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Happy Travels!

Driving Back through West Africa

28 December 2011 – 1 January 2012

6 whole days of driving. That’s all this trip could have taken. But, a month later. It’s really time to go home. So, here’s the basic run down on the drive back.

Woke up on the 28^th, load the car and away we went. Made it to Tamale, Ghana. Thankfully. We were hoping to gain a day by making this leg of the trip in one day! Pulled up to the Giriba Lodge and booked the last two rooms. Went to the restaurant at the hotel for dinner. They were swamped because everyone decided to show up at the same time for dinner. When this happens in Africa, the staff freak out and quit functioning. It’s just part of life here.  While we were enjoying our dinner, two French boys (about the age of 8-9) walked up to our table and snatched the bottle caps off of our beer and coke bottles. WTH?? Seriously. It was so rude. Their parents did nothing. Now, had they asked politely, we would have given the caps to them. Instead, Liam yelled at them and then started taunting the kids and hoarding all of the caps so they would leave our table alone. (I promise – he’s really great with kids…but not rude French kids).

On the 29^th, when we stopped for gas, I happened to notice that the tire that was canted was almost completely bald and was bound to pop. We also noticed there was a nail inside the back right tire. We have two spares and it looks like we are going to use them. Better start looking for a shop to repair the one with a nail in it. Instead of changing the bald tire at the gas station, we drove down the road a little closer to the border and then had the tire changed. Still confused why we didn’t just change it while we were already at a gas station. But, what do I know. I sat with my fingers crossed hoping we wouldn’t lose another tire. Things like that happen in Africa ALL THE TIME!

Our drive on the 29^th took us all the way to Bobo-Dissolou, Burkina Faso. Perfect. We are ahead of schedule and have enough time to drive back to Banfora in the morning to buy rum and enjoy a delicious breakfast at the Hotel Sucre de Canne! We were going to stay at a nicer hotel but they only had one room, so we went back to Villa Rose. Had dinner at St. Germaine again because it was so good last time!

On the 30^th, we drove down to Banfora early. Had breakfast, tasted some rum, and headed to Bamako, Mali. On the way from Banfora to Bobo-Dissolou, the tire with the nail in it went flat. Stopped at a tire-changing hut on the way out of Bobo to have someone change the tire. While the boys worked on the car, I was reading my book (Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles by Richard Dowden) and noticed a chicken stuck in a drainage ditch. Therefore, I went on a hunt to find something to pick up the chicken and put him back on normal ground. Thankfully, I had some gloves to protect me from funky chicken diseases. Picked up the chicken on a cardboard box. He was so freaked out that he sat right near the front tire of the car for a while. Finally, he calmed down enough and started walking around. Realizing he was free!! I’m sure he will be dinner at some point in the future, but it made me feel good knowing that he wouldn’t drown in the drainage ditch. Poor lil’ chicken.

Second tire changed, but not repaired. So, now we have no spare tires. Seriously, stressing. It’s just not a good idea to have ZERO spares. Especially since we had already driven the roads and knew they weren’t great. However, Al did not agree with us and didn’t want to take the time to stop. Now, I’m really going to stress about making it all the way to Mauritania. Cause we have no spare and potentially a broken back axle. AWESOME.

Made it to Bamako at dark. Checked into the Badala Hotel and ate dinner. Liam came upstairs after dinner and informed me that Al said he did not want to take the time to fix the tire. Seriously. It’s really frustrating. Liam tried to talk him into getting fixed, but it was becoming a don’t-bring-it-up-I’m-going-to-do-what-I-want-because-you-are-bossing-me-around issue. Um. It’s not. It’s a safety issue. Because now, we are traveling through Africa and seriously compromising our safety.  Oh, and apparently me saying, “I’m not comfortable traveling any further without a spare” does not matter to him. So, I know where I stand on the totem pole. I just wonder if he would put his own family in that kind of a position. (And in hindsight, I’m really pissed at myself for calming Liam down and convincing him to not make a scene. That was irresponsible of myself. I will never let it happen again. Safety first. Not feeling the need to live dangerously).

Leaving Bamako on the 31^st, the guys got into a bit of a yelling contest. Being in the car for 30 days with the same people brings out all kinds of fun tension. Al and Liam ended up in a screaming match over lots of little things. Then, we spent the next 12 hours in silence. Except for when someone asked to pee. Liam and I were stuck in the front seat and back seat respectively, because Al wanted to drive. Fine. But, for the record, we both offered.

Beautiful Baobab in Western Mali.

The border between Senegal and Mali was a fiasco because the customs agent in Senegal was being a complete and utter prick. But, he realized he wasn’t going to get any money out of us and he better let us go. Came upon a giant animal. At first glance it looked like a West African baby rhino. But, since they have been extinct since 2006 and I’m not sure they were even in this area, we decided it was a giant wart hog. Make it to Tambacounda, Senegal. Stay in the same hotel we did last time. Actually, in the same room. And it was 104. Not 109. They fixed the toilet! We had to laugh. Spent some time talking Liam out of flying out of Dakar the next day instead of driving the other embassy vehicle to Mauritania. He was really pissed and ready to be done with this trip. Went to dinner and enjoyed a nice quiet meal on New Year’s Eve. After dinner looked up information and decided we would be able to leave on the 3^rd. Awesome. I don’t really feel like being in West Africa for another 5 days if I can go ahead and get out of here! Especially with all the extra tension.

Also, spent some time double-checking if the pig was really a rhino. My brain was literally seeing things. The pig was HUGE. It’s back was almost to the top of the front of the car. I’m guessing about 3.5 feet tall. Therefore, I had myself convinced I needed to report a rhino siting to the World Wildlife Foundation. See. Africa makes you crazy! (Here's a link to a few google images of African Bush pigs:  https://www.google.com/search?q=african+bush+pigs&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=tFy&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=SL1NT9_CDIjJtge3q_SkCA&ved=0CDQQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=607).

Wake up on New Year’s Day. Try to be polite, but it’s going to be another long day.

Silence most of the way to Dakar. Made it into Dakar and arrived at the embassy. Al went to grab the other car from the embassy compound since Liam didn’t have his id and I had absolutely no idea where it was parked. While Al was grabbing the car, we pulled all of our stuff out of the car we had been driving. Al pulls up the car and we tell him to go ahead and start driving to St. Louis, Senegal since we have to stop by the airport. That way, at least one of us would get there before dark. Again, more yelling and screaming. Seriously. This trip needs to end.

Al drives through the embassy gate. Liam runs up to him and asks him if his phone is working. Of course not. We have had phone issues the whole trip. We get in the other truck after loading all of our stuff. We drive over to the Casino market to get some food for the drive since we are both starving. As we were pulling in to the grocery store, we saw Al pull into the Radisson Blu next door. So, I guess he isn’t going to St. Louis tonight. I wonder if he is actually staying there. Hopefully, he will email us later and clue us in. The grocery store was closed for the holiday, so we headed to the airport. Changed our Senegal Airline flight from the 8^th to the 3^rd and were on our way to St. Louis. We wanted to enjoy a few days doing our own thing. Especially after how crappy the past few days were.

Bought some more oranges on the road and gobbled them down. OMG. They are so delicious. I would drive down that crazy road just to buy them!!!

Make it to Saint Louis right at dark. We begin the hunt for our hotel. There is a parked car in front of us and Liam puts on his blinker to go around the car. As he pulls out, BAM!!! A motorbike rams into the car and bounces off. Crap. We pull forward a little and the crowd starts to form, so we pull away looking for the police and trying to call our embassy. Well, someone follows us and stops us at a police blockade and accuses us of fleeing the scene. Well, we were following embassy policy. That’s what we are told to do. Remove yourself from the dangerous situation. So, we did.

