The whole preparation took me almost two months - special equipment, a hunting knife (everybody was laughing at me because of that), many vaccinations and other things too numerous to mention. However, I was ready to go... And... a few days before my flight my passport got lost in the mail from Washington. During these few days I went through a whole variety of emotions- anger, fury, depression and acceptance that I was not going to be able to go to West Africa.
But one day I woke up and had this thought - that it is not over till it is over. Somehow within three days, thanks to wonderful people who helped me I got a new passport! New visa to Mali and I was on my way for my lifetime adventure!
You can read in most travel guides that Mali is the jewel in West Africa's crown, a destination that seems to have all the right ingredients. And that is true; As I wrote in the email to my friend after my journey I think that trip was quite an amazing and intense experience for me. I've never met a group of people who are so giving of themselves, happy and at the same time so poor like people who live in Mali.
I would like to share some photos with you from that trip, to give you at least a small taste of that wonderful country and people.
Below you can find photos of kids of Mali, and believe me a few occurrences involving these kids made me very emotional changing something inside of me, and not only because some of these kids won't survive Malaria, which kills more than a million people per year (90 percent of those who die are African children), but that is a story for a totally different time :)
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