So - today we toured Djenne. We had an awesome guide - Amadou who took us all around town and told us a lot of the history. Djenne is very different from the towns I've been in so far. Its all built of mud. Their mosque is a UNESCO site and is the largest mud building in the world. We were also able to go inside it. Only Muslims are supposed to be allowed inside because a few years ago a movie apparently got
filmed in it, which upset a lot of the locals, so now non-muslims are mostly forbidden. But for a price - if you are nice - you can get in. So that was really cool. The columns inside are all made of mud as well. Every year the whole town helps to redo the mud on the mosque before the rainy season.
The rest of Djenne is children and goats. These people have lots of children and they all run around the streets all day! Along with the goats :P We had a little girl following us all morning that had a sad look that matched mine. She was a cheeky little bugger trying to sell necklaces or something. Eti ended up buying from her. Then this evening I saw her again. She was just so cute (especially since she had washed and put on clean clothes). She was with all her little girlfriends and while Michael (the American guy we met yesterday) was looking for someone to let us into the library - I chatted (using that word lightly as I don't speak much more French than some numbers and hello) with all the little girls. Then they counted to me in English and it was super sweet. But sadly I couldn't buy something from all of them so I could only buy and over priced necklace and bracelet from the cheeky girl and her loudest friend. And actually - I had to make Michael pay because I didn't have any small notes - oops :P Then Michael found someone to let us into one of the libraries. Luckily that person spoke Arabic (which Michael is studying) since neither of us speak French. So we got an explanation of the library, including the mud models of the old Mosque and the old architectural style along with the books that were hundreds of years old. It was pretty cool! I'm glad I was able to go with Michael to see that. Geoff and Eti went with our guide to another village but I was too tired and it was too hot.
We also had lunch and dinner with our guide. For lunch we had a local dish of rice with peanut sauce. It was really good. Then for dinner we had thion-thion which was rice with a fish sauce. Really nice - and we ate it proper local style - with our hands just digging in the communal bowl. Even his little 3 year old son joined in. Its amazing how the children seem older than American children. There was fish wish heaps of bones in it - and the 3 year old was just given the fish and better at picking out his own bones than I am! I don't think many Western Parents give their 3 year olds fish that haven't been deboned! But there is also something to be said for the Western way because I'm pretty sure life expectancy for children is a lot lower. Amidou (our guide) is 28 and has already lost 2 children. There are at least 2 cemeteries that we saw on our tour that are for children only - and have sections for children under one years old.
Hmmm...what else?!? Oh, we found out for sure that the truck won't leave Bamako until at least Tuesday, so we'll have no problem catching up with them in Burkina Faso. In fact, we may get there sooner than them. Of course our tour leader didn't call to tell us that. Eti had to call the owner of the campsite they are at and ask him (the tour leader didn't answer our calls or texts)!!
But we are off to Dogon Country tomorrow! Another series of long bus rides but I'm excited to get out and do some trekking. Amadou our guide said some people called that were recommended from our hotel in Bamako. Its probably part of our group trying to catch up with us. We should be safe as they left on a 1pm bus from Bamako, which if all went well, they would have arrived in Djenne at 11pm ish. But apparently the bus broke down so they won't arrive until like 4am!!! LOL...so if it is part of our group we don't have to worry about them meeting us - unless we cross paths when we leave in the morning and they arrive. We need to be our to catch our "bus" at 7 tomorrow morning. But we really don't want to travel in a big group. Especially with some of the people that might be coming. And especially walking - I'm used to walking with Geoff and Eti and we can all do our own thing and pace and apparently a French guy they met in St. Louis will join us. Four is plenty of people - any more would just be too many to make the trip enjoyable.
Ok - that being said. I'm off to sleep so I can wake up super early!!
filmed in it, which upset a lot of the locals, so now non-muslims are mostly forbidden. But for a price - if you are nice - you can get in. So that was really cool. The columns inside are all made of mud as well. Every year the whole town helps to redo the mud on the mosque before the rainy season.
The rest of Djenne is children and goats. These people have lots of children and they all run around the streets all day! Along with the goats :P We had a little girl following us all morning that had a sad look that matched mine. She was a cheeky little bugger trying to sell necklaces or something. Eti ended up buying from her. Then this evening I saw her again. She was just so cute (especially since she had washed and put on clean clothes). She was with all her little girlfriends and while Michael (the American guy we met yesterday) was looking for someone to let us into the library - I chatted (using that word lightly as I don't speak much more French than some numbers and hello) with all the little girls. Then they counted to me in English and it was super sweet. But sadly I couldn't buy something from all of them so I could only buy and over priced necklace and bracelet from the cheeky girl and her loudest friend. And actually - I had to make Michael pay because I didn't have any small notes - oops :P Then Michael found someone to let us into one of the libraries. Luckily that person spoke Arabic (which Michael is studying) since neither of us speak French. So we got an explanation of the library, including the mud models of the old Mosque and the old architectural style along with the books that were hundreds of years old. It was pretty cool! I'm glad I was able to go with Michael to see that. Geoff and Eti went with our guide to another village but I was too tired and it was too hot.
We also had lunch and dinner with our guide. For lunch we had a local dish of rice with peanut sauce. It was really good. Then for dinner we had thion-thion which was rice with a fish sauce. Really nice - and we ate it proper local style - with our hands just digging in the communal bowl. Even his little 3 year old son joined in. Its amazing how the children seem older than American children. There was fish wish heaps of bones in it - and the 3 year old was just given the fish and better at picking out his own bones than I am! I don't think many Western Parents give their 3 year olds fish that haven't been deboned! But there is also something to be said for the Western way because I'm pretty sure life expectancy for children is a lot lower. Amidou (our guide) is 28 and has already lost 2 children. There are at least 2 cemeteries that we saw on our tour that are for children only - and have sections for children under one years old.
Hmmm...what else?!? Oh, we found out for sure that the truck won't leave Bamako until at least Tuesday, so we'll have no problem catching up with them in Burkina Faso. In fact, we may get there sooner than them. Of course our tour leader didn't call to tell us that. Eti had to call the owner of the campsite they are at and ask him (the tour leader didn't answer our calls or texts)!!
But we are off to Dogon Country tomorrow! Another series of long bus rides but I'm excited to get out and do some trekking. Amadou our guide said some people called that were recommended from our hotel in Bamako. Its probably part of our group trying to catch up with us. We should be safe as they left on a 1pm bus from Bamako, which if all went well, they would have arrived in Djenne at 11pm ish. But apparently the bus broke down so they won't arrive until like 4am!!! LOL...so if it is part of our group we don't have to worry about them meeting us - unless we cross paths when we leave in the morning and they arrive. We need to be our to catch our "bus" at 7 tomorrow morning. But we really don't want to travel in a big group. Especially with some of the people that might be coming. And especially walking - I'm used to walking with Geoff and Eti and we can all do our own thing and pace and apparently a French guy they met in St. Louis will join us. Four is plenty of people - any more would just be too many to make the trip enjoyable.
Ok - that being said. I'm off to sleep so I can wake up super early!!
hope your trek goes well!
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