The policeman tries to get into the car with us and take us back to the scene of the crime. Well, here’s the problem. This car only has two seats. So, I pushed him away and closed the door. Probably didn’t help the situation. The policeman jumps in the car of the people who chased us down since policemen don’t have cars in Africa. (I mean really, why would a policeman need a car. Seems silly doesn’t it?) So, back to the scene of the crime we went.

Ghana...

22 December 2011 – 27 December 2011

Wake up to Liam’s bright and shining face on our 1^st anniversary in Africa!  We have been married for 3 years. And it’s been a busy three years. But, I’m hoping the 4^th year of our marriage is MUCH better than the past one. While we have grown together, it has been a REALLY tough year and we are due a break.

Load the car. We are stopping by the embassy and then we are heading out of town. Ouagadougou has been fun, but I’m ready to see some friends!! We are heading to Ghana to meet up with some friends of ours from DC who moved to Ghana in March!

But, first things first. Head to the embassy one last time to take care of some paperwork, hand in the keys for the TDY house, and check email one more time. I’m waiting on official yes from the travel office to book my ticket to Memphis for surgery. But, seeing as how I have yet to receive an answer, it will be last minute before I have a response. Sigh. Gotta love the government and their inability to do their job in a timely manner.

Head south around 10am. We have a border to cross and are staying in Tamale, Ghana a town a couple hours south of the border. It’s a short trek to the border and the road was brand new. There were a few spots where they were finishing construction of the road but all in all, I think it only took us about 4.5 hours. Arrive in Tamale and look for a bank that will take MasterCard for cash. This is a serious problem in West Africa. It’s almost impossible to find banks that work with MasterCard debit cards. Finally did. Thank you Stanbic. You will have lots of USAA customers for life with that option.

After looking at all of the hotel options and one of the guesthouses being full, we decide on the Catholic Archdiocese Guesthouse. For $22.50, Liam treated me to a very special third anniversary. Compete with prostitutes hovering outside Al’s room. Oh wait. Did I say prostitutes? I meant to say they “just wanted to be his friend.” One of the girls watching him check in slipped him a note under his door. Yea. He wasn’t very appreciative of that fact. Al didn’t really feel the need to make any new friends. And thankfully, they left our rooms alone all night!

I thought the C-wire added a nice touch. Safety first.

The room was actually pretty clean, but the bed was not comfortable and lacked a top sheet. So, we had to sleep under a blanket, which was probably clean, but still sketched me out a tiny bit. But, we survived. Another African guesthouse. Is it wrong that I’m starting to prefer the slightly sketchy guesthouses to the lush bungalows on the beach? It’s really a cost thing. I’ve become very cheap when choosing a place to snuggle. Why pay $200 a night when you can spend $20 for essentially the same thing. Well, hot water, top sheets, and towels may be a negotiable item. But, that’s part of the appeal. You never know what you are going to get.

After checking in and situating our self in our room, we walked down the street to Swad Fast Food for dinner. Now, the title might lead you to assume that this was a McDonald’s type fast food restaurant. However, fast food is a term African’s have added to titles because it is American and cool to say “fast food.” However, by no means does it actually mean you will receive your food in a timely manner. In fact, it could be a two-hour meal. Because time is irrelevant in Africa.  Which I’m adapting too and beginning to like. It’s a slower pace of life. It’s actually nice. 

As expected dinner took a while, but it was overall pretty tasty. I probably ordered the wrong thing for my belly, but Liam’s curry was fantastic and I was kicking myself for not ordering a vegetable curry instead of the chicken cordon bleu. After dinner, we walked back to the hotel and had a few beers in the courtyard of the guesthouse. It was enjoyable. There were a few cats running around and all of a sudden two were in a nasty cat fight and ran past us. I’m not sure what was going on there. Maybe one kitty crossed the other kitty’s line?

The party going on in the conference room ended right as we were finishing our beers in the courtyard. Thankfully. Cause had it continued into the wee hours of the morning, sleeping would have been impossible. The conference center was literally behind our two rooms and the music was LOUD. Speaker blowing loud. This is the norm in Africa though. I’m guessing it’s about feeling the music. Literally.

Head to bed after a rather unusual anniversary.

Wake up on the morning of the 23^rd and we grab breakfast from the guesthouse restaurant. The breakfast options were pretty limited. But, I can fill up on toast, fruit, and tea if necessary. However, fruit was the wrong thing to order, because everyone else ordered omelets and the guys were done eating their eggs before my fruit was even cut. It was worth the wait though. The pineapple was delicious.

Finish up breakfast, pay, check out. In the process of all of this, Liam pointed out that the back left wheel of the car was canted. I didn’t see it. But, I guess that could be a problem long term. We will just keep an eye on it and hope it gets us all the way back to Noukachott.

Pile in the car and we are off to Kumasi, Ghana. Kumasi is the capital of the Ashanti kingdom. The Ashanti people have been in this region for several centuries. There is a legend of the golden stool. A golden stool (literally made of gold) came down from the heavens. Over the years, several different groups of people have tried to steal the stool. However, after one of the last attempts, the real stool has been placed in a secure location and an imitation one is on display. Additionally, there is a sword in the ground at one of the hospital. If the sword is removed, the Ashanti kingdom will collapse. Also, they still have a king. Pretty cool.

Somehow we managed to make a wrong turn and were quite a ways out of Tamale before we realized it. But, stopped asked for directions and away we went on the correct road. The road was full of potholes, goats, mutton, cows, and people. Some of which understood basic physics. One lil' baby goat went splat. It was not nice. But, that's why slowing down and having plenty of reaction time is so essential here.

Arrived in Kumasi to a cluster of chaos. Seriously. The map we had was okay until we hit a detour in the road. Then, we made a right when we should have gone left and 20 km outside of the city we turned around. However, it was not a total loss. We bought some fresh sugar cane to chew on and a bunch of bananas. Delicious, as usual.

Back track and make the right turn. Check out the two hotels we are looking at staying in. Decide to stay at the Royal Park Hotel because they said they took American Express and we were low on cash. Check in and check out our room. It’s pretty nice and an actual king size bed. That’s the first I have seen on this trip. We are both going to get a good night sleep tonight!

We are staying in Kumasi for two nights. Mostly to break up the drive and actually enjoy the sites of a country. So, we head out on the hunt to find a place to eat dinner. Look for two restaurants down the street from our hotel but it’s approaching dark and we can’t find them. The Lonely Planet we are using is a few years old, and lists them off the map. We give up and have park at the restaurant next to our hotel. We head in, the servers fight over who is going to help us. Then, we sit down to eat. However, they turn on the music and it’s BLARING. In our ears. The speakers are 10 feet away and so loud. We decide there is no way we can suffer through that and pack up our stuff to leave. However, the owner comes over and talks to us. They turn down the music and we head over to another side of the restaurant. Which made me feel bad. Why should all the other patrons not have the music at the volume they want it? But, the owner assured us it was okay.

We ordered drinks and food. The owner came back over and talked with us for a while. Turns out his is a doctor in town and has opened his own hospital. We talked a little more and I gave him my contact info. I would not mind going back one day and volunteering at his hospital. He did mention that he wanted a new dialysis machine. I kind of felt like he was fishing for someone to donate one. But, the man owns a hospital. Owns a VERY successful restaurant. AND. Who knows what else. But, he needs a free dialysis machine. He probably makes more money than most of the physicians I know. Sigh. TIA.

