2 sides day 1

i got to bamako tonight after a grueling trip halfway across the globe. as my father said, if you drilled a hole in a globe from fiji to mali you'd just barely miss the center of the earth. i arrived on a flight from paris with the egyptian national military soccer team, headed to bamako for the african military soccer championships. i sat next to their translator, and gave him a couple bambara phrases to get him started. arriving in bamako, there were tons of soldiers and some drummers (one of whom i found out later was sidy) playing for the soccer teams' arrival. senegal also arrived on a flight around the same time. passing through customs was pretty easy as i expected in mali. no big hassles getting luggage or anything and always a nice smile after i go into my bambara greetings. both sekou and ba were at the airport to greet me, and it was really nice to see them both. after sekou and i made arrangements to meet jamie and duncan at hotel d l'amite tomorrow, i headed to doumanzana with ba. once at the coulibaly house, i found that ma and nafi were out at a wedding in kayes and abdoulaye was sick in bed. so it was actually easy to get to bed fairly shortly after arriving after hanging out with the kids for a while. good to be back in another house that seems like home.