Back in Bamako!
I did make it back to Bamako from my trip through Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. I left Conakry (Guinea) at 4 pm on Friday evening. The volume of stuff (freezers, boxes of Chinese apparel, etc.) on top of the little bush-taxi was greater than the volume of the car itself. The poor old Peugeot struggled up the hills of the Fouta Djallon mountains with us and the stuff. And then predictably broke down. It was 9:30 pm, we were just100 km out of Conakry with 800 km to go to Bamako. We rolled to a stop next to a group of women selling mangos.


(The bush-Taxi I took from Conakry (Guinea) to Bamako (Mali). 30 hours ; 900 km).

We were there on the side of the road from 9:30pm till 4:30am while the mechanic, with his apprentice holding the flash-light, pieced the car apart and then together again. And then we were off like lightening -- ready to catch up the time lost.
Around 2pm on Saturday, the sun is pounding onto the roof of the car, the tarmac is blurry with heat. I notice that the car slows down and then speeds up again, and that we are floating all over the road. The driver pops in a “couper / décaler” tape (beat music from Côte d’Ivoire) and plays it really loud, but to no avail. He’s falling asleep… I don’t blame him, he’s been driving for almost 24 hours. So I start talking to him to keep him awake. He tells about what crooks the policemen in Guinea are. And he’s right from what I saw. As we excited Conakry we were stopped a dozen times by police in tired uniforms and flip-flops. Sometimes the driver didn’t even stop but only slowed down to hand single1,000 Guinean Franc bills to the cops (about 12 cents). What if you don’t pay? “Ils vont t’embeter et te faire perdre du temps (They’ll bother you and make you lose time).”


(En route to Mali).

We made it to the border before dark. There we drove into the courtyard of the “customs” station. The customs official greeted me “Coulibaly!” “Non, je suis Maiga,” I replied. It is the usual joking and teasing between last names which correspond to different ethnicities. Mali is incredible in that way: 60+ ethnicities all get along by making fun of each other. “Maiga! Maiga is no good. Maiga eats beans…” he replies. Such a nice and friendly guy, holding my hand and laughing. And the next minute putting on his customs official face and demanding that everything from the top of the vehicle be brought down. But eventually just asks what’s inside the boxes and the lady bringing back the fridge needs to pay 30.000 F.CFA (60 USD) as customs duty. Which of course is pocketed. The driver later explains to me that it is “un reseau” (a network). The customs official needs to give his boss in the city part of the cut or he will be transferred elsewhere. And the boss needs to give his boss also a cut, or he’ll be transferred. This is all the way to the top. Even government is the “informal sector” in West Africa.
A colleague of mine (and former parliament member of Mali) told me: “corruption is not “engrained” in the system, it is the system.”

After customs, immigration, police, health, gendarme, etc. We were on the road again driving through the night. Brush fires lit on both sides of the road. With the country turning into a desert, burning the little forest there is adds to the ecological disaster. But don’t get me started on environmental problems in Mali or this will turn into a very long blog…
Before getting to Bamako we were stopped at 2 more posts. The last one at the entrance to the city was at 11 pm at night. The official insisted that everything be brought down from the vehicle. We’d been on the road for more than 30 hours and beat. The sight of the fires burning the forest and then this bullshit made me so upset. The passengers and I vented our frustration and anger to each other, but we were relieved to have made it home.

LIBERIA...


(The poster in Liberia telling people to vote. They voted for Ellen, first woman president in Africa!).


(Our first impression of Monrovia... burnt houses, barbed wire/sand-bag UN check-points, burning trash, people on foot in the rain... For a minute Julie had second thoughts about moving here from the paradise-like Freetown Peninsula).


(A lamp post. Swiss-cheesed with bullet holes. The rebels and government forces fought in the outer neighborhoods of Monrovia. The Nigerian Troops eventually came and contributed to a cease-fire).


(Billboard in Monrovia).


(Billboard in Monrovia).


(I flew back from Monrovia (Liberia) to Conakry (Guinea), via Freetown (Sierra Leone) on the World Food Program plane. High above the dust, heat, and endless check-points...).


(The Guinean Forests -- stretch from Guinea, Sierra Leone, Monrovia and into Ivory Coast. I read that they are habitat to half of all mammal species in Africa. All, except for Guinea, are or were just recently in civil war).

SIERRA LEONE...


