Koen@Bamako part 6: Weekends in Bamako
It has been almost a year since we moved to Bamako. It took a while for us to settle and to get used to the Malian way of life, but we have succeeded in doing that. In my sixth blog, I like to show you how our typical weekends look like and how much West African countries, though nearby each other, can show completely different faces.
Friday afternoon
On Friday afternoon, the end of the working week, we pick up the children from school and take some time to talk with teachers, parents and friends. Right after, we start the weekend by eating an ice cream at N’ICE CREAM (pretty creative name!), supplying by far the best in town. Opposite N’ICE CREAM is a small charming café (and bed & breakfast), owned by a Dutch woman, where we shortly drop by to see other (mainly expat) friends. Some Waternet-colleagues sleep here during their working-visits to Bamako, so it makes it a favorite hang-out.
Saturdays and Sundays
As we normally get up at 6 in the morning, Saturdays and Sundays are there to sleep in (and Mees and Annelou get some extra screen-time). The early morning is used for jogging, as temperatures are still bearable and the sun stands low at the horizon. A slow and extensive breakfast is followed by games, reading or Lego-building. After that, there are several ways to continue. The children enjoy the Bamako Zoo: a beautiful and clean place with nice playgrounds. Or we go swimming at the school’s ‘Family Swim’ on Saturday morning. There is the occasional birthday party of friends or classmates or we organize a barbeque with friends at one of our homes.
The opportunities to leave Bamako are unfortunately limited. There is a nice hotel in Koulikoro (60 km east of Bamako) with small cottages along the river Niger. A beautiful and quiet place with a swimming pool. To the west of Bamako, there is the village of Sibi, with a waterfall where we can swim. There is one swimming pool in town where there is a slide, so naturally, our children prefer that one. Restricted in freedom to go wherever we want, we organize our own events with friends, barbeques in the garden, boat trips on the river, picknicks in parcs or hills. In April and May the afternoons are too hot for outdoor activities, so thats when we watch movies together.
Ghana visit
On May 7th, I was presenting our Blue Deal project with the Volta Basin Authority at the Ministers meeting in Accra. It was my first time in Ghana, after moving to Bamako. And although it is only a one-hour flight away from Bamako, it is a different world. Accra’s newly opened airport feels very European: clean, neat, well ordered, including a proper tourist information office where they warn you not to pay more than 10 Cedes for a taxi! Service and client-oriented! Outside the airport, I realize that this neatness continues in the ‘normal’ streets; big, shiny cars slowly drive by on well-paved roads aligned by lovely gardens. Knowing it is one of the better-of-neighborhoods in Accra, it almost feels like Beverly Hills.
Malian economy
It takes this short visit just to understand how different Mali still is. In the 2016 Human Development Index, Mali ranked 176 out of 187. Mali has 18.5 million inhabitants, of which 44% live under the poverty line (2017). The population grow-rate is around 3% (one of the highest in the world), which will add another 10 million people by 2050. Almost half of the population is under the age of 15, causing the demographic setback that so many developing countries have to cope with. Over 66% of the adults is not able to read and write.
The global downfall in 2008 has moved the Malian economy into recession worsened by the political- and security issues starting in 2012. The majority of the Malian labor force earns a living in agriculture (75%) and remains the most important source of income for the country (29% of the GDP). Service and industries make up for respectively 37 % and 24% of the economy. The main export product of Mali is gold, followed by cotton.