Bamako, Mali. Sunday July 12^th, 1998

Wow, it's been awhile since I've written! It's been a few hectic days at work. I wanted to finish a brochure for Naj before he leaves for Tunisia so he can scout for opportunities over there and present the company. The problem was, the brochure I made is in color so the whole ducument itself is about a 50 meg file! Ican't copy it on diskette so I try to install a network card Naj gave me. This is a ethernet card and modem in one. So this multi-adaptor thingee conflicts with my existing modem! Try as I might, I can't get either of them to work anymore!! Even the engineer here can't get it to work. If it was a real computer, or if I was working on winNT I wouldn't have that much of a problem. In anyw case, I couldn't print the document. =(

Raph left for Guinea on Tuesday. Papi (Raph's stepson) is happy… It's because Raph is strict with Papi. So anyways, I kinda like the fact that he's gone for awhile. He's really nice, but he's still the big boss and I'm nervous when I'm around him. I guess it's because I want to impress.

Friday night, I came home late from work because I really wanted to print that dang brochure. I tried really hard to find a solution. Laplink, ethernet card.. nada! My com port stays open for some reason and I can't disable it coz I don't know how to access my BIOS on this laptop! Anyways, I like staying at work late. I like working hard. I feel useful. It's a challenge for me to produce something that actually works. Anyways, since Naj was leaving on Saturday, we spend the whole day altogether; Papi, Naj and me. I met on of Naj's friend, Natalie. But she has to go home early to study. So we bring her home and come back. Afterwards, all we did was talk, eat, talk talk talk talk tease talk tease again and talk!! Until 3h30 am!!! It was cool! I guess you could call it a slumber party. We teased Papi SO much, telling him that the ticket we bought him was not economy class, but it was CARGO class…. Hahahahah And he believed it!!!! He was so worried and said that he isn't going to Montréal in Cargo-class! Naj and me can read eachother's minds pretty well because we knew how to back eachother up and make it seem more real! It was SO funny! We couldn't sleep! We were having too much fun. I show Naj the work I've done with the brochure and I apologize for not being able to print it since I know he would've liked to have it before his trip to Tunisia. He says that I am doing great work here and don't worry about it. He really seems pleased with what I've done so far. I wish Boy was here so I can have his opinion. But I don't think I want to upload him a 50-meg file. Hehehe I go to get my floss and when I come back everyone is sleeping. So I go to bed. At 4h30 I receive a phonecall and the person hangs up. I hate it when that happens. I guess I got kinda paranoid and worried so I makesure all the doors and windows and everything is sealed tight. I couldn't sleep so I got up at 6h30.

It's Saturday so I give a course on general Marketing and graphic design for the non-salespersons and people who just wants to learn. I have a good class today, all of them were eager to learn. It was pretty cool. Afterwards, I go home and us 3 musketeers (Naj, Papi and I) go back to Point G to say hello to a couple of friends. Is it my imagination or is Naj a little "friendly" with Natalie? She's a student in the Medical school over there and she lives in a itsy-bitsy appartment barely the size of my room here! I mean, Yikes!!! It's so small!! And she works hard to pass because apparently, practically no one passes on the 3^rd year of Med school. I honestly admire her. In fact, I kinda envy her. I know it's bad because I should be happy with what I've got but I just wish my life would've been different. I really regret not finishing my schooling the first time around. I regret loosing 3-4 years of my life wasting in oblivion. It's depressing. And I had all the opportunities served on a silver platter. And now I meet this grrl, not the most beautiful or maybe even not the smartest, but one of the most brave and hardworking person I've ever met. Studying far away from home (she's from Cameroon, like Raph), in conditions that would repulse anybody, barely having electricity at night, she amazes me! If I would've been like that, maybe my family would've been proud of me. That would've been an amazing accomplishment. But what have I accomplished so far in my Life? Nada. Zit. Wala. I've accomplished myself a reputation for being a lyier, a fake and a spoiled brat.

Anyways, I'm just rambling on and on again, sorry. Anyways, as I was saying, after talking with the grrls up in the mountain, we leave them so they can study. We go back home but we barely have any gas!!! I mean Below the E-line!!! We make it, thank God. But I was about to kill Naj for scaring me like that. They like doing that to me. Buncha wise-ass crappers…. Heheheh joking!

Anyways, I help Naj pack. Papi actually buys us a drink. He's a little too nice all of the sudden… hmmm… he probably wants something. I try to fix Naj's computer and I think I did it! Naj couldn't believe it. His engineers weren't able to fix the problem and here I am, a lone 21 year-old, fixes his computer in a jiff! Cool. It kinda goes to my head for awhile. Just a little while. A tad. Ok ok ok, I'll wipe this smile off my face now. =)

Naj and I speak to eachother for awhile. He makes sure that I'll be ok here alone with Papi. He's really a cool dude! He gives me some pointers on how to handle Papi. Believe me, a pre-hormonic phase teenager like Papi, I need all the tips I can get!

