Clinique Pasteur:

I CAN CONFIRM that appendicitis can be extremely painful.

After putting Lydia in her bed for her afternoon nap, I felt some abdominal pain, that increased, I couldn’t even walk, so I called Kalim, who came right away, and took me to the health unit at the embassy, they sent me to “Clinique Pasteur” for an ultrasound , the next thing I knew they were preparing the operating room and I was going under for an appendectomy, my only concern was my daughter..:O(  We have never being apart from each other since she was born, we sleep together, and she had just stop nursing a few days earlier.  I can tell you that the emotional pain was more than the physical pain.

Anyway, the surgery went well, the doctor “ Pierre” was nice with a great sense of humor, and the nurse “Issa” was the best ever..:O)

If you have never seen an appendix before, here is mine.. enjoy..:O)

Après la pluie le beau temps:

Hourrah!!!! The parents are here. I would have had an appendectomy a long time ago, if only I knew they would came :O)

Two days after the chirgurie they were here, thank you Mom and Dad for being here taking care of my daughter, of my husband, of my house, and of course of me.  Just seeing you here fills my heart, my soul, my body full of happiness, brings peace to my mind and of course I just feel GOOD.  Did I just have a surgery!!!

Ben is here:

Believe it or not here I am in Bamako, with my parents, my husband and daughter, and YES , I forgot Ben, my brother in law, who would of thought in a millions of years, that we would all be together  here, having diner, lunch, and celebrating the 19 th day feast at the Baha’i Center altogether ..!!!!

Sunday: Invited to a weeding celebration:

I was invited to a weeding celebration; it is the daughter of one of the people that I buy milk from, monsieur: “Tall.” The celebration was very, joyful,colorful, with a lot of music and dancing.

 The bride and the groom were nowhere to be seen, but they took us to see her, she was in a room, texting, I would like to think that she was texting her man, but who knows… I did ask her if she was happy and she said was, she will not be part of the celebration, she was to stay in that room until the family of the groom came to take her to the nuptial room, where she will stay 7 days with her husband, with a special diet, eating just liquids during the week, I was so surprised so I asked her mom, why? And she said: “so she is not stronger than her husband, the woman needs to be weak!!!!!”

Looking for chicken:

I have being eating meat since I came here, the meat is great, the price is even better, and listens to this:

The price of the filet Mignon is almost the same as any other piece.  But after 2 months of eating this, I kind of miss chicken:

O) so I start looking for chicken vendors, because in the super markets it is very expensive, and it doesn’t taste good at all, so after asking around I find the chicken market, where they sell different kind of chicken,  they also  clean it for you, before leaving the vendor gave me this:

:O))

Sorry....

I wasn’t able to write these past few weeks, and here is why?

Milk.....

If you want to get milk in Bamako you will have to choose between 3 kinds:
 the imported one which is extremely expensive but taste good. The local one that has a descent price and taste fine but if you look at the ingredients you will find out that it’s powder milk with water, and the third, is available at some corner stores, they will tell you that they have some fresh milk, that they will sell you in transparent bag, but is it really fresh milk???
Now my question was,” WHERE IS THE MILK!!??” Well I after a couple days of investigations, and trying milk here and there here is where I am getting my milk from now on..:O) Yammy..mmmmmmmm…mooooooo...

The Manager " HAdith"

So, if you want a real fresh milk in Bamako, go to “ Le garbale de Kafia” and ask for: “Hadith”.

The Niger river....

I was talking to my father today about my new blog, and that the name of it is “ mon aventure” He asked me then about the name of the river in Mali? I did answer proudly that it is:’ The Niger river” and then he told me, do you know the adventure of the Niger river? I didn’t know, but now I know :O) here is what I fond:

 “Niger River, a river of western Africa. It is 2,600 miles (4,200 km) long, the third longest in Africa (after the Nile and the Congo). It drains an area of about 730,000 square miles (1,890,700 km2)."

The Niger begins in southern Guinea near the Sierra Leone border and flows in a great arc northeastward into Mali, skirting the edge of the Sahara before turning southeastward and flowing through Niger and Nigeria. It empties into the Gulf of Guinea through a broad delta.

This is what we call an adventure,  right??

No more....

 I wanted you to be very tired tonight ( the 15th of April) so it would be easy for you to go to bed without nursing, so after your nap I took you on a ride to the fabric market, then to the fish market, you were so exited looking at those fishes, and you were talking to the fish mans, telling them your name, you were so nice…:O)

So here you are sweet girl, sleeping next to me, you didn’t nurse tonight!! And you did ask just once about it, I am kind of relieved but a little bit sad……

Potty time.......

Today the 14th of April 2011, my baby girl used her potty to go number 2 for the first time. :O) I have pictures , but my husband doesn’t want me to post them, so  I am really sorry to can’t share this joy with you.. :O), today is also the last day that she is going to nurse, my heart is full of emotion I am so sad that I can’t take my baby girl in my arm this way anymore and  at the same times proud and happy that I was able to do it for such a long time. Lydia I hope you will be Ok, tomorrow, I hope you will understand that it is the time for you to start a new phase, I love you so much and will be always there for you with all my heart, my soul..mon petit Bonheur a moi, je t’aime.

Here I am......

I wanted to start this blog months ago, and I was telling myself ‘wait until you move to Mali then you will have interesting thing to say.’  Well here I am in Bamako, I arrived almost 4 weeks ago, and yet I am still figuring out how to post a blog, but don’t worry I will get there…someday:)

We’ve been busy.  Usually you will need to wait at least 3 months to get your HHE (household effects..), but lucky us, after just one week we had all those boxes (for me they looked like a gifts, a lot of gifts, I had no idea what was in each box and it was so exiting to open them, discover all the stuff we have, and then try to organize them.  So after just not even a month we can say we are in our new HOME.

Sunday we went to the ambassador’s house for Easter, and Lydia had so much fun looking for eggs, we’ve been invited to 2 birthday parties, a brunch and several dinners, visited to the Baha’i center, and celebrated the new year ( Baha’i- 21 first of March) with the Baha’i friends from Bamako. And I finally found a place to buy fresh cow milk…Life is good so far..:O)

Did I say that we love it here, Lydia is almost 23 months and old seems so happy, and just for that I am great full to be here.

Did I say that we will be in Bamako, Mali for the next 2 years.

Did I say that I will try to post at least once a week.

Did I say that by the end of the next 2 years I will say enough about this country, so that if someone wants or needs to come in Bamako they will find enough information to help them organize their trip.