So I finally have enough time to sit down and type up a summary of my latest adventure, this time in the region of Mali known as Dogon Country (Pays Dogon). I have been back in Burkina for about a week but was too occupied with our mid-service conference in Ouaga to write out this report until now. I'll try to be as vivid as possible, but I warn you that names and timelines may not be exact.
Exactly two weeks ago (a Monday), our quartet met in Ouahigouya, my regional capital and the town where I am currently typing this up. Our group consisted of myself and three fellow volunteers from my training group: Sara, Audrey, and Ilana. Ilana and I greeted the other pair at the bus station here in the evening and then grabbed some burgers at a restaurant in town. After dinner, we split up. Ilana and Sara went to stay in Ilana's village only a few kilometers away and Audrey and I stayed with a fellow volunteer in town.
TUESDAY: We met up again the following morning at around 7am near the bush taxi station. We were quickly greeted by a man in a black cape with a scarlet lining. You know your trip is going to be great when the first person you meet is a man in a cape. He showed us to our mode of transport, an old van that had seen better days. We bought our tickets to Koro, a large town just across the Mali border and found spots on a bench. We sat, eating our breakfast of chocolate croissants and chatting amongst ourselves for maybe two hours or so until the car was full. We then piled inside, about 16 of us, only to wait another hour or so. It was amusing to find out that more people on our ride spoke English than not, as we were in the company of two Nigerians, two German girls, and a man from the Netherlands, which put the anglophone tally at 9 people. We finally left Ouahigouya at around 10:30am, only to have our bush taxi get a flat tire not even three kilometers into the trip. After another 15 minutes or so, we finally started moving, albeit at a snail's pace. As we neared the border we began to make several arbitrary stops, five in total, which ate into our day. We first stopped at a Burkina police station to have our passports looked at, and then we stopped at the Burkina border control to receive our exit stamps. We stopped again at the border to buy our visas, then another time to have our passports looked at again on the Mali side, and finallly a last stop, apparently so a Malian policeman could purchase a bag of dried coconut from a lady in our van. During these stops we took the opportunity to get to know the other whities who were traveling with us. We ended up invited the two girls from Germany to join our party as they really didn't seem to have much of a plan. We finally arrived in Koro, where we met our trusty leader Oumar, a one-of-a-kind guide. It is impossible to fully appreciate Oumar simply by describing him. He is a 31 year old, Dogon-born man whose English has been ¨perfected¨ by twelve years of constant Peace Corps groups coming through. He said 95% of all his clients are PCVs, so you can imagine how colorful his language is. He could have been pulled right from the movie screen, a fusion of Borat and the Crocodile Hunter. As he is used to American ¨troublemakers,¨ he has no problem answering your pointless inquiries with ¨That's a stupid question, shut up.¨ He also has the tendancy to curse like a sailor constantly, always asking things like: ¨Where's the f***ing food? I'm f***ing hungry.¨ I digress. So we met Oumar in Koro and he took us to a restaurant for lunch, where he showed us a map and described what we would experience on the trip. After lunch, we all loaded in a station wagon and headed to our first destination, Telly. It was dark when we arrived at our encampment, similar to a hostel with several rooms and space to sleep on the roofs. It was located at the base of the escarpment, the large flat-topped cliffs that stretched for at least 70km and the focus of any Dogon trek. We had a dinner of spaghetti, some drinks, and then headed to rooftops to sleep under the stars.
