When I was at PSI I was responsible, among other things, for handling the details of a relationship between PSI and the cellphone company Ikatel, who broadcast our SMS messages on malaria and HIV; making a quarterly newsletter and other layout/design duties; and helping to organize a big concert with many Malian artists, along with a dinner/gala at Oumou Sangare’s hotel to kick that off.

Now my TDY (temporary duty) job is to help organize a concert with multiple Malian artists, perhaps large, perhaps at Oumou’s hotel with VIPs, write and design a ‘plaquette’ or malaria fact sheet/folder, and perhaps work with the new Ikatel, Orange, to send out SMS for Africa Malaria Day.

I’ve called up my old buddies, Oumou’s husband, our Burkinabais production and sound system guy, Habib’s little brother the sound guy, and we’re underway in the planning. My goal is to introduce the team to these folks and they can take it from there. Already we’ve laid out the messages for 4 3-minute sketches to be written and approved on Monday, filmed Tuesday and Wednesday, edited and in the can on Thursday, and broadcast on Friday just before Mali’s most popular soap opera, D’où la famille. Nevermind that this is BCC (behavior change communication) and not advocacy (shh, don’t tell our donor!).

As promised, Areana and I met Julia at the Bla Bla, which is now enclosed in glass and brick and is air conditioned, and has all the charm and atmosphere of a crappy café. The pork chops were still excellent, however. Thursday we hit Sukothai with British engineers and a Dutch guy straight out of the book I’m reading, “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.” They’re doing the design for the Millenium Challenge Corp’s irrigation and road-building project up north of Niono, all the way to Timbuktu. But maybe there’s no water to do this – it’s unclear. The food was excellent and we spoke with the Belgian owner, whose Thai wife runs the kitchen. They’re retired (he’s an ex-consultant).

Today we went shopping, and of course of the four places we went, one was closed until October, and the rest I have to find time to go back to before I leave, to pick up things. Ahmed had some really nice stuff, I got my picture frames, and my bracelet from 2000 is being repaired. Mia Mali is now Mali Chic and was closed for no good reason – I need to get Mary Beth her napkin rings so on verra when I’ll have time to get over there again. Perhaps when we take Areana to pre-enregistrement on Wednesday. We also each got two pairs of sandals at the Grand Artisanat, for 5000 each, which I can’t remember if that’s a good price or not, but we bargained for a while. Areana’s and Julia’s are more fancy and African, while mine are basically leather copies of some strappy teva flip flops from last season – but more my style.