As promised in Matt Damon’s email to ONE members last week, ONE and DATA have sent a small team to Mali to catch up with three incredible men who are running the entire length of the Sahara desert to raise awareness for clean water.

Below is our first update (provided by Tayloe Emery of DATA via a series of text messages.)

“We arrived in Timbuktu today by plane after spending the night in Bamako. It’s a beautiful city full of Tuareg tribesmen and centuries old mosques, I love it here already.

The runners are still in Mauritania but heading toward the Mali border. Everywhere they go people ask them about the white bands they are wearing and they proudly tell them that they are supporters of ONE. You can see some new photos of them with the white bands at the runningthesahara.com website.

After the runners enter Mali they will head toward Timbuktu and we will tour an Africare’s water irrigation project that is providing food and water to more than 30k people!

The sun is setting and in the distance I can see a caravan of camels returning from the salt mines from the north following the same tracks they have cut in the sand for thousands of years. Timbuktu is a city of wonder and mystery. I’m glad I’m here and wish everyone could experience the joy I’m feeling.”

Selah! JTE”

(photo by Don Holtz)