Dinner was delicious. Liam ordered pizza. I ordered soup and vegetable fried rice. There must be a gigantic Asian population in this town because there is only Asian food on the menu. We started connecting the dots on that one. If there is a large range of a certain ethnic type of food – the population reflects it. But, whatever. Bring on some Chinese food. It’s delicious!  Liam’s pizza was also pretty tasty and the live band was nice. By the time we left, we were all a fan of this place. To think we almost missed out on a nice evening because the music was loud.

Leave the restaurant and walk to the car. We are blocked in. There are other people who have been blocked in for over an hour. Even though, they have announced the license plate over and over again. They were understandably upset. Well, that’s not okay to me. People should not be so impolite. So, I go find the owner and ask him to help. Then, we take off the license plate on the car and give it to a security guard (the plate was tied to the car with a string). Then, a group of about 5 guys picked up the back end of the Kia and moved it over a few feet. At last. Everyone is free! Helped the people who had been stuck to back out and away we went. Well at least the 200 feet we went. I’m just glad we were able to help!

Head back to the hotel and decide I can’t resist the monkey in the cage. He looked so miserable and lonely. I snuck a banana out to him. He was pretty excited and I think I made a friend. It was entertaining to watch him eat the banana. He did the exact same thing I do. Every time I come across a stringy thing on the banana, he pulled it off, made a face, and threw it to the ground! Yep. I definitely share a lot of genes with this guy!!!!!

My lil' friend.

Off to bed. I’m so exhausted. Traveling really wears you out.

Wake up on the morning of the 24^th. It doesn’t feel like Christmas Eve. Probably because it’s so hot. We take our sweet time and enjoy a late breakfast. After breakfast, walked back to the room and the housekeepers asked me to leave them a Christmas present. WTH? Really. That’s rude. I don’t even know you.

We showered and headed out to explore town. First stop, the military museum. I had no idea that the Ghanaians fought with the Germans in World War I in East Africa and then with the British in Burma in World War II. Talk about a change in alliance. They had managed to secure a pretty cool collection of military equipment. Guns, machetes, tanks, planes, etc. They had a section that was dedicated to each branch of the military. It was in the old fort that was used to protect the Ashanti kingdom in the early 1900s.

After the tour of the museum, head into town to go exploring. You never know what you will come across. Walk down, meet a few people. Ghanaians are a very friendly and welcoming people. We shop a little. But, it’s lunch time. Based on a recommendation one of the guys gave us, we walked across the street and had lunch in an awesome café. I ordered alu matter. I was craving some Indian goodness after Liam’s delicious curry the other night. Indian food is always good. And filling. I actually think it’s a comfort food for me. I grew up on it!!! All because we have so many fantastic Indian friends!!

After lunch, we decide to check out a few of the shops. Liam ends up bargaining for two Ashanti masks. One is the king. One is the queen. And he scored a GREAT deal. It’s become a game for him. How cheap can I get something?

Queen on left, King on the right.

Walked down the hill and went for a stroll through the market. I really enjoy markets. You literally can find anything you need. We found a receipt book for Al. There was a ton of CCC – cheap china crap. Okay. So, I think I need to explain something here. I have made a lot of comments about China lately. China has done a lot of great things for African countries as far as infrastructure. The new roads are quite nice. However, within 2 years they fall apart and are crap. It’s kind of like the cheaply made plastic stuff we buy in the states. You know it’s going to break at some point. Well, they have a whole different version of cheap plastic for Africa. And the quality is even worse than what is available in the States. To the point, some African countries (like Tanzania) are restricting and outlawing importation of CCC. Because, families save their hard earned money to buy a $5 chair. Then, the chair breaks a week later and the family has just wasted $5 that took them a year to save up. So, coming to Africa with an indifferent opinion, I now have a strong opinion that the entire world, specifically China, is only ‘helping’ Africa for their own gain. It’s sad. How about we all help this continent grow and become a strong economic factor in the world without trying to clean the continent of it’s natural resources. Might help us all out!!!!!

Leave the market and head back to the hotel to rest for a bit!  When Al & I get out of the car, Liam runs back to the bank to get cash. I walk towards our room and the security guard asks for his Christmas present. WTH, again. What is up with these people? It’s just rude. I spend a little bit of time talking to my new friend, Mr. Monkey. He even let me hold us hand for a bit and talked to me. The key was in the padlock and I wanted to let the poor guy go. But, I didn’t want to upset the hotel. I’m surprised the monkey hasn’t unlocked himself though. Monkeys are known for figuring out locks and opening things!!!

After looking for the other restaurants again, we decide to return to the restaurant next door for dinner. Leave the car parked at the hotel after last night’s fiasco and walk to the restaurant. Order dinner and some popcorn. Again the food was great! There was a couple near us that had to be holding their new grandbaby! They would not put the baby down! It made me smile! Another happy, loved baby!

Head back to the hotel and another night of great sleep.

Wake up on Christmas day! Merry Christmas world. We are heading to the beach. We eat breakfast and load up the car. At some point, the housekeepers asked me why I did not leave them their Christmas present. Really? Okay. Now, I’m annoyed. Liam goes to check out and gets really upset when he finds out they didn’t take American Express. I’m not surprised. Thankfully, he got enough cash out to cover it. Otherwise, we would have been screwed. The owner was standing there and saw how upset Liam was. Regardless, it didn’t matter. So, we paid and left. With no plans to ever return to this hotel. TIA.

Get on the road to head to Cape Coast. Or what we thought was the road to Cape Coast. Another wrong turn in Africa. Just another day in our life. Find the right road after a rather knowledgeable Ghanaian pointed us in the right direction. It happens so infrequently, we are all so shocked when it does!

This was probably one of the coolest drives of our trip. We went from Sahel to Jungle. In about 2 hours. Dryness to sweating, sticking, torture-ess heat.

Made it to Cape Coast and went to check out two hotels. The first was nice, but the 2^nd was much preferred. Checked in, and jumped in the car to go find a cash machine. Our constant problem in life these days. Finding a cash machine that works. While on the hunt for money, we came across Cape Coast Castle. Another horrible facility used to steal Africans of there home and ship them all over the world. However, at sunset and with all of the people around us celebrating Christmas, it was a fun place to be! I loved watching everyone swim in the ocean and celebrate life next to a building that relocated so many lives. Funny how life works isn’t it?

Canons.

Wandering around the Castle.

Merry Christmas!

May not want to order octopus with flip flop. Thinking foot sweat would not be a good flavor.

Leave the Castle and head to a restaurant on the beach for dinner. Christmas on the beach? I know it’s some people’s dream, but for me. I want 4 feet of snow and temperatures below zero. I was out of my element. But, at least Liam and I were able to spend the holidays together.

Head back to the hotel, get online for the first time in a couple of days and tackle the emails, skypes, and Christmas phone calls. What a zoo! Mostly because of lag and interference.

Head to bed. It’s been a long day and we are heading to Accra tomorrow.

Wake up, grab breakfast and away we go! December 26^th is all about spending time with friends. Susan and Dan were our neighbors in DC and they moved to Ghana this past March. They have two precious children that we love to spend time with! We can’t wait to see them!

Driving to Accra can be pretty death defying from what I heard the boys mumble while I was napping. Something about 10 died on this curve, 12 died here, etc. Scary. But, I blame unbelievably poor driving. Oh and the 5 people hanging on the back of the bus rather than sitting in it. It’s a public health/safety teaching extravaganza in the making!!! But, will the people absorb and practice the lessons? Always a question…

Arrive safely into Accra, check into the Holiday Inn Airport (nicest hotel on our trip) and headed over to Susan and Dan’s. Lots of hugs and hanging out with friends. They had friends in town from Shanghai. I love meeting friends of friends. You know you surround yourself with good people when their friends are wonderful as well! It was such a wonderful day! Including baking with the bigger munchkins!

