Last updated February 17, 2003
Day 7 - Djenne and Secossa
Susan, our guide, Boubou, and I walked around the village of Secossa just a mulecart ride from Djenné. The harmattan winds were picking up here where there was little brush to lighten the force. We were brought to the Chef of Secossa who got our addresses in a big school notebook for future use and we gave him a bag of kola nuts as payment for our questioning and photo-taking. Despite tradition (and the Lonely Planet guide) still saying that people there would rather have kola nuts than money, I would beg to differ and I think that most of the young men we ended up talking to would have had a few words to say to the authors of the book. It was a quick tour, our guide, Boubou, I think was far from being in the mood to take to tired Americans around and answering the same questions he has to answer every time he takes a tour out.
We came back to Djenné during the afternoon repos when there was little chance of catching a taxi to Sevare. Waiting in the pick up truck were two Frenchmen touring Mali following the route of the Coup d'Afrique des Nations 2002 (African soccer matches). Arriving in Sevare just before dark was settling in, Boubou met one of his omnipresent friends who walked with us to the Peace Corps house where Susan and I could thankfully take showers to clean the red dirt from our ears for the time-being.
Day 8 - Bandiagara
Boubou, having had enough experience with Europeans to know they prefer promptness, came right on the stroke of 9:00. Unfortunately, that didn't mean that everyone else felt the same way. We waited at the gare to go to Bandiagara for an hour before they suggested it's time to find our places in the pick up. Then another 45 minutes in the open truck under 11:00 sun before they found enough people to merit a trip. The route was just beautiful and hilly, the brushy savanna replaced with rocky routes. We arrived in Bandiagara on their market day (Friday) but Susan and I were tired, dried out, burned and the flies were getting to us so we went to the hotel to hide out.
Day 9 - Dogon Country
To be continued...