Diougal club reigns

On Sunday I had the chance to play in an ultimate frisbee tournament that was set up by an expat who's working to bring the game to Mali.  Rodrigue has been working with kids in different neighborhoods of the city and teaching them the game over the past few months.  Ultimate is a great game to teach here since the rules are simple and all you need is a frisbee.

Rodrigue put in a lot of work to get Sunday's tournament set up.  He rented a field, organized transportation for six teams, brought in cold water and a dj, and promoted the event locally.  Soccer is still king here so there wasn't a huge turnout of spectators, but any time there's a dj playing music and some white people running around, it will attract attention.

An invitation was extended to the expat community to get some players to participate.  Only a handful showed up, but I can't say I blame folks.  Running around outside at 4:00 on a hot, sunny Sunday afternoon isn't necessarily preferable to sitting inside an air-conditioned house or lounging next to a pool.  Nevertheless, seven expats were divided among the six teams and the tournament began.

For only having played frisbee for a few months, the players were really good.  I saw some acrobatic catches and passionate play from every team, and it was neat to see boys and girls playing together.  In the many soccer games that go on around town, females are not a part of the game.  Also, younger kids could take part in the games too since the frisbee usually requires more speed and dexterity than brute strength.  My team, Diougal Club, played well enough to win our pool and advance to the championship.  We beat our opponent and won the title to much celebration.  My French isn't good enough to carry on anything but the most basic of conversations and my Bambara (the local language) is non-existent, so I didn't take part in any extensive strategy sessions with the rest of Diougal Club.  Still, a high-five or fist bump is universal and I felt like I was part of the team, if only for an afternoon.

After the matches were over, everyone shook hands and my teammates from Diougal club headed back to their neighborhood, celebrating their victory.  I had a great time and I wish I could take part in the next tournament in mid-July.  By then, though, I'll be back in the US.

Here's an article written about the event (translated via Google Translate).  I guess I'm one of the "European Practicioners" referred to in the article.

Here we are, at the beginning of a match...

...here's a nice action shot...

...me watching the younger, more energetic players go at it...

...showing off my extra-close haircut and one-size-too-small jersey...

...and posing with my skinned knee.

As you can tell from the pictures, even the rented fields around here have lots of dirt patches and piles of garbage. 

Promises, promises

Yeah, about all those forthcoming blog entries...  Well, life has gotten rather busy for me in the past month.  As of the beginning of May, I'm the full-time art and health teacher at the American school.  The previous art teacher had to head back to the states early so the school asked me to step in and cover her classes until the end of the year.  It's kind of nice getting out of the house for most of the day.  The staff and students at the school are great and it's been a cool change of pace for me.  I've also picked up some more local freelancing work that's kept me busy in my free time.

My wife and I have also had a few opportunities to get back out to Siby to go rock climbing on the weekends.  Since we don't have our own gear, we can only go along with friends who have the gear and expertise to help set up the climbs.  Here's some shots of my wife as she's starting a route...

...and as she completes it on her second try.  She was one of the few who successfully completed the climb that day and was suitably proud of herself.

And here's some shots from yesterday, where we climbed to the top of the natural arch before setting up some climbing routes.  We spotted a storm just north of us that would roll in a few hours after these pictures were taken. 

It was a great day to be climbing since it was overcast and breezy.  It's been sweltering here the past few weeks. The rain hit as the afternoon was winding down for us so our timing worked out perfectly.

We've still been playing frisbee on Sunday mornings.  I met an expat who's been teaching Malian kids how to play ultimate frisbee.  Next Sunday, he's set up a tournament on an actual soccer field (or football pitch, for my non-American readers) where expats and Malians will play with/against each other.  Should be fun.

My career as a nascent jazz bassist in Bamako will culminate in a performance with the small jazz group I've been playing with for a few months.  We have a performance coming up at the beginning of June at the annual end of year program that's put on by the French school.  I guess we'll be accompanying the school choir and then doing three songs by ourselves: "Take Five," "Georgia," and "I Do Care" (I can't find a link for the last song - it's by a Swedish singer named Viktoria Tolstoy).

And finally, the biggest piece of news is that after a lot of prayer and discussions, my wife and I have decided to move back to the US this summer.  It's not a decision we came to easily, but my wife and I both feel that it's the right one.  There isn't one big reason compelling us to return - it's a lot of small- to medium-sized ones.  Ultimately, I think it's that we both realized that the expat lifestyle isn't for us and the longer we continue in it, the harder it will be for us to establish a life at home in the states.

In a future post, I'll probably go into our reasons why.  Right now, though, it's after midnight and I have to be ready for a full week of school starting bright and early tomorrow morning.