After a fantastic dinner, we headed back to the hotel and crashed.

Woke up on the 27^th. At what I thought was 8:30. Well, guess what. Clocks are playing tricks on me too. Cause it was really 7:30. So, I was exhausted already and woke up an hour early. Sigh. But, I’m going mask hunting. I’m on the hunt for two masks. Both are specific for Ghana.

Another Ghanaian mask.

Head over to Susan and Dan’s and Karen, Susan, and I jump in the car to enjoy a morning of shopping and woman time. First, we drive by a few craft markets that are closed because it is a holiday in Ghana. Head to the open-air market. Since their car was broken into, Susan stayed in the car and practiced for her language class. Karen and I went hunting. I love the way she bargains. She is so nice! She gives her price and then says something along the lines of, “It’s okay if you don’t want to take that price, but that’s all I’m willing to pay for it.” She was on the hunt for presents for her two munchkins and a nativity scene. I found one of the masks I wanted. I guess the other will have to wait. Head back to the car and go grab some lunch at a great French café.

After lunch, we headed to Global Mamas (http://www.globalmamas.org). It’s a fair trade NGO. They had a bunch of great stuff. I bought a counting kids book. I’m a sucker for kids book. We have a pretty great collection now!!! But, I’m hoping it only grows! It’s so important for children to have books and develop a love for reading at a young age!

Head back over to there house around 1400. Spend the rest of the afternoon having great conversation and spending time playing with the munchkins! Head back to the hotel as they were sitting down for dinner. Liam and I spent the rest of the evening catching up on life/work/school.

I’m sad we are leaving tomorrow to begin the drive back to Nouakchott. But, I’ve also hit the I’m-done-with-traveling-point. Ready to go back home.

Off to Burkina Faso? Huh? That's a country?

16 December 2011 - 21 December 2011

I woke up around 5:30am. I was a woman on a mission. I wanted to take pictures of sunrise and fisherman at the beginning of the day. But, it was still too dark so I rolled back over for a little bit. About 6:30am, I crawled out of bed to check out the light. Decided it was perfect timing and headed downstairs and tried to find a way to the river. There was a gate that looked like it led to the river, but it was locked. Exit at the front of the hotel and walk down the street. Say hello to the locals. Malian people are so friendly. See a farm field with an unfinished house on the river behind it. Walk through the fields hoping not to cross paths with a West African snake. Make it to the river bank and take in the noise of the river. Snap a few shots of the ripples in the water. The sun begins to peak over the hills in the distance. A fisherman passes me as he looks in his net along the bank for bait fish. I really like Bamako. Hopefully, we will have an opportunity to move here one day!

I even beat the sun this AM. That doesn't happen very often.

Fishing on the Niger River.

Head back to the hotel and crawl back into bed. Liam was half awake and wondering where I had gone. He’s so cute in the morning! Try to sleep for a little bit longer but it’s not happening. Get out of bed and prepare to get out on the road again. Liam happened to check our checking account and figure out the bill he paid the other day cleaned out our checking account. So, call American Express to have them refund the payment. What a pain the butt. Liam moved some money from savings so we could have cash on hand once we found an ATM. Just another problem with intermittent Internet. Little things you learn along the way. Thankfully, AMEX was actually helpful and the money should be back in our account within a few days. Since we aren’t using it except to pull cash out on occasion, it should not be a big deal. Life is easier in a lot of ways with cash only.

Shower and head to breakfast. Pay the bill and away we go. We are planning on stopping in Sikasso, Mali for the night. It’s about a 4-5 hour drive. Stop along the way to take a picture of a village name.

Say that 10 times real fast....

Arrive in Sikasso and look for the hotel that someone in the Bamako embassy recommended. For some reason, they said there were no rooms available. I would have believed them, except it seemed shady. We will probably never know why we got the shady vibe. Regardless, if they don’t want us at the hotel tonight, there is probably a reason. So, we will continue onto Bobo-Dissolou, Burkina Faso.  It’s not that far away from Sikasso and is a bigger town.

The border crossing was fairly easy. However, one of the national police walked up to me and told me I was a nice big woman perfect for him. Um. No. I’m already married and he’s standing two feet away from me AND you just called me fat. Go, visually assault someone else please. I’m not digging the Muslim men who are trying to score an American 2nd or 3rd wife. I’ve already got a husband. Liam didn’t catch what he said, but when I told him later, he laughed.

Continue driving and arrive in Bobo as the sun is setting. Manage to find the hotel (Villa Rose) without a lot of difficulty. The owner recommends a restaurant for us down the street. We decided to walk over to the restaurant because it was maybe a quarter of a mile away. While walking, we passed a poultry and pigeon brochette seller. Thought about it for a minute and opted for a fine dining experience. You have to indulge every once in a while!! Besides, the meat on a stick in Africa can be quiet delicious going down. Just don’t blame me if it comes back up!

Enjoy a nice dinner and talk about what we are going to do tomorrow. Decide to head south to Banfora and look for the Karfiguela waterfalls. After we finish dinner, we head back to the hotel to change our clothes and head to a local bar to listen to live music. After getting a taste in Kayes, I just want to hear more. When we arrive we meet, Franca, Moctar’s wife. She is from Amsterdam, Netherlands. They spend part of their time in Bobo and the other part in Amsterdam. Very friendly! Since they are going to be full tomorrow night, they have made reservations for us at another hotel in town and offered to show us how to get there tomorrow. It’s so nice to see businesses that still want to take care of their customers. I would stay there again in the future!

Moctar offers to take us over to the bar since our car is full of stuff. We pull the truck onto the hotel compound and away we go. The bar is hosting a musical festival! Woo hoo. What a great way to spend a birthday eve! The music was okay to pretty impressive! I’m so impressed by the fact that they can turn a few gourds, some wood, a couple of reeds, some fishing line, and a cow butt into a full band. Moctar & Franca join us after they ate dinner around 10pm. We listen to the music festival until around 1am and then everything dies down and it is time to return to the hotel. Head over to the annex and get ready for bed. I convince Liam that he has to sleep with me in a twin bed because it’s my birthday and I don’t want him to sleep in the other twin bed on the other side of the room. For some reason, he agreed and crawled in bed.

Woke up on my birthday to a stupid rooster crowing, a train passing by, and people talking. Oh yeah. There was a goat making goat noises too. REALLY?!?!?!?! So, much for sleeping in on my birthday. Crawl out of bed around 8am and Liam runs over to get hot water for a bucket shower and coffee for himself. The water was nice and boiling. I had to fill it almost completely with cold water to keep it from burning my skin! Then, I enjoyed a nice warm bucket shower in a communal bathroom.

Head back to the room and get dressed. Then, we head to breakfast. Liam wants to take a shower after he eats and has his morning coffee. After he is showered, we check out of the hotel and are on our way to Banfora. On the way to Banfora, Liam finds out about a lake that has hippos in it. It’s about 7 kms south of Banfora. So, we decided to head their first and back track to the falls. Find the lake, pay the 2000 CFA fee per person and drive to the end of the road. Somehow we missed that the boat ride to the hippos was included in the entrance fee. When we were told the boat ride was 10000 CFA per person, we opted not to take a ride in the rickety boat. Had I known it was included, I probably would have gone for a ride! But, instead, Liam walked around the lake with me to see if we could get close enough to them to take a picture. We walked a portion of the lake and didn’t see anything. So, we returned to the car and decided the hippo lake was a tourist trap.

