http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mali/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Africa , Mali en-us Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:01:42 UTC Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:01:42 UTC Well Thanksgiving is already upon us and I can barely believe it. I would just as soon forget that it is but Nora keeps reminding me that itrsquos her favorite holiday it took me a while but I got the hint that I canrsquot let this day go unobserved. Even knowing the month and keeping track of that has been surprisingly difficult in this backwater that is Niono is hardly a marker for th http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mali/Centre/Segou/blog-349009.html Thursday 13th NovemberI am now a regular and pay an early visit to the cybernet cafe to find out what has happened to my fellow travellers. Geoff is in Mopti and might call today to Sevare. Mark is making progress and should be in Sevare tomorrow and Migo is still stuck in Ziguinchor. As time is starting to run out for me I decide to head into Dogon country one of the main reasons for coming this http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mali/Dogon-Country/Bandiagara/blog-348843.html Tuesday 11th NovemberI leave Djenne in the early morning and recross the river Bani on the ferry. I travel through rice fields across the causeway to join the main road to Gao to arrive in Mopti late morning. Mopti is also surrounded by rice fields. In between yes you've guessed it. Millet and cattle The good surface continues but as it's only 120 miles I don't have time to get bored. There i http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mali/Dogon-Country/Bandiagara/blog-348839.html Monday 10 NovemberIn the cool of the morning you dig four holes in the earth put in your poles tie up an awning put up your table and your are ready for business. Even at 0700 the Monday market in front of the Djenne mosque is alive with trucks traders tourists and very worried sheep. Armed with the camera I shoot anything that moves. I'll never have the time to process a fraction of these.J http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mali/Dogon-Country/Mopti/blog-347880.html Saturday 08th NovemberAfter a coffee and an indifferent bun at the overpriced patisserie we leave Kayes. The dust is just as bad in the morning as it is in the evening. We cross the Senegal river which is alive with activity. People washing small piroques getting ready for the day it seems like all human life is there. If it's not on the river it's on the bridge which starts with a sand trap.The http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mali/Dogon-Country/Mopti/blog-347287.html Today is our sixth day in Niono and I must say it has grown on me. Last Tuesday Nora and I woke up at 530 in order to be ready to leave by 6am but that didnrsquot happen. We probably should have expected that given all of the delays that we had experienced leading up to that day. When the Save The Children SUV finally pulled up to our house at 715 it was a relief that the much talked abo http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mali/Centre/Segou/blog-345877.html Friday 07 NovemberWe split up to do various bits and pieces before our starting on our road to Mali. We agree to meet up at the roundabout in the middle of town. I get to a service station to refuel when a 1200 GSA pulls in. JeanMarie comes from near Avignon speaks great English as well as quite a few other languages. He is touring around. He wants to go to Mali but was told it would be very hot http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mali/West/Kayes/blog-344669.html Well itrsquos been far too long since my last entry and Irsquom afraid that this one will inadequately capture the past couple of weeks but here goeshellipConsidering that the days run together so much for me here of course the big event of the past couple of weeks was the election. We went with a couple of friends to a bar near the Peace Corps PC office in a part of town heavily frequ http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mali/District-of-Bamako/Bamako/blog-343228.html Itrsquos been over a week since my last entry so I know I have some catching up to do. I believe that I had left off just before last weekend although I havenrsquot gotten used to the passage of time here so itrsquos hard for me to actually remember. In any case our big event last weekend was the Saturday game between Mali and Tchad. The big stadium was way across town therersquos a http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mali/District-of-Bamako/Bamako/blog-336898.html Mali the land of Gold and now the land of music.The time I spent in Mali was very short about two weeks but I saw a lot and managed to relax very well in a few places. I spent a nice 5 days in Bamako the capital a very messy but lively busness went to a cool night club very local lets say. Another highlight was cruising up the Niger River for 3 days on our way back from Timbucktoo a grea http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mali/District-of-Bamako/Bamako/blog-334229.html In the days since my last post I am glad to report that things have progressed quite rapidly as far as my research and connections go. Instead of jumping straight to that though Irsquoll try to describe the past weekrsquos events in somewhat of a chronological order. On Thursday we discovered the disappointing news that we would not be able to travel to Casablanca in December. Although w http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mali/District-of-Bamako/Bamako/blog-332540.html Itrsquos hard to believe but wersquove been in our house for nearly two weeks now. Now that we have a toilet seat key we are in pretty good shape. Nora just started at Save the Children yesterday so Irsquom adjusting to being on my own during the day. Unfortunately some of the few friends that we made here are not too reliable about coming over to visit in spite of their persistent tex http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mali/District-of-Bamako/Bamako/blog-331214.html When I had left off before we were in the process of arranging for and moving into our new house. We settled that up the following day Sunday but wow what a chaotic day Things started off at a brisk pace with an early breakfast and a visit by Georges who wanted to see the house we were to rent. Whilst checking it out I suffered immediate stomach distress. Fortunately we were not much over http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mali/District-of-Bamako/blog-327487.html Wersquove been in Bamako for two days but it has seemed much longer for all of the activity. Thatrsquos even taking into account the fact that we slept for half of the first day. Anyway because our flight from Casablanca was three hours late to leave we got to Bamako right around 630 am. We were greeted by a weary albeit vigilant man who collected all of our things and filled out our pass http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mali/blog-325888.html major tom to ground control is there anybody even reading this mess of a blog well Ill just keep uploading pictures till I melt trying. Im writting in my notebook and Ill publish when I get the chance no internet over here in the middle of god knows where some point in the map south of