Work? What is that?

09/16/10
Today, I met with Bakary, my homologue and we went to greet people at the Mayor’s office and then, we went to fix my bike at a shop. Whenever you go anywhere in Mali, you can’t just do your business and leave, you must baaroke (chat). So, to go put air in my tires took at total of 1.5hr. No one in America has time to just sit around at a bike shop and drink tea. Plus, today is a work day, well actually, everyday is a work day. There’s no such thing as a weekend break and that’s a good thing because the work-life here is so relaxed. It seems like you can come and go and work as much or as little as you want and the concept of “time is money” does not exist here at all. I seriously wonder what I’m going to do on a day-to-day basis. I have one idea of what I’d like to do and it’s awesome! So awesome, that I can’t share it in case someone steals it before I even start. I also talked with Bakary about his work with the Mayor’s office and I found out that he is the equivalent of a Public Sanitation Officer in the States. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, because one of the things that I want to focus on is health education and I expressed my interest to help him with his work, and he gladly accepted! I don’t know how I got so lucky; let’s just hope God keeps giving me His grace. I really hope that my ideas can come to fruition and I think it will be possible to obtain in my two years here, at least on a small scale. On another note, this afternoon I spent some time talking with my host grandpa. I found out that he’s 85 years old, he has 11 children, and he worked for the military and that he fully supports the current Malian president. He was nice to talk to, he reminds me of my uncle John, and talking with him is a good way to learn Malian blessings.