Day 4 - Travel to Mali

Today was our 4th day of flying in a row. We boarded the bus at 7:15am for our sprint to the international airport. We checked in our bags and loaded straight on the plane. The airplane was unmarked (no tail flag) sort of like the movie Air America. The flight was crowded but thankfully short. We landed 40 minutes later at Abidjan, Ivory Coast for a 3 hour layover.

After yet another security check & long line, we boarded our flight to Bamako, Mali. Flying in Africa is very exciting; all of your senses are stimulated throughout the experience. The landings are also very different than in the states. At the airport we discovered a few bags had walked off, fortunately Jon Munger found his bag being carried away by a local and had to wrestle it from his hands. As we were walking to our bus, we had the opportunity to meet many Malians who were offering to sell us phone cards & other necessities including currency exchange. Our bus driver & crew helped us with our luggage and placed it all on top of the bus.

Our flight was late and we had to rush to the hotel to meet with the US Ambassador to the Republic of Mali, Terence P. McCulley. Mr. McCulley addressed our group for 30 minutes along with 3 other embassy staff. After the discussion we attended a nice social reception by the pool at the Grand Hotel where we met with other locals including scholars from the local university.

We then checked into our hotel where most of us are sharing beds yet again. We then had the privilege of having dinner at the house of Madou Cisse. Mr. Cisse was a connection through classmate Mark Quisenberry who is acquainted with the Contra Costa County Ag Commissioner who is from Mali. Dinner consisted of 4-5 courses of local cuisine and a very fun time speaking French/English with our hosts. There were about 15 people working on dinner for us and close to 30 besides our group. They were gracious hosts and we were very happy to witness the real life of Bamako locals.



Trip Writers: Dino, Carlo, Chris

PF's: Jon, Kevin, Kevin