Seeking Light by Paul Grabhorn

Author:Paul Grabhorn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group, USA
Published: 2014-12-01T16:00:00+00:00

Goatskin sacks store water from a well and are carried on donkeys to nomadic encampments, which may require days of walking to reach.

The camel in the distance has pulled up a skin bucket of water from a desert well; the length of rope shows the depth of the well.

Girls water a garden with buckets of water carried from a hand-pumped well.

An ICRC team delivers tarps and blankets to nomadic families in need north of Gao.

The contrast was vivid between the browns of the desert and the greens near the Niger in Mali. One afternoon, while photographing a fisherman casting his net from a canoe on the Niger, I almost tipped us over swatting at swarms of mosquitoes. I returned to the United States two weeks after that day on the Niger. I had a fever of 106ºF when I walked into George Washington University Hospital near Georgetown. I mentioned that I might have malaria and the admitting doctor smiled, saying they had never had a case at this hospital. It turned out I had falciparum malaria, mainly found in Africa. The nasty critters had incubated for fourteen days in my liver and were going all out to take over my body; this would surely kill me if not properly treated. Soon I was lying on a waterbed with ice water circulating through it and an IV drip of quinine in my arm. Lying on an ice bed with a high fever was a perfect form of torture; I would have told any of my secrets to get away from it. A constant stream of medical students came through to examine me. An oddity at the time, yet now with climate change increasing both the range and seasonality of malarial mosquitoes, this disease will become more commonplace in the future.

The Niger is a highway of commerce stretching to the ocean. For centuries merchants have brought tea, sugar and goods up the river to exchange for the high quality salt that comes from deep in the interior of Mali. The salt is mined from an ancient lake in Taoudenni, cut into blocks and carried in caravans of hundreds to thousands of camels. They travel across the desert to Timbuktu and the Niger, a journey of three weeks. I was invited to join one of these caravans.

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