The language barrier often made the mural process in Bamako very difficult. From understanding the guys at the paint store to our hosts and getting directions to settling a bill – things could be difficult and sometimes that wore on us.
One way to escape that was interacting with children.
Their curiosity and interest in the mural, my camera and us three toubaboos always transcended the barriers of language. Here Eduardo talks about those playful interactions.
Throughout the world HIV is stigmatized. One of the roles GAIA VF plays in Bamako, Mali is to help educate to remove the stigma and to help HIV positive people and their families deal with the social aspects of the disease.
In this video, Annie talks about how GAIA creates a medical home for these people at the clinic in Sikoro. She also talks about how the mural painted by Eduardo and Teresa at the clinic will be a PR piece for the work done by GAIA, its peer educators and the clinic.
Dr. Anne De Groot: Full Spectrum HIV care in Bamako & How a Mural Can Help from Real Earl Productions on Vimeo.
GAIA Vaccine Foundation, which stands for Global Alliance to Immunize against HIV and AIDS, is the organization that put me up while I was in Bamako in January. It was their clinic where Eduardo and Teresa painted the mural.
The founder, Annie DeGroot, is the most driven person I’ve ever met and her organization is among the most legitimate I’ve ever encountered. In addition to building and running the health clinic, GAIA is involved with HIV vaccine research in both Bamako, Mali and Providence, Rhode Island.
The organization is having its most difficult fundraising year ever and they are having a very hard time finding funding for three Brown University students to work in Annie’s Providence lab this year and then travel to Mali this summer. The research and work GAIA is involved with has the opportunity to benefit every person on the planet who is HIV positive and eventually everyone on earth. They need to raise $12,000. Annie is matching every donation dollar for dollar.
If you can donate some cash that would be amazing. I’ve given $50, but I’m sure they wouldn’t turn away donations of $5, $10, or $25. Thanks very much. The link to donate is below and I’ve also pasted Annie’s recent email.
Here is the excerpt from Annie’s email
This video is an excerpt from an interview done with Ray Patlan. Ray is a prominent Bay Area muralist who grew up in the barrios on the south side of Chicago. He has partnered with Eduardo Pineda on several mural projects.
In this video he talks about how murals can inspire change in impoverished areas where people have never realized a sense of power in any aspect of their life. It’s pretty inspiring stuff and it definitely has a bearing on the work Eduardo and Teresa did at the clinic in Sikoro and overall the work GAIA is doing at the clinic.
I think very often we judge people whose lives we truly can’t fathom. Ray’s comments definitely helped me to understand that there are many people in our own country and around the world who have not had the opportunities I’ve had and don’t feel empowered to make change in their lives and in their communities the way people who have been privileged throughout their lives do.
I agree with him that a simple artistic change of scenery can help to inspire that change.
Murals and Their Power to Change: Video from A Real Earl Production Documentary from Real Earl Productions on Vimeo.
We’ve had so much going on with running errands and getting our bearings and now all of a sudden the real reason everyone is here has begun to blossom. Today paint hit the wall and the actual mural work has begun.
Teresa and Eduardo worked with a local artist who works at a nearby children’s center to cover the wall in white paint. Amidou, brought a few of his friends, Eduardo went into happy instructor mode and within 90 minutes the wall was covered. Eduardo working with Amidou made me think of the book I’m reading, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. Without getting too much into it, basically I’m hoping this chance collaboration will help Amidou progress as an artist in a way that he would not have had this mural project never happened.
Once the sunset we returned to the clinic. This time to project the mural images onto the wall and trace them with pencil. This will allow Eduardo, Teresa and their helpers to complete the mural with a sort of template already on the wall. While they were painting and projecting, dozens of kids came by to check out what was going on in their neighborhood. It was quite a scene.
Today I also did a couple of interviews. One with Karamoko, the director of the clinic, and Rama, an HIV positive peer educator. Kara is great to talk to and Rama had a lot of very insightful things to say. I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to meet them and discuss their work with them.
This evening Teresa and I went out for some drinks at a great place called The Diplomate. It is basically an outdoor island type bar with great music and an outdoor dance floor. We had a lot of fun cutting loose and dancing after a long day. While we were gone, Eduardo started filling in the color on the illustrated draft of the mural we have at GAIA house. Upon return, Teresa and I were scolded by our house guard, Salif. I think we may have stayed out too late, but I’m not sure. I can’t understand anything he says. All I know is that he means well.
Here are some photos:
From 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. is a magical time to shoot video here. The temperature is perfect. The sky goes from blue to yellow then orange then red and pink. Mixed with the red earth and the haze from dust it is a majestic scene.
I’m trying to get out every evening to shoot around this time. Today I shot a lot of football (soccer). As 4:30 rolls around you see boys of all ages heading to areas all over town to play. It’s no wonder we can’t compete in the World Cup. The rest of the world is playing soccer everyday and in poor countries without cleats or shin guards.
Earlier in the day The Chief of Sikoro (dugutigi) approved Eduardo’s mural design. Tomorrow they will start on the wall. In the morning they’ll paint the wall white and then in the evening they will use a data projector to project images onto the wall which they can trace with pencil. Then they will darken the lines and begin to paint Monday. We have 16 days left.
We also strolled around our voisinage (neighborhood) today. We saw many beautiful children, hundreds of smiling faces and tragic filth. There was a beautiful garden and just beyond it a stream chock full of garbage, scum and waste. It makes me sad that the people and animals here live among such squalor. Then you stop and talk to people and they offer you fried bananas and the trash and filthy water melts away and all that remains is the happiness, contentment and generosity of these wonderful people.
Photos from today:
