The Media Arrives: 1/21/09

Today a radio reporter named Stefanie Habluetzel, whom we met at the OBAMAKO event came to the mural to do a story for a local radio station. Stefanie is here for two months from Switzerland. The story will air on local radio this week.

The mural is really coming together and people are starting to notice. It’s really fun watching people walk by and check out the art. The kids test our patience regularly, but they are still very cute.

Today was the first day that the heat was a factor. You could actually feel it burning. However, that only lasted a little while. I spent some time walking around Sikoro and shot some video of a bunch of kids playing soccer.

Then this evening we had a really informative, eye opening meeting with Amadou Keita. He is a photographer based in Bamako. He showed us a lot of his work and talked candidly about the problems facing Mali.

I asked him if people here use the term “developing nation” the way we use it in the West. His response was that he has not seen the country developing at all. He said it in a humorous way, but he meant it. He said, when there are people dying in his country because they have nothing to drink there is no development.

I also asked him about all of the trash we see in Bamako. Most of it is plastic bags and bottles and packaging. He said that before democracy it was not like that. When he was growing up there were authorities that would force teenagers to clean up trash every Sunday. Now no one takes responsibility for such things and the local authorities cannot handle waste management. It’s sad.

You can see some of his work here.

Photos from today.