Pull out the West Africa Lonely Planet book and find a restaurant for lunch. Head to the Hotel Canne a Sucre. Order a beef brochette, sautéed potatoes, and a salad. Ate everything but the beef. I’ve decided I don’t like the beef here. It’s too wild meat tasting for me. I felt bad wasting it all, but if you don’t like it. Why eat it?

Since we are traveling, I did not have a birthday cake for the first time in my life. Liam really didn’t believe me at first, but birthday cake is one of my all time favorite things. So, when I get back to Dar, I’m going to make myself a nice yummy cake! Which was my plan from the get-go – it was just odd being in the day and not having a slice of yummy cake for my birthday! The other thing that was a little odd – I’m a December baby. It’s supposed to be cold on my birthday, preferably with 2-4 feet of snow on the ground. But, we were in 95 degree weather. That’s something I’m going to have a hard time adjusting too. Having birthdays in hot weather. I might have to disappear for a few days around December 17th to the northern hemisphere in the future.

After lunch, Liam and I each had a nice bowl of homemade vanilla ice cream. It was awesome. Creamy. Perfect texture. Perfect flavor. That’s another thing we need to start working on – Ice cream making. We are going to become a 100% from scratch kitchen before too long. (If you have any tips on ice cream making – shoot us an email – we will share across the globe with other military and State Department people).

Get back in the car and begin the hunt for the water falls. In theory, we probably should have hired a guide – but that takes all the fun out of wandering. Head back out of town. At approximately 10kms, we take a left hand turn onto a dirt road. Stop and ask someone how to get to the falls and he says keep going on this road. Well we do, until we see something that we think could be the falls. Turns out, it’s the Dome. Well, we leave the dome b/c it’s a giant rock formation and we have all seen rocks and keep on searching for the falls. Drive through a few more farm fields and finally see a sign that says Cascades. YAY! The falls. Turn down a bumpy dirt road. See a booth to pay the entrance fee. It was 1000 CFA per person.  Pull up a little past the booth and park for 300 CFA. There are vendors selling wares on the left hand side of the parking lot. Man. This town is full of tourist trap places. 

About 10 children swarm us and want to take us up to the falls – aka – be our guide. We tell them that we are okay and want to hike and enjoy the walk on our own. I know what you are thinking – we didn’t help the poor, starving African children. But, in reality. We did. We paid to visit the falls and paid for parking. If we gave money to every person who wanted some from us, we would end up filing bankruptcy by the end of the month. The amount of money we have is relative to what we are responsible for paying in the States (mortgage, student loans, etc.). But, Africans do not see this. They see an expat and think we are all billionaires. And in some ways we are. But, like I said. If I gave money to everyone who wanted some from me, we would end up bankrupt.

Head up the trail to the top of the waterfalls. Was able to finally work out a few of the timed shutter speed settings on our new camera and got a few great shots of the falls! They were actually really pretty! And I bet they are even better in rainy season when there is a ton more water. Since sunset was approaching, we hiked back down from the top of the falls and took another path to the base. Yep, rainy season would be a better time to see the falls – but it’s not to shabby today!

Not quite. But, I liked the picture.

Finally figured it out. Now to get the water splashes out. Grrr.

Walk to the car and briefly look at a few of the items for sale. Decide we didn’t really like anything and began our journey back to Bobo-Dissolou. We arrived in town right after sunset. Went to the old hotel to pick up Al’s phone – but it ended up being at the restaurant from the night before. Run over to the restaurant. Pick up his phone. The owner called to the other restaurant she owns in town to make reservations for dinner for us. People are so wonderful here! Then, begin the hunt for our new hotel. Find it after realizing we were on the wrong main road. Check in, put our bags up. For $15/night, we got a suite with no hot water, no blanket, and almost no toilet paper! Liam’s post on Facebook made me laugh – “Happy Birthday my lovely wifey. You’re the best travel partner in the world. And for that you get a truly African B-Day present. A wonderful night in a $15 room with no hot water and no blanket. Come here and snuggle.” 

Change our clothes and head to Le Saint Germaine for dinner. Park the car. Walk into a beautiful courtyard with lots of African furniture and art for sale. Africans have some of the best wood working skills I have ever seen! The carvings are fantastic. Pick a table in the garden near the projection screen/stage where they are playing music DVDs. Some nights they have various live music, but we enjoyed the DVDs none the less. Dinner was amazing. And the service was some of the best we have had in Africa. We weren’t sure if it was because the owner made our reservation or if service was really great here!

After dinner, we decided to fore go another night of the music fest and head to bed. It took a lot of effort to not crash in the car on the way back to the hotel. Crawl into bed and fell asleep. What a nice way to end my 1st African birthday. You know you are getting old when you would rather sleep on your birthday than go out and party all night!!!

Wake up on the morning of the 18th and ponder a shower. I’m such a weenie when it comes to cold water. I absolutely detest it and will avoid it at all cost. But, Liam said it wasn’t that cold and I should give it a try. So, I did. And while it was cold, it wasn’t unbearable. Showered really quickly and finished packing up all of our stuff. We walked outside into the hotel courtyard and found Al. He had already loaded his stuff in the car. We loaded our stuff and then joined him. There were a few vendors in the courtyard of the hotel selling their wares.  The hotel also has a ton of masks on display and for sale. But, we opt to head to the market in downtown Bobo-Dissolou because the selection and prices are supposed to be a little bit better.

Check out of the hotel and fill up the car. Then, we migrate to the market area of town. We get out of the car and barely make it across the street before we are bombarded with requests to buy merchandise. We visit a mask shop and see a few HUGE Bobo goat masks. We ask the price. 150 euros. Um. I choke. Excuse me. Really? That’s ridiculous. Liam asks the price in CFA and we were told 100,000 CFA. Again. That’s insane. Liam offers 20,000 CFA and they say that is way to low. So, we continue on down the street. As we are walking away, the seller at the store says that he is going to call his friend and we agree to stop back by the store before we leave. As we walk a few guys begin to walk with us and take us into the maze of the market. It’s unbelievable. They literally sell EVERYTHING in there. Fabrics, hair extensions, food, electronics, chachkas, etc.  We visit a few vendors in the market and decide we don’t really like any of the masks. So, we walk back to another store that Al had agreed to visit to check it out.

Liam and I decided we would go back to the first mask shop and see if they would come down anymore. They asked us what the final price was and Liam said 25,000 CFA. Well, they finally agreed. Now, we just have to figure out how to get our giant Bobo goat back to Dar! I might be shipping some clothes so the goat fits in our suitcase.

Bobo Goat mask (Tiles are typical 12" x 12")

Also, keep in mind. If you ever visit our house, you may be the recipient of a very special alarm clock. One involving Liam, the goat mask, and goat noises. (He has yet to let me video it. But, given the chance in the near future – I promise to record it).

After securing the goat mask in the car, we began the journey to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.  This is the capital city and where the embassy is. We are staying in a TDY house for free! WOO HOO! Save the travel budget where we can!  Follow the map we have in Lonely Planet to the embassy. Well, it turns out, the embassy on the map is now the ambassador’s house. Liam calls our contact and finds out that we are actually right by the house that we will be staying at and tells us the American Club is down the street. We decide to wander to the American Club and grab lunch. A couple of the guys stop by the American Club to meet us and coordinate the Monday’s events. Then, they show us the house we are crashing in. Housing is pretty nice in Burkina Faso. Every house has a pool. This one has a fantastic screened porch and a beautiful garden. Find our way around the house. Since there isn’t an Internet connection, we decide to walk back over to the American Club for Sunday football and Internet.  We needed to figure out where the embassy was since it was not on the map we had.

Head back to the house around 10:30pm. Move my bag into the bedroom and head to bed. I’m exhausted. Traveling around is wearing me out.

Wake up on the morning of the 19th and get dressed to head to the embassy. The guys have a meeting at 11am with the OSC chief. However, when we researched the location of the embassy, Google maps led us in the opposite direction. Call the embassy and find out we were completely on the opposite side of town and passed on the info that we would be a little late.

The embassy is brand new. Went upstairs to meet with travel about our passports. Ate lunch with the DATT. Then, the guys went for a few meetings and I went to the CLO office to work on some of my stuff. At some point, I wander into the bathroom and giggled. The following sign was on display. And I'm glad it was because when you introduce a Western toilet into Africa, it can result in a few disasters.  Better be safe than sorry.

Awesome. AND. Necessary. Apparently.

Around 3pm we headed back to the house. On the way home, we passed a few woman riding scooters with babies tied to their backs. Oh and without helmets. I’m thinking this could be a major problem with shorter life-span. It also caused me to say, “You know, Liam, if we end up living in Burkina Faso with small children, we are going to have to make it VERY clear that our children will not be strapped to the back of our nanny on her scooter.” But, this is why I’m glad I’m traveling with Liam. Cause now I know that’s something to talk to our future nannies about.

There are so many things wrong with this picture.

By the time we got home it was around 5pm. We decided to head to the American Club for dinner because it’s so close to the house where we are staying. We walk over to the America Club, but find out the restaurant is closed on Monday nights. I hope Ouagadougou isn’t like Dar because most of the restaurants are closed on Monday nights in Dar. We check email quickly and head back to the house to get our travel book and find a place for dinner. We ended up going to Le Verdoyant.

Dinner was pleasant until a man at another table started screaming at the waiter for no reason other than to be extremely rude. The restaurant went SILENT. And in a place where politeness and greetings are one of the most important things you will do, China just lost a little more respect from everyone in the restaurant.

Enjoyed the rest of dinner and headed back home and off to bed.

The 20^th was a day of organizing and planning. Being on the road, makes it very difficult to plan and deal with paperwork from past trips and my travel for surgery. So, we decided to spend part of the day at the embassy sending emails and scanning documents. After a few hours at the embassy, we headed to the grocery store. They weren’t open until 4:30pm so we spent about 30 minutes waiting for them to open. This grocery store is in a brand new shopping center. There are not a lot of stores open. But, what struck me was the absolute lack of people in the mall.

Pick up our groceries and decide to head to the other grocery store since the first Marina Market didn’t have everything we needed for dinner. The other location is across from the Grand Mosque in downtown Ouagadougou. Around the grand mosque is a pretty large market. It’s like the Target of Burkina Faso. You can find anything and everything you want. I’m a big fan of the African markets!!  It’s also fun to people watch! Thoroughly, worth a day or two of your time!

After we find everything, leave the market and head to the house. Prep everything for dinner. That way, once we are ready to eat, it will only take about 20 minutes. Eat dinner and head to bed. It’s an early night, but I’m exhausted.

Turns out the 21^st ended up being another day of paperwork. We tried to knock some of it out at the American Club but the Internet connection there is awful. So, after we ate lunch, we headed to the Embassy. Spent a few hours filing paperwork and researching the rest of the trip. Once we found out the money was back in our account from when American Express cleaned it out, we pulled out money from the ATM that accepts our debit cards.

Somehow on the way home we end up missing our turn for the short way home. No big deal. We took the long way home. Ate leftovers for dinner, gathered our stuff, and talked about the journey some more.

Time to head to bed because we have a few long days of driving ahead.

Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, & A Giant Happy Holidays to all!!!

We are still traveling in West Africa and we wanted to wish everyone a warm and wonderful holiday season!

With Love,
Francis & Liam Connor

Mali...Timbuktu is an actual place...

10 December 2011 – 15 December 2011

Wake up feeling like we were eaten alive by little critters. It’s an early morning so we can get on the road and get through the border. Because, you never know how the border crossings will go. Eat breakfast, gather our stuff, and head out the door.

The road to the border was okay. With okay meaning drivable but rather littered with potholes. Traffic wasn’t bad. There were a few other cars leading the way around the potholes. It was almost stomach turning wandering back and forth across the road over and over again. Finally, make it to the border town. There are big rig trucks on both sides of the road. We drive through them looking for the border. End up on the other side of town and decide we missed the turn for the border. Back track a little and take another turn through town. End up on a different side of town out in the Sahel and realize we must have missed a different turn. Back track and find the turn. Arrive at the Senegalese border. The guards look up and see our dip plates and decide to just wave us through the border. No exit stamp. No formalities. I’m 100% certain that we are going to have to come back and get exit stamps.

Drive a few more kms and come to another barricade. Stop and go to the immigration office. It was really hot in the office, but there was a nice breeze blowing through. One of the Malian immigration officers wanted to practice his English with us. That happens to us a lot. We want to practice their languages and they want to practice ours. So, it ends up being us asking information in Frenglish and them responded in Frenglish. Good times.

Stamped passports and one ticket (a carnival type ticket for prizes not a speeding ticket) for vehicle registration information and we jump back in the car. Before, the guy working the barricade will let us through he needs our ticket. Really. Couldn’t you have kept your ticket and let us be on our way. It’s not like there are a ton of people at the boarder crossing right now (we were one of 2 cars).

Cross the border and find a tollbooth. Hmmm. I wonder how much this is going to cost us. Turns out the rates are set and it’s a pretty legit operation. Good work Mali. However, the road is horrible. So, can you use the tolls to actually repair it????  The heat makes the road so soft that when trucks brake it pulls up the payment and creates huge bumps and holes in the road. This is not a road that should be driven above 80 kph. It was an insane drive. I was so nauseous by the end of it because of the bumpiness and swerving back and forth to avoid the holes.

Pull into Kayes. It’s a pretty large town. Lots of people running around. Now, we have to find one of two hotels we have a recommendation for (Thank goodness for Lonely Planet and Bradt – otherwise it would be three westerners totally lost in Africa. Drive through the majority of town and don’t see either hotel. Find the train station. One hotel is supposedly across the street. But, we drove up and down the street twice and couldn’t find it. But, all of a sudden a tiny sign appears behind a building and we find one of the hotels. Perfect. Now, let’s go find a room.

Check out the rooms and they are actually pretty nice. The room is clean with en suite bathroom and the a/c works. What more do I really need? Baby wipes because there is no toilet paper. But, this isn’t our first rodeo and we have a giant pack in the car! Grab our stuff and take it up to our room. We lay down and take a nap. What else are you supposed to do when its 40+ degrees outside??

Wake up and try to go find the first French fort and rapids east of town in Medine. It’s about 15 kms outside of town. End up near a quarry and figure out the Chinaman has blocked the falls. We spend the next 30 minutes trying to find a road down to the falls so that we can go walk around them and take pictures. Well, Chinaman has restricted the view with their pool and buildings for the quarry. I wonder what else they are taking from Mali. It’s amazing. China has its hand in almost every country in Africa. My question is how long will it take before China has taken all of the resources from Africa???

Chinaman compound

The fall's behind the compound.

Give up on the falls and head over to Medine to look at the fort. Part of the fort is now a hotel. There were a few little canons but nothing really impressive. While wandering, we drove through a few villages. I love the looks people give us as we drive by. It’s like they’ve seen a ghost or don’t believe their eyes.

