Le Diplomate Bamako

... th**e. We w**e two of the three in the entire city. The clip of Gao from the car with the music in the background paints the picture we think...

For kicks, we attached a military clip which we risked capturing. This happened many, many times.

To the travel**s we hung out with along the way (w**en't that many):

Good luck on your journey Conrad across the Sahara Des**t..hoping you find that Caravan. You will.

Patrick and Julie-we had a blast with you ...

... back while they work in the hot sun everyday. Endurance of social workers and ngos that fight bureaucracy and corruption. Endurance of the business men that deal with incompetence and red tape. Endurance of the common people as they live a hard life where even the simplest of things are difficult to accomplish. Endurance of the machines, of mud houses, of creatures, of farmers who survive the harsh sahelian climate. Endurance thrives in Mali. It simply has to. 

... for the night.



Dist cov. = 359 km



18th - Drove through San and crossed by small boat over the Bani River for a guided tour of Djenne, our guide was a local school teacher. The tour was interesting, we learned about the different styles of mud builidings...moroccan and sudanese. Came into town on top of a bush taxi giving a good surrounding view of the area. The famous mud mosque in the center of town was impressive, but of ...

... shopping but that is a reality h**e in Mali, even for the natives. Once reaching Bamako, Anko took us to a orphanage for boys that was run by a women from Austria. It was in a v**y poor part of town and those people really had no way to earn money like they did in Koutiala. In Koutiala, they could farm and gath** wood but not h**e. This women goes out ev**y night to gath** us street boys and bring them in for a safe place to sleep. During ...

... until we returned at 2.30 to nice cold steak, chicken and chips. We w**en't best pleased. Murray and Luke arrived back from town having had an alt**cation with the local police about Luke's cam**a. Long story short they accused him of taking photos and wanted cash in payment for the privilege of being able to keep his cam**a. Muzza, having been stuck in num**ous situations like this before, simply told them to f off, they wouldn't be paying anything and ...

... beautiful... clearest complexions ever with massive beaming white smiles. They would ask for your hand and then kiss it. So cute. Unfortunately we were unable to take photos as we were warned they were rather sensitive about it, so much so that someone from a previous tour actually got held in the police station. Needless to say the cameras were kept firmly hidden. Walking through the streets and dirt offshoots we encountered a lot of ...

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... carré. Déjà c'est un grand autodidacte et si le fait d'avoir appris le français (qu'il parle impeccablement) tout seul, mot par mot, sans trop se soucier de le faire en maîtrisant la grammaire (qui demeure pour la plupart des enseignants et savants de ce monde la SEULE façon d'apprendre une langue) n'impressionne guère, que dire de son magnifique espoir de s'avoir auto-alphabétisé ? Je suis époustouflé. Sans jamais dénoter le moindre intérêt de me toucher et toujours avec la ...

... de chegar a casa do Baby propriamente dita, ainda não tive a oportunidade de ver grande coisa porque hoje passei o dia inteiro no portatil do Baby (que devia ter sido vendido ao invés da camâra digital, mas não o foi pelo simples facto que o comprador teve o bom senso de experimentar o aparelho e detectou o seu bizarro mas grave problema de teclado e rato que as vezes decidem não funcionar ao se iniciar o computer) a meter os posts em dia, a organizar as fotos e ...

... and wave as the train passed. Two trains pass those fields twice a week each, and yet these people still seemed fascinated by our passing...or was their fascination something more sinister: "Oi Mavis - there's another one of those trains packed full of people thinking they can make it to Bamako in a day and a half. Why don't they take a plane? It's not much more expensive and think how much more comfortable you'd be..." Still, we kept smiling and waving back ...