July 26th, long journey ahead...

Petit Dogon called me up at 6:30am. He was half an hour early. At least he was ready. I got out at 6:45am. And we crossed the city to get to the bus terminal behind the main market.

We waited three hours for the bus to be fully loaded with everyone and their mothers baggage and shipments. They even loaded three motorcycles on the roof.

Our bus is not a bus but rather a huge truck reconverted into a bus using the same frame. Only thing is, they call them France Au Revoir, because they date back from before Mali's independence in 1960! Yes, they cross the country like that, loaded like crazy, riding antiques. Uffff.....well it was the cheapest option we found, so what the hell!?

So it is three hours late that we finally departed, after watching the morning show of all the other buses in the street loading their own buses as well, while the market is slowly opening up and the street is quickly getting more and more crowded.

[...]

It is now 7:09pm, the bus stopped as the sun is almost all set. All the passengers got out in a hurry, spread all over the bushes and went to pee. Strangely enough, they also took advantage of the break to right away after peeing, wash hands, feet and face and pray. The funny part is that since they are not praying hidden by the bushes, as I am still sitting in the bus I can have an overall view of them praying...and they are not all praying toward the same direction. Like I said, the sun is almost set, so there should be absolutely no doubt as to which direction. I thought that north east would be the direction of Mecca from here. Not north, not east, but northeast. Oh well...

[...]

Since it is now night time, they started playing movies in the bus. Hmmm...at least it is not Korean martial art movie subtitled in Chinese blasting super loud. But am not sure if it is actually better. The first movie they are playing is called 2-headed shark attack.

[...]

It is now 9:07pm, we made another stop. Dinner time. I walked to a dark ditch in the back where it seems it is the official public toilet...and as I am doing my thing, I notice two steps away from me this woman, squatting down facing the ditch and doing her thing ad well. The fact that she did it right there near me already surprised me but the fact that she was peeing forward instead of the usual backward totally amazed me. Lol

And as I walked back to sit down with Petit Dogon, I realize that the bus parked next to ours has its lower baggage compartment filled with half a flock of sheeps while the other half is...on the roof of the bus!

What a country! Am telling you.

[...]

Now 4:45am, we are on the absolute middle of nowhere in the bus, close to our destination, but not yet. Some people are getting off here. Strange as there is like I said absolutely nothing. It is pitch black outside. The stars are as bright as can get. Not a could to pollute such beauty.

Because the bus staff is so experienced yet so uneducated, they are taking forever to unload the stuff that belongs to the people so are getting off here. It would have been so simple when loading everything up to ask people their destination and based on that arrange it all on the roof. But no. But I realized these people can't even read. So what can I expect. I just feel bad. No one on the bus is even complaining. Everyone is just used to it and perhaps just as uneducated. So no one realizes that there could be such easy solution.

Ah! Africa!

[...]

6:33am, we have finally arrived in Sanga. I am dead tired, covered in filth am so disgusting. I need a good shower and a long nap.

July 28th, Tabaski?

Today was supposedly "la fete", or as they told me here the last day of Ramadan. However, and to my surprise compared to what I have experienced in Morocco or in other countries, it didn't feel at all as a day of festivity.

Aside from the kids playing around with their home made fire cracker device (very ingenious device by the way), and for the men being dressed nicely to go to the mosque, it felt like any other day.

As I am writing this post I actually do not recall having seen anybody pray thus far. I am curious to know the proportion of Muslims in this town. Is it similar to Bamako? It is funny because just like in the Bassari country in Senegal, whether Christian or Muslim they are all still animist and still follow their traditional beliefs.

I really wish I could meet someone educated enough to ask why and what the benefit of also following Islam or Christianity is. Is religion just a title on a community? Does it really serve a purpose? I saw a lot of that in Indonesia with the Batak tribes, but never thought of it twice. Is it perhaps the fact that religion is something brought by the white man thus we will integrate it to our traditions to make us feel modern. After all it has been the case with fashion, music, brands, technology, etc...so why not religion?

And so yes, today was not much a celebratory day despite all the fuss people were making about it when we were in Bamako. Amadou told me that part of it was due to the fact that the economy in the Pays Dogon is dead and tourism hasn't come for years now due to the conflict in the north.

Since it was the Tabaski today, I was expecting that today at least, we would eat with Amadou's family. Bit no, yet again, the family had plates sent to us with food in them, but Amadou didn't feel the desire to spend those meals with his family...even though it has been a year since he last came to the village.

