Real Mali Blog

Now that I have a moment, I thought I would add some details about the start of our trip.

First let me say that Touba was an experience. We left Dakar at 5 am Wednesday the 19^th in a bus that took about 4 hours to get to Touba. After that we hiked about 2 miles up the main road to see the Grand Mosque. It was pretty impressive. We got a tour of the mosque, drank some holy water and then had to figure out where to stay. Touba is one of Senegal’s holiest cities and therefore there are absolutely no drinking, smoking or even hotel/hostel establishments. Our guide was kind enough to offer to put us up at his house for a small fee. We figured that was reasonable and we needed to crash somewhere so we spent the day at his house, had some good ceebujen, café Touba (their preferred drink), tea and conversation.

After that, we had another real early morning, we left Touba at 6 am Thursday the 20^th and got into Kaolack (still in Senegal) around 9 am. From there, we wandered around town for about an hour comparing local bus companies. We ended up choosing “Africa Tour Trans” because they all had the same price but our company promised us AC. Apparently “AC” means two open roof vents. Oh well. We spent about 23 hours to travel the nearly 1000 kilometers between Kaolack and Bamako. The border crossing between Kidira (Senegal) and Diboli (Mali) was pretty smooth. There was a little bit of traffic there when we showed up around 8 pm but we were able to pay for our visas, get a stamp and roll through pretty easily. Bye Senegal.

So, we’re onto country number two of the epic Africa adventure! Mike and I arrived in Bamako around 10 am on Friday, the 21^st. We stayed in a nicer hotel for a night to recover from 23 long, sweaty hours on a cramped bus. We were able to shower, do some laundry in the sink and relax a little bit. We also took an epic wander through downtown to stake out a nice, cheap hostel for the next night. Let me just say that downtown Bamako is insane. We walked through totally packed markets where boutiques run right up onto the sidewalks where they compete for space with the millions of motorcycles constantly roaring up and down Bamako’s streets. There are people, buses, animals, taxis and (above all) motos to avoid at every moment. It felt a lot more hectic, harried, chaotic, dirty and packed than Dakar. It is certainly a very pretty city, surrounded by hills and cut in half by the majestic Niger River. There are even green spaces and parks throughout Bamako. But it is not a city for the fainthearted.

We stayed at a very basic hostel for our second night in Bamako. We explored downtown again and walked through a really cool fetish market. We saw animal horns, skins, bones and dried heads of all kinds: crocodile, boar, monkey, horse and other unidentifiable objects. It was great! We stopped into a local bar Saturday night and just happened upon the final match of the European Cup of Champions. We watched Inter Milan beat Bayern and the Malian crowd was totally behind Milan, largely due to Eto’o, their famous Cameroonian player.

Sunday morning, the 23^rd, we headed back to the bus station and found a 1 pm bus to Segou, 230 kilometers north-west of Bamako. The trip was less than smooth. We had to turn back after about 30 minutes because the driver sensed a problem with the bus. After a chaotic scramble for seats on the new bus, we were on our way. The countryside was also green and beautiful but we had one (major) bump along the way. The driver was barreling down the highway and an unfortunate herd of cattle decided to cross the road. He honked a lot but they didn’t move quite fast enough. He caught one squarely by the back haunches and sent it spinning off into the brush. The front of the bus was a little smashed up but we came out relatively unscathed (compared to the cow.) We loaded up the dead cow and took it to Segou so that the driver/company could pay the herder for his loss. We didn’t get to Segou until around 7:30 (a trip that should take only 3 hours).

We saw the big Monday market tomorrow and explored the town a little yesterday. It is nice to relax a little in a less hectic town for a few days. Tomorrow, we head to the famous mud mosque at Djenne and then Mopti for a hike through Dogon country.

Take care and have a great week!

Mali

Wish I had more time to update you all. Will post longer when I get a chance. We made it to Mali safely. Spent 3 days in Bamako and what an insane town! Now we are in Segou, it is so hot here! Take care,
Peace

Last Day in Dakar

So, I am coming to the end of one chapter of this trip. It is certainly a bittersweet moment. I am slowly saying good-bye to everyone in Dakar though I know that I will be back in December before I fly to the States. It is still sad to leave Dakar which has become quite close to my heart.

