Today I have been two days in Mali already. For workshop on Jatropha experiments, here is also a part of ICRAF situated covering West African region. After a more than 6 hour flight, straight from Nairobi I landed in Bamako, the capital of Mali. The time difference is three hours. There I was picked up by an ICRAF staf member, waiting for me before I had filled out the second papercard with all my personal and travel details. A visa paper I had recieved by email. This caused a lott of hassel to obtain since I had less than a week and the ordinairy procedure is ten days. But then it helps to have contacts inside the country. From the airport I was driven to the hotel. The streets are full with mopeds and scooters, and at a crossing one drove into the back of the Landcruiser with a bang. At a bus stop some policemen were observing the crossing and one was on the spot rapidly. There was a lot of talking between both drivers and him, in which I did not join. My French is very far from perfect. After at least 15 minutes we proceeded over a bridge crossing the Niger River. Since I have moved from one hotel where I have a room to the other were the meeting is held, next door. The building has to be crossed completely to reach the meeting room, on top of the restaurant where the lunches and diners are. Tomorrow is the last half day of the meeting, then I have a few hous left to explore West Africa......
Merijn is in very good hands in the mean time. Katja, the postdoc from Germany with who I share offices has moved into our appartment. Today they ate pancakes and tomorrow they will go to the NL school to join Kibets birthday party. Katja will use the oppertunity to take a closer look at Ngongroad and locate the secondhand clothmarket that must be situated somewhere in the vicinity.
I will have to finish this now, because there are reay many muskitos around here, and malaria too. After tomorrow I hope I can add a foto. Now it is diner time. Tomorrow I will fly back, taking off at 1935 and landing at 0515... or so horrible
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3 opmerkingen:
I like your blog.
Carlos
Portugal
Hei Christel!
Veldig hyggelig å følge med på bloggen deres! Jeg er stadig innom å leser litt :-)
Klem,
Ingunn
Hoi Cristel en Merijn,
Ik wil een kerstkaart naar jullie sturen, maar heb jullie adres niet. Tenminste, kan het zo snel niet vinden. Geweldig wat jullie allemaal zien en meemaken!
Fantastisch gewoon. Voorlopig zijn jullie nog niet terug, pas in 2010. Hoe zijn de logeermogelijkheden bij jullie?
Volgend jaar april is ons huis klaar en we staan te popelen om weer eens op reis te gaan, al is de portemonnee nogal leeg. Als we nu beginnen met sparen, kunnen we heus wel een keer naar jou en Merijn toe komen (mocht je dat leuk vinden natuurlijk). We houden contact. Geniet er met volle teugen van!
Groetjes, Judith (en ook van Patrick en Donna
pmooij@xs4all.nl
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