CRAS's 12th Anniversary Extraordinaire!

Greetings everyone! Sorry it's been awhile since my last entry -- I've actually been busy over here with work...woohoo! I'm starting a few projects after months of "observing and integrating." I'm not going to go into those right now, though, since there's not much to say as of now. But I wanted to give you a description of CRAS's (coordination regional des Artisans a Segou -- the regional coordination of the artisan unions) 12th anniversary celebration. The day of celebration was April 7, which was the last day of my in-service training at Tubaniso. I hitched a ride with my friend Steffen, who was (luckily) coming from Bamako to Segou that same day. I got to Segou around 8:30 pm, and booked it to the "movie theater" (I don't think they actually show movies very often, but it's a big conference hall -- the same place that the Women's day celebration was held). CRAS had planned a fashion show/concert for the evening to celebrate it's 12th anniversary. I'd "helped" in the planning (meaning I went to every meeting and listened to them talk in Bambara for hours on end, and I designed the poster advertising the fashion show). It was actually good that I didn't do too much -- it meant that they could do it on their own, which is much more important than me doing it for them. The show was supposed to start at 9, and I got there just in time. However, the show didn't ACTUALLY start until 11 pm.

It was worth the wait. They had the Segou griot (singer who sings about the history of Mali, family names, etc.) there singing up a storm. In between songs, they'd bring out the models to parade around the stage in outfits designed by tailors in the Segou region. It wasn't quite Paris-level couture, but I was impressed with their creativity. And the Malians loved it.

(Traditional Bobo shirts and Dogon hats -- much like our softball uniforms at WAIST)

(Those are peanuts hanging off that model's top!)

I was most surprised at how much skin the models were showing. The girls were coming out in short skirts and skimpy dresses -- which is very taboo in every day Mali.

I guess it paralleled true fashion shows -- most things you see on a runway are never worn in every day lives. One outfit in particular was very entertaining. It started with a simple long skirt and shirt, with a matching bag and purse. Suddenly, the model ripped off the lower half of her skirt (which was detachable) and pulled off the strap of her purse to tie around her head.

Then she unfolded the purse to reveal that it was actually a long overcoat...

Then, she pulled a coordinating umbrella out of the other bag...

It was like a living transformer. And the Malians went crazy. They thought it was the coolest thing ever.

The concert was great, too. It was traditional Malian griot music. Malians would run up to the stage and throw money at the griot (griots sing about Malian's histories and traditionally get paid for it).

The whole thing lasted until after 2 am. Needless to say, it was a bit challenging to stay awake during the three-hour, 110-degree Easter Mass the next morning!