Amadou and Mariam - Round 2

I saw the Pope twice in one day two months ago. I was told twice in one week that I have strange credit cards. I went to two Amadou and Mariam concerts in four days. What is the correlation between all these? Absolutely nothing. I just find alot of things interesting but at the same time, alot of things uninteresting. I already talked about the Pope last time so I’ll continue to the next topic.

So I have an ATM/credit card from Bank of America. It wasn’t just last week in Boston but usually people find my BoA card so fascinating. It has a photo of me in the upper left hand corner. It was taken in 1999 hahaha. Since the picture is about one inch by half an inch, I still look about the same. Then today i went to a grocery store in NY and the cashier said, “wow I’ve never seen that Chase card before.” I was like, “really??” It’s nothing special except its kind of a dark silverish gray and sparkly. When she said that, from far away it looks like those palladium cards or black American Express cards. If anyone holds these cards, you can basically buy a house or a jet on one of them. Seriously. I have neither. At least I don’t think I do. How I have these different looking credit cards I don’t know. They just give it to me. 

I was so tired from waking up early today but I told myself I should go to watch Amadou and Mariam…again. This time it would be free in Central Park. I watched it three days ago in a Boston club. They did the same exact same thing but it was definitely a different atmosphere. In Boston I felt like I was at a college club which it was. Today in Central Park, it felt like Lalapalooza with a lot of hippies. I ended up standing along this fence along the front of the stage which happened to be next to the VIP gate. Whoops. It was actually the perfect spot where I could lazily rest my distorted back on the three foot bar. There was a tall girl next to me. We took over the corner. There was one performance before Amadou and Mariam - Theophilus London. I quite liked his techno beat with rap mix. So after they were done, she decided to sit on the ground. I assumed she was resting because the sun was blazing. Ten minutes later her friend comes over and I notice that the girl had her head against the fence now. She didn’t get up and her friend was shaking her. She was out of it. Then security started to come just as Amadou and Mariam started singing. My side of the stage was focused on the unconscious girl while the other side was focused on the performance. They can’t get her up so I help lift her up and then they bring her back stage. Soon the ambulance came and took her away on a stretcher. About three people darted towards my bubble to cram into her spot which now became cramped. It’s ok though. Not too long after, there were a few people who stood next to me. They looked so familiar. I felt like I had seen them in Bamako but I didn’t bother asking. They were high school or maybe college students and I wasn’t in the mood to talk too much today. There came a point where they were grabbing people to go on stage to dance. I would’ve gone since I was right at the front and at the gate but for some reason it didn’t feel right. I came alone. It would’ve only been fun if a group of RPCVs or the kids from my village were there. I had weird imaginative scenarios of what I would do if or when I got up there. I thought of doing the spider dance the kids in my village do. Then I thought of stealing the mike from Mariam and greeting everyone in Bambara and blessing he heck out of them.  I didn’t need any extra glory but it would’ve been fun. I know the band and team recognized me but again I just didn’t feel like talking today. I just smiled when they walked by and they smiled. They must think I’m their number one fan. There wasn’t as many Malians as I thought. Just like in Boston, it was mainly Americans. Well actually, there were quite a bit of French speakers around me. Finally, the concert ends and this man runs up to take the corner next to me as the people leave. He asked me if it was ok to stand there. Well he tried in broken English but I got the hint. I looked at him for a second and said “uh yea” and smiled. The concert was over! Then he stands while the crowd is clearing and then I thought I might as well test my luck and speak Bambara and told him it was “a banna.” Then he laughed and repeated it and said yes. Then I said “a banna pew pew.” He was definitely Malian. Well he walks off and I begin my journey home.

I walk down and take shortcuts to avoid crowds. I end up on Madison Ave and it was a quiet day there. I see another African that looked somewhat lost. I slowly walk just in case he needed help and he stopped me. He was standing in front a Ralph Lauren store. He had a smartphone and asked me to take a pic of him in front of it. I must’ve took 4 or 5 and he wasn’t happy with the first few until I asked him what he really wanted. He wanted his whole body from head to toe and the picture of the store. Not quite the type of photo I would take but it’s his photo. The last poses he decides to act serious and hold a walkie talkie. The first thing that came to mind was “oh he’s a security guard.” I asked him what the photo was for. He said it was to send back home to his family. I thought that was nice. He’s living the big life in the big apple. I ask him where he is from hoping that he is Malian but he is from Rwanda. I believe it was the city of Butare. I tell him I just came from Mali and we talked for about 20 minutes. Well more like he was just excited to tell me about Rwanda and how there was turmoil also and still does. As I was about to tell him that I needed to go, he started slowly putting on latex gloves. The first thought in my mind was that he was going to choke me or kidnap me because why would a security guard just snap on some gloves??? Then we move down the street a little and he tells me he painted the lampposts on Madison. I saw at the corner of the street was a garbage can. It was his. He wasn’t a security guard after all. He just wanted to take a picture in front of Ralph Lauren and give the image that he had made it big in America so his family back in Rwanda would be proud of him. He definitely didn’t need to do that. I know they already are. He is in the Big Apple after all. The mecca of all cities. He seemed kind and he told me to come back to visit again. I told him I most likely would since I like walking so ill be moseying along that way here and there.

As i continue walking aimlessly I realized it still turned out to be a good day. I like meeting people and making them smile. That’s better than any prize. Actually, I could use an Olympic gold medal as a coaster!

@Bwoston

@New Ywok