This week has been pretty relaxed. Tuesday I packed up all my stuff and separated out two bags of clothes and stuff to leave in Dakar. I need to learn how to travel light so I have thought very carefully about what I really need with me. Mike showed up bright and early Wednesday morning and we moved into an apartment in the Baobab neighborhood.

The rest of our time has been spent planning out the next few steps of the trip and seeing Dakar. We spent a day wandering around the neighborhood and we walked to the Corniche (the coastal highway). We applied for visas at the Ghanaian Embassy, which is one of the few countries where we need to get visas ahead of time. Most places we can get a visa at the border which makes things a lot simpler. We explored the north shore beaches of Ngor and Virage where the waves are the best for surfing. We also went downtown for a day and did a big walk through the major sights. We saw the Independence Plaza, the Presidential Palace, and the Malian Market at the train station. We also walked around the southern tip of Dakar where there is a big lighthouse and the old Supreme Court building.

We have spent a lot of time hanging out with people in Dakar and Mike has gotten a pretty good sense of the people and the culture in his short time here. We wandered through markets in Grand Dakar and Biscuiterie. I even cooked the national dish: ceebujen! This required buying all the right ingredients which included fish. I subsequently removed the scales, fins, head and all the fun inner bits of said fish. It was quite the experience and it turned out pretty tasty.

So, tomorrow we head out to Touba which is one of the Muslim holy cities in Senegal. Touba is home to one of the biggest mosques in Africa. We are going to spend a day there before we head to Mali via bus. After this, we are pretty flexible and I will try and keep you updated about where we are. We are planning on spending a couple days in Bamako, Djenne, Segou and Mopti and maybe doing a hike around the Dogon country. After Mali we head through Burkina Faso, Togo and Ghana. We fly to South Africa on June 18th and we are attending the first match of the round of 16 for the 2010 World Cup. We’re not sure who will be playing yet, but we will see the winner of Group A play the runner up of Group B. After South Africa we plan to tackle Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Tanzania and Kenya, all before September 1st. It is a pretty ambitious trip so we will keep you updated.

I hope everyone has a great week! Thanks so much for reading. Until next time.
Peace.

Happy Mother's Day

Well hello there again wherever you are. I hope everyone is mad appreciating their mothers today. After all, without her, you wouldn't be here. Show some love. I personally want to thank my real mom and my various surrogate mothers all around the world for the love and support they have given me over the years. I speak specifically to my mom (US), Raquel (Chile), Odile (Senegal) and Aida (France). Happy Mother's Day ladies.

I can't say that this last week-ish has been very eventful. It was nice, for a while, to rest after such a wild ride in Kedougou. However, I prefer being active so I quickly bore wtih the easy life.


Mostly this time has been about saying good-bye and trying to wrap up my time here in Senegal. Without all the LC students, it made me appreciate how much their presence made this study abroad program special. I will miss them tons but I am starting to get really excited for the next phase of this adventure.

Friday I recovered and had a last night out with Julia who left Saturday evening. Saturday I spent with my host mom, Aida, because she left for France on Sunday. I also checked out a small jewelry shop in the Biscuiterie neighborhood and got a silver bracelet made for me with "Adama" my Senegalese name, engraved in the top. It is customary here for people to wear silver or gold jewelry with either their first name or their family name engraved in it. And I really like the name Adama.

I spent a lot of time just chilling with Sean who has become something of a best friend and fellow adventurer with me in Senegal. He was suppposed to leave Wednesday eaerly morning but due to a big mishap in which Royal Air Morocco deleted his itinerary and refunded his ticket without telling him, he ended up leaving early Thursday morning instead.

This weekend, things finally started getting interesting again. I went out downtown with some of the students from Lawrence University (another ACI Baobab study abroad program). We had dinner at Chez Lutcha and then checked out this quirky little club called Cafe Iguane. Friday night my host sister (Selly) arrived from France. She is studying fashion design in Paris and spends her summers in Dakar, so it was the first time I had met her.

Saturday I stayed home all day because Abdoul, my host dad, was getting ready to go join his wife in France. Saturday evening Selly and I went to a club called Diamond which is in Almadies, a pretty nice neighborhood in Dakar. We had a lot of fun and I always enjoy dancing with my girls. Needless to say, I was ready for a nice relaxing Sunday.

So, next week I move into an apartment when Mike gets here on Wednesday. we are going to solidify some of the details for the next phase of the trip and get to know Dakar for a few days. After that, it's off to Mali.

