Le Carême, or Ramadan, is in full swing. Mosques blast their wakeup calls to prayer at 4AM, coworkers are nodding off in meetings from not eating or drinking during work hours, and traffic around Bamako at the end of the day is worse than ever. Everyone is leaving the office at the same critical hour of 3PM in order to 1) prepare the feast for breaking the fast at sundown; 2) pray at the mosque at 4PM; 3) take a nap before sundown to sleep away the now exponentially increased hunger.
The traffic creates mounting chaos during what is supposed to be a peaceful month of prayer. Cars are at a complete standstill before the two bridges to cross the Niger, “le Pont Ancien” and “le Pont Nouveau,” the Old Bridge and the New Bridge (not very creative names). It is in this river “limbo” that the increased traffic has caused an increase in window shopping.
The “Orange” Mobile Phone guys are at the car windows on the regular, selling phone credit in increments of 500 fCFA ($1). I’ve already mentioned these young men -- decked out in their neon vests and displaying these phone credit cards in plastic covers like they’re prized collectors’ baseball cards.
Phone "credit" cards
What I haven’t previously mentioned are the rest of the “street” workers.
The street workers may be walking through the traffic selling some type of food. There are not a lot of options in terms of snacks in Bamako, so you’re basically guaranteed the narrow choice of a sack of peanuts, a pack of dried dates, apples, bananas, or a bag of animal-cracker-esque orbs that will make you thirsty just eyeing them. They look and taste like a drier form of those puffy, circular soup crackers you add to clam chowder, and should therefore only be bought in desperate times of hunger.
Dried dates and apples for sale
Even though everyone’s fasting, a few cars or taxis may buy the snacks to save in the dashboard (in the event that they’re still stuck in traffic at that crucial moment when the sun goes down and the fast is over). If they decide not to buy snacks, though, there are other options.
Need a grater? No problem. What about a sweat towel after all that tough labor in the kitchen? Also available.
World Cup footballs, sweat towels, sweat tissues, magazines, kitchen food graters, lighters, French Scrabble (I’m surprised I haven’t bought this yet), wallets, umbrellas, belts...and wind-up toys. Lots and lots and lots of plastic wind-up toys.
Leather products brought right to you...
The less expensive the tool or gadget being sold, the younger the salesperson. They have kids as young as 6-7 years old walking up to your window, even in the rain, trying to sell you something you don’t need. And if it’s not a useless gadget they’re clasping, it’s a tin bucket for handouts.
You don't even need to reach out the window to retrieve the goods!
As a rule, I usually don’t give money to begging kids. While I may purchase something kids of the same age are selling, I've learned from experience in India that if you hand out change to street children, you’re giving them a reason to continue to beg. Giving them positive results from begging helps to turn it into a full-time, long-term lifestyle. In Mali, the same situation is perpetuated if you decide to give your extra coins to kids, whose parents probably sent them out with their family begging tin bucket.
It’s hard to look these kids in the eye and say no, especially when approached by twins for some extra money. My fellow Malians tell me that giving to twins will bring me great luck. My favorite street-twins work on the corner by the Grand Marché/Big Market and sport worn out, matching, tee-tiny Orlando Magic jerseys.
Instead of flat-out saying “non” to these hard-working coin collectors, I try to find something else to give them. It could be the snacks I may have purchased at the last street corner from another kid...or it could be Tums.
For the trip to Siby, I poured a ton of the antacid into a ziploc bag as a "juste au case où"/"just in case." I had a ton minus two left after the trip, and have been handing them out like free condoms on Bourbon at Mardi Gras. The chalky chewables apparently double as calcium supplement AND a “bon bon”/candy. Good for your bones and your tastebuds.
Besides a street treat, they’ve also proven to be a great placebo for young New Orleanian girls. At our “Girls First” summer camp in NOLA, every counselor is given a first aid kit with a disproportionate amount of the space dedicated to Tums. Kid has a tummy ache? Tums, obviously. Kid has a headache? Tums’ll work for that too. How about kid feeling homesick and crying to use your cell phone to call mommy? No need to make that phone call with my precious minutes, kid, you’ll feel better after this magical Tums.
I don’t blame kids all around the world for liking the powdery discs. I can remember going through a phase back in high school where my 16 year old impressionable mind was learning about the effects of osteoperosis. I immediately sought out preventative measures, and my calcium supplement of choice became the fruity Tums.
I was popping these things like Tic-Tacs, and you could always count on finding a half-eaten bottle of them in the side compartment of my old, brown, hand-me-down 1984 Mercedes Turbodiesel. Little did I know then that seven years later I’d find myself in a yellow Turbodiesel taxi, across the world, handing out the same Tums flavors to Malian twins in an effort to increase my luck with traffic.
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