It’s a big problem in Africa, and you can really taste it in any cake, cookie or pizza made with weevil-infested four! I’m pretty sure that ingesting a few of the wee beasties (especially when cooked) would not be harmful, but it’s a bit disgusting! Look again at the picture and you can see the larve too, which were wriggling around in the flour when I took the picture!

If you have a good sieve, you can probably get rid of them, but the taste is likely to remain. Best way is to find a supplier who’s flour doesn’t usually have weevils in. There you go!

You’ll notice that the top right lorry has a painting of the Tour d’Afrique – for some reason a very common choice here!) Now, as an ethnomusicology consultant and arts worker, I’m always on the lookout for new artistic expressions (like the bogolon cloth or pottery videos already blogged about). So it’s great to see this artwork, which has nothing but a purely aesthetic purpose! Another common sight is proverbs and other sayings on the back of lorries (watch this space…)

2. People always find a was to achieve their goals, however unconventional this may seem to the Western psyche:

3. Life is so laid-back there. Nobody is in a rush, but things still get done (eventually…)

4. There is always good humour amongst the people, even in the face of adversity:

5. However stressful your day, there is something around every corner that will bring a smile to your face:

That’s why I love Africa.

Here are some more cultural curiosities from the blog, all of which make Africa such an intriguing place to live:

African roads
Millet beer
Overloaded vehicles
God is everywhere
Rainy season in Cotonou
Malian Bean Eaters
Designer Labels in Mali

Thanks for reading!

That’s my front yard in a rain storm – water water everywhere! Thankfully, our mini trampoline came in handy for the kids!

You see, in Africa you don’t get the drizzle-for-days-on-end like in England. In fact, fine rain is quite rare, as is rain without a cracking thunder storm! This means that a lot of rain falls in a short time, causing flooding (like in this post).

Here’s a short video showing what my street looks like during a rain storm – veritable road turned river:

In Benin, we had the same problem; worse in fact. Watch this one to see me riding on the back of a motobike taxi through a 14″ flood in Cotonou:

(Click here for the original blog post).

Meanwhile, here in Mali rainy season is all but over and there is a dry, crisp feel to the air we haven’t experienced for a few months. Humidity is now as low as 24%, but it’s still pretty warm. We are now eagerly awaiting the coolness which comes with the Harmattan (blogged about in 2006 and 2007). Here in Mali, the Harmattan lasts so long, it’s actually called ‘Cold Season’ and temps can get as low as 12 Celsius!!

Am I talking about the weather again?? Anyone would think I was British…

Woohoo! Here’s hoping it will ease up the traffic in town, which is often quite bad during rush hour (see this post for an example). It was a gift from China to Mali and, apparently, cost over 60,000,000 US Dollars!

For photos of the construction work in action, click here or here.

It was officially opened last Thursday (22nd September), the day of Mali’s 51st anniversary of independance. Click here and here to see the inauguration ceremony.

Here’s a picture I took of the 1.6 kilometre long structure a couple of months ago. Impressive (but it does have a bit of a bend to it!)

Finally, enjoy this YouTube video I made of our first ever crossing of the bridge (NB to save time/bandwidth, I sped up most of the video – I didn’t actually drive at that speed!)

Thanks for reading/watching!

But rather than paste the whole article into my own blog, have a look at his instead!
Click here to see Rob’s article on Eric’s blog.

Cheers!

I’ve never grown bananas before. In England, we grew beans, potatoes, carrots, courgettes…but never bananas!! That’s one of the advantages of living in a hot, tropical country like Mali! So, just over a year ago, I bought two banana plants for 1500 and 2000cfa respectively (that’s about £2 and £2.50). Here’s what they looked like then:

Once they’re planted, it’s all very easy: you just water them when they need it and watch ‘em grow (very quickly indeed!) Within twelve months, the larger one grew from three feet to eight feet – just like that! Amazing! And then the bananas appeared and started to grow. Here they are at various stages of development (taken roughly in December, February, March and May):

Now, bearing in mind my initial investment of £2.50 (or $4), we recently harvested no fewer than 163 bananas from the one plant! That’s 1.5 pence per banana!! Wow! So, in the past couple of weeks, we’ve made banana icecream, banana cake, banoffee pie, banana chutney, bananas in chocolate…you name it. Just realized we haven’t done ‘banane flamée’ yet, but we still have a couple of dozen left for that.

Want to know more about growing banans?
Then visit banana.com which also has a great recipe page here.

Yeah – GO BANANAS!!

Yes, even pigs can do nothing but wallow in whatever water they can find and humans rush from one air-conditioned environment to another, aware that the outside temperature could be four or more degrees above body temperature!!

Here’s the forecast for the next few days in Bamako; as you rejoice that it’s just warm enough to go out in short sleeves where you live, spare a thought for the Bakers ‘baking’ in Mali!

(Image taken from: http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/61291.html)

Yes, 25 Celsius is the minimum we can expect, and 41 the maximum. And, as you can see, zero chance of any rain to cool us down!

Last night, the kids slept in our room with the a/c on low, as their room was still 33 Celsius as bedtime. We put the swamp-cooler on and attempted to cool another room down enough for us to sleep well ourselves! At least we all have water beds and a layer of straw matting a couple of feet above our house roof. This keeps it cooler inside (honestly, some folk complain of temps up to 35 or more inside their houses!!)

For more info, tips on surviving the heat along with Tim’s Ten Reasons for liking Hot Season, click here. (Yes, it’s the Bamako Map guy again).

Well, at least she’s getting up now, eh? Thanks for reading!
(Posted from my air-conditioned office and I’m still sweating!)

The car came in one of those large metal containers. You know, this kind of thing:

(Image from this website)

However, it’s interesting to note that these huge metal shipping containers do not all find their way back to whence they came. Many, sadly, end up cluttering the streets of cities like Bamako, some still used for storage, others looking completely abandoned, like these ones (all a stone’s throw from my house):

It’s not all bad news, though. Africans are very resourceful and many of them have been converted into stores, workshops even restaurants! Here are a few of the ‘container success stories’ of Bamako:

Now, I had imagined that this phenomenon of ‘container recycling’ was peculiar to West Africa. However, on a recent trip eastwards I found the same thing there. Here are a car parts shop near the main stadium in Nairobi (top) and the ‘Boyz Boyz Mobile Disco’ in Kampala (bottom):

Thanks for reading!

It’s a relaxing place to visit, with comfy seats, tasty meals, beautiful scenery and a pool! There are even huts where you can stay the night and marked footpaths all the way up to the baobab tree on the hill. Just the place to chill out at the weekend (if it’s not too busy then!) They also have a (rather pricey) gift shop and lots of African musical instruments for sale. Here I am having a go on a few of them:

Very nice! To get there take the ‘Route de Ségou’ from the Tour d’Afrique. Shortly after the road changes from duel carriageway to single, you will see a sign pointing to the left. Turn off the road and follow the dirt track for a couple of miles or so and you’re there!

Click here to see it on Tim’s Bamako Map. You can also click here to have a look at the Kangaba website – very well set out and packed full of information. Meanwhile, here are a few more images of the place to whet your appetite: