I know at the end of the last post I promised you all a blog from Andrej. I hope its not too disappointing, but it seems that you have another blog from me instead ;-) Andrej did, however, pick out all the photos for this blog. I hope you like them!
Right now it seems like forever ago, but at the beginning of June we spent a fun week and a half in Mali. Our experience there centered around a 6 day trek that we took through central Mali in a part of the country called 'Dogon Country.'
Andrej and I in Dogon Country.
Dogon Country is a very traditional part of Africa. Long, long ago (think over 900 years ago) pygmy people lived in this area. From what we could gather, they had some issues with vicious animals and invaders, because they chose to make their houses way up on an escarpment of a cliff. They made houses out of mud in the overhangs impossibly high up on the cliff. The houses are still there today because they were sheltered be the overhangs. The houses are tiny and often have multiple tiny rooms. About 900 years ago, the current people who live in the area, the Dogons, moved in and the pygmies left. They also built their houses way up on the cliff, and their villages are still visible today. This is the main tourist attraction. Some of them you are able to climb up to, others look impossible to ever get to. It seems that they hung ropes from their houses and repelled down. There were some more recent (100 years old) mausoleum type buildings on the cliffs that still had the ropes hanging from them that they would use to haul the bodies up with. Anyways, the Dogon people still live in this area today. Many have moved down off the escarpment. Some are still up it part way. Others are on top of it. So, we spent 6 days hiking between many of the Dogon Villages.
Me checking out the pygmy houses.
Me at an old Dogon Village.
A guide from the village showing me old Dogon grainaries up on the cliff.
A Dogon village that has moved down off the cliff. Look at all those mud buildings!
We hired a guide for the week, and his name was Suleiman. He is Dogon himself and had been working as a guide for 20 years. His English was pretty good, which is impressive for Mali (where they speak French), so that had us hooked. Suleiman had a slight disability which impaired his gait, but considering the heat, we were happy to walk and climb at a slightly slower pace.
Suleiman and I hiking up to the top of the escarpment.
Our days all pretty much followed the same pattern. We would get an early start, hike a couple hours to another village where we would rest, take a lunch, do a short walk around the village and up into the old village on the cliff, then do another hike around 3pm to the village where we would stay for the night. Our meals would always be one of three options- spaghetti, cous cous, or rice with sauce.
Andrej using a ladder during one of our more difficult hikes.
I would like to describe a bit about what we learned about Dogon life. First off, most of the villages do not have electricity or running water. Second, they use only local building materials, which means EVERYTHING is made out of mud. The houses- mud. The grainaries- mud. The encampments (hotels)- mud. The mosques- mud. That's what makes it so fascinating. Who knew you could make an entire town out of mud? At the time we were there, it was still the dry season and it looked pretty much like a desert. However, when the rainy season comes, its apparently quite green. So, this is what daily life is like: if you are a man, you farm. When you get married, you build a grainary for your wife to keep the millet in. When there is no farming to do, you sit and the shade and drink beer. Some men also harvest and weave cotton. If you are a woman, you pound the millet that your husband farms, and you cook it for every meal every day. Its about a 2 hour process each day, so that takes up most of your time. You usually serve the pounded millet with a sauce made from the leaves of a baobab tree and pounded dry fish. You also have to look after the kids. On market day, you put on your best outfit and go to market and have a good time buying and selling. If you are a kid, sadly, you probably won't go to school. You will probably be out fetching water or helping to pound the millet. Or, if you are really little, running around naked and chasing the tourists :-) Everyone gets up early and goes to bed early. No one has a car, but a few lucky guys have motorcycles that they ride between villages. Otherwise, you walk or take a donkey cart. We saw a kid who was 10 years old at the most who seemed to be serving as a school bus driver. By that I mean he was driving the donkey cart with a bunch of other kids on the back.
Me with a mud mosque in the background.
Grainaries. Up off the ground to avoid termites.
So, that's what we did for 6 days. We hiked. We occasionally took a horse cart if it was really far. We hid from the heat. We toured the villages and tried to talk to villagers. We ate food with lots of oily sauces. We slept on the rooftops of the mud encampments out under the stars. It was quite a memorable week, and it was really amazing to see and experience a way of life that I had never imagined existed.
Riding to our first village on a horse cart. I only fell off once!
A rooftop where we slept.
Andrej on a hike around and old village.
One village kept a pond full of crocodiles. I think they believed the crocs contained the souls of their ancestors.
By the time it was over, we were ready to get back to civilization as we know it. We relaxed for a few days in a town called Mopti right outside Dogon Country. We spent a couple days in Bamako, the capital, then we got on yet another airplane. A few weeks ago, we had decided that a change of pace was in order. Believe it or not, even with all this excitement, homesickness can set in. So we decided that we would do something completely new and different to us. That resulted in a plane ticket to Cairo, Egypt.
