Quick clarification

Let's just sort something out here before I get any further questions about romance.

It is unlikey enough that I am going to meet my young, short, dark, handsome, salsa-dancing, French/Spanish-speaking, non-smoking, travel junkie, food-whore, ex-chef-turned-shoe-designer (seeking a muse!), Rhône Valley vinyard-owning, AVAILABLE, raconteur in Paris ...

And for those of you who haven't had the pleasure before, let me tell you that it is extremely unlikely that he will be residing on a minesite, anywhere, let alone in the middle of sub-Saharan West Africa - you can carry on using that old cliché "You never know, Ali - stranger things have happened ..." as often as you like, but let me say right now that just finding a non-smoker at Syama is a hard enough task.

I was under no illusions when I arrived here and I don't think any of you should be anymore either!

Have a great day now, lots of love, Ali

Tabakoroni Touring

The last couple of days I've been out and about touring around the Tabakoroni area (south of Syama, closer to the Côte d'Ivoire border) with the exploration team - our boss Mike has been over from Perth to touch base and give us a bit of an idea about what's in store over the coming months. Boy does it feel weird to be looking at rocks again after such a long break!


Syama Exploration Team - Part I

In the photo above, from left to right, you can see Simeon, Kevin, Marcus and Mike - the other members of the team were variously at Tabakoroni, on congé, or at home relaxing for Africa Day (or behind the lens).

In any case, getting out and about in the country side is a bit of a welcome change after months locked away in my cubicle at the College - and there are some pretty cool sights to be seen in southern Mali, including the ...


Local transport

... or you can head over to the gold rush at Alhamdoulay in a slightly larger vehicle ...


Mishap on the bridge

... and hope that you can get moving again soon.

Once you find a likely looking spot at the artisnal workings ...


Entry point

... you might strike it lucky if you have the right tools at hand.


Any gold there Simmo?

And after a hard day prospecting, you can pop back into camp to share lunch with friends.


Ali and Moussa relaxing at lunch

Practice your Marcus impersonations ...


Still working on the open-mouthed grin

... and if you are very very lucky, you might meet Mariam bearing gifts on the way back to Syama ...


Mariam with Mali Mangoes!

... and see the ladies of Fourou on their way home.


Mango bounty in Fourou

Syama Resort is ...

... located at 10°47'41.25"N and 6°03'44.48"W for those of you who have Google Earth. We are about 300km southeast(ish) of Bamako, and about 30km east of the Côte D'Ivoire border. Well and truly nestled into the tropics. It is actually very easy to see the pit and the runway on the Google Earth image - did you see me waving?!

It's been a few days since I posted anything, largely because after spending 10 hours in the office with my computer (that's right folks, I am in the office by 7am - a new regime for me) - I'm not that keen to hang about. But I have a few images of everyday life about the camp to give you an idea again of my new lifestyle.


The new DBA/Research Geologist hard at work

Note the large bottle of water close at hand, the number pad and the hard hat in the corner - I am authentic.

And following on from an earlier post, I've been given an interior design makeover in my room - no more tiger print, it's all floral and velveteen now!


My room - mark II

I'm relaxed about this turn of events though, because Simmo had his room adjusted in the same fashion - and I have to say, the comfort level of that velvet blanket is pretty high, even if it's not quite manly enough for Simmo.

And this would be my colleague Marcus exhibiting his wide range of facial expressions:


Marcus enjoying a meal at the Ciwara dining club


Marcus relaxing after a hard day at Taba

Syama Autumn Collection '07

It's very hard to believe that I have been reduced to three - that's correct - three pairs of shoes.

It has been a good decade since I purchased my last pair of steel-toed boots, which I retired after my final field season in Vanuatu, and not having feet the size of an average man's, I had very limited options this time around too. My new boots have the same soft padded cushion around the ankle that the last ones had. What I had forgotten was that this exciting 'feature' of safety footwear takes a long time to break in! So for the past two weeks I have been struggling with the new shoes blues. I have ring-shaped bruises around my ankles and I am coping with a broken blister that threatened to turn into some kind of delightful tropical infection earlier on.

Thus I have been moving very slowly around the place, which I have discovered as a bonus is a very good way of keeping my sweating to a minimum. Once the wet weather arrives of course I'll only be wearing my boots, no sandal action likely once the soil turns to slush. I really think I might have been wise to invest in a pair of cute girlie gumboots when I was in Tokyo - but alas, I will have to struggle on and see if they have a pair of size 4 wellies in the back of the warehouse.