After supper, we bring Naj to the airport. Afterwards, Papi wanted to go to a club. I said no, and he said that he wanted to go out and that I promised him that I would take him out. So I offer to take him to the Ice Cream shop. He wants to pick up one of his friends (Gadio, the guy who shares my office) but when we get there, we get a flat. I tell him to forget everything because it's a bad sign and we should go back home. He seems pissed but I don't really care. After fixing the tire, we go back home and I go straight to bed. I didn't get much sleep last night.

I wake up and I don't have much to do. I feel much better after that good sleep. After working a bit, I call up Mohammoud. We set a date today to go to the Museum. I bring Papi and one of his friends along. Mohammoud is the guy I met at the airport btw. He was surprised to hear from me. But anyways, we go to the museum and it's SMALL! But it was cool! There were so many cool stuff over there. Mohammoud paid for everything. It was pretty cool. We meet his friends and family. Then he brings us back home. Papi is jealous!! I don't believe this! He starts telling me that Gadio is the guy for me and stuff. Oh PUHLEAZE! I tell him that I'm not interested with anyone here and I don't think it's professional to have a relationship going on at work. But he insists. I ignore him. After the soccer game final (Brazil lost!!! DANGIT!!!), we go out to eat at Le Relax. There are alot of French people there and they make alot of noise. Papi starts saying how they should shut up. I tell him to keep quiet and respect the opinion of others. He says they have no right to do that in someone else's country. I tell him to ignore them and accept th fact that Brazil had a poor defense and played really badly today. He is starting to get on my nerves. I wish Naj was here to slap him out. I meet one of Mohammoud's friends. Afterwards, we and Papi go home. I check my e-mail in Raph's office and I meet 2 of my co-workers. We talk for a long time and even argue with Papi. I'm telling ya, I don't think I can handle this brat for much longer. My co-workers invite me for a drink so we go to Akwaba. It's cute. The beer here is like water. But it creeps on you unexpectantly. So I go home early just to be safe.

Bamako, Mali. Monday, July 13^th 1998

I prepare for my course today. It was a pretty boring day.

Bamako, Mali. Tuesday, July 14^th 1998

I wake up late this morning. I get up and head straight for work. It's kinda weird being kinda alone now that Naj and Raph are gone. I'm finally able to print the dang brochure and it's really pretty! I think I like it. It may not be like one of the Fortune 500 business brochures, but for someone who never took a course, I likey alot. I used a direct cable connection on my LPT1 serial port. I bang myself in the head for not having thought of that sooner! It was a relatively boring day. After all the work, I give a little course. Then, at around 18h15, I get a phonecall. I dash for the phone. It's my brother. I ask him how is he and he says not good. I ask why and he says that they've seized my car because of the unpaid parking tickets. I'm furious because I've paid my parking tickets and most of my salary went to that payment! I tell him that I didn't receive any notice from the City of Brossard or anything like that so he tells me he's gonna fax it. I wait for his fax and it turned out to be a joke. I knew it…. Hehehe… In any case, it was really good to hear from him again. I really miss him! I wish I had a dang modem that worked….

After supper, Papi and I take a little walk around the block. There are no lights on the streets so it's pretty dark. Actually, it's very dark! But we manage. When we come back we take a midnight dip in the pool. That was very refreshing but I think I'm gonna be sick since I don't know if the water was clean. It looked ok I guess.

Pretty boring day, huh? Yep. But wait 'til Naj comes back, we can tour the city and maybe even the surroundings! Cool…

Bamako, Mali. Wednesday July 15^th 1998

It's my brother Jonathan' B-day today... and I can't log on to wish him happy B-day!!!! This sucks!!! Geez, to think that he's 31 years old now! I remember when he was just 25... I thought that was old! ACK, I just thought of it... in 4 years, I'm gonna be 25!!!! I wonder how my brother is taking his 31st B-day...

Well, I wake up this morning with a cold... I knew it. Work is relatively slow. I'm feeling pretty tired and my throat is killing me. I prepare the project that Naj wanted me to initiate. The project consists of making a monthly magazine that the salespersons here will send to 100 clients. In the package, we will send the brochure that I created, the magazine and from time to time, a little present like a pen with the Infotel Logo on it. My job here is to teach the grrls how to use PageMaker to create the monthly magazine and set due dates for the year to make sure it's all organized. It's a pretty cool thing. Good idea. And now that our stuff looks a little more professional than the old ones, I guess people will pay more attention to us and take us more seriously. I guess you can say I'm responsible for the company image. In a crude kinda way. I feel as if this responsability is important and it makes me feel worth something. Cool. It's a challenge for me. It makes my brain cells work. Anyways, I don't think I have much time left to teach the grrls all about PageMaker and PhotoShop. So I decide to make a kinda template for them to work on. PageMaker also works in Layers so it should be easy for them to use the template. I'll teach them the basics and hope that they can learn more by using the program. That's what I did to learn PhotoShop. And look where that got me! I'm thinking more and more about going into the Computer Graphics business... But biology...

