Happy New Year!

Yesterday was an interesting day here in Kayes. It was the closing ceremonies for the Bienniel Cultural Fair held for the first time ever in the city of Kayes. Seeing that it is the Bienniel one would think that this fair would be held every 2 years. The last one was in 2005 in Segou. We can't figure out the math either. But I digress.

We stayed in Kayes a few extra days to witness the closing ceremonies specifically to hear the Malian President, A.T.T., speak and hopefully get our picture taken with him. The first part worked out, the latter did not. While the President was speaking it was difficult to hear. I am not sure if it was due to all the people around us talking to each other while he spoke or if it was the poor AV system which did not pack the speaker punch needed for the crowd to hear. I mean it was all in French and what little we could hear we could understand. Since there have been problems recently in the regions of Kidal and Timbuktu he mentioned those regions and got loud cheers from the people representing those regions at the cultural fair. It was interesting. Very, very interesting. It's limited security was also shocking. We were about 15 rows away from the President and walked right into the stadium without being checked for weapons. This would never happen in America! At least security did not believe A.T.T. was Mark's father. That's the line he tried on the security officer to get us a photo. Negative!

We hope Santa was good to you all this year. I know he brought us bacon, which for a country with no pigs was an amazing feat! We have enjoyed that bacon twice already - in BLTs and in Mac n Cheese!

We are heading back to our village to ring in the new year without one alcoholic beverage and a good nights sleep! It has been a long time since we woke up on New Year's Day refreshed. Maybe we should set some tough resolutions this year!

Happy New Year to you all. May your night be more exciting than ours will be.