As the Francophones say, Joyeux Noel and Bonne Annee toute le monde! Please forgive my long absence on the blog, however being on holidays is the best excuse I know for going AWAL, and what a holiday it was. Then to make the delay even longer, the internet at my office has been down for the last week! So grab something to sip on, sit back and relax because this is going to be a long one… Over the last three weeks I had the good fortune of being able to travel to two other West African countries - Burkina Faso [View Full Entry]

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It's important for me to praise the master drummers who taught me so generously in Bamako at the Djembe Hotel, and to tell aspiring djembe players in America about the value of going to Mali and learning from masters like Sega Cisse and Matche Traore. It's hard to put into words how grateful I am to the drummers I played with and learned from in Mali. I got to have an excellent first time experience in playing djembe in its natural environment with the help of Jeremy Chevrier at the Djembe hotel--he's connected to some of the best drummers in Bamako, [View Full Entry]

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So… here it goes and continues… about a month later! Sorry.. I’m trying to catch up on the lack of communication here! So.. after the whole Dogon Country thing.. we decided to take a relaxing day off in Bandiagara at a hotel a bit out of town. We had the biggest pile of laundry ever to wash! Good thing for us.. we met a Ghanian Burkinabe woman.. who was all excited to meet us and did it for us! Hurray! The room was nice.. and the meals were good. That night.. we had African tea with the manager of the hotel [View Full Entry]

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Hi Folks, What Kevin forgot to mention last night is that I am being treated for Malaria and not dying, really! Thanks for all the love and support. I generally feel a bit better in the morning, and I think maybe the drugs are working (fingers crossed) so I'm up now writing in a slightly dizzy going-back-to-bed-soon state. Kevin and others here at the Djembe Hotel are taking fabulous care of me. Despite fraility of body, the trip up to the desert and back was an incredible experience. The Tuereg people are so so beautiful, in dress, in music, in culture. [View Full Entry]

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Alright.. as Courtney and I took about 600 pictures during the whole trip and there are just so many of them, I decided to divide the Mali trip in Half so that I could put as many pictures as possible for you to see and also, so I wont get pissed off with the slow connection and just go a crappy job. Cause yeah, really, just to post this blog entry takes me a whole afternoon. So much for working enh! But what can you do! So this entry follow the Christmas one. We left on December 26th, had a hard [View Full Entry]

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We've been a long time on the road, all the way up to Timbucktou the fabled city and Essekane to see the festival in the desert--it was a most bumpy road, our bodies are rocked to the core, wiped out and sore, the dirtiest dustiest drive deep in the desert; it's like we drove from Michigan to California, but back in time, the sunsets and sunrises made the trip all worth it. We got to see a lot more of Mali and the many Tuaregs on camels in the desert. Some of the music at the festival was unfortunately European and [View Full Entry]

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The Road to Timbuktu The last dregs of Dogon country’s vast escarpment, two black sandstone towers, mark the turnoff to Timbuctu, once the world’s most remote outpost, now quite the glamorous prostitute for many a rich (but poor foolish) tourist who puts herself through motor vehicle misery just to say “I’ve been to Timbuctu and back again.” We were ostensibly going for the Festival Au Desert, a music festival and traditional gathering of the nomadic Tuareg tribe, but during our six hour, bucking bronco voyage sans shocks and AC, swerving between a c [View Full Entry]

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We have had an amzing past couple of days. Thanks to Jeremy and Sega, we have had a fantastic journey to Sega's village 3 hours NW of Bamako. Yesterday morning we loaded up our gear into a minibus, drums, back backs etcs and went off for an adventure...which started with drumming the whole way there! As we passed villages and roadside communities, we drummed and danced and sang the whole way, invoking waves, smiles and dances! We bought muffins, peanuts, yogurt, and drinks from folks along the road, tried not to step on the chickens that we were bringing, nestled on [View Full Entry]

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The last few days here have been busy busy fun. Jack and Sharon are here with us now, settling in to African life. Its great to see them and to share this experience with them! Yesterday we went to see the National Ballet practice, awesome dancers and drummers! They gave us our own little show, very cool. We came back to Jeremy's compound for lunch and a short rest. After a break, I had a really fun dance class. I'm starting to catch on to things a bit more quickly. Issa is an excellent teacher, very patient and playful. Jack and [View Full Entry]

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