I wrote last month about a wild day of shooting when I stumbled upon a ceremony on the hillside above the main village of Sikoro in Bamako, Mali.
After talking with Amidou Keita, a photographer from Bamako, I’ve learned the purpose of the ceremony was probably to rid the demons from one of the women there.
Here is some raw video from that day. The video quality suffers a bit to get in on You Tube. I’ll work to improve the quality as I post more.
We’ve been home nearly a week. I’m not quite over the jetlag because I went right back to work. Teresa has returned from San Francisco to Portland and from what she tells me Eduardo has been pretty sick. That’s a bummer.
I’ve started looking at some of the video and I am pleased to say that what I’ve seen looks amazing. I will begin posting video regularly starting today.
First though, here is a selection of photos taken by Eduardo while we were in Mali.
In Bambara, the local language, a bana means finished. Today we are abana. The mural, the filming and our African experience are over.
We dropped our bags off this morning at Air France and now we’re just hanging around for a few quiet hours before we head out to our last dinner and then to the airport. I’ve got about 27 hours of travel, a couple movies and at least one ambien before I hit Portland.
I’ll be parting ways with Teresa and Eduardo in Paris. They are heading to San Francisco.
I’ll reflect more on the trip once I’ve made it home and have had a couple days to decompress and think, but there are a few things I’ll be leaving here with.
The first is that Africa isn’t just the Africa we see on television which is usually about AIDS, hunger and political turmoil. That is certainly part of the story, but absolutely not the whole story. People here live very happy lives. Some do so in great poverty without any of the conveniences we are used to in the West. Still others live very similar lives to what most people in the U.S. are accustomed to. They have plenty of food, fine cars, beautiful homes and satellite television.
Language barriers can be unbelievably frustrating, but there is nothing more telling than a wide smile. That more than any words will open many doors.
I have taken the luxuries I am afforded in the United States for granted. Everything from grounded electricity and traffic laws to potable water and trash pickup have gone without my appreciation for 30 years. When I return home I am going to give a big hug and kiss to my electrical outlets, nearby stop signs, my faucet and the recycling bin. I also recognize our country has many ways it can improve and I hope to be able to help it along.
There will be more I’m sure. This has been an eye opening, spectacular and humbling month. I can’t imagine not having come and I can’t fathom not being able to leave.
I will continue to update the blog with video updates over the coming months as I edit the final film.
Thanks for reading.
Thanks to the Pinedas for having me along on the trip.
Thanks to GAIA VF for allowing me to come.
Thanks to everyone at RAIN who was so supportive and let me take off for a month to do this.
And thanks most of all to my wife Sue who gave me a confidence to pursue this project that I could not summon on my own.
Our final Bamako sunset.
The birds I made my first film, On The Wing, about are called Vaux Swifts. There are many other types of swifts and from what I can tell they are all very similar.
When we were in New Orleans last May, swifts flew all over the French Quarter. Here in Africa, I have seen them both in Bamako and Segou. Both times I’ve been very close to the Niger. They are most visible near dusk as they cruise through the air for mosquitoes, which are in abundance here.
It’s become a very comforting thing for me to see them throughout the world. I feel like they’re my birds.
Here’s the best photo I could get.
An African swift.
Going to Segou for the Festival Sur le Niger is like going to New Orleans for Jazzfest. We weren’t ready for Jazzfest. We might have done better with something a bit more Summerstock. We saw some wonderful music and dancing and drank our share of beer, but parts of the weekend were pretty intense. Here are some lights, both high and low.
1. The bus ride was an adventure. Three hours hurdling through African countryside was kind of fun, but the scenery gets repetitive, the bus heats up after a while and well, it’s a bus.
2. We saw a monkey on a motorcycle. He wasn’t driving, but still cool.
3. We knew our hotel room didn’t have a bathroom and that we would be using a common one. We didn’t know we were the only room out of 19 like this and that we would be sharing the staff bathroom. We’re certain the staff held this against us.
4. The hotel had a wonderful outdoor seating area under a thatch roof. It was a great place for decompressing on Friday with some gran Castels.
5. We couldn’t sit in the outdoor seating area Saturday because they were pumping sewage out of the ground with a super loud machine.
6. Being white at the festival meant you were ripe for buying stuff. We were constantly accosted to buy stuff or just look or whatever. It really gets on your nerves after a while. People follow you. Put their hands on you. If you do stop to buy something, then a ton of other people come up like vultures. It’s exhausting.
7. The music and dancing at the festival were amazing. The dancing was like nothing any of us have ever seen. The music was really fun. The stage was actually on a barge on the Niger River.
8. The seating was wildly uncomfortable. We were sitting on the concrete/rock embankment on the side of the river. It was hard on the rump and hard not to slide down. On Saturday, there was a wild crush of people for the entire concert. We watched the first two acts and then just couldn’t handle the onslaught.
9. We got home around10. It was hot and loud. I was asleep in 10 minutes. I was exhausted. It seems like once the mural was finished, our energy was kind of gone. We started to realize how exhausted we were and although we saw some wonderful stuff, it was hard to enjoy it all. Now we’re back in Bamako and able to relax a bit.
Our flight is late tomorrow night and I’m happy to be going home.
Some photos from Segou:
We are leaving early this morning for a weekend in Segou. It’s a town about 150 kilometers from here that everyone says is wonderful. We will be attending a music and arts festival called Festival Sur Le Niger (Festival on the Niger).
I’ll be back Sunday and will get back to the blog for a day before we fly home.
