Mme. Sidibé Aminata Diallo

For the first time in Mali history, a woman decided to run for presidency. I had a chance to meet her through a work meeting. She seemed sincere, modeste and very aware of the challenge she faces being a female candidate in a male dominated traditional african country. A university professor who has formed her political party 2 years ago who concentrates on environmental issue a lot. She said that she knows Mali isn't ready for a female president, but it's time that someone (a woman) starts trying and hope to encourage other women to follow to get more involved in politics, so women's voices will be heard, women's issues will be considered, and eventually women's needs will be taken care of.

As soon as she declared her candidacy, there were rumors that the current president had "bought" her off to run for president. Each candidate must put out 10 million FCFA (=$20000), a lot for a malien. The amount is only returned to the candidate if he/she win 5 % of the total vote. Some people say that the current president paid for her to enter, so she will agree to run against him even if other candidates decide to boycott the election. If all the oppositions boycott the election, election cannot take place with just one candidate. A transitional government will take over to reorganize another election. Speculation or non? Who knows.

I do know through talking to many average malien men with broken french on both of our sides, that there are many of them who are afraid of educated women. (as I am writing this, I am thinking how is this that much different in "developped countries", same problem exists but at a different level) Many men would rather that their wives are not educated, so they will respect their husbands more, do whatever theirs husbands ask; once a woman is educated, she will be more demanding and has too much mind of her own. So, even she might be able to bring more money to home by being more educate and has a better paying job, the men would rather that they remain the only breadwinner of the family and poorer, but have more control over their wives. The culture here is still very traditional where man are suppose to take care of woman, provide for their wives and children. But the harsh reality is that it is harder and harder for a man to be able to support many wives but still pressured to by older generation and society to marry more than one, therefore most women try to engage in whatever income generating activities they can find, make food to sell on the streets, carry a bucket of fruits on their head and walk around selling them with a baby on their back, etc. In fact, african women are working hardest to provide for their family, so their kids can eat and go to school. Many of them might not have regular professional jobs, but oh my god do they work so hard, such long hours, in such harsh harsh conditions for their children, their families. So heart wrenching...

Just a note, here woman keeps her maiden name and add her husband's name in front of their first name. (Mme. = madame)

Lansana Kouyaté

With all the changes, I failed to mention that about a month ago Guinean president Lansana Conté finally under pressure from inside and outside of Guinea chosed a prime minister (PM) - Lansana Kouyaté, that majority of Guineans agree. According to the agreement signed by Conté and the union leaders, PM will be the chef of the government and can and will form a brand new government, that is to be signed off by Conté. It took almost a month since the PM assumed his post, people were starting to get worried, that the PM formed his new government composed of 19 ministers. All 19 ministers are new and mostly technical people who does not represent any political parties. None of the old ministers were retained. People breathed a sign of relief.

We still have to wait to see how things develop. Conté is still in the pictures, his entourage won't be that willing to give up their gain in this country so full of natural resources. The country is in such a mass. Reform will be long and difficulte.

Are you going to vote? Why not?

Presidential election in Mail was Sunday, April 29th. When I chatted with maliens, some of them would ask me if I am going to vote, and when I say "no", they ask me why not. So, you can see there are still a lot to be done to educate people on citizenship and government.

A lot of elections are happening in my part of world this year. Mauritania just had their presidential election, and they even had two rounds where there was a debate between the last 2 candidates. Nigeria just had their presidential election, but the international community is saying there are a lot of fraudes and the oppositions contest the result. One commentator on RFI (radio francaise international) said that in many parts of africa, democracy isn't a destination we try very hard to get to, but rather a voyage. A rather long voyage indeed, a voyage where we get lost sometimes; where we take detours; where we backtrack then restart; where the plane or the train doesn't work we have to walk on foot. In June, there will be a legislative election in Mali. Togo also is suppose to have either presidential election or legislative election soon. Guinea also has legislative election scheduled, but I think the new PM has decided to reschedule it so they can properly prepare the election process. Senegal, had their presidential election in February where president Wade won a second term. He is 82 years old. Côté d'Ivoire just reached an agreement where a young rebel leader of age 35 is recently named as the new PM. Who else, la France is at their second round of their presidential election. Can you guess who I would like to win? =)

43°C = 109°F

Even my guinean friends warned me about heat in Bamako. Africa is testing me again with its brutal climate, turning up the heat one more notch. You don't want to be outside between 9am to 5pm, not even if you are in the shade. You just don't want to be in this hot dry still air. I am not one who sweats a lot, but you wouldn't think of me that way here. My face can be full of sweat 5 min. after walking out of the house. My eyeglass has such a hard time staying put.

Our apartment is in concrete which absorbes a lot of heat at the end of day, making inside feels like an oven. Luckily I have AC at work, so I leave the apartment as soon as there is enough light to bike to work like around 6:15, and stay at the ACed office till I have to leave to catch the little bit of light left to bike home, to limit my time in the apartment at a minimum. Mind you there is ceiling fan in our bedrooms and living room, but most of time it just circulate the warm air inside.

Sleeping has been hard. Here what I have to do to wake up less throughout the night due to the heat.
1. shower before going to bed
2. place the bed directly under the fan without the mosqito net
3. sprinkle bedsheet with water
4. place a plastic mat over the bed
5. powder myself up with talc powder paying special attention to areas like neck, armpit, back of the knees, where your skins touch one and another, to minimize sweating throughout the night
6. lie on the bed naked and try to sleep

Djenné - Stepping back in time...

After suffering a day long bus ride from Bamako, a bumpy bump pick up truck ride
then a ferry,
I got to the World Heritage site - Djenné, a island city northeast of Bamako (circled in the map above).

This guy is pushing the ferry away from the dock. The other picture shows horse carts crossing the river to get to Djenné for its weekly market. There were only 2 windows open on the roof of the bus, no AC. I never knew my behind can sweat so much. Everytime the bus slows down or stops, sweats dripped off my face.

Why stepping back in time? Why a World Heritage site? Just look at this photo.

Djenné is known for its mosque, the largest mud structure in the world! http://www.sacredsites.com/africa/mali/djenne.html

Unfortunately I just missed the annual remudding of the mosque events when I arrived at sundown, missed my chance of getting mud on my face, and possible chance of seeing the courtyard of the mosque.

At Djenné, all the houses and other building buildings are in mud or mud brick, no concrete or steel structures are allowed to preserved the unique architectural style of this heritage site. I felt like I was stepping back into a medival town. The color of the town is dried mud. There were very few trees, especially during the dry season. Thanks to the world heritage site status, thousands of tourists flood this town every year, as a result there is electricity and tap water in most compounds. A negative side effect of the flourishing tourism (here and many other touristic sites in the 3rd world) is extremely annoying kids, who call out "white people" incessantly, circle around you and stare, ask for cadeau (beg for money) and won't leave you along, the worst is touching your "white skin". A few more "worldly" kids will call out chinois (chinese) or mimick "nihao" (but sound more like hin-han) to me. It baffles me why they must calls us out when they see white people so much. The best policy is ignore them, but sometimes they just drive me over the edge and I give them really dirty look.