This is Mopti

In travel books, Mopti is commonly referred to as the "Venice of Mali". Well here I am. It has been nine months. I’ve visited Venice and I’ve lived in Mopti and aside from them both being port cities, nothing else is the same.

Where is all of the beautiful glass jewelry? The side streets selling
leather bound journals and brightly colored masks? Where is the
incredible pizza and the 45 flavors of gelato to choose from?

In the ‘Venice of Mali’ there are children running, peeing and yelling in the streets while simultaneously carrying younger siblings on their backs.

There are donkeys pulling tones of dirt and wood while men in large straw hats literally beat them with sticks.

No, this is not the Venice of Mali. This is a place unto its own with
charms that take much longer then a brief holiday to appreciate.

Life here is tough. It is loud, congested and dirty. There is a sense of slowness that comes not so much from being relaxed as from realizing the futility of trying to do things quickly.

Then you get to know the people and everything changes.

You learn the names of shop owners who teach you words in their
language and bring back presents from other parts of the country
because they know that you will appreciate them.

You see everyone give bread to all of the hungry children who come by in the morning. You watch women older than your grandmother shell peanuts all day to sell them in bags for the equivalent of a dime and these same women take the time to tell you that it’s cold out so you should bundle up.

You see women cry over missing, dying and starving children. You see men rush out of work to a sick mother. You see young couples holding hands and little siblings fighting.

This is Mopti and there is really no place like it. It challenges,
frustrates and strengthens a person every day.

The longer you stay the more that you realize you don’t understand; the more that you appreciate how little the surface tells you about the complexities underneath.

This article is from a year long fellowship that I did in 2010. I lived in Mopti, Mali and worked with a development organization in rural villages around the area.