This morning, we rode a motorcycle around the village and its various neighborhoods. The village is huge. It was gorgeous. The diversity of topography and vegetation is just stunning.

When we came back I went to buy several kilos of pasta for his family, as a gift for the special day. They seemed very pleased.

Given that it gets so hot around mid day here, we yet again spent most of the afternoon laying down and hiding from the burning sun. It is crazy when I think about it, it is supposed to be the coolest season of the year here, and yet the heat feels like the opposite. Yes, I am so glad to not live in Africa, or at least west Africa. Am not sure I could handle such heat all year long. I need tempered four seasons.

The end of the afternoon showed a brutal change in weather. In less than an hour, the sky turned from beautiful sunset to cataclysmic black thunderstorms filled with lightening. We had just enough time to see it coming and take our things inside.

It was nice though. We just sat down on the roof and watched it come progressively. It got windier and windier. And we could even feel the wetness and coolness of the rain filled clouds much before as they were pouring over other parts of the plateau before reaching us.

When the storm hit us, we had nothing to do but lay down and nap. No light nor electricity around. So the whole village turned pitch black.

But like most tropical down pours, it only lasted a bit more than an hour.

So later on I set up my bed outside as usual, and we made some tea before going to sleep.

It will be a chilly night thanks to the rain. Perfect!

July 25th

It rained all night and all morning. Incredible. It now feels like the rainy season has really begun...or has it?

So when I woke up, I out on my rain gear d hit the empty streets to try an find so!e food. I was hungry. I came back empty handed. Ramadan + non stop rain = forced fast. Lol unlucky me.

So I stayed home for a while, reading some comic books on my tablet, hoping for the rain to stop.

The benefit of the rain is that at least in the dorm, if we turn off the fan we don't suffocate. So I turned the fan off and decided to meditate a bit, at least an hour. These days I have really felt the need to do some intense vipassana meditation as it seems that my mind has put aside a lot of its principles which were making me feel so good. I need to get back on track...but the heat is not helping. Funny enough Angelina is having similar issues back in Sao Paulo but because of the cold. Though she is a much more disciplined meditator than I am. :-(

In the afternoon, once it finally stopped raining, street life picked up again. At last, food!!!

Abdoulaye called me to ask if I wanted to join him to visit this orphanage he is helping out. Yes! Absolutely! Something different and something I should have done much much earlier when I arrived in Bamako.

So he came to pick me up at the mission and drive me to the place on the other side of the river and into so poor neighborhood.

The place is tiny. 3 rooms, one small office and a small yard. Kids everywhere.

I was previously told that this place was mostly for new born babies from 0 to 2 years old of age. Older kids can come during the day for school and food bit cannot stay overnight.

Bibi the founder was super busy with all sorts of problems as well as some charity group who had come to make in kind donations. So we waited a while to talk to her. She seemed exhausted.

Later on, when the older kids were gone as well as the visitors, we were just her, one of her teachers and Abdoulaye and myself. Sitting around a small wooden table in the yard.

She had diner prepared for us so we could eat and chat. We barely started eating when one of the staff baby carer, a very young teenager, came by crying her eyes out. Apparently her father had just died. I felt very strange, not knowing how to react. I didn't know her. Bibi just looked at her and just told her to go home. She didn't even get up and give her a big hug to try and cheer her up a bit. A few seconds and she even started eating again. I was shocked. The teacher even laughed, saying that it was like that in Africa, people come and go.
That moment really shocked me a lot and made me think even more. Bibi's orphanage has grown so big and spread so thin that it perhaps has lots its passion and real dedication to each of the kids. Sure thing she welcomes every kid that drops by, but what's the point if it is to give them basic care and attention without being able to go deeper?

I talked to Bibi after and asked her if she thought that welcoming every kid in the street and struggling every day to put food in their mouth and try to give them a basic education was better than taking in a determined number of kids and then locking the door to whoever else drops by, but at least knowing that the ones taken in will have enough food every day and will have full attention everyday and superior education. She stopped for a minute and said my question was a very good one. She realized that all her troubles were probably due to her taking in to many kids and losing her focus. So we agreed that I would spend at least two days with her when I return to Bamako to work on redefining her problematic and her mission statement. If she wants her organization to sustain while making a real impact, she has to male changes, and be aware that she cannot save all the kids of the country.

Abdoulaye drove me back home.

I ate a not more and packed my bag for tomorrow's very long bit exciting day. Pays Dogon here I come!