Eight: The Niger River

 

The Niger River is the third largest river in Africa. It serves as a main transportation route for several countries along the way. Its fish provides food for many people in West Africa and its water is diverted for irrigation. Lately the Niger is facing several serious environmental issues in addition to some of the more traditional problems like pollution.  Construction in Bamako and other larger cities along the river have created a pressing need for quality sand used in building. Almost every modern building in this part of the world is built with cement. Whether it’s a 20-story office building or a private home they all are built out of form cement and cement is mixed with sand. The sand comes from the riverbanks as well as out of the river itself. Dredging lowers the shoreline which in turn causes erosion and loss a farmland and fish habitat.

The other big issue, strangely enough is tourism. The traditional boats called pirogues are either moved by pushing with long poles or with clunky, laboring motors. Either way they move very slowly. Lately tourists and the more affluent Malian have taken up speed boating and jet skis.  Not only does the wake from these fast moving machines erode the riverbanks they also drive the fish away. I spoke with one fisherman who told me whenever there are lots of those fast boats on the river his catch is greatly reduced. He said it usually takes a few days after the boats have gone for the fish to return. When your only source of income and a big part of your diet comes from fish, speedboats become a serious problem.

I’ll be headed up north outside Ségou soon so you should be seeing more of the river and the people living on its banks.

Seven: Sutramas

 

The clip pretty much explains itself. You’ll get a quick glimpse of daily Bamako life and a look at a spectacular piece of art. As I mentioned in the piece, the artist, and I can’t find his/her name, replaced each headlight with a television set. I wish I could see what would be playing on those TVs.

Below are two links. One is an English site telling about the museum with a good photo of the sculpture. The other link is for the museum itself. The site is in French and you get a look at some of the projects and the collection at the museum.  From what I’ve been told by several Malian cultural experts, sadly many of the best historic pieces of Malian art reside in Europe.

http://malitraveldiaries.wordpress.com/2009/01/03/national-museum-of-mali-bamako/

http://www.mnm-mali.org/

Six: Amaldeme School

I'm going to do a larger video piece on the school, the children and the staff. I'd like to see if it would be possible for a school back in the United States to become a sister school to Amaldeme. More importantly we all need to figure out what we can do to keep this school open.

More information about Amaldeme will be coming soon. I’m hoping to return to the school the week of February 13 to talk with some of the kids and maybe get some footage of the students in class. In the meanwhile I’m going to try to come up with a plan to help these kids now and when I return to the US.

Five: Tea Time In Mali

Let's not get this confused in any way with tea time in Great Britain or the highly stylized ritual of a Japanese tea ceremony but then again they all have something in common. In Mali, as in many parts of the world sharing a beverage can be part of a welcoming or greeting. "Let's grab a cup of coffee sometime"  often really means, "Let's talk  and get acquainted." Tea drinking in Mali and most of West Africa is just about the same thing; it's a greeting. It's a long process and can often be a test of your patience. A little confession, I'm truly addicted to Malian tea. I can drink the stuff  5 or 6 times a day and still could go for more.  Depending who's making the tea I get quite the caffeine buzz well beyond Starbuck's best. On the other hand the process of brewing this fabulous drink is incredibly complex and time consuming. I've watched the ritual, and it is truly a ritual, dozens of times, asked questions, wrote down instructions, and yet I haven't a clue. I might be a little thick but I think I have to give part of the credit for my confusion to the fact that I have yet to get the same set of directions twice.

Keep in mind this is an abbreviated version of the tea making process. To me it all seems the cycle of pouring and emptying goes on for hours. I'm sure this clip eliminates several of the iterations. The hell with it. I just want my tea!

Four: Sandstorm

If you've been watching the news you might have seen the stories about most of Europe facing record cold temperatures. The town in Italy where my daughter is staying had about a foot of snow last weekend. That's probably more snow than we've had in Minnesota this year. All that cold air up in Europe has managed to make its way across the Sahara Desert and town here to Bamako bringing with it not only unseasonably cold temperatures but a nice piece of the Sahara Desert.

Three: Protests

Every other year Carleton College, MN brings a group of students to Mali as part of their Francophone and African Culture immersion program. This was a brief meeting with the students and Prof Cherif Keita after some protests in downtown Bamako. There are long standing ethnic and political tensions in northern Mali. Those tensions seem to be flaring up in light of the collapse of the Libyan regime. Prof Keita places the highest  priority on the security of his students.

Two: My Home In Bamako

This is the house and the street where I will be staying in Bamako. You get to see Paul briefly in the background. Paul is the housekeeper/cook/nightwatchman. More on Paul later. In this clip there's a silver car that drives by and honks. The guy driving the car was very unhappy about me pointing my camera at him. This was just the small  blog camera. The real fun starts when I bring out the professional equipment.