Everyone have a great week. Be safe and appreciate the mothers in your life.
Peace.

Kedougou Photos

This is the pool at the base of the waterfall, and me feeling much cooler after a swim.







Sweating in a bungalow, but what can you do?

Here is the waterfall and the village of Dindefelo.

The green hills surrounding the region.

Our broken little bus.

Sean and I waiting for a ride back into town.

So, here are some pics from our adventure. One thing I forgot to mention was that we got stopped at a Customs checkpoint on the way back to Dakar on the overnight bus. The customs officers opened the storage compartments under the bus and randomly searched several of the bags. I'm not sure what they were looking for or if they found it, but we were stopped at the roadside for at least half an hour.

Have a great week, see you next time!

~Jess~

Kedougou

Hey everyone,

Hope you all had a fun, safe week. Sean and I had quite the adventure in Eastern Senegal.

Back in Dakar now, allelulia = alhamdulilahi! I have been thoroughly enjoying the creature comforts of home, namely electricity, a soft bed, a ceiling fan and reliable running water. Thank God is "santa yalla" in Wolof and I am so thankful to be back in Dakar after a challenging voyage: "maa ngi santa yalla bu bax!"

We headed out Sunday morning bright and early at 7 am, down to the bus station, in what I thought would be an innocent start to an enjoyable vacation. We were well prepared with snacks, water and a healthy taste for adventure. This was our last Senegal trip as Sean heads back to Europe on the 5th. We found a bus going to Tambacounda (2/3 of the way to Kedougou), bought our tickets, and hopped aboard. We had planned on spending the night in Tamba to avoid travelling overnight. Buses here wait until they are full to leave, so we ended up sitting in the station for 7 hours before finally leaving at around 3 pm. It shows how much Sean and I have grown accustomed to the uncertainty of life in Senegal that we had the patience to sit on a bus for that long. Spirits still high, we headed out.

The bus was fairly well ventilated but we ended up sweating most of the way. Being hot and uncomfortable quickly became the norm for the trip. We had 1 long stop to change a flat tire that took about an hour. We had several stops to get food and let off passengers. We also had a 3 hour stop at a random gas station so that the bus driver could take a nap. In the end, we didn't need to spend the night in Tamba because we showed up at 6 am and immediately found a sept-place to Kedougou. This part of the voyage was a little more pleasant because we were driving through Senegal's largest national park: Niokolo Koba. The scenery was unlike anywhere else in Senegal, we were surrounded by green, rolling hills. We also saw a little bit of wildlife: warhogs, red-footed monkeys and some birds.

We showed up in Kedougou Monday morning at 10 am. It took us 26 hours to get there and we covered about 700 km which is about 435 miles. We found a nice hostel and took a nap. We got some sleep on the bus but we were constantly trying to catch up on sleep. We explored the town and got some ceebujen for lunch. We talked to a local guide about where to go in the area and how to manage it on our own. We also met some really nice Peace Corps volunteers. They invited us over to the Peace Corps house in Kedougou and we chatted about how best to explore the area. We decided to rent bikes to get to Dindefelo where there is a cute little village and a nice waterfall. We went to bed early to prepare for an epic bike trip.

Tuesday morning we were up at 6 to beat the heat. We biked out of Kedougou at 7 am, leaving our backpacks at the hostel and bringing only the basics with us. We had plenty of water (about 6 liters) which we were very thankful for. We brought some food and a change of clothes. We tried to travel light because the roads were unbelievably rough and Dindefelo was 36 km away (22 miles). We had been assured that the bikes were up to the trip, but about 17 miles in, Sean's back tire was totally flat. We walked a mile to a village called Segou and filled it up. We kept biking but it was a temporary fix and two miles later we were walking again. Luckily we were only about 2 miles from Dindefelo at that point. We showed up exhausted at about noon. We found a cute little hostel with huts and settled in. That afternoon we hiked the 2 miles to the waterfall. It was gorgeous, totally worth the effort. We found a calm, quiet canyon with steep cliff faces and a wonderfully relaxing pool at the base of the falls. We swam and felt comfortable temperature-wise for the first time since Sunday morning. We walked around the small village of Dindefelo that afternoon and watched a local soccer match.