One day after the mural was officially finished, the employees at the clinic, some members of the neighborhood, the painting crew and the chief of the village came together to dedicate the work.
The day started of with some confusion. We were there at 10 a.m. when we were told things would start. Eduardo invited many of the people we’ve met on this journey. They included the museum director, the art school director and Joffa, our interpreter at the OBAMAKO event. With everyone there, it felt like the last episode of Seinfeld.
Even though we were supposed to start at 10 a.m., we are used to Africa time where things tend to start late. A major difference between Mali and the U.S. is that things here are not very prompt, but they will definitely happen. In the U.S. when someone is going to be very late you consider rescheduling. Here, that’s not the case. As a sign of respect, the show will go on, even if it’s hours late.
Once we cut through the confusion and the language barrier, there was a touching cultural exchange and a fine dedication.
Everyone crowded outside the mural where the village chief, dugutigi, thanked Teresa and Eduardo for their work. He was very pleased with what they had done and sincerely appreciated all they put into the mural. He said we are part of the family now and asked that we share our story with everyone in the States.
The staff of the clinic also thanked them for the mural. They are very proud of the mural because it shows the work that is done in the clinic. It helps people not only to understand GAIA’s method of fighting the spread of HIV, but also showing how the clinic helps the village daily.
In addition to all of this, the village said they were especially touched that the work was done by a father, daughter tandem. They said it shows great honor that Teresa had decided to follow in the work of her father and that it was part of a project for Sikoro was especially meaningful.
Teresa and Eduardo told everyone how honored they were to do the work and how thankful they were for everyone’s help and support especially when it came to them speaking very little French or Bambara.
A short time later everyone gathered upstairs in the clinic. The chief then blessed the mural and everyone rejoiced.
A couple other things from today:
I was able to shoot in the maternity room. The young mothers in there were okay with it so I got some amazing video of two children less than 24 hours old. The facilities would make most people in the states cringe, but for where the clinic is, the rooms are very clean and the women have a nice bed to lay with their children after giving birth.
Also, one of the scenes in the mural has turned into a very funny joke in the clinic. It is the scene with a man and a woman and their shadows. All of the interns think the man looks like Eduardo and the woman looks like one of the interns. The intern’s name is Fatamata. The joke is that they are going to get married. Fatamata said it is going to be awkward for Eduardo’s wife. I had them recreate the scene.
It's like a mirror.
We are off to Segou tomorrow so I most likely won’t post again until Sunday.
More photos from today:
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.
When I was a columnist for the UMass Daily Collegian I got to write one edition of “Notes from The Campus Center Basement. I’m going to write this post in that style.
No house in Bamako smelled better when I got home tonight. Eduardo has been cooking delicious feasts a few nights a week. I was hoping to get down to fighting weight while I was here, but not so with Eduardo’s delicious meals.
I got a slight sunburn on my neck today and I have a line from the strap of the thing around my neck that holds my passport and cash.
If you’re a thief in Bamako, I was kidding about carrying around my cash and passport.
This place is really loud. African talk radio blares in cabs. Dudes selling ice cream honk bike horns. People talk really loud. The cars are crazy loud. The kids are loud. When I lay down to bed at night my ears ring like I have just left a concert.
I’ve got a crew of two or three 7 and 8 year old girls that have crushes on me. It reminds me of being back at Perry Lane. Today they tried to give me some keys and a thing they had been chewing on. I refused both.
The mural is officially done.
The mural dedication is tomorrow.
Eduardo had to flip one woman’s head around today. One doctor at the clinic said she should be looking at the food she was eating. They said people don’t talk when they eat. I’ve witnessed several meals and people gab away. I think maybe the ideal custom is to not talk while eating.
One scene in the mural is based around a pregnant woman going to the clinic. She is being helped by a woman with carrots balanced on her head. The same doctor was worried the scene was sending the message that pregnant women only eat carrots. Eduardo fought that one and made no changes. I thought he could’ve at least added some turnips.
We get called Toubabou because we’re pale skin. When I get back to the states I am going to turn this into a product line. Toubab Chew Chewing Tobacco, Toubab Glue, Toubab Moo Milk, etc.
I shot today from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. The heat was pretty intense and the kids were all up on me. I am really beat. I listened to a couple hours of This American Life while I was shooting and also Bob Dylan Blood On The Tracks.
After dark, a crowd of about 20 watched telenovelas at the clinic.
I miss my wife. She’s only been a wife for 5 months, but she already belongs in the Spouse Hall of Fame. She has been unbelievably supportive of this project and On The Wing. I would not be who I am without her. I hope there are more of these adventures in my future, but I also hope she can come along next time.
The taxis here are in unbelievably bad shape. It’s hard to believe they run at all. The wouldn’t pass inspection in Florida. Actually I don’t think they have inspections there, but either way these cars are terrible. I was in the front seat of one yesterday that actually had a working seat belt so I decided to use it. When I got out of the car my shirt was completely filthy.
For those of you who have been to Bonnaroo and Phish festivals, this city is basically like a big one of those. People sell questionable food on the street. There are people walking everywhere in sandals and bare feet. Some people wear some crazy get ups and others look kind of nice. There are some funky smells wafting through the air. It’s hot.
I miss my dog.
The mural is an inspiring work. It’s vibrant and fun to look at. It is unanimously loved and the kids can’t help but put their hands all over it once the painters are gone.
That’s all I got. I’m seriously beat.
Photos from today.
