MALI 2012 is a photo journal of my four weeks there in February, 2012. If you were not aware of Mali before, I believe you are now. Needless to say many people, on the edge to begin with, are really desperate now. I urge all to donate to an NGO doing relief work there. If you have no favorite, I suggest looking at OXFAM's Mali website: http://www.oxfam.org/en/development/mali, to learn about what they do there, and to support them.

BAMAKO, Mali's capital city.

I did not arrive by train but I did visit the French Colonial Era station.

In fact, the passenger trains are not running for the nonce. When they do, they go west to Dakar, Senegal. The line was to go east to Niger, but it never got much further than Bamako.

The primary reason I went to Mali was to visit my friends.

Bonkana and I met in an ESL class in 1996, her husband David has been working in various countries, mostly African, since 1979. Their chidden are Laye (left, 12) and Nandi (right, 15). Next to Bonkana is their household helper, Oumou One and her friend, Oumou Two, and their driver, Madou.

I also met some of Bonkana's siblings: