Seeing a little, but not much, of Bamako

So, thrust back into the world of work, I have not had time to post an update here.  For security reasons they put us in a relatively good (ie expensive) hotel, and when costing an NGO $150 a night plus food, in addition to my consultancy fee, I really feel that I have to work hard; indeed the whole team has been bringing files back to the hotel to work on in the evening and at weekends.  Once we fight our way through the traffic, that is.  This is a typical street scene at this dusty time of year taken through the car window.

 With time out - for me - to get in a few laps of the rather large hotel swimming pool on Saturdays and Sundays!  Nice to get to fill up on the buffet breakfasts too - always my favourite meal of the day when staying at a decent hotel, although the sanctions on Mali are affecting the hotel: first the raisins ran out, then the dried apricots, then the cheese....

Security restrictions by my employer here are tight, but I was able to take a quick walk around the block by the hotel, and snap a picture of one of the two pillars representing Nascent Democracy.  Apparently the tortoise at the base, representing patience and wisdom, is supporting the arms and hands of the Malian people, which hold an egg in the process of hatching - being the birth of modern democracy, under the watchful eye and vigilence of the Imperial Eagle.  I have no idea when these were erected, but clearly some time before the coup d'etat in 2020...  They seem rather ironic at the moment, especially as there is a large poster of the transitional (coup) leader who has said he cannot organise elections before 2027!

I've also been learning a few basic facts about the country, such as the fact that its name comes from the Bambara word for hippopotamus - and the name of the capital comes from the Bambara words for crocodile (bamba) and river.  For this reason there are statues around the place of both hippos and crocodiles, including the stone crocodile above, located within the monument to the first president Modibo Keita (being refurbished, hence the lack of water in the pool).

Now they've moved us out of the hotel so as to save some money, into apartments used by secondees here in an upmarket part of town.  Upmarket meaning that we are surrounded by some pretty impressive large houses, but it is still infested with mosquitoes, and security restrictions mean that I am only allowed to set foot outside the apartment block if I can persuade the Togolese lady I'm sharing with to go out for a walk with me, as the office don't want the risk of our going out unaccompanied.

back to work?

As I was packing up my stuff in late November ready for my trip to Kenya and Saudi Arabia, I received a rather surprising message from a former colleague - someone quite senior at the NGO I used to work for.  Was I still living in West Africa?  Was I working, or did I have time available?  & would I be interested in a consultancy project in Mali for three months starting in the New Year??

Having been thrust rather unexpectedly into an earlier retirement than planned (or rather, having never previously thought about when I might retire, and suddenly finding myself faced with a fait accompli!), with Covid and the politics generally discouraging me from an early return to the UK and Covid also complicating any attempts to set off on a slow backpacking trip around the world, I had settled rather too easily into life in Dakar, albeit at a level of budget that meant it was not always comfortable.  So this did not really feel like an opportunity I could turn down - the chance to earn some money, whilst not really missing out on any alternative during that time period.  With the added attraction, in a way, that it was my love of Mali that led to my being told about the job in Dakar back in 2006, and whilst the capital Bamako (where the project takes place) is not part of my reason for loving the country so much, nevertheless it seemed fitting to end my work in the region in Mali.

So we negotiated contract terms and I signed up to fly to Bamako on 10 January, for a three-month contract.  I got a visa sorted out, packed my suitcase, and on 9 January I went along to the Covid testing place to get my PCR test done, all ready to go.

Only it wasn't to be that simple.  The email and Whatsapp message came through late in the afternoon, to tell me that the analysis of my test result was 'inconclusive' and they would have to do it again.  then around an hour later, news filtered out that ECOWAS (the Economic Organisation of West African States) were so unhappy about the Malian coup leaders putting off the promised election that they had slapped sanctions on Mali with immediate effect - including closure of all land and air borders.  So even if the re-analysis of my Covid test gave the result I was expecting, there would be no flight from Dakar to Bamako the next day, nor indeed for the foreseeable future!

Cue frantic running around in our NGO offices to try to find a way of getting my colleague and I to Bamako, with the eventual solution being a very long route via Istanbul a couple of days later.  However at around midday, my updated result came through from the lab, and I found that I was Covid-positive.  A big surprise, as I am triple-vaccinated and was not experiencing any symptoms of infection ... or at least, I hadn't thought I was, but once I knew my positive status I re-evaluated those sneezes from earlier in January and related runny nose 'due to the dust'.  My flatmate was also sneezing in response to the dust cloud, but got tested following my result and of course found that she was also positive.

Two tests later and I finally got the negative result I needed, and a ticket for a long flight to Istanbul, 15 hours there in transit, and another long flight back to Bamako, and on 1 February I set off for the airport - and whilst the car broke down en route, I still made my flight and arrived safe but tired in Mali.  As the project pays me a daily rate I was disappointed to have missed three weeks of pay, but it seems that the work has been progressing slowly and they will probably still want three months of my time, possibly even four months.

