Mali: and a tale of my clients

My grandmother never really understood my job.  I'd explain it to her over and over again but a perplexed look would still come over her face.  Nonetheless, she'd brightly exclaim encouraging somethings like, Well that certainly sounds useful!  But I could tell she never got it.

I once met a woman at a cocktail party.  She told me she was in Morocco on a research assignment.  I pressed her for more details and she gave me the look of someone who had been avoiding questions.  Then she answered that she was studying mule sperm {!}.  Frankly, I think my grandmother would have been satisfied with that answer:-)

I'm currently working in Mali on a civic education project funded by USAID; the project touches over a million people.  We partner with community radio hosts and traditional communicators (professional story tellers and messengers) to promote messages of peace, tolerance, women's participation and good citizenship.

Here is a glimpse of some of my partners and project beneficiaries.

Have you ever been to Mali?  To Africa?  Would you want to go?  

Some places: and a tale of the unbearable truth

I'm a woman who looks for beauty wherever I go.  And I always find it.  But I see the rest, too.  The poverty, the sadness, the dirt. The malaria, the pollution, the crime. Sometimes {almost} the only {and best} beautiful thing is the people.  It's the unbearable truth for me in Bangui, in Dhaka, in Bamako, and in Addis Abbaba.

I left last week for Mali.  Here a glimspe of the beautiful people.

PS It's a special day for me tomorrow and I'll have a special offer.....Oui!  So please come visit!