Bamako

Things are good in Bamako.

The budget for our project has been submitted and reviewed in Paris.  Most of the accounting has been entered, up through the 27 June.  I have developed my expense follow-up template.  Our employees are entered into the database, and they were paid for the month. We are getting the expatriates we need for the program.  And we have made a proposition for additional staffing to improve the medical care for our patients and are now negotiating with headquarters for the approval to hire them..

But the situation in northern Mali is still tense.  The Ansar Dine and the Mujao, the more extreme factions in the occupation of the north, have taken control from the Touaregs of all the main cities, including Gao and Timbuktu.  The Malian government, which is still in a transitory stage after the latest coup, is not in a good position now to try to recover the north.  The Ramadan fasting period starts in a couple of weeks, and we are watching to see if anything will happen before that.

Mali has been, until recently, a very touristic country, but with the current troubles this important source of income has dried up.  Hotels and restaurants which were thriving before are now closed.  This reduction in income, as well as the conflict and the instability in the government, are making it very hard on the population, both north and south.

The hospital in which we are working in Timbuktu is functioning, but we are currently not going out to our ambulatory sites because of the insecurity.  This hospital and two other health centers are running because we can provide the drugs necessary and can pay the staff, most of whom are no longer receiving salaries from the Malian health system.   Insecurity is rife.  Vehicles are frequently requisitioned, including one which was carrying one of our staff – he was left alone, but he lost all his luggage and papers which were in the car.  We are still able to move people and medical supplies, but only with extreme caution and careful planning.

Bamako is calm and very wet.  The rainy season has started, and it rains some nearly every day.  Last weekend it poured!  I spent my Sunday afternoon in the Mali National Museum.  It is in the national park, which is beautiful.  They have some interesting artefacts, including some incredible wooden carvings.  There is also a very interesting exhibition of Malian textiles.   

The park is old, so there are some big trees there, but apparently it was in ruins until recently.  It was restored in the last few years.  It is adjacent to the zoo, which is closed now for extensive renovation, to make a better living environment for its inhabitants.

Saturday, I took a long walk of about 3 hours round trip.  We are on one extremity of the city - I did not make it into the center.  But it was good.  I get a better feel of a place on foot than in a car.   It was a good experience, and I will be doing it again.   

Over the last couple of weeks I have been into town quite a bit, to set up flights, get visas, and take care of other business.  I am getting a better feel of the city.  Bamako straddles the Niger River, with 3 bridges linking the 2 sides.  There are a few big streets to get around, but the traffic in the center of town in incredible – cars, trucks, minibus taxis, motorbikes, pushcarts, horses, donkeys, and more.  We don’t drive here – as in most places where we work.  We use either the MSF cars and drivers, or taxis already qualified by the logistics group.  Moto-taxis are forbidden to us. Arghhhhh.

I went to a bar for a beer one evening this past week.  Like a lot of African bars, it is in a courtyard with an enclosed building, but most of the bar is roofed, open sections of the courtyard.  This set up is really agreeable.  I was sitting at the outside bar when the owner came in.  He is a great fellow.  He offered me a beer, and I think it surprised him when I afterwards offered him and his 2 employees something to drink.  We talked for a while.  And before I left he offered me 2 bronze statues, each about 3 inches high, a man and a woman.  I was really surprised.  He says he has thousands of them, but I was still touched by his gesture.  From what I have seen so far, this generosity is typical of the Malians.

Mali is known for its music.  It is a very vital part of the western Africa music scene.  This very bar I mentioned has live music 3-4 times a week.  I hope to go one evening soon.  But the music starts late, and I get up early.  I will have to find a way to have the experience without upsetting my work schedule.

A car just arrived from our regular program in the south, bringing back our chef de mission and assistant medical coordinator who were consulting with the team there last week.  I missed them – it is good to have them back.  And to my surprise, two of my old colleagues from previous projects arrived in the car also – a logistician from Congo-DRC and a doctor from Ivory Coast.  It is great to catch up with both of them again.  The logistician is going home on break, and the doctor is going for briefings in Paris.  I have two more former colleagues working in the regular programs here that I have not yet seen. 

The only frustrating part of my time here is that I cannot go to our project, because of a fear of kidnappings of whites$$$.  Working at a distance complicates things a lot.  But all in all, I am really pleased to be here.  I am happy that we can provide health care to the population of Timbuktu and the surrounding area, who would have no access to it if we were not there.  And I enjoy my life here in Bamako.   

For those of you following this blog, you probably remember that this is my first assignment in a 1-year contract with the Emergency Pool of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) – French section.  It is a whole new ballgame as compared to the “regular”, longer term projects in which I have worked.  I have now been here for a month, and will be here at least one more month.  Then, who knows?  Maybe more time here, maybe some other hotspot in the world.  All depends on the situation of the world.  And with the world as it is, I am pretty sure to have a job in the humanitarian field for a long time.