Spiffor goes to Mali

[Vince278]

I knew someone from Mali who now lives in northern VA. Very intelligent. He could speak English, French, Russian, and a few local ones. Taught me a few nice French slang and swear words.

[VetLegion]

Pics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:doitnow:

[Ecthy]

To be fair, being a Muslim country (right?), Mali has among the lowest AIDS rates in Africa.

It even seems to be below average in North Africa, but I'm not too sure about this.

[VetLegion]

Yes, it's a Muslim country and also Francophone. American worst nightmare

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by VetLegion
Pics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:doitnow:

They're arriving. I took pics with a throwaway camera, and I just had the pics developed. I still need a bit of time for the scans, and then you'll have them

[Last Conformist]

Non-digital cameras

[Spiffor]

Cheap and expandable cameras

[Last Conformist]

It's such capitalist attitudes that are ruining our fragile environment.

[Dinner]

Now being wasteful is a capitalist trait?

[Provost Harrison]

Absolutely

[Spiffor]

Welcome to Bamako

Bamako was quite a surprising city, for a guy such as myself who never went to subsaharian Africa, and who always went to the touristy areas whenever I travelled to a poor country.

Bamako is full of noise, of hustle and bustle. The people there talk, street traders advertise their wares, there's always loud music coming from somewhere, and there's the noise of the many cars and mopeds...

The following pics were my first impressions from Bamako, during my two first days there:

A view of the Niger river, about 30m away from my hotel:



Typical Bamako road (I say "road" because it is covered with macadam - most neighborhood streets are still made of dirt). Notice that the sidewalk is still dirt.


The construction site of a luxury hotel that will border the Niger river. the construction seems interrupted: I've never seen anybody on the site during my stay. Also, it's pretty much the only crane I saw in the entire city (despite a very intensive contruction program)


Mass transit is made of a plethora of minibuses (the green vehicles), and some ordinary buses. Notice the bus' bumper


A pic taken from the old central bridge ("Pont des Martyrs", in remembrance of the victims of the repression during the 1991 revolution that overthrew Moussa Traoré's dictatorship). The large tower on the right is the Central Bank, modern Mali's most ambitious architectural achievement. if you look closely, you can see in the background the other bridge the crosses the Niger, the modern King Fahd Bridge.
The Niger is very broad in Bamako, both bridges are close to 1km long.


Traffic at the entrance of the Old Bridge. Many, many motos and mopeds in Bamako, nearly no bicycles ever since the Chinese dramatically lowered the price of mopeds.
Notice that, on the bridge, the sideways are moped territory. However, the pedestrians can still make do by walking on the sewage system (which is solidly and cleanly covered here)


Speaking of sewers, most of Bamako's sewers are in plain sight. Since waste management is nearly inexistant, they serve as the general garbage bin. Fortunately, these sewers are mostly made of piss and old plastic (and rainwater, during the intense wet season). Most houses have traditional toilets, where crap falls directly in a hole under the toilet. As a result, the sewers are mostly crap-free; they do stink, but not that horribly.

[VetLegion]

Nice. You know, last images of Africa I saw are those from "Battle for Monrovia" so you know where I'm coming from

How is crime there? Prices? Health conditions? Climate?

Are the women hot?

[Zkribbler]

Great pix but we want MORE!!

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by VetLegion
Nice. You know, last images of Africa I saw are those from "Battle for Monrovia" so you know where I'm coming from

Here's a selection of "Africa teh beautiful" pics for you then!

The Congress Hall. It's big, it's well-made, and as my pic doesn't show, the building has a very handsome bright white color under the sun. Many debates regarding the World Social Forum occured there.


The Cathedral. Since my photography skills suck, I couldn't even manage to get a whole picture of it. Notice the high-quality land rover: there are quite a few nice cars in Bamako.


The Grand Mosque. Generally, the Malinese aren't bothersome with religion. Yes, they're overwhelmingly Muslim. Yes, they really believe, and many are observant (you'll often see some guy praying in a corner somewhere). Yes, they believe that the teachings of Islam are the true truth. However, they aren't pushy about it.
Except the people of that mosque: despite being adequately clothed, (long sleeves and long trousers), I had to leave the frigging garden because I was non-Muslim. Two Muslim female friends of mine had to leave the same garden because they weren't covering their hair


Bamako's rooftops, taken from a small office building. This is actually a small part of a larger pic.