Syama footwear collection - May 2007

Workplace hazards

I've been onsite now for just on two weeks, and I have already identified some key workplace hazards, and here they are:



Un délice!

If you look closely at the picture you can probably see the oil slick that could solve the impending global energy crisis - I discovered today that my friend Jane had a similar experience with the Dakanuts when she was living here. I put the whole sorry event down to heat-induced delirum and extreme fatigue.



My arachnid friend

Not the actual one that I met in my first 3 minutes onsite (mine was blacker, shinier and uglier), but a very similar beast indeed!



Another Sunday at the office

Yep - look at me, look at me! Mike B said I didn't look too authentic as a cobra killer, but hey, who knows - I am always happy to learn new skills.



...and what do I do with this now?

Simply because Wade dared me - what's a girl to do?

But by far the most terrifying, frightening and challenging danger I face daily is ...



Simmo!

... particularly so now that I have posted his picture here (hello Mrs Robinson, he really is a lovely boy). He's already warned me that I need to get a release form arranged, but I don't think that Ali est ici ... is likely to generate too great a readership in the public domain.

How hot is it really?

I am not just being a princess about the weather - here's a summary of the daily maximum temperature and humidity here since I arrived (I was lulled into a false sense of security on my first day):

Wednesday, 2 May - T. 26°, H. 85% (Happy Birthday Doyley!)
Thursday, 3 May - T. 32°, H. 85%
Friday, 4 May - T. 35°, H. 80%
Saturday, 5 May - T. 37°, H. 61%
Sunday, 6 May - it was hot and it rained all night
Monday, 7 May - T. 37°, H. 90%
Tuesday, 8 May - T. 29°, H. 69%
Wednesday, 9 May - T. 27°, H. 73% (Happy Birthday Barb!)
Thursday, 10 May - T. 34°, H. 66%
Friday, 11 May - T. 33°, H. 79%
Saturday, 12 May - T. 33°, H. 64%

Thankfully, it's more humid in the morning when the temperature is lowest - the afternoon is when it gets a bit much outdoors. As those who know me well will attest, I can usually be counted on for a sense of humour failure when the temperature gets too close to my core temperature. I'm trying to keep myself nice here though, because I will be living very closely with all my new colleagues.

The attractive heat rash I am sporting from my fingertips to my forehead after 4-6 minutes gentle walking outdoors is certainly making me a hit onsite! I can tell you, I am sweating more now that I ever did at pump classes ...

And, I don't know if anybody worded the exploration team up in advance, but they have given me an office affectionately known as 'the frigde' - it's right next to the server room so the temperature is kept really low. Consequently, I am probably the only person in this country who is wearing a jumper!

On a more interesting topic, I had a bit of an offsite excursion during the week too, to our bush camp, about an hour's drive away from Syama. It's pretty luxurious compared to some places I stayed at in Vanuatu when I did my field work there. Here are some pics of some things I saw on the way to Tabakaroni.


Granaries in Finkolo village


Wild cashews growing on the edge of the road


Camping anyone?

Beware the Dakanuts

I should have known really, the grimy label and the 5mm thick layer of oil floating on the surface really should have told me that no-one had touched the Dakanuts for sometime. However, my craving for peanut butter overwhelmed my better judgement and so I tipped the jar on its side allowing the oil to pool away from where I scraped out the merest sliver of nutty paste to spread on my lovely, fluffy, lightly toasted, white French bread.

It tasted ... well, not quite right really, and I ate only half my slice of toast thinking I'd maybe get away with it. I wish that Philippe had stopped me being so wilful and reckless - at the time he was probably thinking to himself "Poor unrefined Australian girl, does she not know that peanut butter is a terribly pedestrian thing to eat?" I spoke to Dr Loes later on who told me that the Dakanut peanut butter is mixed with honey, which would explain the weird taste, but I did suffer for the next 48 hours with some unsettled belly issues. No more Dakanuts for me.

