tales from walton house: 2007

Sunday, 25 November 2007

This weekend I visited my friends Kath and Paul in the English country side. Sunday we went for a walk to see their cows and Alistair their son was helping to muck out!

Fairspear house - home sweet home.

Giving mum a helping hand

But where are the cows?

Sunday, 18 November 2007

Menaka, Mali

Menaka is in the east of Mali. 3 days drive from the capital and very poorly serviced in terms of infrastructure (roads, health care, schools, water etc). The last day driving is on dirt road and then tracks. So we were lucky only to have one flat!

Cheikh our driver quickly sorts out the problem while Safi, one of the researchers, carefully looks on.

Take the picture quick before she pees

on me!

Tamachek on the move - the smaller animals hitch a lift! And as ever the donkeys do much of the work.

A tamachek camp - they are light on their feet!

And of course our camp!

Sare Seyni, Mali

Sare Seyni is a village on the River Niger, near Mopti if you look on a map! Lots of irrigated agriculture, fishing and of course animals!

Loading up the boat to head to the village.

Sare Seyni. The big building in the backgrounnd with the points is the mosque.

Talking to the young women of Sare Seyni!

and the young men (and then of course older women, men etc!) The three in the back are farmers and the on in front is a herder. They put on their best outfits to come and talk to us (I particularly appreciated the pom pom).

Baba (one of my colleagues) and I talking to this relatively wealthly woman who farms a rice paddy in an irrigation scheme outside of the village. She has .25 hectares of rice field I'd say about the size of Scott and Janets backyard.