Wendesday we found out that there is a Nissan 4 X 4 that drives between Kedougou and Dindefelo everyday that would be able to take us and the bikes back. Thank goodness, because there was no way we were going to be able to bike back. We made it back to Kedougou after a 2 hour long very bumpy ride. We returned the bikes and unsuccessfully bargained for a refund on Sean's bike. We settled into the same hostel and relaxed. We bought street fare for dinner (the same place we had already been to twice) and didn't think twice about it. We bought some local palm wine and watched the Barcelona-Milan semi-final match of the European Champions League with our local guide. Everything was fine until about 1 am when I woke up with a terrible stomach ache. I didn't sleep at all due to nausea, "shuking" (diarrhea plus puking) and a 102 degree fever. I stayed in bed all day until about 3 pm Thursday. Sean was very helpful, he had some medications with him and a thermometer. I am glad that I didn't get sick on the bus or in Dindefelo. We were best equipped to deal with it in Kedougou. At least we had lots of water and our own bathroom in the hostel. I am pretty sure it was the sandwich that did me in.

I rested all day and drank lots of water. Thursday we had already purchased bus tickets on the direct overnight bus back to dakar. We left at 6 pm and got in around 5 am. I felt better, but it was still very up and down. The bus was hot and I completely sweated through my clothes. I got a little bit of sleep but it will take me a few days to really recover.

After this trip, I have whole new standards of comfort. I have suffered through heat, sickness, fatigue and discomfort. I feel like I came out stronger and better prepared for my next trip. This was like a small, trial run and it was quite the learning experience. Now that I have really gotten sick, I know to plan an extra day into my trips. I know now what food poisoning feels like so I can better judge the risk that street food poses. I will be better equipped to pack a first aid kit knowing what helped me in this situation and I fill pay extra attention to what I eat before travelling or when I am in a remote area.

Dakar feels especially luxurious after my trip to Eastern Senegal. If anyone wants to Google Kedougou or Dindefelo, you will see how truly far we went. We were only a couple of miles from the border with Guinea and not far from Mali either. It was a very pretty region, a challenging trip and a great learning experience. I wouldn't change a thing. I hope everyone had a nice, relaxing week. I will try to put up pictures when I get a chance.
Peace!
~Jess~

Fin du Programme

Hey everyone!

Thought I would start with some pics. This is our final performance for our Senegalese Music class. Me and Kelly, the first and the last the leave Dakar.

I am officially done with my semester abroad...in any sort of formal capacity. From here on out it is just me doing my thing. This means that the blogging is going to become a lot more sporadic...and potentially more interesting. To illustrate that point, for example tomorrow I am off to Kedougou with Sean and I probably won't have internet for a week. It will probably be a similar story for most of my travels this summer.

Anyway, the semester ended with a bang! I had a final French exam with written and oral parts. We turned in a big paper and presented on it. We had our final music and dance class and our final session volunteering at Village SOS. I'm gonna miss those little kids.

We had two more final presentations and a final paper for literature and seminar. Wednesday we busted out the djembes and played a show for our family, friends, teachers and pretty much all of ACI. Thursday we had our re-entry session to prep (most of) us for life back at home.

Everything went smoothly and I have had a couple days of down-time to just breathe before the next adventure.

And then the good-byes started. Kelly left on Wednesday right after our show. 9 little Indians left in Dakar...Jess H. and Alexis are flying to Paris as I type. 7 little Indians left.

Since Sean and I are headed to Kedougou for the week, I said good-bye to Leia, Rebekah, Katherine and Julie today, too. By May 1st, there will only be 3 of us left, and by the 5th, I will be the last one standing. I am excited to have some time to explore Dakar some more before Mike gets here. I am also looking forward to having a chance to take things as they come and reflect on my experience here.

I love Senegal so much and there are so many wonderful, unexplicable, beautiful moments everyday that I wish I could really share with everyone. Like when you fall asleep on the couch waiting for dinner and you wake up to your (host) grandma taking a picture of you with her camera phone. There are always those cute interactions with vendors on the street or when you suprise someone with your Wolof. I have found a lot to love here and I am so thankful for the opportunity to study in Dakar.

Anyway, I have to finish packing up my backpack for Kedougou. It is in the eastern part of Senegal, near Guinee. It is supposed to be really green and beautiful but it will take us two days to get there since it is not always safe to travel at night. I am looking forward to adventuring out on my own with Sean and getting to know a new part of Senegal. Hope everyone has a great week! Also, I will try to add more pictures to my posts in the future, to give you an idea of where I am going and the people I spend time with.

Peace.