This weekend saw our first venture outside Bamako, to Ségou- Mali’s 3rd biggest city about 250km north. We took the public bus, and it was so nice to soak up the hustle and bustle of the bus station and the repeated stops at market towns where sellers rushed onto the bus trying to sell apples, water and fans. It was also fun to watch multiple lorry’s carrying hundreds of goats on the roof shoot past. People crammed their whole lives into the bus and there was a bed, a new motorbike and some tree stumps in the hold, a TV on the chair and the plastic casing of the bike above the seat. Said plastic made a bid freedom on a corner and I caught the lot, prompted by lots of thanks you’s and a sore arm. The bus was much better than expected; it was fairly comfortable but about fifty degrees and I had to buy a stripey fan at a market on the way. I think secretly I was hoping to share my seat with lots of animals and children and that the bus would be falling apart. Instead I shared my seat with a rather enormous lady who got on half way through the journey shouting at me to stand up and let her sit in the space next to me and then leaving me standing on the bus for a good ten minutes whilst it was driving 100km an hour. She took up a good one and a half seats and when the bus swerved I fell off the seat. Said lady then mysteriously after a stop at a market acquired a baby, sitting with it on her knee all the way to Segou. When we got off she shouted and shouted at me in Bambara- no idea what I did wrong!
The bus hurtled along the very long straight road (which goes all the way from Bamako to Timbuktu) very fast, honking its horn any time anything was in its way, nearly taking out a lot of motorbikes on the way. It was nice to look at the scenery which was remarkably green for the heat. By the time we arrived it was dark, which meant we didn’t get much of an idea of the town. We did get to see the Niger which was beautiful. One of the IS staff had a friend with a hostel place a few km out of Segou so we stayed there and it was very cheap. He was a very odd character and kept arranging things for us only to tell us that he didn’t have to help us. He also on talking to me asked to speak to someone who was better at French than me. Nice! The place however had a really nice garden with a bar, and it was really like being on holiday. The rooms were ok, although I think we are getting too used to the luxury of the IS Office, it wasn’t clean and there were mattresses on the floor. Trying to hang our mosquito nets required significant creativity (and a lot of duct tape) and mine fell on my face both nights. One of the nights, a salamander tried to crawl under my mosquito net, I went a bit mad ended up upside down with a collapsed mozzie net on my face and a salamander in the bed. All at 2 am. Stressful.
As the third city, Ségou is tiny. All the life happens alongside the river bank, although other significant trades include making bogolon cloth, cotton and ceramics. The town consisted of several long streets and it felt a bit like a one horse (or should I say donkey) town. To get into town from the hostel we took a moto taxi. It was so fun, a very rickety cart attached to a motorbike which was definitely struggling. The minute we stepped outside sellers rushed to us. There must have been about 15 of them. They were all speaking broken English and it was clear the extent to which they would go to get customers. All sorts of beautiful products were being thrown at us however it was a stressful experience; I really miss shopping without constant hassle. You can definitely have no agenda here.
We decided to take a boat trip to a local fishing village across the river. Finding a boat was an ordeal in itself as people tried to get us on expensive guided trips. We wanted to take a public boat but this required wading in about 6 foot of dirty Niger water to get to it and we were told that tourists were forbidden as it was dangerous as the boats were prone to tipping over as they are overcrowded. I’m not sure I believed that part- I think it was just a ploy to get us onto an expensive boat. We finally found one and the view was beautiful, the river was so calm. I was disappointed not to see any crocodiles though. A large amount of people’s livelihood relies on the river and we watched as men bobbed in and out of the water dragging up sand from the river bed to use in house building. The trip was short and we soon arrived at the village. It was everything I thought it would be, mud huts and thatched roofs, chickens, goats, cows and children running about. Part of me didn’t like it though. Whilst it was nice to see local life, I felt like a tourist, like I had been taken there as they thought the people would be an attraction. Instead I felt like I was imposing on them as well were taken into their houses. At the same time I felt that I was an attraction to the kids who just repeated “donnes moi un cadeau”. This was a clear indication of the impact tourist trips to the village was having on them. The children were beautiful and quickly attached themselves to us, one wouldn’t let go of my hand at all however I couldn’t help think how tourists trips to their village had affected them. Despite having little (many had very large stomachs- which Is always saddening) they seemed happy, free to run around playing with anything they could find. Boys ran along hitting tires with sticks. They also loved us taking their photos just so they could see their refection and laugh at it. One boy whilst having his photo taken posed in lots of silly poses and giggled pretending he was a model, it was really cute.
I really wish we could take the week long boat up north towards Timbuktu (stupid foreign office). This is definitely not going to happen as a number of pro Ghaddifi supporters have set up camp in the Touareg north which is vying for separation from Mali.Its easy to ignore all the political instability in the north, but it is nonethless unnerving. I loved being on the water but the half an hour trip just wasn’t enough. After the boat we went for some 250 CFA rice. It is so cheap, you can have rice and yummy sauce for the equivalent of 30 pence. I even ate some fish! (Massive step for Alice-kind) Whilst this food was cheap, I still struggle with the cost of living here as some things are strangely expensive. We are starting to get to grips with cheap eating now although my diet is so lacking in so many things I’m permanently exhausted. Back onto Segou anyway, after the boat we had the chance to go shopping. The group split up a bit and the sense of freedom was amazing. We have been so confined here, not allowed out alone and we had to take a member of staff to Segou for security reasons. Wandering round however I felt safe. In Bamako especially at the market you can’t do anything without so much hassle you want to go home, in Segou we wandered around bought what we wanted with little stress. We went to a workshop where they make Bogolon fabric which is a natural fabric with a pattern painted using leaves, river clay or tree bark. The patterns are beautiful, very tribal and have different meanings. We were allowed to sample stenciling and I was given the pattern for marriage. After being told the other day when I had my palm read that I would never be satisfied with one husband I was worried haha.
In the evening we went for dinner at another live music venue. Claire and I asked if we could play the drums and they let us. I am definitely becoming a (non) African drummer. I love it, the players are so charismatic and I love the rhythms.
The journey back was bumpy with a crazy driver who thought driving a rickety bus well over 100km/h was ok. There were several very hairy moments. It was so nice to get out the city and see some more of Mali, I hope to adventure again soon. I just hope the red zone moves so we can go to Djenné to see the mud mosque and Dogon tribes. Back to work and routine this week, I’m visiting some more artisans tomorrow for the portfolio project which shall be fun and then hoping to be a tourist i my own town this weekend!
A bientot,
xxxx
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