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 been back from Mali for just over two months. In that time I’ve been consumed by work that wasn’t the Africa stuff.
Since returning I’ve:
Where I
I am thrilled to say that I am finally done with everything that was standing between me and really getting to work on the Mali Mural project. I have now logged a total of 6 hours of footage out of the 51 I shot while we were there. I will now commence with regular blog updates with video from the trip.
The house of Madame Sangare is well stocked with food, drink and laughter.
Madame Sangare is a friend of a friend of Eduardo’s. She lives a short walk from GAIA house and tonight she had us over for dinner.
She and her two daughters are larger than life and proud of it. The fed us an absolute feast which was far more than any of us could handle. There was a plate of veggies, followed by a meat dish, chicken, fried plantains and french fries. There was also a wonderful juice concoction made by her daughter Mariam.
They spoke English so we were able to converse very well with them. Mariam is a singer in a reggae band. The oldest daughter, Aminata, just graduated from university with a degree in anthropology.
Madame Sangare is a researcher. Their home is on the campus where her lab is. It was a wonderful house.
They had a television and when we walked in, The Simpsons were on – in French. Aminata said, “Homer Simpson is crazy!”
One of our best dinners for sure.
The mural is finished. Eduardo and Teresa did a couple hours of work today to put the finishing touches on it.
That included darkening the hands and changing the placement of the head on one of the women in the communal meal scene. Eduardo had to paint over the existing head and paint an entirely new one. He did this at the bequest of on of the clinic’s doctors.
He did a very nice job and the mural looks amazing.
Eduardo says a mural is never actually done. Basically you just stop working. They picked a fine time to stop. It’s freaking hot and the mural is fantastic.
Here it is.
The finished mural. January 28, 2009.
We still have eight days until we leave, but we’re beginning to plan out our final days.
We’ve got a few spots we want to hit for dinner before we go and the hope is to have the mural done by Wednesday or Thursday. Eduardo and Teresa are planning on heading to Mali’s second biggest city Segou from Friday to Sunday for the Festival on The Niger. The festival includes all sorts of music, art and other exhibitions. Nearly everyone we’ve met in Bamako is heading there.
I’m on the fence. I need to shoot the mural in the neighborhood for a day or two after it’s done so if they don’t finish until Thursday I’m going to stay here for the weekend.
We had dinner tonight at an Italian place near us called Piazza Da Guido. It’s owned by two Italian brothers and was actually very good. We sat outside in a courtyard setting that had every wall painted with a different Italian city. We sat next to Pisa.
The scene at the clinic was mostly laid back today. Being Saturday, the clinic was quiet and there seemed to be less kids in the street.
After painting was over, Teresa and I hiked to the summit of the hillside. It was a great hike, but a bit difficult because it was very hot today.
Everyone is tired, but the mural looks great and we’re having a lot of fun.
Photos from today (sorry they’re laid out weird).
Baby turkeys.
T-Party and some pigs.
Teresa at the top of the hillside with tiny shacks behind her.
Hamadou tossing a kid back across the moat from the mural.
Dan and the camera. The Blazers wristband is protecting the part of the camera that broke.
The backside of Sikoro
The mural got some bells and whistles today and Teresa has gained the ability to teleport. See both below.
The mural as of end of day Saturday January 24.
Well we are closer to leaving than we are from arriving. It’s amazing how time has flown and the mural is a great measurement of that. Here is a panorama I put together from end of work today.
The mural as of January 23.