& by the most surreal coincidence, on the morning of 1 February I received a message from someone who used to work at my NGO many years ago, now at a different NGO in a different part of the world and seeing that they need some advice and input from someone with my experience; he asked if I would be sufficiently interested in the possibility of a consultancy project there that he could give my contact details to the board of directors.  So it really is not feeling as though the world of work is yet ready to give me up to retirement!

general musing on life

Having been largely grounded in Dakar since my job ended last year, I've had time to reflect generally on life.  Perhaps not always a good thing to do, but in my case I feel I have lived a full and rewarding life, for which I am extremely grateful.

I worry sometimes that I am wasting some of it by sitting around in Dakar (like most people I know of my age, I have become more aware of time passing quickly, and of the fact that it will run out!), but on the other hand it is a pleasant place to be and is not costing me much money (less than I earn in rent on my flat back in London).  Plus I know that I am a support for two friends there going through difficult times - and sometimes little things happen that make me smile.

Like last week, I decided to walk down to an ocean-side bar/cafe, and then home via the supermarket.  On the way there, a horse and cart - a reasonably common sight in Dakar - went past me, and the man operating it turned towards me and beckoned to the cart, offering me a lift.  I initially declined, but he offered again and so I climbed on, and travelled the rest of the way to the cafe on the back of his cart, being smiled/laughed at by the occupants of the passing cars.  He dropped me at my destination, having not asked for either money or my phone number; in return, I did not ask to take a photo.  Then on the way home from the supermarket, a large, black 4x4 purred to a halt beside me, and the driver asked if I'd like a lift to somewhere further along the road - again, he asked for nothing in return.

Then the next day, I went out to my usual Friday afternoon hangout, having not been for the previous few weeks, and for some reason I was plied with drink by friends present there - and two glasses of baobab juice and two of Cote de Rhone later, I had to state very firmly that I did not need someone to give me change for the bus home!!  I also went away with an invitation to visit the house and meet the family from one person there - this from a place where people meet but mostly discuss impersonal stuff like religion and politics, so an invitation to peronalise things is quite meaningful.

further into Saudi Arabia

After the group tour, I had opted to stay on in Saudi Arabia for a few more days, with a friend, so see a few sites in the Asir Mountains region.  I wish I had added more time so as to relax a little in Jeddah where the group made only a fleeting visit, but we had to make the most of the days we had, so we took a taxi to the hire car office that the hotel told us was open.  One of the most frustrating things about Saudi was that places (offices, restaurants, museums ...) were closed, for no obvious reason, for much of the time, and this was no exception.  But once again the Saudi hospitality (or curiosity about foreigners?) was forthcoming, and a man who saw us looking despairingly into the closed windows of the office offered to help, and drove us for twenty minutes to another car hire office which he knew would be open.

So finally we set out for the south, the first day being just a LONG drive along the (almost) coast road - flat and fairly featureless, with just one or two camels to keep me amused.  But on the second day we turned into the mountain area.  Where the first surprise was the sight of baboons!  There were hundreds of them, swarming around rubbish bins and hanging around any lookout stops along the road, where they scavenged for food.  Not very friendly (one irritated male ran over and smacked my foot when I did something that annoyed him), but quite photogenic!

The mountains were fairly bare and rocky, and dotted with old watch-towers and other buildings constructed from the local dark stone with white quartz decoration above the windows and sometimes along the roof line.  It was sad to see so many of them crumbling, but there is a national programme that has allocated money for preservation of the heritage, and the village of Rijal Alma is one of the best.

We also stopped to explore a few of the abandoned buildings along the route, including these below where you can also see the other building style - layers of mud separated by rows of slate to protect the building from rain - more usually found in the valleys.  The roofs had mostly collapsed, and none of those we were able to see into had any of the traditional brightly-painted wall coverings remaining.

We also viewed the heritage village of Thee Ain - a beautiful spot in the late afternoon light, but over-restored so that from a closer viewpoint you could see that everything was cemented together.  The interiors still looked real but the precise, cemented joins of the exteriors made it feel like a film set rather than an authentic old village.

To get around this region, we were mostly travelling on Highway 15, an impressive bit of engineering as it traverses the high mountain passes.  The road, which runs from Mecca down into Yemen, was built (in the 1960s) by Osama Bin Laden's father - and twelve of the fifteen 9/11 hijackers were recruited from the towns and villages along this route!  As obvious non-Muslim foreigners we didn't encounter any hostility, however - and as noted in my previous post, the cultural environment in the country is changing enormously now.

