Blogs from Bamako, District of Bamako, Mali, Africa - page 2

Well Yousouf is quite the quite the partier! His lawyer friend Arnaud took me to a bar where Yousouf met us after picking up Anil and the Nigerian kid, Raymond, we’d met the night before. We proceeded to pound ’em back on Yousouf’s tab (including supper). It was the most I’ve drank since Canada! I was somewhat loaded --- man my tolerance is low! Anil also hooked Anil up with someone in Djenne. We should meet up again on Saturday night in Mopti. Today I’m hungover. I went to a very good museum (Musee Nationale), but got hustled out of 5,000 CFA. The guy was good! American accent and all…oh well not too bad. Just don’t trust anyone speaks English! Going to see a cora concert tonight. Also I saw a monkey head at the fetish ... read more

Kurzes Update: noch immer mali, noch immer bamako. mehrere erfolglose versuche mit meiner visakarte an geld zu kommen, die einzige bank wo das moeglich ist hat freitag mittag zugemacht. heisst also zwei weitere tage bamako. und dann montag mittag so schnell wie moeglich (was hier in mali wohl so ziemlich alles heissen kann) weiter in richtung conakry. gestern abend gabs unglaeubige blicke als ich von meinen liberia-plaenen erzaehlt habe..ich bin gespannt was auf mich zukommt! heut abend ist getting together mit den couchsurfern bei denen ich im moment bin, bei einem super unsympathischen franzosen, dem ich bis jetzt noch kein wort englisch entlocken konnte. seltsamer typ. dafuer mit chauffeur, villa und pool. anfang zwanzig. manchmal trifft es echt die falschen..... die naechste nachricht kommt dann hoffentlich aus guinea!!... read more

Nora chided me the last time she read my blog for always claiming shock at how long it’s been since my last entry. It’s a genuine sentiment, though. Perhaps I’m easy to shock, or perhaps the notion that I have of myself as a regular blogger is woefully misplaced. In any case, wow, it’s been a long time since my last entry! When I look back over the past three weeks, one of the only defining things that comes to mind is the heat. It is ridiculously hot these days! Hundreds during the day, 80 degrees at night. As it gets hotter and hotter, my sleep is becoming less and less adequate. For the past two nights, I’ve woken up sweating to the point that I have gotten up to take a cold shower. That usually ... read more

I felt the rains down in Africa, so says the song. Here we are at the airport in Casablanca, awaiting our flight to Bamako and it's raining. It's 10:30 PM. We've been here since 4:05 PM this afternoon. We left Amsterdam at 1:25 PM. Royal Air Maroc was it's own experience--though not a bad one. It was just a bit of cattle call loading--Southwest Airlines was orderly by comparison. No one was listened to the gate agent about loading by rows, and the one bag carry on rule was not close to being enforced. Thomas pushed me (literally) to push my way on as well. Welcome to Africa! The crowd was a mix of western tourists, American Christian volunteers, Moroccan families, Tuareg families--quite beautifully and colorfully attired, and other African peoples. The 737 took off and ... read more

After what has felt like a short amount of time in Bamako, I’m headed off early tomorrow morning to Mopti (a 10-hour bus ride), where I’ll meet Nora, who has been in Tominion. The next day, Christmas Eve in fact, we’ll head off to Hombori (a 4-hour ride) together to meet our friends, who are visiting from Durham. I know that I have expressed it repeatedly, but I can’t say it enough just how unbelievable it is that it’s the winter holiday season back home. The sense of timelessness here is so thorough that I often have to pause and consider the date just to make sure that we’ve only been here for 3 months or that we only have 7 more months to go. It makes it especially hard to shake off dreams of being ... read more