21 March 2009

This is one of the weeks that I expected when nothing out of the ordinary happened. I was up early one morning and looked down at the street. A grandfather was carrying to buckets to the river for water. His grandson was running from behind to catch him and carry one of the buckets. Then they continued on. A donkey cart came down the street very quietly behind them. Early morning is about the only time that you can experience peace and quiet around here. People spend most of their day outside where it is cooler and their conversations are generally much louder than you would hear in the States.

Now a little recent history of Mali. In 1960 the Sudanese Republic gained it's independence from France. It joined with the Republic of Senegal to form the Mali Federation. Then Senegal seceded and Mali changed it's name to the Republic of Mali. The Army overthrew the government in 1968 and Mali was under military rule for 20 years. In 1991 dictator Moussa Faso was overthrown and Mali made a peaceful transition to democracy. There have been some rebellions along the northern border of Mali by some of the Tuareg tribes but most of Mali has been peaceful over the last 20 years. The economy has been steadily improving over that time. There is still a fairly large number of unemployed so I see more manual labor and less machine labor than I would see in the States.

I have commented on the traffic before and I may be repeating myself. Most of the vehicles on the road are motorbikes. They fit snugly in front , behind , and on both sides of any cars on the road. There are a few personal cars , a lot of taxis , and a lot of green machines (vans used as buses or for general hauling). Add to the above a fair number of bicycles , push carts , donkey carts and an odd horse or camel rider along with numerous pedestrians and you have an intriguing traffic problem. Anyone who drives must be expecting someone to do something unexpected at any time. Somehow it all works out.