The Long Road to Sévaré

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Our long awaited trip to Mali started off without a hitch, surprisingly. Of course, our Air Senegal International flight took off late, but that was to be expected. I must admit, I was a bit concerned about flying a "budget" (too bad that didn't reflect in the price of our ticket!) West African airline, but I was incredibly impressed with Air Senegal. We had lunch and a drink as soon as the seatbelt sign was switched off, and the hour and a half long trip went smoothly.

Getting out of the airport and into the capital city of Bamako was a bit more difficult. I was in line behind two of my friends whose French isn't exactly the strongest, so I had to go and help translate the exchange between them and the customs officer. Turns out he was concerned that we had listed the Mission Catholique as our address in Bamako. He asked if we had come to evangelize the people, and Iassured him we were staying there merely because it is safe and inexpensive. His attitude completely changed and he kept telling us, "Il faut bien prier là-bas!" (You must pray well there!) and he tried to make the sign of the cross in an attempt to show his knowledge of Christianity. We showed him the proper way to do it, he stamped all of our passports and we were left to deal with the vultures known as taxi drivers. Turns out the 6000cfa ($12!!) we were quoted for a ride into the city was a deal (the guidebook said it should be 7500cfa), and we set off for the Catholic Mission.

Staying in a nunnery in Africa is actually a really good option. For about $8 a night, we had a really clean, quiet, and safe place to stay. The nuns were very nice, and they even let Garret (the only boy in our group) stay in our dorm instead of banishing him to the men's dorm in the back of the building. Every bed got new fitted sheets (top sheets are very rare in Africa...it's just far to hot to use them most of the time), and we all had our own mosquito net. We found a shelf full of books and magazines in several languages, as well as a French version of Trivial Pursuit from the mid 80s. I'm not sure you can get better than that for only 4000cfa a night!

We tried to use the last few hours of sunlight (the sun sets at about 6:30 in Mali) to find the markets and explore. We ended up running into three guys on a street corner, and they showed us all over the market. We saw things that would have been impossible otherwise...they took us upstairs above the market. We squeezed past the rows of tailors sewing, women cooking, and children playing to see rooms full of masks, jewelry, and bogotan clothes. We couldn't buy anything (our Jansport bookbacks were already full to capacity), but it was so cool to see the inner workings of the market. We made a brief foray into the artisans and fetish market, but we had to leave to get food before one of our travel companions fainted.

We got some dinner (chicken spaghetti and potato ragout), and made more friends. Some of the girls got their hair braided, and I got henna done on one hand (and spent the rest of the week being asked if I was just married). Our friends from the market ran into us at the restaurant (they apparently know EVERYONE in Bamako), and they told us about a bar playing great live music with some famous names. We decided to give it a go, and we drank our Cokes while listening to amazing kora and djembe music. Turns out the one guy (Toumani Diabaté) was so famous that he was listed three times in our guidebook! We met another singer (I cannot remember his name for the life of me!), but he came over, shook our hands and told us he was honored that we came to see him. We danced on the little dance floor in the middle of palm trees and thatched straw roofs covering the bar and some tables. It was totally worth it, even though we had to get up at 5am the next morning to catch our bus!

We piled all six of us into the taxi at 6am and set off for the bus depot early Saturday morning. We saw the sun rising over the Niger River as we crossed the bridge out of the main part of town. The bus depot was insane...there were people and buses everywhere, and lines seemed to be arbitrary. Luckily, our driver helped us negotiate the line and buy our tickets. We missed the 7am bus, so we bought some muffin-type things and waited for the 8am bus to Mopti. I have been on several long bus trips, so I thought I was prepared for this voyage. Oh, no....this was not a normal bus ride...this was a Malian bus ride! We took up the five seats in the very back of the bus, and we also apparently provided entertainment for the rest of the passengers as they were constantly craning their necks to watch us, regardless of what we happened to be doing at the time. The bus looked like an older Greyhound bus from the outside, but that was the only similarity. There was no air-conditioning, the windows didn't open, and we didn't stop nearly often enough. When we did, it was in the middle of nowhere for a five minute bathroom break. People didn't even have enough time to find a bush before the bus driver was honking his horn. We weren't even all back on the bus when he started pulling away! Lunch was in a tiny little village, and we gulped down the cold Fantas so fast, thankful for something that wasn't boiling hot water. Whitney bought some meat for lunch, and the guy had a huge, cooked, unknown animal in front of him and asked her what part she wanted...what a nice welcome to Malian cuisine, haha. When we stopped for the afternoon prayer, my trusty travel alarm clock registered the temperature at 102.4 degrees...it was nearly unbearable! Luckily, our stop was just fiften minutes past the prayer stop.

The six of us managed to make it alive and only slightly dehydrated to Sévaré, and we got a cab to take us to the hotel-campement our guide had arranged for us. It seemed like a luxurious hotel to us: there were individual, locking shower stalls, bathrooms with toilet paper, and a pavillion with tables and a fan! And all for only $10 a night! We met up with our guide, Salif, that evening and made plans for the next few days. We showered away the dirt from the bus ride, and collapsed under our mosquito nets.

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Comments

[Dad]

Glad your back
Glad you made it back to Senegal. We love reading about your travels!!

[Katie]

Yum. I love me some identified animal! I miss you, but I'm glad you're having such a blast!