damandala

the transport there was my worst in mali. 15 people packed in a 1/2 size pickup with half my body hanging off the side. six hours of dirt in my mouth, in my eyes, mango on my legs and some bitch taking up all the space next to me. when we got to kenieba I just wanted food and beer. got those and a shower in a clean nyegen. left early the next morning for the mines, more bad road but lots a sweet scenes along the rock ridges and undeveloped bush.

hamdallaye was hot. hot and humid and dirty. the dirtiest place I've seen in mali. dirtier sicker and richer. meaner, we weren't welcome. heard that the president of mali is selling all the land out there to an american company. the miners are gonna stop working when the contract is signed in two months. 20% of the gold will go back to the state. locals will be able to keep selling the gold they kill themselves over to get, to the white buyers who come. all this according to locals, so I guess that's just one side of the story. whatever the situation is, the people are getting fucked and don't even know it. don't wanna know it...

bad water too, one pump constantly servicing a queue of 20L jugs stacked two tall and fifty wide. otherwise it's bad well water with certain contamination. talked with the doctor, says he thinks 80% of the people are sick, with malaria, water-borne and sexually-transmitted diseases being the most prevalent. there's a measles epidemic too. saw lots of kids covered in the shit. saw lots of flash in the streets. all this money and there's new motos, clothes, shoes and girls. no sanitation, medicine, education. prostitution and human trafficking. there were english speaking girls from nigeria with humble cries for help. ties to governments, military, the whole damn show. I guess we're not talking about peanuts and cotton anymore. fucking gold.

won't say much else other than the experience wasn't enjoyable. got to greet my people and shock with bambara. not many white people find themselves on the side of the mines where the locals live. went down the meter-wide, 50-60 meter deep mineshafts with the foot and hand holdings they have carved into the rock well wall. swiped some of that glowing goodness. got all dirty and sweaty. the workers pocket a little everyday, take it home without washing, eating or sleeping after working 15 hours and pound it up to see how much they got for free. they got the fever.

the 4 day stay at the chief's was shitty. a nyegen with a 2 x 6 ft hole, just a pit of shit really. the ladies were alright, got us washwater. they weren't hooked up like the normal chiefs I've seen, nothing really worked there like it normally does everwhere else in mali. still feeling off.

got back to kita on a flatbed, more than 12 hours standing up, eating dust and checking out fula musows. it was a bad rollercoaster for most of it, stop-n-gos up-n-downs. getting my head wet with icycles flowing through the waves in my hair. lost the shirt early and just rode the train. rolled in under a late influence and let my mind go. someone needs to wake these people up and start a fucking revolution. fuck the man, he kills. empower the people.

in n out

when I got back to kita someone from PLAN was knocking at the door. for a while I've been trying to include my village in their CLTS formation, you know, to end open-defecation, to get people from shitting outside and into the nyegen. I don't know though, it's a culture thing. first of all, I've heard women are discouraged from using latrines at all, that they have to hold it all day until they can shit out in the woods under night cover. then the school thing becomes an issue. if a girl's gotta go during class, what's she gonna do. I heard lots of girls miss school because of their period or just because they don't wanna use the school nyegen. it's real shameful to get walked in on by a dude. whatever it is, it seems more like culture change than what I've heard is just behavior change...

so they went out to my site and were received well. I wish I could say that it would make a change. the methodolgy seems pretty legit: sitting a pile of shit and a pile of food in front of the chief so everyone can see how flies transmit sickness, calling everyone who doesn't have a nyegen in their concession out, drawing shit all over their community map to illustrate where the kids relieve themselves in the morning. but to me, it seems like a show. everything's all gung-ho until the PLAN people leave. then it's like oh I shit in the woods so what. my kids shit outside the concession I don't care. that's how we do shit. we'll see. I'll try my best, don't mean to be negative or anything...

also had someone from PC come out for food security needs assessment. he helped me set up a committee to gather and process shea, hopefully to sell to the ladies in kita. I don't know though... the more I read about africa, the more I see, the more I ask myself how far I should go. yeah I came here to help people and make a difference, but I didn't come here to hold people's hands and give hand-outs to more-than-capables. say what you will, but that's just my take. the only person - since the two and half months have passed since I told them - who's collected the sand and gravel to improve wells is the teacher from out of town. yeah he has a donkey cart, but other families have donkey carts and everyone's had months to get this done. ahh shit...

toubabu=white person=wari b'a bolo=got money you know it=ain't gonna work for free, even if we get cement and rebar for free. fuuuuck it. no that's just how it seems, I could be wrong. but most of the other ngo's come in and do all the work for free. PC doesn't really work that way, that's something I like about this group. it's grassroots too... government hadn't done shit for the people here.

so after PLAN and PACA demonstrations I took off for kita. the PLAN people invited some representatives from my village for the big show. photos and video cameras and all that bullshit. I wonder who they show this to. maybe 1st worlders who have no idea. maybe their bosses. maybe other 3rd world villages? probably not the latter, I haven't seen anything from any other villages that PLAN's worked in. but I don't mean to be negative or anything... we got fed anyways. zame and fish and foronton tastes good. especially when fula musows prepare the lot. I can see why everyone wants to do these formations. screw the humanitarian plot, we want free food, sodas and tasty ladies.

oh I forgot, I wasn't planning on coming to kita so early. but the PLAN people told us to show up for the formation today, starting at 8:30. since we're not allowed to ride motos (thanks PC, work would be so much easier and we'd be able able to help so many more people if we could just get a goddamn moto, but fuckin bureaucracy and government organizations and whiny parents from former PCVs...), I biked to kokofata last night, slept under the bush bus with the transport apprentices to make the 5 am trip to kita. we didnt leave til 6 and then the bus was slow as hell, took two hours to go 60 guidron km or about 35 miles on nice paved road. we didn't even make it to kita, the goddamn engine blew up right in front of my face. I can't even explain the situation, only that everyone was freaking out, the driver most of all. I'm pretty sure they all thought the bus was gonna explode. anyways I had to fight with the driver to get my bike off the top, I just wanted to get the fuck out of there, get to the formation. hadn't eaten, hadn't showered. I was late 15 minutes. haha no problem in mali though. everyone didn't show up til after 10. bastards.

this afternoon I went to the local home depot to complain about some of the tools that were sold to me. supposedly no problem, since we're friends now. also looked for the bastard machinist who still owes me parts and labor, but I got lost and ended up in kita back alleys until they spit me out next to the catholic mission. christ. so I bought a sack of 20 sachets for 2500 cfa. that's a liter of booze for five bucks, couple of cokes and you're gravy.

off to bamako tomorrow. gettin more tools and seeing my girl off to the states. soon to see damandala and the circus of sickness and suffering with the photojournalist buddy. let you know how it goes...