We head back to the hotel and clean up before dinner. The restaurant at the hotel is supposed to be one of the best in town. We all order kuku and pomme de terre frites. What shows up is a pile of greasy fried potatoes and half a chicken with an onion and pepper piece on top. While it was tasty, I knew the grease was going to have me running to the bathroom in 20 minutes. Stupid Gallbladder.

After dinner, we decide to go check out the casino onsite. We wander in and try to play but someone tells us that you need tokens. We exchanged 2000 CFA (~ $4) for tokens and away we went to play. All of the games were electronic slot or poker machines.  I went straight for deuces wild blackjack. My favorite. Except I couldn’t figure out how to get to deuces wild. So, a few gentlemen helped me figure out how to work the machine. They then felt they needed to teach me how to play. But, they quickly learned that I’m not a blackjack rookie. Didn’t do too badly. But, played through all of my tokens because I was having fun!

Leave the casino and Al heads to bed. Liam and I meander into a side bar. They have a giant projection screen set up and are playing the Madrid vs. Barcelona game. As we were walking in they were moving a table and two chairs to have a better view of the game. The waitress asks us if we want to sit down. Why, yes. We will. Sitting in the middle of nowhere in Mali watching a major European soccer match on a projection screen. Wow. Life’s not too shabby!  Order a couple of beers and figure out who the crowd is cheering for. We haven’t picked our EU soccer team (or teams) yet. But, it’s going to happen soon. Especially, with us moving to Italy.

I love watching soccer matches overseas. The crowds are so passionate and excitable. It’s great. Every time a team scored or blocked a great shot, both sides would erupt in excitement or anger. When Madrid scored for the last time before the end of the game, I thought the shanty roof was going to come crashing down as everyone ran around high-fiving and celebrating. What a great experience.

At night, the town comes out to play. The discotec was bumping. The casino was full swing and everyone from the soccer game was migrating to other areas of the hotel. Left the bar area and headed over to the hotel garden where they had live Malian musicians. Mali is know for their music. In fact, Liam read in one of our books that famous guitarists from all over the world to train and improve their technique. Pretty cool. The guitar they play here is called kora. It has up to 21 strings. It’s an amazing instrument. There is a Grammy winning artist who offers lessons in Bamako. If we ever move to Mali, we are going to take a few. But, first, we have to find a kora.

After listening to music for a while, we decide to head upstairs and go to bed. We have a long drive tomorrow to Bamako and want to get some sleep in case the roads are bad and we all end up driving portions of it.

Wake up on the morning of the 11^th as the power cuts off. Wonder how I’m going to take a shower/bucket bath. Have Liam move the bucket full of water out of the shower area and turn on the faucet – just to see if it would work. Well, it does. But, the water is scalding. Put some hot water in the plastic teapot and let it sit for a minute. Then, take a sponge bath using scalding and cool water. Only thing I didn’t do was wash my hair because it was going to be a bit of pain. Felt nice to be so fresh and so clean! Liam wasn’t going to take a shower. However, he broke down. Our first pseudo-bucket shower is a success!

Gather our bags and head to the car! Load up and get on the road to Bamako. It’s 612 kms and could be a very long day. We have not been given great information about the roads because the conditions change frequently. Turns out, minus about 60 kms the road was pretty new. The biggest threat to our safety was the donkeys, cows, dogs, and goats roaming around.

Baobabs in Mali.

Arrive in Bamako and make our way around Bamako to the embassy. We are meeting up with Mike. Mike & Jayne wonderfully offered to let us crash at their place to maximize the travel budget. Jayne was out of town but we still managed to play Words with Friends without any issues. Gotta love the Internet!

Met up with Mike and wandered to their house. Arrived to a nice home cooked dinner. Their housekeeper is an amazing cook and so sweet. She does not speak a lot of English and I don’t speak a lot of French but we were able to have a few basic conversations over the few days we were in Bamako and she taught me some French!

Spent some time talking to Mike that night about life in Bamako and the plans for the week. Then head to bed. It’s an early morning for everyone!

The alarm goes off relatively early on the morning of the 12^th and I want to hide under the covers. I was so tired. But, pull myself out of bed after Liam gets out of the shower and begin to get ready for my day. Wendy, Mike & Jayne’s next-door neighbor is going to pick me up and show me around town. Since I’ve had a good feeling about Mali the whole we have been here, I’m excited about exploring Bamako to see if it continues.

Wendy comes over around 9am and we head to her house to let the puppies out and then off we go. We head to the Botanical Gardens on the north end of town. It’s a beautiful garden area. There is also a National museum and they are building a zoo in this area. Within the garden, they have miniature replicas of the famous mosques around Timbuktu area. Additionally, they have a photo exhibit on display. The pictures were taken by African photographers following the theme “Sustainability.” It was very interesting to see Africans bring light to many of the major issues on the continent. I enjoyed their interpretations and hope that the exhibit receives international exposure.

After the Botanical gardens, we visited to local shops that had a lot of artwork. We also drove through the major market in town. It would be a lot of fun to come down here and shop. Next, we headed to the big grocery store. I like visiting the grocery stores to see what’s available and how much tings cost. It helps to make decisions on where we want to move next in Africa. Also, bought a few more snacks for the road.

After the store, we walk down the street to have some ice cream. The ice cream parlor had a bunch of delicious flavors and for 1500 CFA you get two scoops in a waffle cone. Okay. Bamako is looking amazing. Granted it’s winter and there is no summer heat to contend with, but, I like it here.

Head back to the house and relax and read. The guys come back from the embassy around 3:30pm. Mike came home about 5:30pm. There are a few other TDY guys and Wendy coming over to join us for dinner. After dinner, Abu, a Tuareg from Timbuktu, came over to Mike’s to show us knives, jewelry, and camel leather boxes that his family made. It took him about 20 minutes to set up his wares on a cotton mat on the floor. We all gathered around the on the floor and began shopping! The design on most of the pieces is the map to cross the Sahara from Timbuktu to northern Mali and onto Morocco. We spent a lot of time thinking and talking about what we wanted to buy and ended up buying a knife, a necklace, a camel leather box, and a bottle opener. Abu also gave us a camel tooth necklace and a small knife in a pink camel leather sheath. I for one had never seen camel leather anything. It’s beautiful. And the way they designed the boxes, sheathes was impressive. After everyone had bought the items they wanted, Abu said that he would be willing to come back over to Mike’s in a couple of days to have tea and talk about life in Timbuktu and the Sahara.

Abu and his wares. (Thanks Al for the picture!)

Admired our new items for a while and then headed onto bed. Tomorrow’s going to be another fun filled day!

Wake up on the 13^th and the guys are going to an exercise or conference or something for work. I’m going to play again. Wendy and I meet up around 11am and we are heading across the river to check out the other side of Bamako. We end up driving past Jasmine & John’s house and stop by to say hello since they are leaving post this week. Jasmine joins us for lunch at the a hotel café around the corner. Lunch was fantastic. The food was great, the company enjoyable and a nice view of the Niger River. After lunch, we went for a walk in Jasmine’s neighborhood to check out a small fishing village. As we walked through the village, we saw an area that had recently been on fire. Apparently, something exploded in one of the houses and they burnt to the ground. Right after the site of the burnt homes, there was a baby toddling around with a singed arm from elbow to the top of his knuckles. Wendy, Jasmine, and I were all concerned. We walked back to Jasmine’s house put together a first aid pack and headed back to village to take care of the baby.