the road from mopti to gao called boni.I was suppoused to be getting a truck for 6000 from mopti to dgibo. b http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mali/blog-317593.html so I havent written much about it but in mali I got quite a few times in trouble. not BIG trouble but getting there... in bamako as well as in mopti it got to a point where at least five people wanted to beat the shit out of me and thats not good cause I dont think I could beat the shit out of an ant without help. so when I got back of relax that was dogon country I decided that it was a good http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mali/North-East/blog-317583.html first of all and i hope not to deceive anyone here im still alive and fairly healthy. that being said where were we...oh yes dogon country. I spent four wonderful days in that wonderful land out of time with yakou a real raster and possibly the best guide you can find in mali for the dogon land and now someone I count among my friends. and the four days where wonderful.we walked a lot we sw http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mali/Dogon-Country/blog-317563.html I have a theory well I have many theories I am a man of many theories. you probably have heard some of them like the I dont understand jeans theory or the I dont get city views theory or the peace corps are spies theory or the theres no reason for flies theory or the guiltammountofalcoholboughtinadvance theiory or the spanish people nightwalks theory recently inspired by a dut http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mali/North-West/Timbuktu/blog-311667.html I was ripped off with the price of the boat trip to tombouctou but in my deffense I have to say that its hard to deal at 6am in a new city with only one eye when youve just gotten off a bus ride of 5hours where you didnt get any sleep.oh and I also had the strongest argument with someone so far this skinny tall guy locked me in his house and wouldnt let me out if I didnt pay him 10 thousand cefa http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mali/blog-311655.html la brusse is how you call in african french to all those towns away from the city which you usually see in tv and look like taken out of the highetr neolithic period. well in segou I rented a bike and biked to a town nearby called segkouro or something lmike that which was the old capital of the region of segou.it was beautiful rural there was a wedding that was on its fifth day its suppoused http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mali/Centre/Segou/blog-311645.html first off let me tell you that my eye hasnt healed yet. if you know me you will know how I love to complain so I needed to say it.whenever the eye gets better some windy day of dirty transport fucks it up again. anyway I pretty much have gotten used to looking like a pirate and not having stereoscopic vision furthermore when I open both eyes I kinda have vertigos. so much for the depth never http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mali/Centre/Segou/blog-311635.html Im stuck in bamako with a horrible etye infection asking myself why did I put my contacts on with such dirty fingers I had it coming... btw that I consider rather funny that after a month drinking tap water from deposits and from wells that looked fairly dirty after one month of walking with tshirts under the sun of africa one month taking the crazy lariam one month eating with my hands food http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mali/District-of-Bamako/Bamako/blog-308287.html Pays Dogon. Dogon Country. Beautiful. Spectacular. Surprising.Our trek into the Dogon Country started early from Bandiagara with a drive to Djiguibombo delightfully pronounced Jiggyboombo. After a brief tour of the town we started our walk to the edge of the Falaise de Bandiagara Bandiagara Escarpment and then down the escarpment to the plains below. Our group of two had grown to four http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mali/Dogon-Country/Bandiagara/blog-275777.html by Armando S. Sarlat On January 3 my mother and I embarked on what would be the greatest journey of both our lives a trip to Mali in West Africa. There we would attend the wedding of our friends Miah and Boubacar. I would also have the opportunity to promote the business of iTravel with a local travel company there. To complete the vacation we planned two days in Morocco in Northern Africa http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mali/blog-271877.html Sorry about the lack of bicycle story from the last blog we were encountering computer difficulties and in the mad dash to finish before our time ran out I totally forgot about the cycling adventure.On our last day in Segou we hired bikes and imagined a full day of exploring the area on bikes mountain bikes as the roads are almost all sand. Once again we forgot we were in Africa. The bikes http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mali/Centre/Djenne/blog-271204.html The plan was to take the train from Tamba to Bamako. But you know what they say about plans ... We wanted to take the train because we were ready for a different sort of transportation besides the bone jarring jampacked dusty sweaty minibus travel we have been doing for so long.After inquiring several times at the Tamba train station and having our hotel call the station we found out that http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mali/Centre/Segou/blog-268695.html March 6 2008We finished up our African Trip on February 26th and I havenrsquot had a chance to write about our last day there we arrived home on February 27th and left for Toronto on February 29th and have been there all week at the PDAC conference heard there were 20000 25000 people attending the conference this year it was a busy and successful conference for us. Last Day in AfricaO http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mali/blog-253490.html Haby Sy accompanied me to the airport we promised to email thought my written French is well really really bad. Good thing for google translation. I flew Dakar to Bamako and realized when I landed that I was alone in Africa and had very limited Frenchspeaking skills. Additionally April planned the journey and I didn't even have a rough itinerary. Oh la la. Yes I met some French people http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mali/blog-250326.html As the Francophones say Joyeux Noel and Bonne Annee toute le monde Please forgive my long absence on the blog however being on holidays is the best excuse I know for going AWAL and what a holiday it was. Then to make the delay even longer the internet at my office has been down for the last week So grab something to sip on sit back and relax because this is going to be a long onehellipOve http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mali/blog-238738.html It's important for me to praise the master drummers who taught me so generously in Bamako at the Djembe Hotel and to tell aspiring djembe players in America about the value of going to Mali and learning from masters like Sega Cisse and Matche Traore. It's hard to put into words how grateful I am to the drummers I played with and learned from in Mali. I got to have an excellent first time experien http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mali/District-of-Bamako/blog-237380.html