Buy some tasty, pasteurized milk from one of these places:

Yes, until recently we always relied upon powdered milk as the imported stuff in cartons costs a small fortune. However, a few weeks ago, several places like this one popped up around Bamako, selling pasteurized local milk, produced with the aid of a Swiss charity. It is sold in plastic bags for 500cfa per litre (that’s about 65p!) Here’s the blokey at the shop, selling me some milk:

He told me: “We don’t boil the milk; we heat it to 90 degrees Celsius, that’s called la pasteurization.”

The milk is full-fat and tastes good! In fact, it’s so creamy that we tend to dilute it a bit, which makes it go even further. We’ve been drinking it for the past couple of months and have not knowingly got sick from doing so. Here’s a bit of info, from the front of the shop:

As milk goes ‘off’ quickly, I’ve tended to pour it into plastic bottles and freeze it; that way we can buy a large amount in one go and then defrost it a bottle at a time. Here’s what 5000cfa (or £6.50) gets you:

Here’s where the milk shop in Badalabougou is located (just in front of the L-shaped building in the middle of the picture):

View Tim’s Bamako map in a larger map

I’ve seen at least a couple of others in town, so keep a look out and, if you can, let me know where they are located. Meanwhile, why not try a glass of tasty Malian milk??