Blogs from District of Bamako, Mali, Africa
Every child deserves a 5th Birthday.
Published: April 17th 2012Africa » Mali » District of Bamako » Bamako
April 1st 2012
Blog About Malaria Month 2012 Over half of a million people died from malaria last year. This is more people than in the average American city. Imagine the entire city of Atlanta being wiped off the map. The year before, we lost Denver. The year before that, all of Boston, all gone, in one fell swoop. The majority of these deaths took place in Africa. In fact there are six countries that account for over 60% of worldwide malaria deaths: Burkina Faso, Cote D’Ivoire, the DRC, Nigeria, Mozambique, and … Mali. Malaria has been around for centuries. King Tut likely died of malaria in 1332 B.C. This makes it seem like fighting malaria is a lost cause. It’s been around since forever and it’ll be around forever. But this isn’t true. Malaria is on the decline. ... read more
February 13th 2012
I really want to video everything when I walk around to help explain to people what life is like here, but I don't really feel comfortable doing that. I was able to more or less steathily record this street scene from my apartment window. It's a pretty boring video of the street below, and actually one of the quieter and calmer moments. If you have anything that you want me to get on camera here, let me know!... read more
January 30th 2012
Every morning I walk a little over a mile (~2 km) to work. Between dodging traffic, stopping to greet people, and picking up some breakfast along the way this can take me almost 30 minutes. This combined with the walk home in the afternoon is by far the most stressful part of my day. It can at times be the most fulfilling, but this morning was not one of those experiences. Today as I was walking it was impossible to ignore the rancid smell that filled the portion of my walk that takes me along a paved road. There is normally a mix of smells in the air, and admittedly most of them are unpleasant: burning trash, exhaust from all the vehicles, and occasionally urine and feces. I’ve become more or less accustomed to all of ... read more
A history of Thanksgivings past
Published: November 25th 2011Africa » Mali » District of Bamako » Bamako
November 24th 2011
Thanksgiving is my friend Raven's favorite holiday. Aside from the insane amount of food involved, I never really understood why. This year however, I realized that Thanksgiving is an important time, and not just because of the desserts. Thanksgiving is where this all started. It is where everything changed. In 2007, my entire family got together outside of Elkhart, Indiana in a place called South Fork to celebrate Thanksgiving. A few days before my pending departure to Guinea, the day served also a going away party (there were posters with elephants on them that said, "Good luck in Africa, Samantha!") and a pre-mature birthday celebration (birthday cake and pumpkin pie, really what more can you ask for?) A lot has changed since then. One year later I was in the West African capital city of Conakry ... read more
October 18th 2011
After two years, I've come back to West Africa. The first two weeks in Senegal were surreal. I just dived back into life African Peace Corps lifestyle as if I had never left. My French luckily reappeared. But within 24 hours there were people testing my Pular as well. This proved to be a bit more challenging to recall. But I was never fabulous at Pular, so it was really as if nothing had changed. It was as if the last two years of my life hadn't happened at all. No year in Boston, no MBA from Portugal. This was very bittersweet. There was a a degree of relief: I knew how to do things already and I could easily slide in the flow of life here. But there was also a sense of regression: if ... read more
September 4th 2011
Wyjezdzamy z Bamako rozklekotanym ledwo zyjacym autobusem w strone Segou.Wbrew pozorom to nie pojscie na latwizne ale wielkie wyzwanie. W porze odjazdu autobusu jego naprawa trwala w najlepsze, kiedy wreszcie ustalono tankowanie i odjazd myslelismy ze szturm ludzi jednak zniweczy mozliwosc odjazdu i zniszczy "pojazd". Na kazdym improwizowanym postoju ludzie proponujacy towary wszelakie ( od manioku przez wode w workach,kukurydze itp) w liczbie kilkukrotnie przekraczajacej liczbe podrozujacych usilowali znalesc sie wewnatrz autokaru w tej samej chwili,podczas gdy pasazerowie za wszelka cene usilowali sie z niego wydostac ,by sie przewietrzyc. Gdy kierowca ruszal czesc ludzi odpadajac od wejscia torowala droge tym ktorzy dobiegali by jeszcze dosiasc do jadacego autobusu. WIdoki tez fajne na mijane wioski. Z Segou zabiera nas pan dyrektor ds melioracji i gospodarki wodnej ktory studio... read more
May 22nd 2011
I sat there amongst the rubble that was the Mopti 4WD station. It was dry season and the weather was scorching. At 830am it was already in the 40’s and there was no sign of departure. I waited a few hours, constantly with the thoughts that how much longer do I have to put up with this annoying guide standing by my side and the prospect of leaving at the hottest point of the day. As the time ticked to 10am I questioned my motives for going, ‘Why do you need to go here? Because you have to? Because you can’t say you’ve traveled Africa unless you’ve been to Timbuktu? Come on mate you’re not an explorer. You’re a traveller. There is no need to go there. Just because it’s classed as the ‘Holy Grail’ of ... read more
February 26th 2011
FACES OF MALI...BAMAKO TO SEGOU The Malian people are handsome...the men are peacocks...and the women are too busy working... The peoples of the Bambara, Dogon, Bozo, Bobo, Felani, Songhai, Tuareg... handsome all. Welcome to the first instalment of "Faces of Mali". I will show photos of the stunning scenery, scenes, events, in my 'Images of Mali' blogs. Enjoy and regards, Dancing Dave (who danced his way through Mali culminating in his Tuareg wedding at Timbuktu!!!)... read more
January 1st 2011
Firstly Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone. We have not been in Mali for about 11 days - hard to keep up with the days and date....but we have power this am and hopefully internet later today so I will start at the beginning. We arrived in Bamako (capital of Mali) on 22nd December minus our luggage. The flights from Bangkok to Addis and then to Bamako made it a very long day - about 16 hours in the air, plus down time at airports and we lost about 11 hours in actual time. Thankfully we had a 20 hour stop over in Bangkok to catch up on some sleep otherwise I don't think I could have handled the lost luggage thing as well. I was only one of about 50 people who didn't ... read more
Mali: Southern Mali Bushcamps & Bamako - December 2010
Published: January 18th 2011Africa » Mali » District of Bamako » Bamako
December 20th 2010
We crossed into Mali at the Senegal border town of Kadira and first up had another three nights of bushcamps. The Boabab trees seem to be everywhere now, they’re such awesome looking trees! We stopped near a whole group of towering Boabab’s for lunch just after crossing through the border. However, a policeman from the border who had asked (and been refused) bribes from us drove up on his motorbike and decided to throw his weight around and tell us we couldn’t stop on this (albeit public) land. On we moved to the other side of a guard post... approximately 1km down the road..... which turned out to be outside of his ‘jurisdiction’ and therefore we could resume lunch without interruption :-). That day we stopped at Keyes, reputed to be the ‘hottest town in Africa’ ... read more
