March 6, 2008 We finished up our African Trip on February 26th, and I haven’t had a chance to write about our last day there (we arrived home on February 27th and left for Toronto on February 29th and have been there all week at the PDAC conference - heard there were 20,000 - 25,000 people attending the conference this year, it was a busy and successful conference for us). Last Day in Africa Our last day in Bamako, Mali was quite laid back. Pierre sent over the bag we had left while we traveled to Niger and we re-packed our [View Full Entry]

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February 25, 2008 Goodbye Niger It is our last day here in Niamey, Niger. We work for the morning and I complete the pedology map and copy maps we have worked on over the past few days to Amadou’s computer. We go to lunch at the Italian restaurant. There is a special lunch menu that you can choose between two options for each appetizer, main course, and dessert, for the cost of 7000 cifa’s. We are given a pen to mark our choices, and I have the tomato basil salad, the spinach ricotta ravioli and vanilla ice cream for dessert. It [View Full Entry]

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February 24, 2008 We wake up around 6:30, pack up the bedding we had brought in, and are ready to go around 7. We are the first ones up, so head outside into the cooler air. The temperature outside is wonderful. Lots of interesting sounds around the village, animals (chickens, roosters), a few vehicles, people. There is a smoky haze in the air, smoke from cooking fires and fires for heat. We find the temperature quite nice, but most people consider it to be cold (have seen many sweaters, big winter jackets on people in the morning). By 7:30, the group [View Full Entry]

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February 23, 2008 The Project at Gounday Happy Birthday Chris. Well, not a traditional birthday in any way for my dear husband. The only indication it is his birthday are the cards for him from the kids and a birthday e-mail. I wish him a happy birthday, we eat breakfast, and then we head out. We are off this morning to another project, also located at the Burkina Faso border, but more west of Niamey, north of the previous project. The route today is the highway heading west and eventually a ferry crossing to continue along the highway. The road is [View Full Entry]

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February 21, 2008 Wow, what a day, it has been a full and exciting one! We had our usual breakfast, prepared to leave, then headed to the lawyers office on the way out of town. She is a neat lady, very dynamic. From there, we headed to our project at Koutouggou. Our route was the one bridge over the Niger River, south towards Burkina Faso. The highway portion of our route was paved and in excellent shape. We followed this until the village of Torodi, where we turned between two buildings, into what looked like an alley, but actually the laterite [View Full Entry]

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February 20, 2008 Windy Woke up to hearing the wind howling around the building. It was so dusty this morning with the strong winds. The sun was extremely dim in the sky, looking more like a moon. The sand literally swirled on the street in front of us as we drove to our meeting. It looked the fine snow that can swirl around on top of a road in winter, such a neat site. It actually felt a little cool this morning, by lunch, it was quite warm . After the meeting, we came back for a few hours of work [View Full Entry]

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February 19, 2008 Today has been an office day to start. Chris, Amadou and myself have been discussing our projects and looking at some of the data I have. We went for lunch at the Grand Hotel. It is a very nice hotel, and apparently quite popular (hard to get into). The route there took us past a huge stadium. On the way back, to my delight and surprise, I saw a camel with a large load on its back. What an unusual site. Then 2 minutes later, saw another one. There is a lot of dust in the air. It [View Full Entry]

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February 18, 2008 Another day, another airline. This evening we flew Air Senegal from Bamako, Mali to Niamey, Niger. This is a new airline for me to travel on and it was a good flight. At the airport, we had to go through a passport check, then a health check (making sure immunizations were up to date), then pick up our bags and finally a baggage claim check. It took a bit of time, but it was relatively smooth. Once we got past the first two checks, Amadou was there to meet us. This is my first time meeting Amadou. He [View Full Entry]

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February 17, 2008 Travelling from Kouroussa, Guinea to Bamako, Mali Guinea More driving. We were up early and had a bigger breakfast. Then, Chris had a meeting with Aguibou and Dan, then we said goodbye to everyone. Eventually left the Kouroussa house at 9:00am. The highway was in excellent shape, and progress was relatively quick. I decided to write down things that we have seen along the way, that are somewhat interesting. I have been watching the hut construction quite closely as they vary with different groups. There has been a slight change in the roof construction as we headed from [View Full Entry]

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February 15, 2008 Another long travel day, this one much longer than the others. We left quite early and the total trip took 11 hours. We left Koba early, with a quick, formal visit to the Soux-Prefect. We then continued along the way backtracking to Kindia. From Kindia, we headed towards Kouroussa on a paved highway. One of the large centres we went through, and stopped at for lunch, was Mamou. It appears to be similar size to Kindia. The route took us up into the ‘mountainous’ area and finally into the savannah, where Kouroussa lies. We arrived just at dark [View Full Entry]

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