I have decided money passes through my hands here like the sands of the Sahara…..very easily.  I was a bit astonished looking at my bank statement just now….counting backwards from 10 now…..10, 9, 8….and this is only day 10 of this 2 month trip….7,6,5…..

I also just got done bargaining with my 2 guides about my trip to Dogon country tomorrow….only took over an hour….I don’t like haggling much, but it is the way of Mali…something I won’t miss.  BUT I am all set for A.G., my guide, to pick me up at 7:30am tomorrow morning.  I am braving 2 nights in a tent and bucket baths on this excursion…it should be interesting.

SOOOO the last 24 hours!!  The good news is that I was in Djenné today!  The city of the mud mosque, and the city that inspired me to come to Mali.  The bad news is that I had my first meltdown in Africa:)….really it wasn’t a matter of “if” I would have one, but when.  It just so happens it was last night.  The trigger was seeing the hotel room I was to spend the one night in Djenné.  I had originally planned to stay at a very nice hotel along the Bani river and was very much anticipating it. But the river is high now and the road to the hotel was flooded. Therefore I had to stay at a place recommended by my guide…an incredibly cheap alternative.  Couple the hotel room that could have doubled for a jail cell, strained relations with my traveling companions from Seattle, feeling at the complete mercy of my guide, stifling heat as well as the normal myriad of emotions that come from traveling to a land that is so incredibly foreign and far way from home (all alone!) and you get me crumpled up in a heap on my bed , red faced, tears and all :).

BELOW:  The room that made me cry…

However ugly my meltdown was at the time, I felt fine after and happy to have released it.  Will I have another one before I leave Mali?  Hopefully not, but I have given myself berth to feel the full range of emotions I need to here…and last night that included a few hours of tears. 🙂 So be it.

Ah, but Djenné did not disappoint me!  I woke up ready for a new day and excited to see the city that I had come so far to visit.  My guide’s name was Toka.  He was 25 years old and walked with a limp caused from Polio.  However, the miracle is that he walked at all.  When he was 12 years old an American couple saw him at the hotel I stayed at and offered to bring him back to the USA with them for treatment.  He spent over a year in Wisconsin visiting doctors, going through surgeries and healing.  Today he is very grateful to that couple that changed his life and keeps in touch with them the best he can.

Monday is market day in Djenné.  People from Djenné and neighboring villages all come to sell their goods at the base of the mosque.  It was an absolute flurry of activity, smells and sights….I took in as much as my senses and time allowed.

Pics from the UNESCO World Heritige Site famous for its mud-brick architecture:

This is the Great Mosque.

It is the largest mud-brick structure in the world.

It was rebuilt on the site of an older mosque in 1907.  Every year they have to repatch the mud walls after the raining season…as well as all the other houses in Djenné.

These are mud bricks drying in the sun.  They will be used to make new structures or repair existing ones.  The mud in these bricks is held together with chopped straw.  On the Great Mosque and some other buildings, hulls of rice and river mud are used to create the plaster.

This is my guide, Toka, and 2 boys bringing their pigeons to market.

Pigeons sell as a pair, one male and one female.  According to Toka, pigeons have been over harvested in Djenne making them hard to find.  These pigeons will sell for between 5,000 to 10,000 CFAs ($10 -$20).

These boys need to head to some public parks in America…they would make a killing!

These girls are gathering water to bring back to the house for washing dishes, cleaning, etc.  There is also water that does come from a pump, but it is the drinking water.

Women selling their sweet potatoes.

I had fried ones for lunch…they were quite delicious!

Oh, and on the subject of french fries, there are NO McDonalds or fast food chains of ANY kind here in Mali.  It is really quite delightful!

Kola Nuts.

These are used almost as currency in Dogon country.  They have high caffeine content and are often seen being chewed on by older men.  My driver from Bamako to Segou stopped at one point to grab himself a kola nut for the road…his version of a soda stop, I guess :).

In this picture there are 2 different types of mud walls.  The one I am standing next to pre-dates the 1930s when the bricks were made by mixing sheep butter and mud.  These were put in the shade to cure.  Behind me the wall is made with mud bricks (pictured above) and then plastered with the mud and hull of rice mixture.

There are many Koranic schools in Djenné. The boy by the wall is transcribing parts of the Koran with ink he has made from coal onto a wooden slab. He will do this for the entire Koran.  The little boy up front is showing off one of these completed slabs. I had to pay them $1 for this picture!!

Women from other villages cross over the Bani river on market day to sell their goods (much corn was being traded on the shores in this picture).  The women who buy the goods then turn around to sell it at a higher price at the market under the mosque….not sure why the neighboring village women just don’t do that themselves…hmmmm

These men are building a new building made of mud!!!!

It is all SOOOO manual!

Rooftop view of Djenné…the Great Mosque is in the distance.

I am just happy to be in there!

The chicken was delicious!

I gave Toka all my rice…I didn’t like that as much, but he did!

Now I sit in my hotel room in Mopti….a light AC breeze hits my back.  I think I will be able to get good rest tonight…thank goodness.  I have taken to sleeping with a light on….I think it keeps bugs away.  Whether it does or not, I am not sure, but it does helps me sleep better. 🙂

As I go to bed tonight, I will turn on the fan and turn off the lights….but I think of many of the people I saw in Djenné today in their houses of mud.  They are most likely blowing out their gas lanterns and/or candles and sliding onto their straw mats placed on the hardened dirt floor.  Imagine how different life would be if I was born in Mali.