Mali, West Africa (Part Two)

Bamako

It has been a fantastic day. After breakfast we had a superb two-hour djembe lesson with Madou at the Palais de Culture just around the corner from our hostel. Alonso had met this women eating breakfast at The Sleeping Camel, Tina from Slovakia, who had come to study with Madou. We figured this guy must be something as Tina has come to Mali four times just to work with him. We got his number and completely butted into her lesson. We played outside among the big trees next to the Niger River. A perfect setting.

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Mali, West Africa (part one)

We left for Paris uneventfully. Though it was our first day of taking malaria pills.

After having had no vaccinations for about 30 years I opted for the full dose of everything. Which meant 10. Many shots and oral solutions later, I was ready to combat the elements. I have no doubt growing up in Texas in the 1960s and 70s had hardened my system to pesticides and questionable food sources, but I didn’t feel like wrecking this big trip by spending it doubled-over in some kind of obscure agony. We are armed with three means of purifying water, several types of antibiotics, a full on first-aid kit and our daily does of malaria pills, pro-biotics, neem and pepto-bismal.

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into West Africa

I'm heading into a journey of a lifetime next week. I'm going to Mali, in West Africa.

The big picture:

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