Pictures from Mali

We took a bus from Abidjan to Bamako. The bus ride is long and definitely not for travellers inexperienced in travelling in africa. From Abidjan to the border of Mali takes about 18 hours if you are lucky and if the bus is stopped by police a minimum amount of times. (at the entrance and exit to major towns). When we arrived at the border, we had to stay overnight and catch another bus in the morning. Our morning bus left at 7 am. Upon entering Mali, even in the south, you can already feel the desert atmosphere starting: less trees, more dust, etc. This bus took about another 9 hours to arrive in Bamako. The bus stops along the way at "restaurants" where everyone gets off and eats quickly. These "restaurants" are little rooms in a village that serves every day food: rice with a selection of sauces, fish, meat, and pop. The food is very cheap. We were stopped by police a lot more in Mali and the checks took a lot longer. We finally arrived in Bamako around 4 pm or so. This picture and the one following is showing how you make and have tea in West Africa. It is an amazing experience and I will further explain it with the next photo.

This picture is a young boy, I believe he said he was 12, preparing the tea. Making tea is a very long process. You have two pots. First, you fill one pot with tea leaves (they told me they are like chinese tea leaves), mint and a lot of sugar, then you add a pot of water and put it on the fire (at his feet). You let it simmer for a long time (maybe about 20 minutes). Then you pour the tea into the other pot back and forth a couple times. It is poured from really high (why I am not sure, but everyone does it this way) kinda like what a waiter here might do to impress his customers or at a fancy restaurant. Then you pour the tea into one glass. The glasses are always of glass, again I don't know why, hot to the touch. There are almost always two glasses only. You pour again from very high from one glass to the other many times, taste it, and generally pour it back in the teapot. A little later, you do the process again. Eventually about 45 minutes to an hour later the tea is ready for the first cup. By this time, usually a lot of people have gathered. Having tea is a huge social event. You pour two glasses of tea and give them to two people. When they are finished they give the two glasses to the person making tea who refills them and gives them to two more people until everyone has been served the first glass. West African tea is always served in three. After you have finished giving everyone glass number one, you repeat the process without changing the tea leaves. And again for the third, making the tea weaker each time. They have a saying to go with the tea that quite often they repeat at the beginning of the drinking for each glass. For the first glass you say "fort comme la mort" (strong like death), the second "doux comme la vie" (soft like life), and the third "sucre comme l'amour" (sweet like love). The whole process takes about three hours but it is very enjoyable to sit under a tree having tea with local people and chatting. I highly recommend it!

After spending only one day in Bamako (I had other things I wanted to see and was tired of capital cities), we caught a bus the following day at 4 pm for Mopti. This bus ride is 12 hours. If you choose a good bus line, we chose M'ba Transport I believe, the ride is actually quite comfortable. Ours had cushioned seats and more leg room than any other bus I had ridden on! We arrived in Mopti at 4 am. Naturally, we were quite tired, and wanted to get a room and sleep. However, we were not able to get our bags from the bus until 6 am. You may ask why, the answer was simple "c'est comme ca" in other words, its just like that. So, I had had enough of sitting and stayed off the bus and had some cafe au lait and 1/3 a baguette at the "cafe". The cafe is just an open air table with big benches that are open in odd hours in the morning for travellers. It costs about 200 cfa (fifty cents) and is quite enjoyable. We were right next to the Niger River, and as the sun was down, I was cold! I did survive but perhaps it was that night that made me get sick a couple days later. Eventually I got my bags and went and slept. This is a picture of me in Mopti with the Mopti mosque in the background and the goats crossing the road. Mopti is an excellent central point for trips to Djenne, and Dogon country, and a good place to find a guide or a bus to Timbuctu (or if you are really adventurous, take the boat up the Niger to a couple miles away from Timbuctu).

On the Monday, we decided to go to Djenne. I chose Monday as it is market day in Djenne, which means a lot of interesting activity going on. We took a bush taxi from the Mopti gare which is right across the street from our hotel "Le campement". You need to get there early to catch the taxis. We were a little late and had a hard time filling up, so eventually we left half full (we paid the rest) and picked up people along the way who just paid us. These are two women we picked up along the way. The woman on the right holding the baby, is the one that really fascinated me. She is from the ethnie the Peul. You can tell (unfortunately YOU cant cause the picture is too dark:( that she is Peul by her markings. Around her lips there is this thick black line. This is put on Peul women when they are "initiated" meaning when they are officially no longer a child, probably around 13 or so. When she got in I used my very basic bambara (dioula in Cote d'Ivoire) to tell her good morning. Apparently after that she thought I spoke Bambara and really wanted to talk to me more. Unfortunately I didn't understand much of what she said but Yaya helped in translating a bit. She was really friendly. I would say she was probably only 17 at the oldest, she has the one baby in her arms, and another one on the way.

The trip to Djenne only takes a couple hours. There is really only one police stop on the way. It is important that you got a visa stamp in Mopti cause here is where they check it. When you arrive in Mali, at least by ground, there is no official border check. Or at least there wasn't when I went, meaning you have no stamp in your passport saying you have entered in Mali. I guess they assume everyone goes to Mopti and will get it there. So you need to go to the police station in Mopti, pay 1000 cfa and they put a stamp in your passport saying you arrived in Mopti such and such a day and will be leaving such and such a day for wherever you tell them you are going to. This police check on the road is a bit of a hassle as they try to pretend you don't have one, even though they are looking right at it. I did get by however. We arrived in Mopti probably around 1 pm or so. The market was just bustling with activity. This is a picture of side street regular village life going on. I foudn this town to be very picturesque. (don't know how to spell that)

We found a guide and walked around the village. He showed us around all the side streets and explained to us about many of the mud-brick buildings. Djenne is said to be the sister city of Timbuctu. In fact, it was established before Timbuctu and had many strong Coranic teaching centres. Today life hasn't changed too much. People still live in the same style housing and the first coranic school is still standing. The children in this village go to a Coranic school. There are no other choices. These schools are called "madrassa schools". Apparently, there are more in Djenne than in any other town in Mali. If you want your child to go to a French school (where he/she can learn French, along with your common subjects like math, science, etc), you need to send him/her away from the village to another village, town, or city. This picture is just another side street picture.

This is the Djenne mosque. It was built in 1905 and the architecture is Sudanese or Sahelian. It is said that it is designed after the original mosque that was built in the 11th century and destroyed in the 19th. I absolutely loved this mosque. You can see it from anywhere in the village and even before you enter the village. However, I don't find its presence as offensive as the Basilica in Yamoussoukro. Perhaps because it is much more modest. Unfortunately, non-Muslims can't go inside.

Check out the other pages of Katrina's African Adventures!

Main Page (home)
About Me
African Anecdotes
Adventures Part 1
Adventures Part 2
Adventures Part 3
Adventures Part 4
Pictures from Abidjan and Grand Bassam
Pictures from Cote d'Ivoire Outside Abidjan
Pictures from Burkina Faso
My Other Photo Album
African Links