Mali
Your Stories From Abroad
Mali
Trying To Heal A Malian Town (With Paracetamol And A Little Saliva)
Hawa is spitting on my ankle with an intensity and rhythm generally reserved for jazz musicians and train wheels. Her obese forearms end abruptly at her little hands, her forefinger ... read more
by Caitlin Cohen
29 Mar 2007
Tips
Mali
How to get your coffee fix in Bamako
Need to satisfy your latte craving in Bamako? Don't want to shell out the overpriced tourist price for a mediocre cup of coffee at a fancy french-style restaurant? Stop ... read more
by Leona Rosenblum
16 Dec 2009
Blog Posts
Mali
Theories of Relativity
Back in South Africa, I wrote about my trip to Mtubatuba and the clinics that I saw there. The post was called Elbow Taps, and some of you pointed out that I neglected to explain what the title referenced. This oversight was possibly due to my own original confusion about ... read more
by Leona Rosenblum
15 Dec 2009
Mali
American Thanksgiving in Mali, Malian Thanksgiving for an American
I thought, when I last posted, that I was getting ready to celebrate two very different parties. But what struck me the most about our back to back Thanksgiving-Seli Ba extravaganza (besides the deliciousness of our two burner feast) was how similar the two fêtes really were. Of course, the ... read more
by Leona Rosenblum
13 Dec 2009
Mali
Photo-ta!
Though children mob me screaming to take a picture every time I take out a camera, and older women sometimes scold me for invading their privacy, I've been trying to walk the fine line of truthful non-intrusive photographing here in Bamako. You can see how successful (or not) I've been at ... read more
by Leona Rosenblum
07 Dec 2009
Mali
Is there a sheep in your trunk?
Happy Thanksgiving from Bamako (a little early). Many of you have worried if I will be celebrating properly tomorrow, so I just wanted to reassure you that indeed, this is a holiday week in Mali as well. First of all, I have officially been in Mali one month, a fact ... read more
by Leona Rosenblum
07 Dec 2009
Mali
Suds
Mali is dusty and hot and pretty much no one has a laundry machine, therefore people spend a lot of time doing laundry. There are skills involved in the art of doing laundry by hand, a certain angle of the wrist, a certain rubbing technique, the perfect way of creating ... read more
by Leona Rosenblum
07 Dec 2009
Mali
Welcome to Pig Corner
So, as I may have mentioned, my neighborhood here in Bamako is a peri-urban slum called Sikoroni. I still haven’t figured out what Sikoroni means, but I’m working on it. Sikoroni (fondly known as Sikoro for short) is in between the two neighborhoods of Sourakabougou and Hippodrome Deux. Sourakabougou is ... read more
by Leona Rosenblum
07 Dec 2009
Mali
Ups and Downs
Now I’ve certainly worked on public health and development projects before, and I’ve learned that they can be frustrating, inspiring, dissillusioning, heartwarming and heartbreaking all at once. But I’ve never been quite so in it as I am here in Mali. Here, as committed as I am to MHOP’s vision ... read more
by Leona Rosenblum
07 Dec 2009
Mali
Africans Don’t Need Sunglasses and Other Words of Wisdom from Mali
October 31, 2009 My general incompetence discussed in my last post not only leads to chuckles from Malians, it also means that they seem to constantly need to share their own knowledge with me to help overcome my ignorance. Sometimes, this is very useful. As in, when they tell me ... read more
by Leona Rosenblum
01 Dec 2009
Mali
I think I got a sunburn in the shower this morning....
October 22, 2009 This would be entirely possible, as the outdoor outhouse/shower I currently call my own has no roof. This is very pleasant in the evenings when I look up through the palm trees to see the stars and the water from the bucket feels warm compared to the ... read more
