A Travel Journey through Mail and the treasures it hold in the history of Mali.

Fields of treasure Desert mountains from erosion Farmers Grow crops in rich soil by The Nile river Grow crops in rich soil by The Nile river Hot Weather in desert land

From your best friend Hi! It’s hot here and humid too. The sun is beaming in my eyes, ouch. The desert looks like it goes forever limited trees and like a 110°. It smells like a hot spring and I have only seen one farm around the Nile river the life source of the Sahara desert. I’m south of Algeria, west of Nigeria and north of Guinea and Ivory coast. Then we’re also east of Mauritania. February through October is so cold the whole time; what a winter. I would call this a semi desert all over. This geography is dry all year.

Griots dancing and entertainment or describe events Family dress a certain way for there religion Like covering there hair. Soup with fish are used a lot in Mali’s food because of the Nile River Come and Visit

Hi, Lots of the people have different cloths then me like woman for Islam culture were scarf's on there hair. I also got this scarf to cover my face going through the Sahara Desert. I went to one of the few schools in Mali because of the poor economy. So I learned that they speak French and Barbara. They speak French because of the colonialism influenced them to speak French and only a little speak Barbara. Culture takes a big part of where you live like most people eat fish or they face the Mecca to the directions of it. Jollies an yummy food with meat, fish, veggies, also rice so good. Griots told me stories of the war and what they saw. I love music I got a djembe a drum with goat skin and leather cords. It sounds beautiful. From Your Best Friend

Mali Mali’s flag The French flag, Mali’s old dominant country A Bamako street, Mali’s capital. Effects of Colonialism on Mali, Economy of Mali

As I travel across Mali, I notice very dry land and not as many as farms as other countries in Africa. Many other cotton farms, peanuts and sugar cane farms. Traveling to Bamako, Mali’s capital I also see many French flags hanging up in the air, I know that Mali was colonized by France about 100 years ago, I also learned that Mali gained independence very recently, during the 1960s Mali’s broke free from the French rule, 8 years later after the independence was gained from the socialist government Moussa Traore took power with a military coup, later on the socialist government became a democracy and later on during 2012 another military coup came into power. Mali also has a three branch government, a legislative branch, an executive branch, and a judicial branch which makes most of the decisions in the government. Voting in Mali consists of a two round voting system with 36 political parties. After passing through Bamako, I start seeing more and more mines, probably mining out the gold, iron, and other exportable resources in Mali’s economy. Hope you guys are good back home! From Your best friend

Mali Health Organization Project

Passing through smaller villages and towns I am startled by how little medical services are nearby, it’d probably take days to walk how fast we drive, many of the villagers look at us with a scared face, they see the phones, car and our clothes and we look like complete aliens to them. Back to speaking about the medical services, there are very few here, and I also noticed that there are a lot of HIV/AIDS prevention clinics, if there are medical services. I read about how HIV/AIDS kills a lot of Mali’s population along with many other diseases. Passing through a riverside town, it’s a complete ghost town! There’s almost no one there. The remaining few told me about River Blindness, a disease that is spread through the bite of a black simulium fly that has been infected. The disease causes blindness and scaly itchy skin. And many of the people living nearby the river evacuate, but some companies decided to help by providing medical supplies and things to prevent the disease. So that is a good reason the town is empty. I feel really bad for some, yet I am happy they are getting help. From Your best friend

Hi! This postcard I got from local news stand Liberation for advertisement. Mali has had a bad year. Right now it is the poorest county. Then I was walking with my friend in Konna it was terrible, Islamist fighters took over central of Konna. Wow I was scared so my friend found a safe house after things settle down we left, finally. That was a bad day I’m never going back Konna. Then I read the paper a regional group Ecawas agree to coordinate military expediting to recapture the north that was a kind of good. I can’t believe what’s happening here its kind of scary most of the time. I’ll Be safe. From Your best friend

I’m going to leave you with The Great Mosque of Djenne.