Mission Catholique Bamako

'Amadou, Amadou...he slept on the roof for you'

We cannot thank you enough for making our trip so special. You gave so much to us to make us happy the past few weeks. Please thank the 'guys' for everything. They will always be our friends and we will stay in touch. Yesterday was amazing and one of Brian's most special days.
You are a dear friend and we are happy to know you

Bonjour!

I made it to Africa! Eventually... after leaving the house at 5 am to get the first flight to London... to find my flight was delayed until 3 pm! That wasn't too much of a problem, I love airports, and all the flights from Libya were waiting, apparently. In fact, the delays were caused by a sandstorm around Tripoli that morning!

I finally got to Mali around 11.30pm... and by the time I had ...

... its all too hard for him. After 2 hours we are finally away but after an hour of driving in nomads land between the border of Mauritania and Mali we are stuck in the sand yet again. Tents up is the call.



Its early Monday morning when we arrive in the border town of Naro in Mali. Monday is market day in this part of the world. Naro was awash with all the people from all over the district. They were trading in ...

... to do a little more shopping. Last, we met with some friends (Dusty and Julia Reynolds) and spent some time hanging out before heading to the airport. We actually had pizza deliv**ed from Olympia. It was really good pizza. The toppings w**e quite traditional. They did have trouble finding the place as the streets are not marked well in Bamako but it made it th**e. Aft** checking in at the airport, we took a bus to our flight and w**e on our ...

... for a night of traditional Malian music at a place recommended to us. Around 10:45 we organised a local taxi van and crammed in, easily surpassing the legal limited on the numb** of passeng**s. Legs w**e used as stools whilst oth**s sat on the floor. I think we managed 19 of us plus the driv** and one of his mates. Despite being reassured that we could all fit in one, the oth** truck opted to organise anoth** taxi. Definitely a good move. Aft** a wee ...

... and come undone whilst crossing. Oops. Martin and I invested in funky multi coloured plastic kettles as you see the locals walking around with them everywhere and since souveniers are pretty much slim to none we figured that would do nicely. Oliver didn't seem to share my enthusiasm, possibly as he was preoccupied with the wheetabix I had bought for him. Apparently the museli on the truck tastes like cardboard. So back on the truck ...

... with many of the children. Our team of 17 went into training unsuspecting of what was to come. Last week our confirmation arrived. The night we fly into Mali, will be 1 of 2 nights we spend in Bamako. As our first sun rises in Africa, we will leave for an area called Dogon Country by van. The people of Dogon migrated into an escarpment sometime in ...

... m'a communiqué sa décision de sortir sa mère de l'hôpital et la ramener en brousse pour qu'elle puisse passer ses derniers mois de vie dans la paix de l'environnement familial. Sur le coup, je n'ai pas pu m'empêcher de ressentir de la tristesse, même si sa façon naturelle et pragmatique d'aborder le sujet minimisait le drame. Ce n'était qu'après, quand j'ai transcrit cette rencontre sur mon cahier de voyages que j'étais ému au point de couler les larmes. J'ai essayé de l ...

Despite my bumpy departure from the United States, I arrived safely in Mali the evening of 2 August 2008. After a small rest on part of the day Sunday, I went to work getting final preparations made for our second pilot study. Our plan for the second pilot was to go to a rural village to screen a small number of women for cervical cancer. We spent two ...

... matter that the train was slow, late and bound to be bad for sleeping on - the scenery was breathtaking. When the sun finally disappeared, we covered ourselves in mosquito repellants and fidgeted until we found a vaguely comfortable position.  The night passed. We both got some sleep, and both rose with the sun worried about our passports - they'd been taken (along with our companions' identity cards) by a policeman during the night in preparation for the border ...