[all the toubabous left]
This afternoon a few of us went to the Djoumanzana Children's Center for some of the other Brown students last day in Mali (they've been here for about 2.5 weeks now). I was so excited to visit the center and hang out with the kids for the afternoon but I was also ready to talk to the director of the center about the plan for my involvement for the rest of my stay in Mali. As Rob, Navarra, Jess, Sekou, Lagi (who mysteriously appeared as we were walking), and I walked down the road we were of course greeted along the way by many neighborhood children shouting "toubabou!" and joining us on our way. Before we knew it we had a parade led by us toubabous with what felt like all of Djoumanzana's neighborhood children trailing behind.
As we were walking Rob decided to get silly and turn around suddenly and quickly with a "BOO!" and all of the kids jumped back- some giggled and one even fell over. Rob was bringing some toys, clothes, and school supplies for the center so he decided to help the kid up and give him a fancy and colorful ball-thing-a-ma-bob to make up for the misunderstanding. It was a pretty cute moment.
By the time we arrived at the Children's Center, we had about 2 or 3 children holding each of our two hands and about 10-15 more kids behind us. We were greeted by Bakari, one of the directors and sat down with him under the patio. The afternoon playing with kids was so fun! I got to see some familiar faces and my toubabou friends got to finally see and interact with the Center, which was so fun. We took photos (which is a fun activity for the kids in itself), played basketball, played on the fading playground, and played catch with one of the fancy and colorful ball-thing-a-ma-bobs Rob brought (though it was accidentally tossed and lost in a neighbor's backyard- oops!). Aside from being really fun and refreshing (I was really missing my SB O-team and friends!), this afternoon was really fruitful in getting me pumped about my work with the Chidlren's Center for the next two weeks. I thought up some great ideas and the chaos of playing around all day actually helped me to organize my thoughts and plans. I briefly chatted with Bakari before leaving and we decided it'd be best for me to start working for the afternoon this coming Monday! I'm going to work with Sekou and Sophie this weekend to plan and prepare!
Tonight we took some of the Coulibaly teens (Nafi, Ali, Amadou, and Djibi) out for dessert at L'Relax for the toubabous last night in Mali. We chatted for a while and had a great time just hanging out and reminiscing about their stay. They are leaving late tonight around 3am for the airport! We'll miss them- starting Thursday, Sophie and I will be the only toubabous left!
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