If you’ve been following along for a while, you may recall I was a bit nervous for my trip to Mali and Burkina Faso in West Africa in November. Not only had I never previously traveled to sub-Saharan Africa, but I was visiting Mali in the midst of an Ebola outbreak and Burkina Faso just …
How Traveling in Central Asia Prepared Me for West Africa Read More »
Border crossings always make me a little nervous. I was pulled aside and questioned going from Moldova to Ukraine, fought past dozens of pushy Uzbek women going from Tajikistan to Uzbekistan and was worried I wouldn’t even make it from Georgia into Azerbaijan. While nothing truly horrible has ever happened, I still wake up with …
It was late afternoon by the time our pirogue pulled up on the banks of the village of Kalabougou. Located on the left side of the Niger River, it was less than an hour’s ride from Segou, a town about four hours north of Bamako. The visit was timed perfectly – it was a Saturday, …
I don’t often spend Thanksgiving at home. Past Turkey Days have seen me drinking pisco sours in Cusco, eating pizza in Rome and sampling questionable Mexican cuisine in Irkutsk. But I’m not sure any of those experiences quite compare to spending the holiday in West Africa. I started the morning in the village of Folona, …
I knew what I was getting into when I left. Just days before I got on the plan to Bamako, Mali, authorities ordered enhanced screening procedures for travelers returning from the West African nation due to a new outbreak of the Ebola virus. But I carefully read everything I could find on the CDC and …
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After the amazing reception I experienced in Menie, I thought I knew what to expect when I arrived in Folona the next day to visit the Passports with Purpose/buildOn school there. I thought wrong. Folona wasn’t quite as remote as Menie – it was just a few kilometers off the main road from Bougouni to …
I could see the crowd gathered as our truck slowed to a stop along the dirt road. My hair and face and glasses were covered in a thin layer of dust from the drive through the bush to reach this village of just 600 people. I was not prepared at all for what I was …
Every piece of clothing in my backpack seems to be covered in a layer of red, sandy dust – just like my shoes and sandals and backpack and camera and pretty much everything else I brought with me for my two week journey through Mali and Burkina Faso in West Africa. The last two weeks …
I have butterflies in my stomach as I write this. It’s just over 12 hours until I leave for Mali and Burkina Faso and I am really nervous – more nervous than I can ever remember feeling before a trip. And no, it has nothing to do with Ebola. I was nervous about this trip …
I admit, I feel a little weird telling people I am going to travel to West Africa next weekend. I feel like I immediately have to qualify the statement with a “but I’m not going to any countries where Ebola is!” And that statement almost would have been true. While the first case of Ebola …
