More recent posts about Mali
Articles from Mali
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Integration
My friend, PCV Arwen Wolfe, is a wonderful Volunteer. We were on vacation in Mali, hiking in Dogon country, when we met a family who were so delighted she knew how to tie a baby wrap, they asked her to carry him around all morning!
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keeping dry in the rainy season
Village kids playing on the mortars.
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rice harvest
I had just arrived in the village of Ganale on our monthly baby-weighing day, greeted the "dugutigi" (village chief) and propped my bike up against a mud wall in our usual meeting area, when a small group of kids met me to take me out to a nearby field. Before getting to work, Mamine, our local village health volunteer, was bringing in some of the rice harvest along with other women in her family. I confess that until my time in Mali, I had no idea what rice looked like before it ap...
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Waiting
This photograph was taken during a cervical cancer screening training workshop I carried out in a hospital in Kita, Mali. The woman depicted had volunteered to be screened during the practical session with doctors and midwives, and was waiting for her appointment.
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Haircut in Mali
PCV Audra Helser gives her boyfriend, PCV Ben Arnold, a haircut on the porch of the transit house in Koutiala, Mali. Both Helser and Arnold are from Ohio, but did not know each other until meeting in Peace Corps. Ben was in the group ahead of Audra's group. I met Audra and Ben, who have since COS'ed and are now married and living in Chicago, while I was traveling around the world photographing Peace Corps volunteers. My photographs are compiled in a book titled, "Making Peace wi...
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Moribayasa
March 1994, in the village of Solo, Keleya Arrondissement, Mali. Every spring, the village celebrates what they call "Moribayasa". I was told that the celebration is to show thankfulness for the previous year's harvests so that they will have a good harvest in the coming season. It's a fun week, including, among other things, plenty of dancing and music, sacrifices, and even old women dressing up as the old men and acting out little plays to poke fun at them. This was the first &quo...
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Tombouctou skyline
A view of the Tombouctou skyline as seen from the roof of the Djinguereber Mosque in the fall of 1995. I like how, since the buildings and the streets are the same color, the city seems to have grown out of the earth. Yes, Tombouctou actually exists! Every since I returned from Mali, I've found myself assuring people around the world that this is actually a real place, not a mythical city or a long-lost place that we just name to refer to somewhere too far away to imagine.
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Heartfelt
Young Fatouma and her brother enjoying a good, heartfelt laugh.
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Curious
A young village boy posing for his close-up.
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One Love
Casually embracing a new-found friend.
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Joyfully Innocent
My good buddy Nandi being the joyful, silly little girl that she is.
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Free-for-all
A gang of flies enjoying a tiny slice of Mango skin.
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Beautiful Surprise
A delicate, months-old baby looks up to the sky.
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Dressed to Impress
Aramata and her baby brother take a break from selling peanuts to pose for the camera.
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Mamy
My host father's daughter, Mamy, takes a break from pounding onions to have a good laugh.
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Shy that way.
Shy little Alima, reluctant to pose for the camera.
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Laugh out loud
Me and my host father's daughter, Mamy, enjoying some quality time together.
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Is this in America?
Shaka, a five year old that lives in my concession. Number one asked question of all time, is _______ in America? It could be anything, a cat, chair, sandal, rice, etc. This time he asked if there is a machine like this one in America, I did not know for sure, so I just said there are machines and maybe one in America is the same.
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How do you say massage?
During a training break in our homestay village, Peace Corps Volunteer Matt receives a massage from a local boy. One of the many benefits of speaking a local language.
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In the Bush
Koniaba and I after our day in the bush. Collecting shea fruit in the bush is like a long Easter egg hunt, walking back 2 miles with a bunch of it balanced on your head is kind of difficult. Maybe next year I'll be able to say "Hey look, no hands!'
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reflection pool in a desert country
These are the fisherman of lake Manantali returning with a fridge full of fish to Manantali village.
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Joking Cousins
I traveled around the world photographing Peace Corps volunteers for a book, Making Peace with the World, Photographs of Peace Corps Volunteers that is being published by Other Places Publishing. I photographed Peace Corps volunteers in 22 countries on five continents. My subject in Mali, Peace Corps volunteer Audra Helser serving as a Health volunteer in Kouoro Village in the Sikasso Region, was very good about getting me introduced to the culture of her country and to the citizens of ...
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Piece of Meat
I eat with my host family for lunch and dinner. I have to say I am a very lucky volunteer, because my family cooks very well. Most meals are served with some meat or fish and at the end my host mother divides it up so every one gets a portion. One day after I finished lunch and gave my blessings of thanks, I walked into my hut to take a multi-vitamin. Seconds later, five-year old, Shaka flies by my door screaming and crying; immiediately I think oh no someone is going to hit him. I walk outsi...
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A huge angry elephant run
Letter Home – Written April 2006 Hey everyone. yup, so great story. so I’m gonna tell it. So this week Julia, Caitlin and I all decided we should go out to Caitlin’s village because Julia and I had not gone yet (yes it took us a year). Her village is quite far from Sikasso though - about 2 hours past it on the road towards the Ivory Coast and then another short bike ride off the main road. The area is absolutely beautiful - cliffs and waterfalls and rolling green fields of mango trees. So ...
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Fast
It's Pre-Service Training, it's Ramadan. This is how the days go. You wake up at four AM stumbling out from underneath your mosquito net with a full bladder, flashlight in hand, wiggling into flip flops and pressing the door open, careful not to touch the crickets inside the door frame, who stopped chirping, for once goddammit, when your flashlight turns on, flickering between gripping fingertips. You walk outside where the host sisters have prepared breakfast. Maybe you walk to the nyegan ...
