Mali Water Pump Project

Since the drilling company is unable to bring their equipment to the village to start the work until Saturday, we decided to be tourists for the day. First, we went to the National Museum of Mali. They have an area where many artifacts are displayed, an area showing the different textiles of Mali through the years, and also replicas of mosques. This is also the first time some of us have seen grass in Mali! Then we went to Amadines for lunch. It is a restaurant that not only has pizza, but has ice cream too! At over 100 degrees outside, any ice cream is delicious. Needless to say, we splurged and really enjoyed our American-style meal.
Afterwards, we went to the American International School in Bamako. Africa Day is on May 25th but today, the school was having an Africa Day celebration. The school is grades Kindergarten through 12th grade so we saw musical performances from many different age groups. It was fun to see all of the kids play songs that went along with a traditional African story. There were also people there selling jewelry, wood figures, and lots of paintings at the celebration. We all agreed that in that school, it didn’t seem like we were in the middle of Mali!
We actually wanted to go to the zoo this morning and due to some miscommunication, we ended up at the museum. This was bound to happen sometime. So after the Africa Day celebration, we went to the zoo. Our taxi drivers came in with us and they had a lot of fun. They had a lion, hyenas, a warthog, monkeys, fish, snakes, a baby elephant, jackals, lizards, chimpanzees, baboons, ostriches, crocodile, a jaguar, and horses. The biggest difference between American zoos and the zoo of Bamako is the smell. They feed all of the animals live bait and in certain areas, the stench is almost unbearable. In fact, the lion was eating a pig’s head when we saw him! The zoo was built on the side of a small mountain which was really beautiful. The steps were carved out of the rock and there were many trees lining the sidewalk. This allowed for some scenic pictures.
To go to all of these places, we drove through areas of Bamako we haven’t seen before. They call is “Bamako proper” or downtown. Tomorrow we are going to the village to meet the drilling company and, if all goes well, the well will be drilled tomorrow!