SUCCESS!

We are now the proud owners of an Order du Mission!! We went to the DNPC this morning, and within two hours we were holding the precious document in our disbelieving hands.

Those two hours were spent waiting in Mamadou Cissé's office. Cissé was a student of Susan McIntosh at Rice University, and is now working for the DNPC. An all around awesome guy, who helped us a lot throughout the whole bureaucratic process. What follows is a pictorial documentation of our experience this morning:

A very entertaining poster illustrating the evils of the antiquities trade that was hanging in Mamadou Cissé's office. We were bored. We took a picture of it.

Me, lounging on the floor, examining a pile of pottery from Cissé's excavations at Gao (a city to the northeast of Bamako). The pottery was really nice - similar to that of Timbuktu, where Kirsten and Wade have worked before. Among the other artifacts were over 11,000 beautiful beads of various types.

WE GOT IT!! The Order du Mission, perched atop the pile of pottery. Yeah, we're nerds.

The three of us with Mamadou Cissé, standing triumphantly in front of the DNPC, holding our beautiful Order du Mission!

Taken on the way back from the DNPC - a typical Bamako street scene.

Mission accomplished. We leave for Djenné on Monday. One more crazy weekend in Bamako!