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.
Portland’s Aladdin Theater had some beautiful sounds coming from it on April Fool’s night thanks to Bamako, Mali’s own Habib Koite. Teresa and I went to the show and half a world away enjoyed a wonderful evening of music by a man we had dinner with in Bamako in January.
The show was beautiful and very high energy. It was also perfect timing. That same day Teresa gave a presentation at work about our trip and the mural painting process. And on the previous evening I finished up all the other work that was keeping me from diving into all of the footage I shot in Africa.
It was a great way to return to Bamako for an evening. Habib has a wonderful voice and the rhythmic sounds brought me back to the warm days in Mali.
Photos from the show.
Teresa, Eduardo and I had a wonderful night on the eve of President Obama’s inauguration. You can read about it here.
It seems so long ago. Returning home and hearing endless debate about the stimulus makes it difficult to remember the feeling of that night. It was a wonderful evening.
Part of the evening was a concert by a group of Malian musicians that included Abdoulaye Diabaté a famous kora player. The group includes about 10 kora players, plus a percussionist on the kalabash and four singers.
Here is some video from the event.
Malian Kora Concert: Real Earl Productions Documentary Video from Real Earl Productions on Vimeo.
We’ve been back a couple weeks and while Teresa and I have had some time to get back to our daily lives, Eduardo is just getting able to start doing. Since we returned he had been very sick.
His problem was finally diagnosed as an allergic reaction to his malaria drug, doxycycline. Here I was, worried about vivid dreams (I never had any by the way) from my malaria drug and it was poor Eduardo who ended up getting terribly ill from his medication.
There are only about 10 documented cases in history of his reaction and his case was severe. The amazing thing is that it didn’t strike until he was in the comfort of his home in Berekely. Things would have been much worse had it struck in Africa.
I have been spending time logging all the video and I expect to begin posting multiple times a week to keep the momentum going until the film is finished.
Here is a video from my first interview with Eduardo about the mural. The interview was done on Dec. 27, 2009 in Balmy Alley in San Francisco’s Mission District. Eduardo is standing in front of his mural in the alley which is called Hoy (Ve) Como Siempre. Balmy Alley is very cool. You can read more here.
I thought this video was important to post because Eduardo talks about how murals should reflect the community in which they reside and how you can ensure that by involving the community in the mural process. This is exactly what he did in Bamako.
I will post videos here and they will also be available at www.vimeo.com/realearl
Murals Reflect Community: Real Earl Productions Documentary Video from Dan Viens: Real Earl Productions on Vimeo.
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.