with no building. There are always several men there working on building new furniture, and there are some couches and chairs on display ready to be sold. They have a photo album of different furniture they have made in the past that can be special ordered as well. A friend of ours has a beautiful bamboo/cane living room set and so I had in mind to get something similar to that. When we arrived at the place there were about 4 sets on display ready to go, a set consists of a 3 place couch, a 2 place couch, and 2 chairs, with a little coffee table. One of the sets really caught my eye, and Jean-Patrick noticed it too. We went and sat on it. The fabric on the cushions was so pretty compared to some of the others with hideous prints. We asked the price and the guy said $250 for the set. Jean-Patrick did some bargaining and we were able to take the set that day, but without the rickety little coffee table, for $200. We loaded the frames on top of a taxi and tied them down well. The cushions were stuffed into the taxi so that there was hardly room for us. The couches have been waiting in Bamako a few weeks because none of the bus companies would agree to transport them for us. But we should finally have them this next week because someone is going to bring them in their truck for us. I am really pleased, we found a set that we are happy with at a price lower than I imagined.

September 3, 2010 - N'Djamena, Chad

How things are now

I can’t believe its been so many months since I’ve posted. That is mostly because I have hardly had any chances to use the internet, but also because I have been super busy since we’ve been back. There have been so many things that have needed to get done that to think of just sitting around and writing has been an impossible luxury. Finally I feel a bit caught up so I am finally trying to write some things concerning the past few months as well as whats happening now.

To sum things up: In July we left for Chad and spent 2 months there: I got to know Jean-Patrick’s family and friends there, and we had our wedding! Then we made the trip back, we got back the last day of September. October was exhausting with too much to do and so I am glad that its November now and we have that behind us. I was so happy to come “home”, but it has been a bit overwhelming since then.

We moved straight away into the house that we are able to rent. I am so thankful for this blessing. I have almost always lived at my place of work, and last year I lived on the base – like living in dorms. So now to have our own house to live in is amazing!

When we moved in it was almost totally empty. The base had loaned us a mattress to sleep on, so it was great that we didn’t have to sleep on the floor the night we got back. And a friend loaned us a couple of plastic chairs and a little low table, so we didn’t have to sit on the the floor and eat off the ground. They even left us a meal for that night. The house, as most houses here, doesn’t have any built in shelves or closets or cupboards. None. It also doesn’t come with a fridge or stove in the kitchen. Up until now we still have all of our stuff on the floor. Its hard to keep stuff organized when there isn’t anywhere to put it but the floor. And the one kitchen counter is overwhelmed with dishes and food. We have ordered a few things from a woodworker (an armoire for clothes, a kitchen table, and a frame for our bed that is now on the floor) but we have to wait a few weeks for these things to be made. Hopefully we will be able to order some wooden chairs and some kind of shelves soon, too.

We had to retrieve all of our things out of storage and bring them to the house. Then there was lots of cleaning to do. Then trying to organize as best as possible. And trying to keep the house clean and rake all the leaves in the yard from time to time. All of this on top of the work it is just to live here. It is a lot of effort to have to get food at the open market, cooking with no modern conveniences, doing laundry by hand, and trying to deal with what has been some terribly sweltering weather lately.

So things are feeling a bit more settled now. There aren’t any more boxes to unpack (though I wish I had places to put all the things I unpacked) and I have a lady that is going to be coming every Friday morning to wash clothes for us. Meanwhile we are back into our “work” with me helping at the school and Jean-Patrick has been back at the baby malnutrition center and working with the kids' club group. I am looking forward to starting Bambara lessons soon. Thanks to wedding presents we have enough money to get a fridge and a stove, and even a couch. We will be going to to capital soon to find these things. And once I can find someone to drill holes in the cement walls to put some nails in I will be able to hang a few things and it will really feel more like home.