Mudcropolis

I am not sure if I am happy or not to be back in the simulated village of Tubaniso outside of Bamako.

Our trip to Djenne and Mopti was amazing, tiring, beautiful, annoying, energizing, and everything in between. On Friday morning, we left before dawn to catch a bus up the main paved road in Mali to the junction with the road to Djenne. This was a novelty to me because in Guinea, we don’t have anything but taxis (painful) and mini-buses (more painful). We were so excited to have our own seats in a bus and be on the road by 7:30, we didn’t realize there was absolutely NO VENTILATION. We were seriously trapped in a moving steamer for 10 hours traveling towards the Sahara. I think I would have preferred a camel. But we made it to the junction and got off the bus (the bus almost drove away with Reid still on) and waited for a couple of hours for our taxi to leave for Djenne. I learned that taxis are just as ghetto here as they are in Guinea when Reid and I stuffed in to share the front seat, but halfway to Djenne, the door flew open and Reid almost fell out. Yay, Africa.

We arrived before sundown, found a hotel, ate, and settled in. We woke up early the next morning for our grand 3 hour tour of the desert town. Djenne is a town made completely out of mudstone, lots of mudstone, and when you walk around, you truly feel transported back in time. Their mosque, the largest mudstone structure in the world, was huge and very impressive. Unfortunately, we “couldn’t” go inside (we could have if we paid the right person enough money), but the architecture was astounding. Guinea has nothing like it. In the afternoon, we took a horse cart out to a Peul village and a Bozo village to see more amazing mud structures and be harassed by more annoying children.

The next day, we took a minibus (more painful) to Mopti, a large port town along the Niger River. This is where the salt arrives from Timbuktu, which of course, made me the happiest person ever. I am officially obsessed with the desert and the camel caravans that transport salt and other goods. The salt has been mined from dried lakes in the Sahara for centuries and transported on the camel caravans to Timbuktu and then sent via boat along the Niger to Mopti. And there I stood, watching boats arrive from Timbuktu unloading slabs of salt. I tasted one. It was a huge dirty chunk of pure salt from the Sahara, transported for hundreds of miles via camel caravan and the river. Guess what it tasted like. Salty. But what an amazing trip that piece of salt made!

Our return trip to Bamako was similarly hot, sweaty, but fast. After a loooong trip to see some mud and taste some salt, I was glad to return back to hot baths and good (free) food. But this week, we are starting our In-Service Training, which means I am going to be sitting in 100 degree heat being trained on things that I may never be able to put into practice if we don’t go back to Guinea. Sounds like fun?

We still don’t know anything about returning to Guinea or transferring somewhere else. We are all just waiting some more, which is a bit painful, but I always said Peace Corps was going to teach me patience (and I'm alright as long as I keep getting per diem!). I will keep you guys updated as new information arrives.