Beinvenue a Bamako!

We're in Bamako!!! Got in at about 3 am last night and Royal Air Maroc lost 8 out of 10 of our bags... So I only have my carry on. We reported our missing bags along with about 20 other people and airline people seemed pretty uninterested. The only thing I'm really going to miss is my malaria meds, so I have to find those in Bamako today. We might get back to the airport at some point to search for them, but for now its just frustrating since I spent so much time searching for presents for my host families and Niang's wedding!
So after we left the airport, and finally bargained a taxi to take us into the city, the five of us piled in. When we were about 10 minutes away from the Hippodrome, the taxi got a flat. So at about 4 in the morning we climbed out, and our driver began the slow process of changing tires. He blamed it on us because we had too much weight he said... But it was hard to be annoyed because then the muezzins started calling. It was nothing like what I expected. At first it sounded like a coyote from the distance, but other voices joined in, and soon it was a beautiful song, waking up the entire city with its call to prayer. I had no idea the muzzeins woke up that early, but apparently most people just wake up and then go back to sleep for a while at least.
We finally got to the Hippodrome and crashed at Rebecca's house, Caitlin's friend who works for an education NGO in Bamako. She has an amazing house in the expat neighborhood. So we have wifi here, but won't for a while probably because we're meeting our temporary homestay families today. Heading to the patisserie where we'll figure out where we're staying for the next 2 weeks.