Verdure in a Country Composed of 65% Desert

First of all, I'd like to wish a Very Happy Sweet 16th Birthday to my sister Karin!!! Also, I'd like to clarify something. Maybe I gave the wrong impression of Mali by saying there were a lot of dirt roads. This is true, there are many dirt roads, but actually, in centre ville area, the roads by which cars and other vehicles travel, there are "normal" roads, street lamps, and sometimes, even sidewalks! I just live far from this area, thus the lack of paved roads. It's actually quite modern in the centre ville area, so don't think Bamako is super under-developed because I don't think it's so bad. It's an urban area, after all!!!

Mali, as I may have mentioned before, is a country that is composed largely of arid desert lands with approximately 65% of the country being a desert. I’ve been living in Bamako for nearly 3 weeks and haven’t really traveled outside of the city – until last weekend that is. Being in Bamako without traveling around didn’t seem like a smart thing to do so a few coworkers and I managed to get out of the city to travel around the outskirts of the city in search of a waterfall. No, I didn’t think of this idea – I’d just heard from one of my Malian friends that there was a waterfall here somewhere outside of the city. So, I just relayed the message and my coworkers had also heard of this. Thus began our elusive quest to find this waterfall.
Of course, before getting out of the city, we couldn’t escape the street vendors trying to sell miscellaneous items to cars that were halted on the streets.

Rainy season has its benefits. Traveling outside of the city, the colors of Bamako began to change from terracotta to a richer, lush green color. Struggling through mud, occasional sudden showers and thunderstorms…
…meeting children herding oxen,
…and finally, crossing through green fields and mango trees,
...in the distance we finally saw it. The waterfall!

So our crusade turned out to be successful and we didn’t even get lost! So that was last weekend. This weekend, we’re going to try to go to Senegal or some neighboring cities of Bamako. We still haven’t decided yet because it’s pretty much evenly torn. We don’t have to work on the 22nd because it’s fête nationale of Mali. So, it’s a longer weekend and thus, we’re trying to get out of Bamako and visit some other parts of Mali or Senegal either by car, train, bus, or thumb (my roommate actually hitchhikes and so does one of my female coworkers – so you see, other females travel alone by thumb, too! I’m not the only one in the world!).

This week at work for the most part was ok; nothing overly exciting. I did learn that my Canadian coworker comes to work an hour early (because he has the key to the office since he’s been here for a year already) and uses the internet to send out emails and such. I got to work early on Tuesday to find the office open and got to send a couple emails to my friends and family. Some days he told me he stays until after work (like today for instance). That would actually work out perfectly time-difference-wise to call people through my computer back home in the States, but I guess I can’t do that too often since I don’t want to walk 4.3 mi (7km) in the dark everyday and subsequently get bitten by mosquitoes on my way home. Walking home after dark can be dangerous too since the way home is not well-lit at all. Unlike many cities and towns in the “Western world,” which are lined with rows of street lights, secluded areas of Bamako (since I live far from the center) don’t have such street lights. This often means I stumble in the uneven roads and puddles of rain and mounds of mud as I blindly find my way home. I can’t imagine doing this everyday, even if it means free internet as opposed to $0.25/min internet.

One issue has come up recently. Laundry! I realized there is no Laundromat around where I live and our house most certainly does not have a washing machine or dryer. I had to do all my laundry by hand… and hang up all my clothes to dry… one problem – where would I hang them up??? I can’t hang up my clothes outside because it rains and inside, there wasn’t enough room to hand up 3 weeks worth of laundry. So I had to hang up my clothes all across the house (with my roommates’ approval) for them to dry. I think after this, I’ve learned my lesson. I should wash one outfit per day. That way there’s enough room and I won’t have to spend 3 hours washing all of my clothes with soap and water in the tiny bathroom of ours. Alright, that’s my update for this week. I’ll let you know if we ended up going to Senegal or just went around Mali next week.

Today's Random Quiz:

You are a Model Citizen of the World

You care deeply about the world, and you do everything you can to help. You feel like the injustices in the world are your injustices, and you fight to fix them. You have a deep appreciation for the differences that make up the world. You feel like you have something to gain from every culture and country.

Are You a Citizen of the World?