Week #33 A Trip to the Coast of Senagal


After eight months in the landlocked interior of Mali, last week took a trip to the beaches of Senegal seeking cooler temperatures, big waves, rhinos and giraffes, and lots of fish. Dakar and the beaches to the south were surprisingly much cooler than Bamako... downright chilly in the evenings... and we savored every minute!

Some local kids joked that this road was as bad as the road in Guinea

When we planned our trip we had no idea how significant the tourist industry was in Senegal. The towns of Saly, M'bour, Pompongine, and Toubab Djallo are filled with high end beach resorts and gated communties. Many Europeans live here full-time during retirement. There are many time-share bungaloos for sale along the beach and the town (and the whole coastline) are experiencing very rapid growth with construction everywhere. Dakar's new airport, located between the city and the coast, will greatly simplify trips to the coast, and new direct flights from Washington, Altlanta, and New York to Dakar will open the area to American vacationers too.

We took a break from our adventures to color easter eggs, and on Easter morning had a non-traditional beach egg hunt.

Located just inland from Saly is the Banda Reserve, host to a variety of large African animals including giraffes, crocodiles, impalas, horse-antelopes, wild boars, water buffalos, and two largewhite rhinoceri.

Some of these animals are native to Sengal, however the rhinoceri were purchased from a park in S. Africa. The Banda reserve has plans to expand and will soon include a small group of elephants.

Before the reserve was established there was a small village located here. They had a tradition of burying the griot's of the village in the bottom of a massive Baobob tree. Below you can see the tree and some of the ancient skulls that remain.

Just south of the touristic town of Saly is the small city of M'bour, which has a lively and colorful fishing port.

Large boats arrive and depart from up to two-week long voyages carrying fish for local and foreign markets.

Gus, with his lively new pants, took great interest in the catch of the day.... Jenna, on the other hand, was a bit overwhelmed with the scents of the sea.

The video clip below will give you a sense of life at the port.

Departing on a search for the evening meal.

The sun sets on a fun adventure by the sea.

Week # 32 Searching for "Kerka"
The Fulani blanket weavers of Badalabougou

Scattered about Badalabougou you can find small groups of men weaving blankets with their crude looms nestled against the roadside. For several months each year over a dozen weavers from heartland of the Fulani region of Mali known as Gimbala, from the villages of Boyo, Ngouma, and Kanioume, travel to Bamako to make extra money selling wedding blankets. Most of them have very crude living conditions, working seven days per week on their looms. We have gotten to know this small community who, like ourselves, are strangers in Bamako.
One of our closest friends, Laba Sare, works as a night guardian for a French family and operates his loom at a busy intersection. He has been coming to Bamako for many years, and because of the poor harvest in the Douentza region this year, he spent over eight months away from his family, sending money back to his village of Boyo each week.

Like in almost every other corner of the world today, with the fast pace of change in Africa, many forms art are disappearing. The famous Fulani "Kerka" style blankets are no exception. Kerka's were historically over 15 feet long and eight feet wide, taking over 6 months to complete. They were such a grand undertaking that the purchaser of a Kerka is required to kill a sheep before the work can begin.
Because of their steadily declining incomes over the past few decades, today Malians are not able to afford such labor intensive blankets, and the Kerka has been substituted by much simpler and less expensive blanket designs.

About eight years ago a French woman paid Ali Sare's (above) to have his father (now very old) teach him the now lost art and then make her one. With over 64 different motifs and four different blanket styles, it took him many months to master.

Since that time Ali has not been commissioned to make another blanket of such complexity. Because of this we decided to ask him to make us a couple scaled down version (approximately 4.5 feet x 3 feet), and after almost a months work, he recently finished his first one for us.

Above, Ali poses next to his loom during a break from the Kerka tedium.

When you see one of these blankets you will want one! What is amazing is that there are only a handful of weavers left in Mali who know this art... and most of them are very old and not longer have the stamina and/or eyesight to weave. While all of Ali's fellow weavers strive to learn this style of weaving, their harsh economic realities prevent them from the luxury of free time that they would need to learn the art. Weavers learn their trade from their fathers, and are in fact a cast of the Fulani called mabudjos, but slowly over the past generation the economic realities in Mali have no allowed the fathers to pass their trade down to the children. In less than a generation the knowledge of Kerka making has all but disappeared!

Ali's goal is to somehow create a small weavers school in his hometown of Kanioume to reverse this trend!

The photo above is of a Kerka made by Ali's father over 40 years ago out of wool. If in good condition, older blankets like this are often purchased for museum collections.

Here Djoubolo Drame and his 13-year old son Issa weave much simpler blankets. Issa is just learning the trade, only recently completing his first blanket. These types of blankets can be woven in five to six days and usually are sold for between $25 - 30. Subtracting the money for all of the thread (called Garadji in Fulfulde) a weaver is lucky to average $2/day for their work!

What is most humbling to us is that these weavers send 80% of their earnings back to their families in the north. When our friend Laba recently left town to return to his village after almost eight months in Bamako he had $150 for himself.

Mamadou Sare also from Kanioume. Mamadou Drame is from the village of Boyo.

Djougal is from the village of Tiime, near Kona north of Mopti.

Naasuru Yaatere is from the village of Boyo.

Here an unworthy apprentice is trying his best not to mess up Ali's work.

Jenna, Gus and Bamako friends

We are much better at taking pictures of Jenna and Gus and their friends than we are at sharing them...Here are a bunch of random pictures from the past few months.

Jenna with Julia Fanta and Pauline dressed up to go visit Jayden - lucky guy! And Julia Fanta and Jenna are all smiles : )

In March we celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday at AISB and each elementary class did a song or read a poem. Gus' class picked a poem about socks. Here they are on the stage performing for the other classes and parents. Jenna's class followed with a poem celebrating colors - she was Green...

In February, for literacy month parents were invited in to read in their kids classrooms. Stacy was in Jenna's class on Valentines Day and got the following class shots...