In Djenne

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Well I’m in Djenne to see the market and the Mosque. I spent Saturday looking around Mopti with Anil. These would-be guides are very, very annoying! They really detract from the Mali experience. Bought a ticket to go to Djenne by boat. Stupidly I paid in advance because the next day the boat turned out to be bogus! Down 4000CFA. Oh well, after a long wait caught a bush taxi to Djenne. Met a guide named “John Travolta” (WTF!) but I agreed to let him give me a tour. He turned out to be honest and didn’t try to screw me, although I doubt his official licence.

The town is entirely made of mud! Crazy! All-in-all Mali seems nice, but there are too many tourists and not enough money. This leads to many people trying to get yours (a bit like The Gambia)!

Off to Burkina Faso tomorrow evening, hopefully. I have signed up to volunteer building a school in Togo in late July I think the volunteer stint will do me good (in less than 2 weeks) as I’ve somewhat lost the travel bug (of course this is only temporary) but I’m looking forward to London a great deal---perhaps this is due to a lack of women?

Speaking of women, I should email Katie and Web’s cousin. I so happy to not be from any other culture but Western as far as our “relationships” go. Salif told me that he went out with a girl for five years but she had to marry another man because her parents wanted it. Also Dogon men can have as many men as they have millet granaries.

Anyway, spending the rest of the afternoon in the hotel (Chez Baba). Wish it had a pool like “Il n’a pas de problem” in Mopti.

So many kids---cute and poor, makes me depressed, yet they’re so happy it seems that they cheer you up at the same time. Met a friend of Ibrahim (our guide from Dogon Country) so I’ve been bad-mouthing Ibrahim to him!

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