Mali - Ségou and Djenné
Day 62 (6 December) – Ségou
We packed up and during coffee, just before 10am, Niels mentioned he is on holiday for 2 months exactly! Time really flies. Later that day the others were traveling for two months also. We have done and seen a lot, the car accident before Belgium, the delicious fresh figs in France, Santiago de Compostella, off roading in Morocco through the Atlas and Sahara, Buying music CD’s in Saint-Louis, Sinterklaas in Mali, just to name a few!
We are driving East towards Djenne and Dogon country and decide to make a stop for the night in Ségou. Before we can leave town Niels needs to be stopped by the police…. The police officer found a stamp missing on his “passer avant” which needs to be obtained immédiately and will cost 1500 CFA. As it didn’t seem right we objected and lingered around a bit waiting for them to “change” their mind. After some further negotiations he agreed that we could also do it elsewhere which we immediately agreed to (and subsequently never did).
Since Ségou is close we decide to take a short-cut and go off road. There is one road marked on the GPS, one on the map and naturally we manage to find one that is just in between – not marked anywhere. It is actually a decent road. The villages we pass change from round wood or mud houses with thatch roofs to square mud brick plastered in a gray smooth finish with large beams sticking out and flat roofs. The beams are used for structural support but also allow access to the entire outside of the building so it can be replastered as needed or at least annually.
We stop in one village to pick up some meat from the market. Our kids are the most amusing thing to have come to the village – not for anything they are doing, but just because they exist. All the women and kids gather around the car to catch a glimpse. Impressively, the women stick their heads in and out of the car window, turning this way and that all the while keeping their bowls and buckets balanced on their heads. In each village we pass through people wave, the kids chase after the car and are grabbed and scolded by the adults. Between the villages people are busy harvesting. Everything they are harvesting we have no idea what it is. Some brown stalks which we then see in piles and piles drying in the sun; green grass-like stuff, heaped onto carts.
We come through one village and there are lots of kids – like HUNDREDS of kids. It must be the regional school and school must have just gotten out of session. They come running in mass towards the cars. They are clinging to the cars, running alongside, jumping, chanting, yelling, laughing and smiling. They are shouting what sounds like “Bugu-zu! Bugu-zu!” which surely means “Hey, White guys!” or “Give me a present” or both!
Ségou is a small dusty town on the Niger river. It has a sprawling market which seems to take half the town. It is a friendly place for us to wander around and do a little shopping – new flip flops for Niels and Eowyn, a plastic mat for sitting outside, etc. To fuel our shopping expedition we buy some mystery fried thing from a roadside stall. It was filled with onions, egg and shredded meat – a delicious surprise. We stop for a sundowner at “the best view for sundowners” as proclaimed by one of the guidebooks. We take a seat on the patio watching the pirouges ferry people and goods to and from the closing market, the sun is casting a rose glow over the water and the horizon and people peeing and washing their butts in the shallow water below. Not one or two people but pretty much everyone. The largest public toilet – which conveniently is also being used for bathing, washing dishes and clothes. Some people are even multitasking and washing while they pee.
Day 63 (7 December) – Off road to Djenné
Last evening we finally made time to put the new stories together and this first thing this morning Niels’ uploaded it to the site (as you all have noticed, I’m sure). The next morning we go in search of breakfast before hitting the road. Everyone seems to be eating plates of fries and brochette. Stanley can hardly believe his eyes. What HEAVEN – fries and brochette for BREAKFAST. We order some and sit in the stall each with a plate of Ségou’s delicious breakfast – fries, brochette with jus, fresh onion and green pepper and some chili. We order coffee and a juice. Nice!
As we continue towards Djenné we pass carts full of people and goods and realize it is people leaving the large Djenné Monday market. It is a large weekly market for the entire region.
Stanley and Niels are becoming more skilled in fixing the cars. Squeaky noises that appear out of the blue on sandy tracks, after thorough inspection are all fixed (read disappear the same way as they appeared). So also was Niels’ fuel gauge finally fixed since it was ‘broken’ after a few hard bumps in Morocco in the Sahara…As the sun is setting we drive off road in a marshy environment and it takes into darkness when we finally arrive in Djenné.
Day 64 (8 December) – Djenné
The history of Djenné is closely linked with that of Timbuktu. Between the 15th and 17th centuries much of the trans-Saharan trade in goods such as salt, gold and slaves that moved in and out of Timbuktu passed through Djenné. Both towns became centres of Muslim scholarship. Djenné's prosperity depended on this trade and when the Portuguese established trading posts on the African coast, the importance of the trans-Saharan trade and thus of Djenné declined.
The town is famous for its distinctive mud-brick (adobe) architecture, most notably the Great Mosque which was built in 1907 on the site of an earlier mosque. The Djenné Mosque is the largest mud structure in the world! It is said to be also the most beautiful and it’s standing at 18.5 m tall.
There is one place in town that serves beers and Julia, Stanley and the kids have a cold one on the roof of Chez Baba overlooking the Mosque and the town below. On the way back to camp we stop at a stall for some liver brochette and sweet potato fries. The kids coming from school gather around us as we are eating. The woman at the stall shouts at them and then gets a switch which she has on hand and smacks a few of them on the head to send them scattering.
There is one place in town that serves beers and Julia, Stanley and the kids have a cold one on the roof of Chez Baba overlooking the Mosque and the town below. On the way back to camp we stop at a stall for some liver brochette and sweet potato fries. The kids coming from school gather around us as we are eating. The woman at the stall shouts at them and then gets a switch which she has on hand and smacks a few of them on the head to send them scattering.