(Sierra Leone Vision -- people from all over the country sent in their art work to express their vision for a new post-war Sierra Leone).


(The Kreol town of York on the Freetown Peninsula. Founded in 1819 by african-american settlers)


(Kids who were missing their parents after the war. Poster on a community center in York, Sierra Leone).


(War in Paradise. The hotel was looted and burnt in the war. Freetown Peninsula, Sierra Leone).


(Freetown, Sierra Leone).


("White boy")


(Where ever there is fun, there's always Coca-cola. Sierra Leone).


("Prayer is the Key" Public Transport in Sierra Leone).


(The little girl said her name was Aminata and her dog Djenepo. The formed our welcoming committee in this village by Tiwai Island Sanctuary).


(On the road in Sierra Leone...)


(On the road to Liberia...)

boy was that sweet! taking the World Food Program (WFP) flight from Monrovia to Freetown to Conakry.

In Monrovia I and 6 other passengers checked in at the UN terminal of Roberts International Airport. Big UN helicopters on the runway. A contingent from Ethiopia was boarding these at the same time. They bring us in a Landcruiser to the plane and the pilot shakes everyones hand to welcome us. The plane is tiny and has only 10 seats. Cessna 208B. It says "Humanitarian Air Service" on the side and UN on the tail. We take off and fly over the Guinean Forests and rivers at 1000m. Beautiful sight.
In 1.5 hours we were in Freetown-- seeing the ocean and the hills of the Freetown Peninsula. It is such a small plane that you can feel the bumps in the tarmac as we taxi to the hangar. We got out for 15 min and took on some new passengers, and then took off again for Conakry. In Conakry, WFP folk were there to help us through customs and immigration and in no time at all we were out on the streets of Conakry. I took a taxi to the hotel. I can't believe how easy that was when I think back to the trip down overland. no dust, heat, infinite border crossings, ...


There is a fuel shortage in Conakry. Taxi's are lining up at the gas stations and the streets are relatively empty of traffic (for Conakry which usually has horrendous traffic). I'm going to get lunch and later try to go to the beach. Friday I am headed to Bamako (by bush-taxi).

The BBC profile on Liberia:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/country_profiles/1043500.stm

(thanks dad)

There are 15,000 UN troops here in Liberia. Representing over 40 countries. Apparently it is the UN's largest (or most expensive?) deployment ever.

Last night Julie and I went to a house warming party hosted by a Felipino UNMIL (UN Military) woman. We met lots of members of the Felipino contingent (they told us there are over 200 of them, each individual only for 4 to 8 months). We also met the Nigerian Commandor. A super nice lot. You can imagine the house: a dozen white UN Toyota Landcruisers parked out front... and Julie's car. We sang karaoke with the Felipino and had Felipino food. It was great.

Before the dinner Julie and I were sitting at the beach (again, the parking lot of the place looked like a white SUV convention -- I cannot get over how many there are!), drinking Club Beer (brewed in Monrovia!). We went swimming in the warm waters of the Atlantic and tanned; it really felt like we were on vacation.

I am in a hurry to get back to Bamako because my Guinea visa expires on the 6th of May and I need to be at work on Monday. All weekend I was trying to get different people's recommendations for leaving this country and weighing different options ("how's the road?" "Is the border open?" "What are the bush-taxis like?" "How often to they run?" "Are there a lot of check-points?"...).

It is a little complicated. I can either go north across Liberia and straight into Southern Guinea by bush taxi (cross the border at Ganta). And from there to Bamako (still 900 km). Or back across the border to Sierra Leone, and from Freetown on to Conakry and onto Bamako by bush taxi... Each route has pros and cons. The interior of Liberia and southern Guinea would be great to see. The "Guinean forests" (of Liberia, Guinea and Ivory Coast) host 50% of all mammal species in Africa. However, I know the other route already (and could, if I had left Sunday, gotten a ride with a GTZ vehicle from Freetown to Conakry on Tuesday)...

Either way, a long way overland. So I am risking running late and trying my shot at getting onto the wednesday morning World Food Program flight to Conakry via Freetown (it is free!). It took me all day to get authorization from UNDP - Liberia to be on the flight (get UNDP - Mali to confirm that I work for them), but I need to check tomorrow afternoon if I made it (priority being given to those that are going on official business). If I didn't I will choose the route across Liberia and into Southern Guinea....