Fair Weather Coulibaly

My Malian last name isn't altogether common and in some places people even say it doesn't exist in my ethnic group so when I'm out of the Kayes region I do a little bit of Coulibaly name-dropping to stay popular. I'm sure many have you have read about this before, but here in Mali we have a tradition called Joking Cousins. It is what makes Mali so lovely. Malians are the nicest people in West Africa, maybe all of Africa. This practice of making fun of people with certain last names has leveled the playing field for Malians since the days of yore and made everyone equal. Equally capable of eating beans and being my donkey.

When I'm out of my region and people don't get excited about my last name I simply say that I am a Coulibaly, Diarra or Traore, the most popular and fun last names in Mali. You might all think that I don't have any pride for my last name and you're right, I don't. My last name is Doerr and I'm kind of Italian, German, and Danish (and I also like to think, slightly Canadien) but here in Mali I am of one of the smaller ethnic groups are traditionally leave Mali for better places, so I try out other suits. I mentioned this to another volunteer and he balked at me and said that he had no respect for "fair weather Coulibaly's." If you are to be a Coulibaly you are to always endure the jokes that Coulibaly's receive and never evade this birthrite. I promised I would never do it again (and then I broke the promise repeatedly when he wasn't around). I tell you all this because I attended a Football match. Oh, by the way, for all of you Americans (which I assume is everyone who reads this) "football" is the international term for "soccer."

Before the game Christina, Ryan and I went to the market to get a Mali flag poncho made for Ryan and the excitement for the game tempted us into buying a few other things...like Mail pants, headbands, earings, sunglasses, flags and shirts. By the time we left we were exhausted and fully outfitted in our colorful clothes!

The football match was epic, Mali vs. Ghana in the pool play qualifiers for the World Cup in 2010. Ghana was favored to win the game but it was supposed to be a close game and if Mali won that game it was probably a sure thing they'd be headed to the World Cup in South Africa. Was I excited? Well, not really, I was excited to get dressed up in Red, Yellow and Green and be a hysterical fan. (As it was, Ghana's colors are the same as Mali's colors and apparently the mascot for Mali is an Eagle, so no one could really tell who anyone was supporting unless they had a black star on them, because Ghana's flag has a black star in the middle.) Anyway, the point is, I don't really care about soccer or sports in general, but when I go to a game I always have fun supporting who everyone else is supporting or the team with the cutest players. Mind you, I am a competitive athlete when I'm playing but as a fan I'm a little bit of a dilletante.

The game was incredible, you've never enjoyed soccer until you've watched it with a stadium full of Africans. Mali did not win they lost 2-0 but two weeks later they played Benin and won! YAY! I was reminded to post a blog about this because our team, yes the US does have a soccer team, played Brazil today for the championships of the Confederation Cup and lost, which is sad news because they were supposedly the underdog, and doesn't everyone love and underdog story? If they had won they probably would have made a movie out of it and Americans would have maybe started being interested in soccer instead of...say...Nascar.