The River

Taken on the Niger River, two days cruise from Mopti headed towards Timbuktu, Mali.

     It’s everything here, the river that is. The Niger River that is. Running through the largest and one of the harshest deserts in the world, it is truly everything. Without it, and these kids and their families are for the most part, gone. It’s life. It’s a source of food. A source of transportation. It’s the bathtub, shower, clothes washer, dish washer. Maybe the best part, as seen here, it’s the playground…

March 5, 2008

Why are You Complaining?

Somewhere along the Niger River, Mali.

What? Why are you complaining? You really think your life is so bad…

The day I started to travel is the day I realized how lucky I really am.

If this little guy can get by with just a tattered shirt and a wooden bowl, than I have absolutely nothing to complain about.

A sharing village to fill his bowl and he does not complain. It is how it is, and he gets by as well as he can.

Want the cure for complainers. Tell them to take a trip through the Sahara. If they come back complaining, their condition is incurable…

Note: Not really sure where this was taken exactly. It was a small nameless village about a day and a half down the Niger River (by pinasse), coming from Mopti, headed towards Timbuktu. A few hours past Niafunké. If you see the graveyard in the sand, you are there. The village may be gone by now…

 March 6, 2008