Bamako's central post-office. I imagine it has been built during the colonial times.


A monument to the Mosque of Jerusalem, on the Al Qods avenue:


A highschool. This architecture is fairly generic among many public buildings in Bamako now. This highschool is the only such building I took a pic of, but it really follows the standards of Neo-Sudanese architecture.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by VetLegion
How is crime there?

Crime is much lwoer than I expected. The reason why I took throwaway cameras, only 200€ and no credit card, only my passport and not my ID etc. It was because I expected theft.
Well, I've been "stolen" by retailers who dramatically overcharged the toubab (white) that I am, but nobody did anything criminal to me. I knew quite a few toubabs there, and only one got pickpocketed during the stay. Nobody was harmed.
I think crime is lower that expectable because the Malinese really believe in a philosophy of life, where you do good to the others, and you'll be rewarded in the abstract future (if not you, then your children). This traditional belief might well translate into a high generalized trust with more modernization

Prices?

A taxi drive in the city costs 1.5€ (acceptable price) to 4€ (really stupid tourist price).
An individual plate of rice with meat sauce costs 0.8€ (tourist price) to 1.5€ (really stupid tourist price)
Luxury restaurants offer a plate for 7.5€ (about 5 days worth of work for a worker, half the monthly wage of a houseslave -maid.
The 50kg rice bag costs 15€.
An advertisement for a job with a "really interesting wage" spoke about 4€ a day.
The minimal wage for a civil servant is about 52€ a month.
Overall, when you're white, everything gets more expansive than if you're a local. It is cumulative with your malus if you don't speak French well. Everything has to be haggled, except in a few specific circumstances*
For example, I have met an English girl (with whom I sympathised, as she was cute, and as I was pretty much the only English-speaker in the entire city ), who paid 4 to 5 times the regular price for her accomodation at the hotel.

*like this supermarket, where prices are clearly laid out. You can't imagine how happy I was to finally find that supermarket -a rare thing in Bamako, and even rarer in the rest of Mali- after one day of haggling.

Health conditions?

Health conditions for the average Malian are precarious. Mosquitos are numerous in winter, and plentiful in summer. As a result, pretty much everybody has malaria. As a tourist, I took anti-malaria medication (1 tab a day, 43€ for 12 tabs - I heard later that there was much cheaper anti-malaria medication)
The sewage and waste disposal is a hotbed of disease. Everybody knows it, but it ain't a priority yet, considering the many challenges ahead for the development of the country. The Niger River is disgustingly dirty (everything in the sewers is "washed" to the river come the wet season).
Like most public services, hospitals are for the rich. One has to pay to get treatment. It is one of the joys of the neoliberal policies currently in power. I know, half of Apolyton considers them the best thing since sliced bread.
Traffic-related pollution is horrible, because the gas and most cars there suck. However, the government intends to force the universal use of lead-less gas during the year (this particular policy is enforceable).
Tap water is supposedly drinkable in Bamako (nowhere else in the country), but the tourist better drink the bottled water (largely available) or the purified water. You can find packaged purified water in pretty much every place that is not autarchic.

This has packaged 500ml of purified water. It is light plastic, it was sealed. When we bought it from a small provincial town bordering the road, it was fresh, and it only costed 0.08€.

Climate?

It is currently the mild, dry season. There is no rain to speak of (even though there were some cloudy days, I barely felt a few drops during my entire stay). The weather reminds me of a fairly warm French summer, with nights being about 20C, and days being about 30-35C. During the wet season, the weather often is in the 40's, and even occasionally 45C. The wet season is wet.

Are the women hot?

I must admit that I'm not attracted in black women, so I can't answer the question. About the women't attitudes and attire: most women don't spontaneously socialize with men, at least with the toubabs (unlike men, who are an extremely sociable bunch). I have seen very few women going to the club, or noticably clothed for man-hunting.
Most adult women wear a local form of headscarf, which is actually good-looking enough to look like a fashion accessory. Younger women generally have their head uncovered - I imagine it shows the status as a married or unmarried woman.