Not changing so much that we were tempted into Mecca, though.  We accidentally followed one of the Muslims Only lanes as we approached the city, and so drove through on the inner rather than outer ringroad, but we did not take any of the turnings to Al-Masjid al Haram, with their pictures of the kaaba on the signs.  Apparently some independent travellers have been right into the city, and up to the outside of the mosque, but as far as we know it is technically still forbidden, and the rewards to me don't seem to outweigh either the risks nor the lack of respect to our host country that such a visit would have involved.  We could in any case clearly see the enormous Abraj Al-Bait clock tower (currently the fourth tallest building in the world).

Unfortunately no time at the end of the trip to see more of Jeddah, just time to return the car, get something to eat, and start the long flight home.

a tour of Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia opened its doors to tourists a couple of years ago, and I was quick to sign up to a tour.  Then it was postponed because of the pandemic but finally, a year later than planned, I was in Saudi Arabia - for a ten-day organised tour, followed by four free days.

I don't really know where to start with this post, to be honest, as it was such an enjoyable and fascinating visit in so many different ways, in particular for the scenery (I love deserts), the visual reminders of the history (Nabatean tombs, such as those at Jabal AlAhmar in the pic above, as well as architectural reminders of the Ottoman period, and the Yemeni-style old buildings in the mountains of the south), the camels, and finally the window onto a country undergoing MASSIVE change.  This latter was apparent physically (the construction - roads, railways, metros and buildings) as well as socially (women driving, women not fully covered, a few couples holidng hands in public, a public live music performance...).  The Crown Prince recognises that the oil era will end, so the money they currently have is being spent on adding/upgrading infrastructure (also financed by the fairly recent introduction of income tax, currently at 15%), whilst an enormous effort is being made to attract visitors, presumably with tourism seen as an important future revenue stream.  The social revolution in the 'freeing' of women supports the latter, as does a focus on international events.  Just before I arrived in the country there was a Grand Prix held in the streets of Jeddah, as I left there was an international film and arts festival taking place there, as well as a 'rave festival' near Riyadh.  Yes, really - men and women dancing to electronic dance music and, according to a report I heard, clear evidence of both alcohol and drugs there (although both of those currently remain illegal).  A Saudi there told me that most Saudis he knows would put up with a hundred Khashoggis if it means they will be able to go and have a drink in a bar.  Obviously I'm not supporting the murder of journalists - nor any kind of suppression of protest, as is the norm still in Saudi - but the Crown Prince and the change he is trying to bring about is popular - and the extent of change is impressive.

Of course there must be a proportion of the population who were happy with the conservative lifestyle they are used to, and still most women are fully covered, for example - with the niqab as well as the abaya even though the niqab was never obligatory.  It was interesting though to experience the extent of the welcome we experienced as tourists, with complete strangers waving to us as they drove past, inviting us into their home for coffee and dates, and countless women beaming with happiness when I smiled at them, making the heart symbol at me with their hands given their inability to express what they were feeling in words.

Anyway - perhaps I should mention some of the more 'standard' tourist highlights that I enjoyed there ... so first of all, the camels!  We went to Buraydah camel market - the largest in the world - to observe the trading as well as being real tourists with the opportunity some of us took to feed one man's camels.  I have no idea how many camels are there on a typical day, but there were baby and adult camels, there were white, sandy-coloured and dark brown camels, and a small number of smartly attired camels.  There were also plenty of trucks with cranes and winches, with protesting camels being lifted up into the air and into the trucks of buyers.

The beautiful desert 'countryside' was also well stocked with camels - some seemingly wild, but all, apparently, with their (mostly Sudanese) camel herder somewhere around.

Then, as I mentioned above, there were the Nabatean tombs, some 130 of them, carved into the sandstone mountains of the desert around the site of AlUla, aka Hegra.  These are the same people who carved the monuments of Petra, in Jordan, and the tombs - and their settings - are spectacular and now UNESCO-listed.  We stayed for two nghts at the Shaden Resort in the area where the tombs are, with no time available to use the resort swimming pool, nor to request a film to be streamed from Netflix onto the giant outdoor screen ... this pic shows the dining part of the resort, with different cuisines available in the different tented structures.

I should also add that the area is full of old petroglyphs carved into the sandstone rocks.

We visited a few more recent historical sights too - fortresses and 'heritage' towns.  The latter were quite amusing, as all contained little heritage museums, showcasing anything 'historical' collected up from that town.  The traditional gowns and jewellery, the old daggers, and the traditional furnishing and room set-ups were interesting, but there were also plenty of exhibits of things which date from within my own lifetime, such as manual sewing machines, fixed line telephones, and cans of food!

Then there was Jeddah - beautiful Jeddah, with the Ottoman influence in its architecture - still very much under restoration but already a pleasure to wander around both for the architecture but also for the nightlife (I just wish we'd had the time to stop and enjoy the live music being performed in one little square in the old town).  Difficult to photograph given the narrow streets, but this shows the traditional old window screens - there to enable women to observe the street life without being seen.  I would have happily spent many days there.

