My travels followed the Niger River through the safe parts of Mali, so Timbuktu was excluded. Nevertheless, I was able to see a whole different side of the country and many historically important sites. Our normal travel pattern was a day of driving and a little sightseeing, followed by a day just in one location, and our mode of transportation was two large vans. We started by going to Ségou, where we had an excellent hotel (that would be nice by US standards- I had my first shower with hot water in Mali!) and the opportunity to wander along the river through the old city, which was heavily influenced by french colonisation. The highlight of Ségou was having random conversations with the people we met along the river, even if they ended with getting proposed to or getting told to buy something. The market in Ségou was a lot less intimidating than in Bamako, so I could really work on my bartering skills (which are surprisingly good).While in Ségou, we also visited a few women's coops and the ancient village where the founder of Ségou was buried. In Markala, not far from Ségou, we walked across a huge bridge and dam that was built by the french and created an irrigation system for l'Office du Niger, now one of the most profitable farming areas.
Our next stop was Djenné, home of the world's largest mud-brick building, the Grande Mosquée. We couldn't actually go in, as non-Muslims, but we saw the very impressive exterior. We also walked around the city as a group and took a pirogue (large canoe shaped boat) ride to an ancient archeological site, which unfortunately is not worth much, since the remains mostly consist of small pottery shards, which littered the ground and only a couple of foundations are intact. It rained most of the time in Djenné so i saw more of my hut than the city (that is, i saw my hut until the electricity stopped working for my last 16 hours there).
I left Djenné in the rain and bought some souvenirs for a "good price" that was actually good for once. We were stalked by vendors walking around with their wares the entire trip, since a large group of white tourists like us is a giant dollar sign to them. Usually they were annoying, but sometimes they were cute. For example, that day, when the bus stopped, vendors mobbed the bus and started dangling things through the window like normal. One boy in particular caught my attention. "This one is box. This one is orange. This one is marron." But when i showed no interest in the box, he brought out carved wooden animal key chains. "This one is popotam. This one is noceraus. This one is leon. This one is femme (woman). This one is homme (man). This one is en train de dormir dans l'eau (in the middle of sleeping in the water)," and he set it down on the windowsill. At this point, we could not contain ourselves since this was all said very seriously and we all burst out laughing. He stared at us for a moment, then let out an indescribable laugh, even though he obviously had no clue what was so funny. I ended up buying a popotam, more for the entertainment than for its value...can you guess what it actually is?
Eventually we made it to our next destination: Sangha, in the Dogon country. Getting there required two hours of driving on really rough one lane roads- luckily I don't get too carsick so I could enjoy the beautiful country we passed through, scattered with low stone walls, goats, and patches of onions. The Dogon country is seriously a country of its own, with much less western influence. It is famous for villages built into the cliffs centuries ago, that seem impossible to access, but were built without modern technology. We took a five hour hike from our village to the edge of the cliffs, hiked down and across the plains of millet fields, then climbed back up at a different point...I took way too many pictures there, if you'd like a play by play. As if that day couldn't get any better, we had an excellent lunch at the hotel, then saw a traditional dogon mask dance, shopped for the local indigo fabric, and slept on the roof of the hotel, under the stars. I actually got cold that night (a very rare occurrence), then woke up before dawn and walked back to the edge of the cliffs to see the sunrise. amazing.
The final big destination was Mopti, another town on the Niger that uses the river heavily for fishing and shipping to Timbuktu. We took a luxurious pirogue ride and also had a tour of the city, like usual. Watching pirogues being made was interesting- the men were hand making nails in front of us, just using a little charcoal marmite to get the metal red hot and hammering them into shape. The tour ended in a tourist trap of a market, but i bartered things down to less than half of the original price, so I didn't feel too bad. My friend and I took advantage of the free time by just walking down to the river and finding a quiet shady spot away from pesky salespeople and closer to normal Malian life. After Mopti, the trip ended all too soon, with just one more night in Ségou.
My return to Bamako was less than peaceful. I was happy to see my family, but very stressed out since my research topic was up in the air for the first few days. Now I am completely in research mode and my final topic is meningitis, and the possibility of its eradication in Mali. My research has led me to the different levels of health care in Mali, as well as research centers and the government, so I am in my element (except for the fact that most doctors don't speak English). Mali is excellent, in the vast networking of people, that makes networking in the US look like nothing, and the open nature of most people. The easiness of bypassing bureaucracy and the lack of complete confidentiality in the medical world also makes my life quite a bit easier.
This might be one of my last posts...my time here is running out, and I really should start devoting my computer time to writing my ISP, since it will be lengthy and I don't want to procrastinate (though blog writing is the perfect excuse). I would like to share some of what I've found out about the medical system, as well as talk about the second biggest fête of the year, Tabaski, that is coming up on Saturday. I'm quite lucky to be here for the two biggest holidays of the year!
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