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???
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| Chinaman compound |
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| 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 11th 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.
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| 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 12th
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.
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| 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 13th 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 14th. 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 2nd
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 3rd 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 15th. 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!!!
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| 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.
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