Mali

Hello everyone,

We are still in Bamako but will be heading to the village, Nana Kenieba, tomorrow. We will be there for the next 3 weeks, working on the malaria surveys and other ones. Then we will return to Bamako to meet Dr DeVore and Mark, Kris, Aaron, and Joe, then we will head back to NK again. We are having a nice time in Bamako but are anxious to get to the village and do what we came to do. It is also very very hot here and we hear it is much cooler there, though still in the 90s every day. I suppose we should mention that while in Nana Kenieba we will have no internet connection, so the travel blog will be pretty quiet for the next several weeks. I promise a big, detailed entry and some great pictures when we return. As of now we havent taken any photos in Mali, we are working hard to adjust to the language, the heat, and the customs. Our Bambara is coming along, lots of people like us to try to speak it and give us credit for trying. Everybody is very nice. We have a good friend called Amadou who comes around the city with us to help us out. He speaks good English so we have a good time communicating in 3 different languages here.

One interesting cultural story we have comes from last night. We were told that there was a ceremony going on in the house. After trying for a long time to guess what was going on, somebody informed us that our host Salif was getting a second wife, and this was the ceremony for that. We greeted everyone and saw the veiled new bride, dressed in white for the ocassion. We werent allowed to go in for the ceremony as we are not Muslim, but we had a good time talking with the guests and experiencing something very new. The new wife and him will live in Libya, where he has already been working and living for awhile.

So that is about all we have been up to lately. We will go photograph Bamako some now and post some pictures when we can. Internet is, not suprisingly, not the most reliable here and pretty slow, but pictures will come someday.

We miss you and love you,
Mariel and Ben

Hello,

We made it here to Bamako, Mali last night ... or very early this morning really. Our flight was good, packed and very lively for 3am. We are staying at a host family's house here until we meet with Dr Bagayoko; the Malian doc with Medicine for Mali. They are very nice and have a nice home in the city. We should head out to the village later today or probably tomorrow. Today We are traveling around Bamako in the sweltering heat with one of our hosts, Amadou. He is helping negotiate prices and lead us through the chaos. Mariel bought some exciting African wear today too. This city is very different than any we have seen before and looks something like the Africa we have imagined. Stay tuned for pictures; right now we dont have any though. Please excuse the short entry; the keyboards have a strange layout, so I am half using the old hunt and peck typing method! That is all for now, we'll keep you as updated as possible!

Love,
Ben and Mariel