Indulge me a little ...

After I got back from my brief Chistmas break, half of the team had settled in for a new field season at Tabakoroni - our bush camp about 30kms south of Syama. So I popped down one afternoon to say Happy New Year to everyone and see how things were going.


The hunter - our guardien

The guardian we have on the gate at Taba is a hunter, and I got the story from Mariam. The hunters are recognised by their traditional clothing, which includes the magnificent hat our friend on the gate is sporting, and they are members of certain tribes or families who possess and pass on their special skills. Their talent lies in their ability to see things in the dark that others can't, and they have no fear of those things - which may include animals, and also spirits - so I imagine that these chaps are more often animists in their beliefs than Muslim, and I think also use a fair bit of the old fetish material that Bintou introduced me to at the market in Bamako.

I know that Jane and Marcus managed to stumble across a gathering of about 500 hunters one night out the back of Fourou. Janey said it was the one of the more amazing experiences that she's had in all her years in West Africa. And Dao once played me a tape of his grandfather's music - who was a hunter - on the way to Bamako. It had a very meditative, trance-like effect on me that suited the long and sometimes uncomfortable drive, but after a while our resident Mr Cool requested a return to the reggae tunes.

I for one am glad in any case, that this man is looking after our people, even if he needs to keep a stuffed grass-cutter on the roof of the gatehouse - perhaps it's a protective talisman.

One of the other great joys about escaping the office is the opportunity to see a bit of the local wildlife - which in Mali constitutes mostly reptiles, (enormous) insects, and plant life (because everything else has been turned into chop).


Bamba with a small snake(!)

And here is Bamba with a python that one of the hunters discovered in bush - a tasty BBQ apparently. Not sure I could have managed getting that close, and Amanda assures me that she used the zoom lens for this shot.

I've also discovered - since there are no big blue skies and powerlines here in Mali for me to practice my arty-farty shots with - that the local trees provide plenty of interesting colours and textures.


Shea tree

The shea tree produces a nut which ripens from April to September, and can be eaten before it dries out too much, but I found it to be quite sour and bitter. Even more excitingly, when cooked down, dried out, crushed and mixed with water to make a paste this stuff becomes the most excellent moisturising product - and it smells so nice! I'm a complete convert, and it's an absolute must in this hot dry climate - I wondered how the Malians kept their skin so lovely and young looking ...


Shea bark

... and how COOL is that bark?


Boumboum tree

And then there is my favourite tree, the Boumboum tree - which I'd been admiring from the roads for a long time because of it's big magestic trunk and spindley crazy branches adorned with bright red flowers - fantastic!


Boumboum bark

The bark is also pretty cool ...


Boumboum flower

... but I found out that the flowers, with their thick, heavy petals that are not quite waxy to touch, are used to create a traditional spice for the couscous dishes that are more familiar in northern Africa.

Ever the scientist - and food-whore - Marcus and I both decided to try them out. Salikou did tell us that the flower is dried out before being ground down to a sweet spice powder that gives the couscous dish a more slippery texture. Marcus tried a fresh flower - which was fairly gross by all accounts, but the ooze-y sap inside gave us an idea where the slippery texture comes from. We found a dried flower (not hard when the daily average temperature is 30 degrees, and at this time of year, less than 10% humidity) and had a crack at that and resolved to get ourselves some spice next time we're shopping.

So that was my wonderful cultural day out of the office - gotta do it more! And on a last note from Taba, I thought I should share an image with you of the thing that strikes more fear into the hearts of the average Aussie ex-pat minesite worker than any giant snake or scorpion ... it's the dreaded ...


(Toilet) kettle