Segou Music Festival

Time is passing much too quickly for me these days. For one, I'm staying pretty busy. We're teaching, which always makes time go by faster, but more than that, I've actually managed to travel a little bit, too. It's certainly re-energized me.

Since my last post, I've traveled to Segou for the Segou Music Festival (also known as Festival Sur le Niger), and then to Senegal for WAIST (West African Invitational Softball Tournament). I'm going to save WAIST for another update. This update is going to focus on the Festival Sur le Niger. It's a multi-day music festival held on the river in, well.. Segou. While there, I was able to see many of my fellow PCVs that I hadn't seen in some time, which was pretty awesome. Plus, the music was great, and we managed to work our way to the front of the stage. It wasn't just music though. During the days, there were plenty of additional activities and events to see. Like pirogue races. The race that I watched resulted in all but 1 pirogue capsizing. One pirogue actually capsized just shy of winning (they had a long lead, too), which had to be crushing--though you'd never know it, because everyone remained happy and festive.

Music Festival 1: Pirogue Race If you look closely in this picture, you can see the heads of several malians bobbing in the water after their boat capsized (you can also see the empty boat resurfaced and floating behind the others). After each pirogue capsized, they'd send a retrieval boat out for the Malians.

Music Festival 2: Getting ready for a night of music!

I'm posing for a picture with some of my favorite Mali volunteers (all from my stage). Some of these people I hadn't seen in a VERY long time, so it was great to catch up!

Music Festival 3: Standing in the water and enjoying a great show!

After we managed to work our way to the front of the crowd (the crowds were huge, btw!).

Music Festival 4: Dancing in the Niger

We all danced in the water while enjoying the music (how could you not, especially when you're already in the water!!!). In all, the music was great (This year is celebrating Mali's 50th year of independence, so some of Mali's top bands performed at the festival), and I got to spend the days there with great company!