I thought Malians gave FAR more persistent hassle than Ethiopians, and were usually quite rude about it. In Ethiopia I felt that a lot of the blatant requests for money were almost like a joking test, just to see if you’d actually do it…usually children would laugh and run away after I said no, and I don’t think I was ever asked by adults. (although one time I got quite angry at an adult who tried to convince me to give him my phone). But in Mali, it was DEMANDING money, not even asking, by children AND adults, and they would not take “no” for an answer until we could physically move far enough away that they stopped.

It was difficult for me to judge relative poverty levels because Mali is exponentially more expensive for the tourist than Ethiopia. And the community trek I did in Ethiopia wrote up testimonials from cooks and guides saying how grateful they were to the community tourism project that they now receive $5 per month, which seemed shocking to be an improvement.

I will say that scams in Mali seem to be either fewer, which is good, but maybe they were just better-hidden like something we encountered with our fake-Dogon Dogon guide who subcontracted out at the last minute…