Until next time, from Egypt!
Andrej's new friend.
Right now it seems like forever ago, but at the beginning of June we spent a fun week and a half in Mali. Our experience there centered around a 6 day trek that we took through central Mali in a part of the country called 'Dogon Country.'
Andrej and I in Dogon Country.Dogon Country is a very traditional part of Africa. Long, long ago (think over 900 years ago) pygmy people lived in this area. From what we could gather, they had some issues with vicious animals and invaders, because they chose to make their houses way up on an escarpment of a cliff. They made houses out of mud in the overhangs impossibly high up on the cliff. The houses are still there today because they were sheltered be the overhangs. The houses are tiny and often have multiple tiny rooms. About 900 years ago, the current people who live in the area, the Dogons, moved in and the pygmies left. They also built their houses way up on the cliff, and their villages are still visible today. This is the main tourist attraction. Some of them you are able to climb up to, others look impossible to ever get to. It seems that they hung ropes from their houses and repelled down. There were some more recent (100 years old) mausoleum type buildings on the cliffs that still had the ropes hanging from them that they would use to haul the bodies up with. Anyways, the Dogon people still live in this area today. Many have moved down off the escarpment. Some are still up it part way. Others are on top of it. So, we spent 6 days hiking between many of the Dogon Villages.
Me checking out the pygmy houses.
Me at an old Dogon Village.
A guide from the village showing me old Dogon grainaries up on the cliff.
A Dogon village that has moved down off the cliff. Look at all those mud buildings!
We hired a guide for the week, and his name was Suleiman. He is Dogon himself and had been working as a guide for 20 years. His English was pretty good, which is impressive for Mali (where they speak French), so that had us hooked. Suleiman had a slight disability which impaired his gait, but considering the heat, we were happy to walk and climb at a slightly slower pace.
Suleiman and I hiking up to the top of the escarpment.
Our days all pretty much followed the same pattern. We would get an early start, hike a couple hours to another village where we would rest, take a lunch, do a short walk around the village and up into the old village on the cliff, then do another hike around 3pm to the village where we would stay for the night. Our meals would always be one of three options- spaghetti, cous cous, or rice with sauce.
Andrej using a ladder during one of our more difficult hikes.
I would like to describe a bit about what we learned about Dogon life. First off, most of the villages do not have electricity or running water. Second, they use only local building materials, which means EVERYTHING is made out of mud. The houses- mud. The grainaries- mud. The encampments (hotels)- mud. The mosques- mud. That's what makes it so fascinating. Who knew you could make an entire town out of mud? At the time we were there, it was still the dry season and it looked pretty much like a desert. However, when the rainy season comes, its apparently quite green. So, this is what daily life is like: if you are a man, you farm. When you get married, you build a grainary for your wife to keep the millet in. When there is no farming to do, you sit and the shade and drink beer. Some men also harvest and weave cotton. If you are a woman, you pound the millet that your husband farms, and you cook it for every meal every day. Its about a 2 hour process each day, so that takes up most of your time. You usually serve the pounded millet with a sauce made from the leaves of a baobab tree and pounded dry fish. You also have to look after the kids. On market day, you put on your best outfit and go to market and have a good time buying and selling. If you are a kid, sadly, you probably won't go to school. You will probably be out fetching water or helping to pound the millet. Or, if you are really little, running around naked and chasing the tourists :-) Everyone gets up early and goes to bed early. No one has a car, but a few lucky guys have motorcycles that they ride between villages. Otherwise, you walk or take a donkey cart. We saw a kid who was 10 years old at the most who seemed to be serving as a school bus driver. By that I mean he was driving the donkey cart with a bunch of other kids on the back.
Me with a mud mosque in the background.
Grainaries. Up off the ground to avoid termites.
So, that's what we did for 6 days. We hiked. We occasionally took a horse cart if it was really far. We hid from the heat. We toured the villages and tried to talk to villagers. We ate food with lots of oily sauces. We slept on the rooftops of the mud encampments out under the stars. It was quite a memorable week, and it was really amazing to see and experience a way of life that I had never imagined existed.
Riding to our first village on a horse cart. I only fell off once!
A rooftop where we slept.
Andrej on a hike around and old village.
One village kept a pond full of crocodiles. I think they believed the crocs contained the souls of their ancestors.
By the time it was over, we were ready to get back to civilization as we know it. We relaxed for a few days in a town called Mopti right outside Dogon Country. We spent a couple days in Bamako, the capital, then we got on yet another airplane. A few weeks ago, we had decided that a change of pace was in order. Believe it or not, even with all this excitement, homesickness can set in. So we decided that we would do something completely new and different to us. That resulted in a plane ticket to Cairo, Egypt.
Until next time, from Egypt!
Andrej's new friend.