But anyways, after supper, I try to get some sleep but since Papi is all alone, he bugs me every 2 secondes. We get a blackout and the guards can't access the power generators since someone locked it so we're stuck in pitch black night conditions. Damn. Papi asks me typical male-teenage questions. Some of them are kinda embarassing so I tell him that he better ask his friends. I finally throw him out of my room at 1am. But I can't sleep because there isn't any aircon and I'm worried about the mosquitoes. I douse myself in DEET.

Bamako, Mali. Thursday July 16th, 1998

I feel as if I was run over by a Mack truck. Didn't get enough sleep and I feel all phlemmy and stuff. Ugh. I really hope it isn't Malaria. I try to work but all I could think of is how sick I feel. I'm really worried because I did get stung by a couple of mosquitoes but when I examined the mosquitoes, they don't seem to be that darned Anopheles bug. But then again, I could be wrong. Gosh darn it, I HOPE I am wrong!!! I don't want to get malaria... Whether it be Plasmodium falciparium, ovale, vivax or malariae!!! I don't want NADA of them... (fyi, there are 4 types of malaria-causing virii, as mentionned above. Only falciparium is the potentially fatal virus whereas the 3 others are benign. The problem is the 3 others can relapse even years after contracting the virus. Meaning that one can get sick with malaria even when not being bitten for a certain amount of time. Whether it be good news or bad, the most common type of Plasmodium here is falciparium, which occurs about 80% of the time. Scary, huh?) Then again I could just have a cold. Anyways, today's course was kinda boring. I didn't do a very good job and wasn't very enthousiastic. I hope they understand... After supper, Mohammoud comes and pays me a visit. But he doesn't stay very long and goes back home. Papi's friend is sleeping over so I get to rest early tonight... YES!

Bamako, Mali. Friday July 17th, 1998

FRIDAY! YAY! Raph is suppost to return from Guinea-Sénégal today but I hear news that he will return only Monday. Poop. More babysitting. Papi's an ok kid, just that sometimes, he's a little difficult to handle. Always trying to set me up with Gadio. I wonder if Gadio paid him or something... Anyways. I actually work today. I chat alot with a fellow co-worker, Kady. There are 2 Kady's here, one of which is my student. But this Kady is head of her division and it's rare that one sees a female in such a high position. She's one tough lady! I'm glad to know that my employer is into equal opportunity. She invites me to a baptismal on Sunday. At 6am!! Oh well, it's something I rarely see so might as well check it out. I'm also invited to a wedding tomorrow. My course is a little bit more lively today, which is good. Although it doesn't reflect how I really feel inside. Afterwards, I chat with Kady again and we talk about weddings here in Mali. A usual Malian wedding consists of 4 steps: After you court the grrl, you are suppost to give her parents gifts and "Kola", a kind of seed that taste VERY bitter and makes you really hyper afterwards. Really strong. I don't know how they could eat that. Apparently, if you chew it for a long period of time, it becomes rather sweet. Ha! All I could think of when I tried one was to swallow it and get over with it! But anyways, the point is to show her parents that you ar capable of taking care of her. It's kinda the equivalent to our "engagement" ceremony. Then comes the first wedding, the religious one. Here, most people are muslim, so they have a muslim wedding. The religious dude (I forgot what they call them) reads verses from the Coran and they pray. Then, comes the legal marriage. That's where the grrl wears the long white wedding dress and sign the legal papers. But the thing is why on earth would somebody want to wear a HOT, WHITE (there are only dirt roads here, mind you) wedding dress?? And besides, people only do that because they want to be like them white people. It's kinda sad. Afterwards comes the traditionnal wedding which varies from family to family. I also learn that a week prior to the wedding, the grrl has to take this kind of medicine that gives her diarrhea!! It's to make her weak for the honeymoon so she won't fight too much... YIKES! That's nasty!! It's also like a type of cleansing, so she's clean before they, y'know... Anyways, I thought they were kidding me, but apparently it's true! I don't believe it! It's totally freaky! They were also talking about how to avoid crapping in her pants during her wedding day, the bride-to-be only eats soup and such. It's tough for the Malian woman!

Tonight, I'm going out with Papi, Alexis, Yaya and Mouhammoud. First, we go to this place called Appaloosa. They have a Canadian flag! COOL! I was so proud. The music was last years' greatest North American hits like "If it Makes You Happy" and "Bittersweet Symphony". I felt almost at home, there were alot of foreigners. Not to mention, women foreigners. Then we go to a dance place called Calao. We meet Mohammoud there. I didn't pay a thing because Mohammoud's friend owns the place. My entry fee, my drinks, all free! Kewl. They play traditional African music and Salsa. I must look like a total geek when I dance! It's totally different from our North American dances! But it's cool! We go home pretty early because I have a course tomorrow. Mohamoud drives Papi and me home.