& finally, in terms of major sights seen on the organised tour, there was the city of Medina. Here is found the Masjid an-Nabawi, the big mosque built around the tomb of the Prophet Mohammed, making this the second holiest city in Islam.  In the past, such places were off-limits to non-Muslim visitors, but whilst we still cannot go inside the mosque, we are now able to go right up to the courtyard surrounding it.

black faces

I have to return to the black-white relations topic, inspired by the recent outcry over racism in British cricket, as I find this so interesting when considered from the African perspective.

I’m thinking of the case where an old picture has come to light of a white cricketer in blackface, where he was apparently playing homage to the (then) recently deceased black artist, Tupac Shakur.  It reminded me of an incident maybe ten years ago, when an Australian politician got into hot water over a blackface incident, at which time I innocently mentioned the case to a Cameroonian colleague.  To my surprise, he was confused by the incident.  “What’s wrong with that?” he asked.  I tried to explain, but he found it very strange, telling me about a popular Cameroonian comedian of the time who was known for making himself up as a white person, and then acting out doing typically local jobs which would not normally ever be done in Cameroon by a white person.  I recall he gave one example of street vendors.  My colleague asked me if I found that offensive – which of course I didn’t.  Perhaps an example of white privilege (a term which I don’t think existed at that time) as you don’t get easily offended by mickey-taking when you are in the dominant group.

So this time around, I asked a Senegalese friend – an educated and well-travelled Senegalese friend – what he thought about what this cricketer had done.  Like my Cameroonian colleague, he was confused, telling me that he and other Senegalese would consider it an honour if a white person made themselves up (clothing but also make-up) as Senegalese in homage to someone who had died.  I asked how he would feel if it were done in a more light-hearted context, rather than as homage to someone deceased, and he still said that he and other Senegalese would view it as something positive, showing recognition and appreciation of Senegalese/Africans.  Indeed when I walk in the street wearing anything local, such as outfits in African wax fabric, I get appreciative comments from random strangers – it is never seen as cultural appropriation but rather as a mark of appreciation and respect.

I suppose the negative reactions to such things usually start in the US, where the history of black-white relations is so bad that any instance of white folk interacting with the black culture is viewed with suspicion.  Not that black-white relations in Africa have been exactly balanced and fair, but perhaps being on ‘home turf’ makes a difference in some way.  Indeed, it still astonishes me how positively white people and white culture are seen here.  On my way back from Lompoul last weekend, as our minibus drove through some small towns and villages, several people looked up and noticed that there were some white people in the vehicle – “Toubab!” (the local word for white person) one older lady shouted excitedly as she waved to me.  I don’t know that I’ll ever fully understand that reaction, but one thing I do know is that when I eventually return ‘home’ to the UK, I shall have to be careful as to what I say and do in respect of the minefield of black-white interactions.

the 18sqkm desert of Lompoul

I should have flown to Ethiopia last Thursday, to start a trip to the Omo Valley and from there by land into Somaliland.  Sadly the British tour company I was going with have panicked about the situation with the rebels, and announced just a few days before departure that they have cancelled the trip.

So I booked a last minute weekend away in northern Senegal, to visit the sand dunes of Lompoul.  Somewhere I'd previously decided was not worth my time and money, but with fewer tourists here right now, and the trip not too pricey, I thought it would be preferable to sitting at home moping about my missed Ethiopia trip.

It was billed as an 'astronomy weekend', as a professor of astronomy was to accompany the group, with his telescopes and a ready-made presentation - not really a selling point for me but once he had taken us through the presentation and pointed out Venus and Jupiter when the clouds parted, I was getting interested - so was sad that the clouds thickened during the course of the evening and we didn't get to see Jupiter, Saturn and the surface of the moon through his telescope.  Nor did I get to see Venus at 6am the next morning, as the downside of sleeping in desert tents is the lack of anywhere to charge your phone, so the battery went dead some three hours before the alarm was supposed to wake me up.

However, I did get to be very touristy and do a short walk around on a camel, and also walked about in the dunes looking at the various animal tracks and watching dung beetles do their thing.

As with many events in Senegal which attract tourists or foreign residents, the other participants were mostly French - and whilst I can converse quite happily in French with the Senegalese (indeed with any French-speaking Africans), I find the accent of the French themselves very hard to understand.  I still somehow finished this weekend with a few new friends, however, and had some interesting conversations.  This included some discussion of the risk to the ecology of this part of Senegal - and the livelihoods of those who work there in the tourist trade - from the imminent exploitation of the mineral zircon which was discovered there a few years ago (this apparently being the fourth largest known source in the world).  What I hadn't known was that the Minister of Mines who signed the deal with a French company to exploit the deposits (in which just 10% of the benefit comes to Senegal) was none other than our current president!