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We woke up at 6 o'clock. We decided to skip taking a shower this morning. We had heard from others in our group that there is no hot water and the showers didn't really drain. We knew we were in for a nice modern bathroom in Bamako tonight, so we decided to just wait. We opted instead to do some leisurely packing. We would be flying home tomorrow, so we started consolidated our bags in preparation for that journey. I was feeling much better this morning. I think Tina's pill had done the trick in settling my stomach. I was thankful that my stomach was better for an entire day in the car.
We got our things packed up, and went out to the courtyard for breakfast at 7:45. It was a beautiful morning. The air was a little crisp but the sun's strong rays immediately warmed us up. We had Nescafe, cherry jam, and baguette bread. We bought several postcards at the little shop counter at the restaurant. Craig had his eye on a nice map of Dogon Country. This was something he wanted to purchase, but Bahini convinced Craig that he would be able to find a better one in Bamako (which wasn't to be, so he regrets not buying it when he had the chance). Bouba and Bahini loaded up the car. The two square foot Dogon door we had bought was propped up between two suitcases on the roof. We hoped it would arrive in Bamako intact! As we packed the car we drew a crowd of locals, and Pam gave her calabash bowl from Kori-Maounde to a child since she would not be able to take it on the plane home. It had come in handy as a water basin for washing up at the Festival, and now it was being given to someone else who would make good use of it. Tina got into in the front seat, and after two days alternating in the front because we had felt ill, Craig and I were now back to our regular spots. Bouba had taken out some photographs of his wives, and we looked at them with interest. By 9 o'clock we were on the road to Bamako. We took the ferry back across the Bani River to exit Djenne, but this time we didn't even bother getting out of the car. We knew that we weren't going to buy anything from any of the vendors, and there wasn't much to see in terms of scenery in the short ferry crossing. Tina was sitting in the passenger seat, and young men and women selling things would come up to her window and demonstrate each of their items for her. Tina said no thank you immediately as they tipped their tray of wares toward her. Refusing to give up, they would pick up one item at a time and show it to Tina. She would say no thank you, and they would move on to the next item. We joked that they would go through their entire inventory this way, and we giggled as it actually happened, and they came full cirlce back to the first item. They took advantage of a captive audience, alright! One 13 year old girl came over and told Tina, "I am Mrs. Good Price!" This was a clever gender-bending twist on the "I am Mr. Good Price" schtick we had heard from Tuareg vendors at the Festival. Bahini told her in French to go away, and she just looked at him with a big grin and said matter-of-factly, "No." This kid had spunk! But it was all good-humored, and she certainly wan't harrassing us like many vendors had done so far on the trip. When we arrived at the other side of the river, Bouba drove the vehicle off of the ferry and then continued on our way toward Bamako. On this side of the Bani River, it was a lot greener than it had been in Djenne. We saw people working in farmland, and passed homes and small villages. It was a long ride and we passed many of the little impromptu gas stations that we had seen elsewhere on the trip. Enterprising folk buy gas in urban gas stations, and then transport it to more rural areas. They store it in bottles and measure it in graduated cylinders, selling it at a slight markup. We are pretty sure that we again passed through the street market area where Bouba had bought kola nuts earlier in the trip. We passed people selling all kinds of items. One man presided over a table piled high with sneakers. Our next stop would be Segou, and we knew that we would not make it all the way there without a stop. We signaled Bouba for a "Pee pee break". We wandered off the road into the tall grass. This would be our last rest stop in the wild, as we were heading back to the city. We saw a couple with a donkey walking away from the road, and wondered where they were headed. As we got back into the car, Bahini's phone rang. Someone commented on the ring tone, and the conversation turned to music. Bahini flipped through his phone looking for music. He played a Bob Marley mp3 on his phone and we started to talk about Bob Marley. No matter where you go in the world, you see Bob Marley's image and hear his music, and the downtrodden find inspiration and hope through his art. Just as we were getting into the music and thinking that some Bob Marley tunes would be nice to hear while we all daydreamed and dozed in the car, Bahini shut the music off rather abruptly. We drove past the store where we had bought a case of water and used the outhouses earlier in the trip. At around 1:30 we arrived in Segou. We ate at L'Auberge which was just a couple of doors down from the restaurant we had eaten at the last time we were in Segou (Restaurant Soliel de Minuit). We passed through an indoor dining room, where the Brazilian soap opera that Daniel's wife Marie had watched in Kori-Maounde was on the TV. There was a nice map of Mali on the wall, and we studied it as we passed through on our way to the lovely courtyard. Parrot cages were hanging here and there. With fond thoughts of our meal on the road to Timbuktu, Craig ordered an omelette sandwich. I was eager for comfort food after not having been able to eat very much yesterday. I ordered a crepe filled with ham and cheese. Now that my appetite was back, I was quite satisfied by this variation on a grilled ham and cheese sandwich with some French flair. We each enjoyed a Fanta. It was nice to have a break from driving. Shortly before 3 o'clock, we were back on the road again for our final push to Bamako. Bouba turned into a gas station (the traditional western kind) and filled up the tank. We were all rather quiet as we reflected on the trip. We recognized sites that we had seen going in the opposite direction, two weeks earlier. It seemed like an eternity, we had done and seen so much in the intervening days! Since then we had experienced tastes of Dogon and Tuareg culture, befriended students from two different schools, planted dozens of trees, constructed a water basin, ridden a camel, sailed along the Niger River, entered the largest mud structure in the world, actually went to Timbuktu, and attended a huge concert. It was all rather overwhelming. A truck in front of us was decorated with paintings of a rooster, egg cartons, and Che Guevara (an icon whose presence usually goes hand in hand with that of Bob Marley). Road construction (done literally by hand) had really progressed in the past two weeks since we had last driven through this area. As we approached the outskirts of Bamako, we passed several developments of tightly packed identical government-sponsored houses. We reached Bamako at around 6 pm. The orange setting sun silhouetted a man on a bicycle crossing a bridge across the Niger. The sun disappeared behind a mountain while we sat in rush hour traffic. We passed Stade du 26 mars, a large soccer stadium which seats 50,000. The stadium is named for Martyr's Day, a comemmoration of the 1991 Bamako overthrow of dictator Moussa Traoré. We saw some monuments as we drove through the city (the Monument de l'Indépendance greatly resembled the Flame of Peace in Timbuktu, and the Africa Tour symbolized African unity with several arms holding up a torch). As we pulled up at the Grand Hotel and got out of the car, mosquitos were plentiful for the first time on the trip. We hastily made our way into the lobby to check in. It was as if we had come full circle and the trip was definitely drawing to a close as we returned to the scene of our first night in Mali. We headed up to our room, room 111, and took showers straightaway. We enjoyed the nice modern western-style amenities, you know, things like water pressure, hot water, cpomplimentary soaps and shampoos, and even an honest-to-goodness bathtub! You could run teh shower and not soak the entire bathroom. This was a shower worth waiting for, and we enjoyed it fully. At 8 o'clock, we met Susan, Pam, and Tina downstairs for dinner. Craig and I had spaghetti Bolognaise. Craig had a Flag beer and I had a Pomme apple soda. It was a low-key dinner and we reflected on the trip, knowing that our time together would soon be ending. After dinner, Susan went to bed and the rest of us moved over to a conversation area with couches adjacent to the dining room and lobby. We had a lot of laughs and reflected on the good times that we had had together. We said our goodnights and went to bed at 11 o'clock. |
      
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