Then, we had a 3-way translation to show the mom how to care for the baby’s arm to keep it clean and hopefully infection free. Jasmine translated my instructions into French. Her cook, Jeremiah, then translated them into to the local language, Bambara. Of course, insert the standard crowd of Africans watching the crazy mzungu take care of the baby. We cleaned the baby’s arm, used a sanitary napkin for an absorbent and protecting pad, and then wrapped it in that sticky brown gauze that I normally hate.  The little guy was a trooper. He barely whimpered and once we had his arm all wrapped and protected, he began to smile. Jeremiah had just baked cookies so we dispersed those among the people who had gathered. I just hope that baby doesn’t lose his arm to infection. Such a simple thing to take care of – if you have the right stuff – which they do now because we left everything with them.

Returned to Mike & Jayne’s and told Liam and Al I worked today and was hopeful that we might have improved the outcome for the little boy. First thing out of boy of their mouths, “But, did you get paid?” Insert obligatory eye roll. So, much for being high on my nursing kite. But, at least I know they have the products they need to take care of the baby. I just hope his mom actually cleans it and takes care of it.

Funny story. The guys were leaving the conference hotel and Al pulled up to the gate to exit. But, the guard at the gate wouldn’t open the gate. Because, Al did not drive around the circle to the gate. He drove straight to the gate because it was only a few feet away. The guard absolutely refused to open the gate until Al drove back around the circle and re-approached the gate correctly. I’m dead serious. Just ask Al. But, be prepared for him to get a little excited and flustered. I think he is still annoyed that the guy wouldn’t just open the gate with instructions on how to properly exit for next time. We tend to take our higher order of thinking for granted sometimes.

Enjoy another home cooked meal and tumble into bed. It was a long day. But, I didn’t sleep very well. I kept thinking about the baby and how I should be doing more to help. So, frustrating. I love what I do but sometimes it’s really hard not to take work home with you.

Woke up on the morning of 14^th. Wendy and I had talked about going on a photo safari of Bamako, but Mike made an appointment for me to talk with the Regional Medical Officer about working for the State Department. I’m so glad he set up this meeting for me!!! It was very informative. If I work for the State Department as a nurse practitioner, they could move me anywhere in the world. Which could be problematic since Liam will always be in Africa. But, we will figure it out. Luckily, I’m in a field where work is fun and I’ll make it happen wherever we are. But, one thing that came out of our discussion. We can do 10 years in Africa, and then spend the next 10 of my career wandering the rest of the globe. Oh the possibilities to wander the world. I’m feeling very nomadic.

Hung out at the embassy in the lobby reading my book while the guys finished all of their meetings. Wandered around the library at the embassy in Bamako. Pretty impressive. There were a lot of African history books and I spent some time flipping through them. Around 2:30pm, they were done with their meetings and we were able to head back to the house.

Spent the next couple of hours writing and stalking my class to see my final grade for Patho. Final grade isn’t posted yet, but at 96% is an A. Another great score. Amazing how that happens when you have all the time in the world.

After dinner, Abu came back over to the house to have tea and talk to us about life in Timbuktu since we can’t make it up there due to safety warnings. There are three pots of tea. The first pot is strong like death. The second pot is sweet like life. The third pot is sugar like love. The first pot was green tea leaves and sugar. The tea was so fresh. It smelled delicious in the plastic bag. I know it’s going to taste fantastic. He served the tea in two small glasses that we shared. The first wife always gets the first cup. Since, I was the only wife there, I received the first glass. So, yummy. But, strong. As we drank the first pot, Mike stepped outside to speak to a coworker and we asked Abu about life in Timbuktu. He explained how the economy has been affected by the lack of tourism. People are not visiting Timbuktu because of AQIM and other terrorist-like organizations. There have been kidnappings, murders, etc recently. When tourism is healthy, he is a tour guide. Now, to make money to feed his family, he has resorted to traveling to Bamako to sell the wares his family makes. He explained that everyone there has been affected. Even the people who do not work directly with tourism.  Once upon a time, the Tuareg people were some of the wealthiest. Timbuktu was the center of trade for the region known as Sudan many years ago. And now, with decreased rain and lack of tourism, people are having to sell treasured family heirlooms to survive. Abu is pretty bright. And we were really impressed with his comprehension of economic situation of Timbuktu.

Mike came back in, drank his tea, and we prepped the second pot. The second pot he added mint and sugar. This tea was perfection. It was delicious. We also found out there are 3-4 men who travel in caravan to the cities north of Timbuktu. Abu has made the trip 3 times. The first time his responsibility was to make tea, set-up the tents, and cook. It’s very important as a man to make the trip by yourself one time to show to our community that you are capable of making the journey. I was impressed. I can only imagine how beautiful the stars are at night, alone, in the Sahara. He smiled and excited began to talk about the stars. I’m so pissed at the terrorists. They really take all the fun out of life.

Al asked Abu if the Tuareg people were trying to regulate the terrorists’ activities in the area. He said they were because they want the tourists to come back and spend money to boost their economy. It’s sounds like a bad situation. Abu also talked about a drought that occurred years ago. Many elders are worried that they are seeing the signs of another drought. They are concerned because the Malian government does not frequently send aid or assistance to the area. If they don’t receive any help, they will have minimal water and food. People will die. Animals will die. It sounds like it’s only going to get worse before it gets better. If there is a better.

We make the third pot of tea. It’s even better than the 2^nd pot. Yummy. Okay. I’m addicted. I have to find a small teapot and some loose tea. I’ve studied how he made it. Time to get our tea on. Crap. I’m going native. C’est la vie.

After the 3^rd pot is finished, we say goodbye to Abu and promise to visit as soon as we can! I really can’t wait. He has only enhanced my desire to disappear into the desert around Timbuktu. Shortly after Abu leaves, we all head to bed. Tomorrow’s going to be a busy day.

Wake up on the morning of the 15^th. The guys head to the embassy to meet with the Ambassador. I stay at home to pack and clean up our stuff. We are going to stay at a hotel tonight so Mike can have his house back to pack and get ready to go to the States for vacation. The guys come home to pick me up and change and then we are on our way to the NIH malaria lab in Bamako. Um. Yes, please. Who knew NIH had a lab to grow mosquitoes in Bamako. I couldn’t believe how many mosquitoes they were breeding. I felt like a kid in a candy store. They also have a relatively new HIV and TB lab. We were able to view a few microorganisms that they are also studying. Basically, it’s a swanky topical disease lab in the right place! What a great center! We really enjoyed the tour! (Thanks Mike for setting it up!).

Leave the NIH lab and head back into town. Grab a bite to eat at the French institute. Lunch was tasty and around the institute, vendors have set up shop. We found a mask we liked from the Sikasso region and snatched it up. The seller said I stole it for the price he sold it to me. But, I told him he didn’t have to sell it. But, I’m glad he did. The mask is really cool and detailed. This trip is going to make our mask wall a work of art!!!

Sikasso mask.

Make our way over to the hotel, check in and then head to the embassy to pick up our passports. Then, off to Mike’s to pick up all of our stuff! I can’t even begin to say thank you enough to Mike & Jayne! It was so nice to have a comfortable bed and non-restaurant food while we traveled. And you guys will ALWAYS have a place to crash in the future! Also, any future IRTers, consider this an open invitation to save money during your travels!

Head back over to the hotel and drop our stuff in our room and talk about dinner. We decide to eat downstairs at the hotel for ease since traffic was so crazy this afternoon. We ordered steak. And the cut of meat was fantastic, but did you know, well done at this restaurant was still bleeding onto the plate. Sigh. I managed to eat part of it after blotting the extra blood out. Finished dinner and headed upstairs to bed.