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Dispatch 1 - Bamako
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Bamako is a full city. The streets are full of cars, motorcycles,
mopeds, carts, vans, taxis and bicycles, the side walks of full of people and
vendors - well in fact they sort of overlap; car encroach on the sidewalks and
people walk down the streets. The city seems full of purpose and is all surges
and flows like blood through an artery, though here instead of red and white
blood cells and platelets, the stream is cars, pickups, bicycles, mopeds, donkey
carts, vans, taxis, buses, push carts and trucks. The air is also full of dust
and exhaust. The smallest vehicles, the mopeds, seem to be the biggest
polluters. There reaction from our group split between excitement and chaos.
To extrapolate, everyone sensed a lot of energy there. Trying to interpret what
I saw in the people; few rushed or were focused inward, but almost all gave the
sense that they had a purpose to there journey, but they moved with easy and
self confidence and were also relaxed enough to greet a friend or acquaintance,
or make a new friend. At EVERY stop we made, outside the bank, airline office,
post office, museum, market, mosque, if we stopped for more than a minute
someone would come by and initiate a conversation. They found out a little
about us and we learned a little about them. It is a city full of smiles.
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