Saturday, December 20, 2008

People and Products of Mali

Marketplace in Djenne, Mali. Vieux, an English-speaking guide in Djenne, as well as a cloth tradesman.
Tailor's shop in Djenne, Mali.
This Djenne tailor was filming a television commercial on the day we visited.
Vegetables, laid out beautifully, tempting to the buyer.
Spices add flavor to the local food.
Women and children near Djenne, Mali
The women were shy, but agreed to a photograph.
This Fulani woman shows off beautiful gold earrings.
A lot of gold in each earring.
Ferryman ushers cars to and from Djenne.
Beautiful Fulani woman walking up the Bandiagara escarpment.
The Fulani people sell milk to other groups.
People on the banks of the Niger River in Mopti, boats preparing to go upriver to Timbuktu.
Colorful mats for sale by the water in Mopti.
Pottery for sale in Mopti.
Bamansa, chauffeur extrordinaire, buying some of his favorite fruit, the zabon, from a street vendor.

Mac, proprietor of Mac's Refuge in Sevare: http://www.geocities.com/malimacs/MacsRefuge.htm
touring the shop of "Peace Corps Baba"






Baba's shop is filled with treasures.








Carts pulled by donkeys follow the dirt road that parallels the highway.






Typical street merchants in Bamako

Ahmed Ibrah Landi, Tuareg jeweler, with some of his wares in the Bamako home of Hannah and Felipe.
Beautiful Tuareg jewelry
Tuareg leather designer and musician, Abou Bakary Yattara
Women doing hair is universal.
Fabric artist Mohammed Kamera (on right) with one of his tablecloths.
Refugees from war-stricken Sierra Leone have been welcomed in Mali, and here, support themselves dying tablecloths.
Pounding the millet....
...an important task everywhere in Mali
Mosa Sanogo, Bamako businesswoman who helped the police catch the "purse bandit" in 2005.
Mosa serves us a delicious traditional meal of chebu gen.
Bamako broom saleswoman
Can you spot the sheep?

Children of Mali

Faces of the children of Bamako, Mali Children in Africa work hard, preparing food.....
....caring for younger brothers....
....and carrying young children as they work.
Little children everywhere want to be big helpers.
Small children can have fun while watching their parents work.







Boys on Niger River: Catching fish for dinner doesn't seem like work.















Other children beg for money or food.


Life is not always easy for Malian children.



Lucky children go to school. These boys study the Koran during summer break.
Play time is best of all! Children of Djenne enjoy their free time.
And football (soccer) is played everywhere. Djenne boys kicking it around.
Bigger kids play their own football game.
City boys enjoy summer football game in traditional clothes.
Well cared for boys in Bamako have plenty of play time!
This boy invited us to kick with him as we walked the streets of Bamako.
Young faces of poverty in Dogon village.
Dean enjoying the children in Dogon village.
Beauty and poverty in village life.
How can you feel poor when you are rich in friendship?
Children all over want to be in the photos.
And some kids love to clown for the camera
Everybody pushing towards the camera
THUMBS UP! for Dogon children
Malian girls are less forward than the boys and need more encouragement to be photographed, or......
...you have to push the boys out of the way!
Solemn young Bamako girl with friends.
Shy child who still wanted to be in a photo.
This girl was proud of her pretty dress.
Babies are held or carried always
Fulani mother and child, in Dogon village
Susan gets to hold the baby...wonderful until he peed.
Faces of the future of Mali