by phil | Feb 20, 2013 | Cote D'Ivoire, Stories, W. Africa
I’ve come to realize that the main reason I travel is to learn things and to form relationships. The best way to do that is to take your time, get comfortable, re-visit. The following is part 1 of a piece on Toits Rouges, a neighborhood in the Yopougon quartier...
by phil | Jan 26, 2013 | Mali
Outside of Timbuktu, January 2012 I am back in Bamako now. Another 36 hour ride with Sama Transport in the books. Previous trips from Abidjan to Bamako (in 2012, at least) foreshadowed traumatic events in Mali. I arrived in Bamako a few hours before the coup last...
by phil | Dec 31, 2012 | Stories
Sunset, Niger River, Bamako, rainy season I am writing from Abidjan. I was also here on this day one year ago. It’s quite a fun place to be on the 31st of December. In early January 2012, I traveled from Abidjan to Bamako. I went to the Festival in the Desert in...
by phil | Dec 13, 2012 | Mali
This is Fatoumata with her daughter, Maimouna. I have recently become the part owner of a handful of sheep in Badugu Djoliba, which is 30km or so outside of Bamako. I have partnered with Arouna, who I mentioned in a previous post, and we are trying our hand at some...
by phil | Dec 4, 2012 | Mali
Something happened in Kita, at the fetisher’s house, in a room that smelled like death. Not the smell of decomposition and rot, but the smell of ancient death, like a crypt. Unfortunately, I cannot share what happened there, partly because I’m still trying...
