[rachelnguyen]

When I complained to TKL about my friend's bag being trashed in just a few weeks, Kevin in their products development department responded

"I apologize for your disappointment, but I can assure you that our quality is top notch, with a less than 1/2 % return rate."

I love that he is reassuring me about their quality. Uh, yeah.

My replacement bag is evidently on it's way. I am not holding out much hope that it will be any better, though.

Love,
Rachel

[e2c]

'Guess I'll stick with my W. African bags for now...

[rachelnguyen]

Yeah, e2c... they are cheap, pretty and for most situations, do the job just fine.

I love my mudcloth one from Mali. It is padded and has a picture of that soccer playing dinosaur on it.

[e2c]

I love my mudcloth one from Mali. It is padded and has a picture of that soccer playing dinosaur on it.

No kidding - sounds pretty nifty!

[michi]

It is padded and has a picture of that soccer playing dinosaur on it.

Doesn't sound very traditional, but does sound like fun

How about a photo?

Cheers,

Michi.

[e2c]

i take it this is the logo?

[rachelnguyen]

Hi e2c,

It's not exactly like that. In the middle of Bamako there is a huge statue of a dinosaur playing soccer. That is what is depicted on the bag.

Michi, my teacher is using the bag at the moment, while we wait for his new TKL to arrive. When I get it back, I will definitely post a picture. It is hilarious!

And,incidentally, the lawn chairs that we had in the house had '2002' woven into the backs. It's all about the football, baby.

Love,
Rachel

[rachelnguyen]

Actually, on second thought... it might be a hippo. Makes more sense in Africa, I think. LOL.

Here's where I got the pic....

http://everythingspossible.wordpress.co ... of-sports/

[michi]

It's not exactly like that. In the middle of Bamako there is a huge statue of a dinosaur playing soccer. That is what is depicted on the bag.

Wow I didn't see this statue when I was in Bamako in January 2008. Seeing that it was put up for the Africa Cup in 2002, I imagine that they took it down some time after that.

The Africa Cup was in full swing when I was last in Bamako. Talk about a country coming to a stand-still when their team is playing I remember the exultation when Mali held Nigeria to a 0-0 draw. Literally the entire city was glued to TV sets. There were crowds everywhere in the street, 15-20 people at a time crowded around small TVs people had put up in shops and windows.

In February, I went to the semi-final match at Accra stadium between Ghana and Cameroon (which, sadly, Ghana lost). Man, talk about atmosphere at a soccer game! It was bedlam. Loads of fun, and the most colorful crowd I've ever seen at any event

Michi, my teacher is using the bag at the moment, while we wait for his new TKL to arrive. When I get it back, I will definitely post a picture. It is hilarious!

Please do! That bag must be quite a collector's item too!

Cheers,

Michi.

[e2c]

Rachel - thanks muchly for the pic - am looking forward to a shot of the bag, too. The statue is too much!

michi - sounds terrific! (Except for Ghana losing...) It also sounds a lot like Brazil, as far as fandom and everything coming to a standstill.

I would *love* to get to at least one game at the Maracanã stadium, someday. (Must admit that I'm not really a fan of American "football"; I think actual football is much more interesting, and certainly much more of a game of skill - it's not for nothing that it's called "the beautiful game"! OK, all you major league fans, don't kill me! )

[bubudi]

yea that's a green hippo, mascot of mali for the football (mali means 'hippo' after all).

[rachelnguyen]

Oh, duh. That is too funny. I had no idea Mali meant hippo.

Michi, when I was in Mali in January of 2009 the hippo statue was still there, up close and personal. I can't imagine how you missed it, LOL. It is right in the center of the city. Maybe you were in a drumming induced haze!

Back to the bags... TKL says they put a replacement bag in the mail a few days ago. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it is less of a pos than the one we returned. I'll definitely keep you all posted on that.

[michi]

Michi, when I was in Mali in January of 2009 the hippo statue was still there, up close and personal. I can't imagine how you missed it, LOL. It is right in the center of the city. Maybe you were in a drumming induced haze!

Must have been I moved about the city a fair bit--not sure how I missed it...

Back to the bags... TKL says they put a replacement bag in the mail a few days ago. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it is less of a pos than the one we returned. I'll definitely keep you all posted on that.

Please do! I'm happy with the one I have. It's done a fair few airline trips and such and is holding up well. But, if the quality of these bags is falling off, I'll stop recommending them.

Cheers,

Michi.

[Djembe-nerd]

Michi,

You take the bag inside the plane as cabin luggage, or do you check in.

[michi]

You take the bag inside the plane as cabin luggage, or do you check in.

I check it in. It's too heavy and too big to take as carry-on luggage. I usually ask the airline to put a fragile sticker on the bag, just in case. In return, they make me sign a form that says "if we break it, it's your problem." But I figure it's better to have the fragile sticker than to not have it...

I do have travel insurance so, if a total disaster happens and they shatter the shell, I can claim.

If you think that shattering the shell is impossible, I'm afraid that this is entirely within the realm of possibility Years ago, I took a flight from College Station to Houston. A 20-minute flight in a small plane with ten seats or so. On arrival, they took us by bus from the plane to the terminal. The bus was standing there for a while, so I could watch a baggage handler "unload" our plane. He was inside the cargo hold, the door of which was about 1.5m above the ground. I saw him pick up my suit case (a clamshell Samsonite) and throw it in a 2m arc out of the plane onto the tarmac. I had a coffee mug in there (which was well wrapped in towels and such) that someone had given to me as present. It didn't survive

If someone takes your djembe and throws it out of plane like that, the shell could indeed break...

Cheers,

Michi.