Aside from that experience the food really is pretty good - especially so considering that I am a) living on a minesite, and b) in the middle of west Africa and still miles away from Timbuktu (Tombouctou en français)! So far I have enjoyed eating escargots (the patisserie item - not the garden menace), brioches et croissants pour le petit déjeuner, beef wellington, boeuf bourgignon, African racing chicken (which actually tasted like actual chicken) and couscous salad for le dîner, and filled baguettes for lunch. And last night I had the singularly most spectacular mango I have ever tasted. Bintou brought me a couple from her garden in Fourou village and I am now completely sold on Malian mangoes.

There are lime trees (and monkeys) in the gardens here, and really good, if under-resourced, kitchen facilities in many of the houses - so I think there will be some opportunities to do some cooking for myself onsite at some point down the track. Hurrah!

But the most exciting meal I've been lucky enough to enjoy so far was provided by Wade last Sunday (my day 5 onsite) - and I have to say, my gourmand tendencies were used to the full for that feast!



Wade's sunday roast

The first week ...

So it's the end of my first week here in Mali and I'd just like to say again how HOT it is here. Apart from a few stomach rearrangements, and a fair bit of confusion about the database, I am doing pretty well. I've taken a few pics so here they are for you to enjoy - try to imagine everything under a shimmering heat haze ...


The Bamako office - ritzy side of town


The office building - onsite at Syama


My house


The back veranda of a standard house


My room - tiger print, rrrrooowwww

Note the washing bag with freshly laundered gear, returned to me daily! I am going to be ruined for domestic life after this.


The Ciwara Club - where all the food is consumed

And I must say that Chef Marc runs a pretty tight ship over there.


Mobbed by les enfants de Fourou village


Spot the Aussie

Not bad, eh?

Greetings from Mali

All good here - hard to believe I've actually arrived! My flights seemed to (i.e. did) go on forever. I had the smoothest landing EVER on the flight into Dubai, we didn’t feel anything, just glided into the city of sand as the sun was rising. Nothing much to report at Charles De Gaulle except that the air cons were off and the place is a construction site and I got a taste of Malian heat in the transit lounge – paid 5.30 Euros for two drinks! An OJ and a bottle of water – outrageous!

The flight to Bamako was memorable because one woman went nuts before departure and was upsetting all of the other passengers – the other Malians were completely embarrassed by her behaviour. I slept fitfully in that delirious state travellers experience after too much time in the air, and was met on arrival by Olivier in Bamako. Getting out of the airport was hilarious – there were people everywhere trying to get to bags and handling trolleys and crushing each other in their haste to get them onto the x-ray conveyor belt – chaos…

I was driven to the Bamako office and it reminded me of arriving in Havana – people and vehicles and bikes everywhere and tumbledown looking buildings on the side of every street, the night heavy with that blend of aromas you only find in hot tropical places. I was so shattered after 35 hours straight travelling that when we arrived at the Bamako office AND guest house at 10pm I just went straight to bed.

We headed out to site on Tues morning at 6:30am for Syama – via the bureau de change which didn't open til 7am so I sat on a deck chair in the middle of Bamako, waiting for my man, and being greeted "Bonjour Madame, ça va?" by all the passers-by. Those city streets are fantastic! So many crazy sights to be seen - I'm going to put some photos up with my next post.

The sealed road from Bamako to Sikasso (a 4 hour trip) seems to have improved after reports I'd had from other visitors to this remote corner of west Africa, and my driver was really good (as I was expecting terrible things), but the last two hours on the red dirt track wasn't quite so relaxing. Once we headed further out we could have been anywhere in outback Australia except for all the mud huts with straw roofs and the Africans everywhere, just like Janey said.

You'll all be pleased to hear that the first thing to greet me on arrival at site was a LARGE black scorpion - yes, that's right 10cm at least - just as my boot landed on the soil, but it was thankfully no longer alive ... close shave, eh?

And now I know just how rusty my French really is – one of the weirdest things I’ve seen so far are the Malian donkeys which are about 1/3 the size of a regular donkey that you’d find at home. When I explained this in French to my driver and other passenger, they were astounded, not just because of the size difference but because of the way I had to try and explain it – it’s difficult when you can’t remember the words. Although today I was complimented on my accent by the security guys at the main office - and on my way on to site the guy at the gate was impressed b/c none of the other Aussies usually give it a go, or have any skills whatsoever. I think he chuckled though when I threw in a spanish phrase by accident.

So that's it so far - I'll have more reports soon, once I'm passed my jet-lag and I get myself a little more organised.

A bientôt, (M)Ali