A Few Days In

Our host in Mopti, a Danish man named Willem, was incredible. He has a house in a small village 15km outside Mopti, where his adopted son and his son's family live. Willem helps villages create sustainable gardening projects so that they may become self-sufficient. On Friday and Saturday nights he has children and their parents form all around the village and as far as Mopti (no small feat considering the lack of personal automobiles here) for movies that he shows via a projector and a wall on his house that he has painted white. We experienced this last night after our trip to Djené and it was truly amazing and inspiring to see what his man was doing for the people around his village.
While staying at Willem's place we slept in our tents on his roof. The one thing I am missing from home right now is a mattress, as I did not bring a thermarest air mattress (big mistake), and we will be tenting for the next two weeks or so as we head up to Timbuktu on a boat for three days (both ways), and then spend four or five nights in the desert.
The distance between Willem's house and Mopti made for an interesting trip one morning, as we rode in on a young boy's donkey cart for part of the way, and then we jumped in the back of a dumptruck with a bunch of teenaged boys heading to school. Although a worthy experience, it took a long time, so we rented bikes to get into town after that.

The aforementioned trip to Djené was said to be two hours, but with ten people packed into a 1970's station wagon designed for seven it did not move at top speed. Add in the fact it broke down, and the 4 hour trip felt more like 6. However, the town of Djené is like something out of a Star Wars movie, with everything constructed out of a mud mixture that is baked by the sun into rock-solid two-storey houses. In the center of the town is a mud mosque that is the pinnacle of mud-engineering.
On the ride back from Djené we were packed into a cargo van that showed us a harsh reality of African life. In the van was a young man (16 or 17), along with his father, who was in tremendous abdominal pain. Unfortunately the nearest real hospital was in Mopti, so this cargo van that, that at times was carrying over 22 people, also doubled as an ambulance - only without a single amenity that we would attribute to an ambulance. I do not believe anybody cries wolf in Africa, as the ride was miserable for me and I had water and music. I cannot imagine how the trip was for the boy and his father.

Tonight we sleeep on the roof of a hostel along the Niger, and then tomorrow we head to Timbuktu. on a pinasse, or local boat that will be packed for three days and two nights. Should be an experience.

We also met a teenaged boy, Osoan, who helped us immensely one day in Mopti. He helped us find camping gas, baragained on our behalf for ammenities and food, and gave us tips for travelling to Djené. We tipped him 5000CFI (about ten bucks), for which he was truly grateful. We say him in town again today and he joked and played with us briefly, telling us he is going to Timbuktu on the same boat as us to see his mother, whom he wants us to meet. Travelling always seems to work out like that, with pieces falling into place right when they should.

Go Habs.