Shopping here in Bamako is always an adventure. We live within walking distance of 2 grocery stores, Shopreate and Marche Ar-Rahma. Shopreate is the larger by far and has the biggest selection. Lot of ex-pats shop there. Here are a few of the aisles of food to give you an idea of what we can find.
My shopping list usually has things on it like rice, potatoes or pasta, canned beans (kidney, white or dry lentils), stewed tomatoes or tomato sauce, canned corn, mushrooms, baguettes, eggs, European yogurt, butter and cheese, and sometimes a box of cookies or chips. John adds his chocolate bars to the list!
These are a few of my favorite finds. These packaged baguettes are wheat and they freeze really well. We like them for sandwiches.
I love the pesto sauce–it comes from Italy and it’s great on cheese sandwiches, in salad dressings and in pasta dishes. I use it a lot.
When we’re in Abidjan, we always bring back a few bottles of salted local cashews and peanuts. They’re our go-to snack foods.
I just discovered these orange and raisin wheat cookies. They’re my new favorite! My other favorite is Digestives like the ones in England.
We can also get good 100% fruit juices here. We’ve recently discovered this brand, now our favorite.
And this is local pepper paste. It’s really hot and good. These 2 jars will be going home with me! A very little goes a long ways!!
Those are just a few random things I want to remember about shopping here and a few particular items we really like that we’ll miss when we go.
Here are a few pics from the store right across the street by the Al-Rahma Mosque. We don’t go here as often, but it’s close by if we need something. We buy our water here.
Here is how I clean and prepare our fruits and vegetables before we eat them. First I wash everything well with soap and water to get the dirt off. Always start with the cleanest pieces and the produce that will be eaten raw, not cooked.
Once everything is washed clean, then I soak the produce in a bleach bath. Javel is the word for bleach here. I add a few good chugs of bleach to the water bath, then let them sit for 10 min or so.
Once things are clean and sanitized, they go into the fridge, ready to eat!
There is an ophthalmology clinic and a eye glass shop here at the Bamako Blind School. We visited them next. The government helps to pay for the workers here who do a great service for the students.
This is the clinic.
Dr Kamara apologized that his equipment is from 2009, but he says he makes do.
In his register, Dr. Kamara showed us how he usually sees 25 to 30 students every day. I could tell he is proud of his office and the work he does here.
Next door is the shop for eye glasses. The optician had training in France and Germany and has been making glasses since 1983. As part of a non-profit, his prices are low.
Here is where they work on the glasses and grind lenses.
Here is another of the enterprises the blind students help with at the Bamako Blind School. They weave mop towels used for cleaning. Sadly, today no one was working today–partly because they were away and we’re at the end of the school year right now, and partly because there is not enough money to pay them.
The students spin the cotton into thread, then use it to weave the towels. This is the spinning room.
There are 4 rooms for the spinning and weaving, but 2 are closed now because of the funding problems.
Educate the blind to live independently.
Here are some of the weaving machines. There were several in each room.
There is one more enterprise they didn’t show us today. They also have students making bench desks for classrooms. Oh, wouldn’t it be wonderful if every student had a job and could earn their keep. I love the things we saw and learned here today. These are good people helping good people. My heart goes out to them. I hope we will be able to help in some way in the future.
I found this chalk-making enterprise at the Blind School fascinating. I’ve never seen chalk made before. There are blind students who work here. Some are former students. They are hired to work and the boxes of chalk sticks are sold to government schools. The workers here make about 600 boxes of chalk a day.
This is the machine with the molds for making the chalk:
The chalk is made out of Plaster of Paris mixed with water.
The chalk is put on these trays then spread out in another room to dry.
In this room, the students count and box up the chalk. Fascinating process!
I will never forget what we saw today as we visited the Blind School in Bamako. It was an island of hope, but also a campus with great needs. Our purpose in going was to determine if this might be a place for a future LDS Charities proposal and project. We wish we had time to see a project all the way through here. Today we just gathered information and assessed the needs.
Our friend, Francois joined us as we toured the school.
We met first with the director, Hadji Barry and his administrators, to learn about the school. In 1973 the school began with 6 students. Today there are about 260 blind students here and 2 other campuses with 20 students each in other cities.
Since 2017, with the help of USAID, the classrooms have been integrated in every grade with seeing students studying alongside blind students. This helps with their integration into society after graduation.
We spent the morning touring the campus. I will show you what we saw.
Here is the mosque for the students with a place to wash before entering.
There is a Primary school building and a Secondary school building. The Primary school has 133 students and Secondary has 63 who are blind. There are 252 total in Primary (which includes the kids who can see) and at least double the number in the Secondary. The high school had 80 blind, 265 seeing = 345 total students.
