We came across an English van at the Mauritania-Mali border. The driver was a young man sporting a colorful shirt and heavy dreadlocks heading home. We asked hi…
With the accelerator cable broken, our gas pedal dangled lifelessly under the steering column. The ambulance wasn’t moving anywhere on its own and getting it to a mecha…
Strange people hang out at the customs office in Nioro. The customs office is sorta like the DMV. Anyone who voluntarily hangs out at the DMV has got to be a weirdo. The King The chief is a tall built man with an air of arrogance thicke…
Thursday ended with the promise that the authorization phone call from Bamako to the Nioro customs post was imminent and would happen first thing Friday morning…
Saturday, 11 February, 2012 Our first day in Bamako. Time to get out and see some of this city we’ve been working so hard to reach. Cities fascinate me, so after having spent so much time in the desert I was looking forward to finding out …
Compared to Nioro Hotel Customs, the Bamako Hotel Plage was a completely different planet. Not even the daily trash burni…
For once, the prospect of spending a night at the Nioro customs parking lot did not make me want to stick a needle in my eye. We did have the option to drive through the…
We left Nioro Customs station the morning of February 17. Aside from the poor bird that Dennis ran over, the drive down to Bamako was utterly uneventful. For once, we h…
With the ceremony scheduled for Tuesday, we had one last weekend together with the ambulance before the journey home - except Dennis. Earlier in the week, officia…
Monday’s challenge was to find the Mali Health Organizing Project field office at the Sikoro district in Bamako. Devon, the Programs Director, told us over the phone that …
On the morning of February 21, 2012 we took our ambulance for one last drive. The Salif Keita Foundation had arranged a press conference at the Center for Development of Vaccine to celebrate the donation of an American 1989 Ford E-350 Wheele…