In fact, there must be as many as several thousand of the wee beasties in our yard at times: I only have to poke a square foot of earth with a stick and 50 or so fly out! Thankfully, most of them don’t make it into the house because of the screens on all our windows and doors. Nevertheless, I’m killing between 5 and 20 a day indoors, mostly thanks to my mosquito-electricuting racket (like this one I blogged about in Benin).

But fear not! Help is at hand!
“There’s something strange in your neighbourhood,
Who you gonna call? Mozzie-busters!”

Or, more acurately, Mr Coulibaly and his mate with their amazing bug-busting sprayer! He charges 15,000cfa to do the whole garden (about $30) but it’s worth it to keep the mozzies at bay, not to mention the malaria risk. So we shut all our windows and leave the house for a couple of hours and he gets to work.

For about a week after his visit, we have virtually no mosquitos, then they slowly start returning. Ideally, we should have him come every month, but this works out a bit pricey (and a tad inconvenient), but we do call him in 2 or 3 times during rainy season. If you’d like his services and you live in Bamako, I can send you his number (as looking up ‘Coulibaly’ in a phone book would be like looking for Mr Smith in England!)

Other blog posts on mosquitos here.

I was surprised to see this when I first came here, as Cotonou and Lomé had virtually no graffiti. I’m not really sure why this happens here; I think it’s mostly bored youngsters with a can of paint to hand. Most of their ‘tags’ sound like names of gangs or groups of some kind, almost always made up of a suitable adjective followed by ‘boys’ or ‘men’ or equivalent: ‘Master Boys’ ‘Strong Men’ ‘Boston Clan’ etc. Fascinating indeed, though I’d still rather the walls were clean!

In one village I visited recently, someone had written “9 Cent” on the wall of a mosque! Now that’s gotta be wrong (and they’re 41 cents short, it would seem!)

It’s quite different from European graffiti; certainly not as artistic, which is interesting in a country which has some great artists! But I’m not sure the perpetrators of this kind of visual pollution even see it as a bad thing. Just like an African road is a ‘shared space’ (rather than the domain of cars alone, pedestrians, donkeys, barrows and the like also wander freely amongst the vehicles) then maybe a blank wall is also seen as ‘common domain’ and that – in writing upon it – it’s actually improving its appearance? Looking on the bright side, one could argue that it helps literacy in a country with relatively low literacy rates!

Africans are understandibly very proud that someone with African roots is now running such a powerful country. Almost wherever you go now, you will see small children wearing ‘Obama’ t-shirts or vehicles with Obama stickers on them. Here are some other examples:

TL: The Obama hold-all (travel bag), TR: The Obama t-shirt (not much of a likeness, though), BL: The Obama ‘posh’ shirt and BR: The Obama underpants! Don’t blame me – I just take the photos and tell you about them!!

Mind you, even I was surprised by the following example – Barack Obama’s face is even being used to sell toothbrushes, accompanied by the slogan “Change we Need”:

…but I don’t need to change my toothbrush just now and, even if I did, I think I’d buy a make I’ve heard of! Such fun in Africa, eh?

Here’s how: a few weeks ago, my wife and I were invited to a soirée with the British Ambassador, to celebrate the Queen’s birthday (as you do!) As I walked into the large conference room at the hotel, I immediately recognized the kora guru himself, but did a double take. “That looks like Toumani Diabaté! It can’t be!” But it was: you British tax-payers, fret not; your money is being well spent!!! The evening’s entertainment included various singing griots and Toumani playing the kora (he even had a bash at “God save the Queen” but I prefered his rendition of the Malian National Anthem!)

Afterwards, a colleague encouraged me to go up and greet him, so I did (in my best Bambara). Turns out he speaks excellent English!

I told him (i) that I was an ethnomusicologist and (ii) that I was learning the kora. He was very interested. After a bit of a chat (when I also discovered he’d lived in London for a while) I asked whether he gave kora lessons and he said, yes, he’d be happy to give me a lesson! WEHAY! I couldn’t believe it! So, I went along to his house at the agreed time and, after a bit of a wait, the legend himself appeared and greeted me!

The lesson went well and he worked me hard! Taught me how to hold the instrument properly and several scales and exercises to work on. Really useful and an incredible experience! Here we are:

After posting this exciting news on Facebook, one friend said: “That’s like having guitar lessons with Eric Clapton!” Well, I decided to share this comment with Toumani and he replied: “I know Clapton – I’ve worked with him.”

There you go!

One of the highlights of the trip was visiting a village where there is lots of pottery. Have a look at the short video below of our visit, showing traditional Africa pottery methods. Enjoy!

Yes, Bamako has a regular (but infrequent) rail service all the way to Dakar, Senegal! I took a short ride one one of the trains a while back (with my mate Clive) and was impressed by (i) the punctuality of its departure (only about 15 mins late) (ii) the state of the locomotive (nicely painted and running well) and (iii) the quality of the carriages – quite comfortable. Also, you even get numbered seats, so you know exactly where to sit and that you will get a seat! Trains only run about three times a week, so it’s worth checking which days in advance!

That’s Bamako station and – like all stations and jazz clubs – it’s in the ‘dodgy’ part of town. Oh, and the ceiling fans look very nice, but didn’t actually work! Of course, at every stop you get the ladies coming to your window selling bananas, yams, peanuts, oranges…you name it. Very handy! It was a very pleasant trip, which we did in just one morning: we left Bamako and travelled about three stops NW to the village of Negala. We had to pay for a ticket further, but this far took an hour or so and only cost a few pounds.

Nothing much to see there – just a typical African village – but the journey was fun and some quite nice views too. From there, the return journey was simple and cheap: a ‘bush taxi’ was waiting at the edge of the village (by the main road) and took us back from about £1.30 each!

Don’t expect a comfortable or spacious ride back, but it will definitely be a cultural experience! It’s not unusual to share your space with sacks of rice, live chickens or breast-feeding mothers! In fact, ours actually broke down on the outskirts of Bamako and we had to walk/taxi our way home! Such fun!

So, if you’re looking for an interesting public transport experience in W Africa, look no further! Bon voyage!

England? Australia? Ireland? America?

Nope – try again! SINGAPORE!!!

I was surprised by how ‘normal’ this place feels – a bit like Milton Keynes or an oversized university campus. Very clean and tidy, very organized, aircon even in the underground trains, blocks of flats almost everywhere you look and good eating places. Definitely worth a visit, but don’t expect trekking in mountains (or even hills!)

Yesterday, I visited a night-time zoo; sounds strange, but it was wonderful! There’s also a whole district called ‘Little India’ (not to be confused with Little Britain!) Dozens of Indian restaurants, shops and market stalls – fascinating!

Just don’t spit, chew gum, J-walk, make too much noise or eat/drink anywhere public and you’ll be fine!

There you go!

The writing on this bike translates as “Champion of Africa”. However, look closely and you’ll see that the letter ‘i’ is missing from ‘Afrique’. I’ve seen more than one bike like this and wondered whether it’s actually another bit of Chinese ‘Engrish‘.

There you go!

It says:
Open the doors for disabled children.
To have access is to exist.
Let’s have a school without barriers.

Nice. You don’t often see this kind of thing in Africa and any provision for the disabled is unusual. Many paraplegics have hand-cranked tricycles, or adapted motorcycles, like the Congolese band Staff Benda Bilili use. Of course, you also see many begging at traffic lights, but this is the first time I’ve seen an ‘access for all’ school in Africa.

The same place also had the following ‘ABC’ of access:

It says:

A for access
B for modified seats
C for equal chances
D for children’s rights
E for equality

Amen to that! Keep up the good work folks!