The blind students pay 30,000 for a year’s tuition ($55). If they can’t pay, they aren’t turned away. The seeing kids pay 90,000 and live at home. The blind students eat and sleep at the school.
It was amazing to watch these students of all ages learning to read Braille.
Here we met with the Secondary School teachers and they explained to us more about their work to integrate the students.
Here is a sports field for the students.
These are some of the Secondary Class students. Many can see and they help those who are blind. The teachers were proud to report that the top students in the classes are usually blind.
Ramps have been installed for most of the classrooms to make it safer for the students to navigate.
There were also adults here learning Braille.
Here’s a row of bathrooms. None of the toilets work. Someone installed sit down toilets and tanks. That plumbing is always a problem here.
Here are the sinks and showers behind the toilets. These are used.
You can see the terrain is always tricky here. Nothing is smooth or flat. There are rocks and now puddles everywhere. Some ramps and some cement walkways have been added to make navigating a bit easier. It’s still not easy.
We visited the girls’ dorm where 75 girls sleep on 38 beds. It was heartbreaking to see the conditions here. The roof is bad and the ceiling was leaking all over the place. The mattresses were horrible. Many girls sleep on the floor because there aren’t enough beds.
Because so much water leaks in from the roof, everything was wet, including the bedding and all of their clothing. There are no wardrobes or closets or places for the girls to keep their belongings safe or dry.
Outside the dorm, clothing was hanging dry.
Here is the bathroom for the girls’ dorm (there is one toilet inside for night use only).
This is the boy’s dormitory. Here there are 112 boys sleeping in 58 beds.
The ceiling here was dry, thank goodness, but the need for beds and mattresses was just as great.
Between the dorms is an open area where the students can relax and socialize.
The older classroom buildings are no longer used.
The pavilion at the far end of the campus is used for play and games.
These boys were playing a type of soccer (by sound). One of the boys has partial sight (glaucoma). He can see some in daylight and nothing in the dark.
Next we visited the cafeteria and met the kind volunteers who help prepare the food.
This woman was cleaning the rice and removing the dirt and sticks.
The kitchen area:
The cafeteria was inside. The roof here was also leaking everywhere. The whole room was wet.
Lunch was ready to serve.
Here are the bowls and cups used for every meal.
There was a kitchen next to the cafeteria, but nothing in it worked. No water and no stove and you can see the ceiling is also in trouble. All the cooking was done outside.
Here is the health clinic. Someone is on duty here all day. This lovely matron told me the most common problems see sees are foot and leg injuries (from falling down or bumping into things) and malaria.
These are her medical supplies.
And this is the treatment room.
Here is the beautiful school garden.
Next we went into the High School campus. Here there are 80 blind students and 265 seeing students = 345 total in grades 10-12.
This is the good principal.
It was rather thrilling to see these students learning. It’s hard to imagine what they’ve overcome in their lives to be here doing this.
After visiting all of these places, we got to meet the man who works in an office creating the Braille materials. USAID provided modern transcription technology that enables the computer software to transcribe text to braille and print it. He showed us how it’s done by typing words into a computer.
I wonder if this is the old technology!
Next we visited the building where the students are paid to work by making chalk, mop towels and bench desks which are sold to help support themselves and the school.
You’ll have to visit the next post to see those very interesting enterprises!
The rainy season is arriving and with water running everywhere, the trenches and ditches along every road are filling with even more trash. Today our exit was closed because men were cleaning the trenches. We got out and as we walked home from the big road, we had a close up look at how these trenches are emptied and cleaned–all by hand.
The cement slabs that often cover parts of the trenches can be lifted and moved (if you are very strong).
Yesterday they were shoveling the muck and guck out, piling it along the sides of the trenches.
Today they were shoveling it up into the dump truck, one shovel full at a time.
Here you can see what kinds of things fill these trenches.
It’s nice to see it being hauled away every now and again.
What beautiful children! The boys were playing with their wheels. It’s how they learn to drive here!
This little girl loves her white doll, but my white face really scared her!
This kind old man sits right next to the door to our church compound every day selling charcoal (“charbon”). He buys it in the big bags, then sits and breaks up the big pieces, bagging the small pieces of charcoal in the small black sacks to sell. This charcoal is used for the small cooking stoves everyone uses every day.
Donkey carts picking up trash along our walk home.
A girl selling bras.
We stopped to buy some potatoes and onions for dinner.
The new Orange store on our street is Finally open!! This is where we can go now to transfer money. Orange is a little like Venmo here. You can send money to others, or you can pay your bills with Orange on your phone.
It seems like someone is always digging up something here. Today these guys were laying a conduit in front of our apartment. It’s hard work with a pick and a shovel.
It’s always interesting here. Everywhere you look, there is something interesting going on.
Last Saturday the rains came, and with the rains, a sudden flash flood spilled into Fr Mbaya’s home, filling it with about 18″ of water. Yesterday (Monday) he and Soeur Sylvanie worked all day long washing all of his things. Everything was soaked–the mattresses, the bedding, the clothing, his books and belongings, his food.–everything.
Fr Mbaya lives about a 5 min walk from the church. He had help to bring everything here to clean. Thankfully, the baptismal font was still full of water and the Relief Society ladies had a good supply of soap on hand! Small miracles.
Suitcases here are used for storage and clothing.
Fr. Mbaya was still smiling at the end of the day. He told me he’s grateful he’s safe and well and all this stuff is just stuff. His passport and his temple clothing were safe.
Today after our District Meeting, John and I walked down the road to where Mbaya lives to see the damage left by the flood. You can see the water line on the buildings to the far right and to the left, several feet up. Imagine this entire area being filled with that much water!
This trench in the lower part of the photo above is where the water flowed right to Mbaya’s apartment building, the pale orange one on the right. You can see the water level there a couple of feet up the building.
All is calm now, but this entire area was under water Saturday while Mbaya was at the church.
You can see the debris stuck in the trees, showing how high the water rose.
They say that a young 4-yr-old died here a couple of weeks ago when the water was high.
This is the front courtyard of Mbaya’s building where everyone was still washing and cleaning their belongings. Neighbors were still cleaning furniture and clothing and hanging things out to dry.
We are at the beginning of the rainy season. I hope this doesn’t happen again. It’s hard to imagine this much water can reach this sub-Saharan dessert city of Bamako and do so much damage.
It’s now 5:00 p.m. and the rains have returned. Within 20 minutes, we had 2″ of water on our balcony. I went out to take a look and in the few seconds I shot this video, I was completely drenched. I am worried about Fr. Mbaya. I hope he and his neighbors are safe.
Several weeks ago we drove by one of the city dumps up on a hill in Bamako. I was intrigued by a row of straw huts where I could hear men pounding. I assumed they were doing some sort of recycling. I have since learned that what they were doing there had nothing to do with the garbage or trash or recycling. They were using heavy wooden mallets to pound FABRIC!!
Mali is well known in the African fashion world for a type of shiny cotton fabric called Bazin. It is also known as brocade or damask, which is imported from Germany, Austria, and now also from China.
Mali is famous for hand dyeing this Bazin. Here in Bamako, they estimate more than 250,000 people are employed in the dyeing and processing of this beautiful fabric. We often see women bending over the large tubs, working with the fabric, even here in our own neighborhood. Here are a few photos I’ve taken of women on our street dyeing this fabric.
And here’s a place we often drive by where women are always working over the hot fires and pots dyeing these beautiful fabrics.
This video explains how this fabric is made.
And here is a look at what was really going on in those grass huts by the dump:
This is a very interesting article about the pounding of the fabric, with an excerpt from the article below:
There are those who beat the fabric after the fabric is sold, with a large wooden mallet known locally as a finigochila, to “bring out the shine.” From Kayes to Bamako, you can easily stumble upon a village where the sound of wood banging on wood fills the air.
But glossing the fabric is not an easy task. The 35-pound wooden mallets first need to be glazed with wax at the beginning of each day. After, the mallet is used to tap the fabric over and over until it shines. The service can range from ‘somewhat shiny’ to ‘really shiny’ with ‘really shiny’ sometimes taking up to 3 hours of tapping.
Men beat the fabric to give it a shine after it’s dyed. Bamako, Mali
Along with the fabric beaters, dyers, buyers, shippers, drivers, tailors, tinters, shop owners and boutique workers are all part of the local Bazin industry in Mali. Though training is needed, dyeing and batting the fabric can be open to anyone willing to commit themselves to learning the traditional ways passed on from the older generations on to the next.
“I wanted to try it, I watched for 3 weeks before they let me start. That was 2 years ago,” Gigi Koné said while putting the finishing touches on custom ordered Bazin. Koné uses the wooden mallet to make new designs shine. “Anyone can bat, you just have to train, dyeing is for women but batting is for men. Most men in my family do it,” said one of the village elders working alongside Koné.
Here’s another good article if you’d like to know more about Malian fabrics:
Several weeks ago we drove by one of the city dumps up on a hill in Bamako. I was intrigued by a row of straw huts where I could hear men pounding. I assumed they were doing some sort of recycling. I have since learned that what they were doing there had nothing to do with the garbage or trash or recycling. They were using heavy wooden mallets to pound FABRIC!!
Our Cote d’Ivoire Abidjan East and Bamako, Mali Mission 