WEDNESDAY: We awoke early and took in a beautiful view, the first time we saw the cliffs in the daylight. There was an entire village, now abandoned, built into the sides of the cliffs halfway up. As it is the dry, windy season, the horizon and the cliffs disappeared into a haze of dust in the distance. The morning air has become quite chilly as well, but for us it feels nice to feel cold again. We had breakfast at around 7am, bread and jam, and then began exploring the old ruins that remain. For a brief history lesson, it was the Tellum people who fist built their homes into the rock face to escape predators like lions and enemies nearly 800 years ago. They were later conquered by the Dogon people who continued to live in the cliffs until 70 or so years ago, when families began moving to the their present location at the base. We returned for a rest, then began our trek to the next village 4km away, Ennde. This village, still at the base of the escarpment is Oumar's home village. We had lunch at the encampment, explored the village and then were introduced to Oumar's parents. His father, the oldest man in the village, is apparently close to 100 years old, and we learned that he has had three wives and that Oumar has roughly 24 siblings. His father is quite a busy man! We ate a rice dinner at our encapment there, listened to some music from my iPod, and Oumar made us all some delicious tea. As there were no blankets in this encampment, Sara and I decided to sleep inside, while Ilana and Audrey braved the cold on the roof.
THURSDAY: We awoke ready to tackle the cliffs, as we knew we were going to go all the way up today. After a quick breakfast, we walked another 5km along the base to our lunch stop in a village called Yabatalou. We stayed here until the heat of the midday sun passed, and then we began our hike to the top. Oumar pointed to a sliver in the cliffs, which is how we would climb up apparently. Past a shaky rock staircase and across a couple scary crevices via some old logs, we eventually made it to the top, a moment we had been waiting for. We sat on the edge, looking out into the horizon, the wind whistling around us. It was actually quite peaceful and serene. After a few minutes of satisfaction and photo taking, we continued, now atop the massive escarpment , for another 6km to the village of Bemmatou. It was interesting to see the homes made of stone, as opposed to the mud-brick buildings found at the base. It was clear that when you live on a giant stone, you use what you can find. Also a bit surprising were the couple of TV antennas we could see throughout the village. We didn't stay here too long though, for we still had another 8 kilometers to reach our encampment for the night in the village of Douru. This was by far where we saw the most tourists. There was one large group of maybe 20 middle-aged French people as well as several other smaller groups of Europeans. All the rooms were taken when we arrived, so after our couscous dinner, we had no choice but to sleep on the roof.
FRIDAY: When I awoke friday morning, it was the coldest I had felt in a long time. We had breakfast, then had a quick tour of the village before we were off again. We had a good day of walking, and we were able to see some beautiful sights of the rocks, gardens and landscape along the way. We ate lunch in another village along the way where I was able to take a quick nap. When we made it to the spot where we were to descend the cliffs, the view from there was absolutely stunning. No picture could ever do it justice. In the distance, a tiny village called Nombori was situated on the other side of a small river. Across the river, herds of cattle came to drink from its waters and beyond the herds were immense sand dunes which rolled into the horizon. We climbed down, quite carefully, and made our way to Nombori, our final stop. For dinner, we ate some delicious potatoes with a potato sauce and potatoes on the side. We played a Malian card game known as 151, which was similar to UNO, and then headed to bed.
SATURDAY: When we awoke, we had a quick breakfast like always, then toured the village a bit. Afterwards we headed out onto the dunes. It was so nice to feel the cool sand on my feet, but walking on the dunes was actually much more tiring than I had imagined. By the end, I was wishing we had brought some camels. Then all of a sudden, we spot our station wagon in the middle of the desert. I bean wondering why he was parked in this arbitrary location and why he hadn't park closer. Nonetheless, we piled in the car and began our ride back to Koro. We jokingly asked to see Oumar's house in Koro, and surprisingly he took us there upon our arrival. It was actually a really cool pad, with Dogon blankets, photos and maps all over the walls, and wood carvings around the room. Afterward, we headed to a restaurant where we had our final feast together. We said good-bye to our German friends as they continued their journey to Mopti and we got into another bush taxi, this one much more reliable, and headed back to Burkina. It took us only half as long to go back as it did to get there, and we were able to still made it home in time for burgers. It was a great vacation.
Mud mosque in Telly
View of Telly from old cliff village (mosque from previous photo seen near center)
Monkey skulls were attached to the walls of the old village as a way for hunters to show off their skills
The crack in the rock face which we used to climbed to the top
Rock staircase inside said crack
View from the top
At the top. Ilana, Sara, and Audrey (from the bottom)
Our fearless leader, Oumar (on his cell phone)
Yours truly enjoying the view
The day coming to an end
Poor monkey (really wanted to set him free)
View from the village Yabatalou
Savanna on top of the escarpment
Along our hike
The most amazing view I've seen in Africa so far, which no photo can do justice. This is me trying.
View from our last village (the previous photo was taken from the cliffs in the background here)
Our group shot with Oumar at his house in Koro.
Exactly two weeks ago (a Monday), our quartet met in Ouahigouya, my regional capital and the town where I am currently typing this up. Our group consisted of myself and three fellow volunteers from my training group: Sara, Audrey, and Ilana. Ilana and I greeted the other pair at the bus station here in the evening and then grabbed some burgers at a restaurant in town. After dinner, we split up. Ilana and Sara went to stay in Ilana's village only a few kilometers away and Audrey and I stayed with a fellow volunteer in town.
TUESDAY: We met up again the following morning at around 7am near the bush taxi station. We were quickly greeted by a man in a black cape with a scarlet lining. You know your trip is going to be great when the first person you meet is a man in a cape. He showed us to our mode of transport, an old van that had seen better days. We bought our tickets to Koro, a large town just across the Mali border and found spots on a bench. We sat, eating our breakfast of chocolate croissants and chatting amongst ourselves for maybe two hours or so until the car was full. We then piled inside, about 16 of us, only to wait another hour or so. It was amusing to find out that more people on our ride spoke English than not, as we were in the company of two Nigerians, two German girls, and a man from the Netherlands, which put the anglophone tally at 9 people. We finally left Ouahigouya at around 10:30am, only to have our bush taxi get a flat tire not even three kilometers into the trip. After another 15 minutes or so, we finally started moving, albeit at a snail's pace. As we neared the border we began to make several arbitrary stops, five in total, which ate into our day. We first stopped at a Burkina police station to have our passports looked at, and then we stopped at the Burkina border control to receive our exit stamps. We stopped again at the border to buy our visas, then another time to have our passports looked at again on the Mali side, and finallly a last stop, apparently so a Malian policeman could purchase a bag of dried coconut from a lady in our van. During these stops we took the opportunity to get to know the other whities who were traveling with us. We ended up invited the two girls from Germany to join our party as they really didn't seem to have much of a plan. We finally arrived in Koro, where we met our trusty leader Oumar, a one-of-a-kind guide. It is impossible to fully appreciate Oumar simply by describing him. He is a 31 year old, Dogon-born man whose English has been ¨perfected¨ by twelve years of constant Peace Corps groups coming through. He said 95% of all his clients are PCVs, so you can imagine how colorful his language is. He could have been pulled right from the movie screen, a fusion of Borat and the Crocodile Hunter. As he is used to American ¨troublemakers,¨ he has no problem answering your pointless inquiries with ¨That's a stupid question, shut up.¨ He also has the tendancy to curse like a sailor constantly, always asking things like: ¨Where's the f***ing food? I'm f***ing hungry.¨ I digress. So we met Oumar in Koro and he took us to a restaurant for lunch, where he showed us a map and described what we would experience on the trip. After lunch, we all loaded in a station wagon and headed to our first destination, Telly. It was dark when we arrived at our encampment, similar to a hostel with several rooms and space to sleep on the roofs. It was located at the base of the escarpment, the large flat-topped cliffs that stretched for at least 70km and the focus of any Dogon trek. We had a dinner of spaghetti, some drinks, and then headed to rooftops to sleep under the stars.
WEDNESDAY: We awoke early and took in a beautiful view, the first time we saw the cliffs in the daylight. There was an entire village, now abandoned, built into the sides of the cliffs halfway up. As it is the dry, windy season, the horizon and the cliffs disappeared into a haze of dust in the distance. The morning air has become quite chilly as well, but for us it feels nice to feel cold again. We had breakfast at around 7am, bread and jam, and then began exploring the old ruins that remain. For a brief history lesson, it was the Tellum people who fist built their homes into the rock face to escape predators like lions and enemies nearly 800 years ago. They were later conquered by the Dogon people who continued to live in the cliffs until 70 or so years ago, when families began moving to the their present location at the base. We returned for a rest, then began our trek to the next village 4km away, Ennde. This village, still at the base of the escarpment is Oumar's home village. We had lunch at the encampment, explored the village and then were introduced to Oumar's parents. His father, the oldest man in the village, is apparently close to 100 years old, and we learned that he has had three wives and that Oumar has roughly 24 siblings. His father is quite a busy man! We ate a rice dinner at our encapment there, listened to some music from my iPod, and Oumar made us all some delicious tea. As there were no blankets in this encampment, Sara and I decided to sleep inside, while Ilana and Audrey braved the cold on the roof.
THURSDAY: We awoke ready to tackle the cliffs, as we knew we were going to go all the way up today. After a quick breakfast, we walked another 5km along the base to our lunch stop in a village called Yabatalou. We stayed here until the heat of the midday sun passed, and then we began our hike to the top. Oumar pointed to a sliver in the cliffs, which is how we would climb up apparently. Past a shaky rock staircase and across a couple scary crevices via some old logs, we eventually made it to the top, a moment we had been waiting for. We sat on the edge, looking out into the horizon, the wind whistling around us. It was actually quite peaceful and serene. After a few minutes of satisfaction and photo taking, we continued, now atop the massive escarpment , for another 6km to the village of Bemmatou. It was interesting to see the homes made of stone, as opposed to the mud-brick buildings found at the base. It was clear that when you live on a giant stone, you use what you can find. Also a bit surprising were the couple of TV antennas we could see throughout the village. We didn't stay here too long though, for we still had another 8 kilometers to reach our encampment for the night in the village of Douru. This was by far where we saw the most tourists. There was one large group of maybe 20 middle-aged French people as well as several other smaller groups of Europeans. All the rooms were taken when we arrived, so after our couscous dinner, we had no choice but to sleep on the roof.
FRIDAY: When I awoke friday morning, it was the coldest I had felt in a long time. We had breakfast, then had a quick tour of the village before we were off again. We had a good day of walking, and we were able to see some beautiful sights of the rocks, gardens and landscape along the way. We ate lunch in another village along the way where I was able to take a quick nap. When we made it to the spot where we were to descend the cliffs, the view from there was absolutely stunning. No picture could ever do it justice. In the distance, a tiny village called Nombori was situated on the other side of a small river. Across the river, herds of cattle came to drink from its waters and beyond the herds were immense sand dunes which rolled into the horizon. We climbed down, quite carefully, and made our way to Nombori, our final stop. For dinner, we ate some delicious potatoes with a potato sauce and potatoes on the side. We played a Malian card game known as 151, which was similar to UNO, and then headed to bed.
SATURDAY: When we awoke, we had a quick breakfast like always, then toured the village a bit. Afterwards we headed out onto the dunes. It was so nice to feel the cool sand on my feet, but walking on the dunes was actually much more tiring than I had imagined. By the end, I was wishing we had brought some camels. Then all of a sudden, we spot our station wagon in the middle of the desert. I bean wondering why he was parked in this arbitrary location and why he hadn't park closer. Nonetheless, we piled in the car and began our ride back to Koro. We jokingly asked to see Oumar's house in Koro, and surprisingly he took us there upon our arrival. It was actually a really cool pad, with Dogon blankets, photos and maps all over the walls, and wood carvings around the room. Afterward, we headed to a restaurant where we had our final feast together. We said good-bye to our German friends as they continued their journey to Mopti and we got into another bush taxi, this one much more reliable, and headed back to Burkina. It took us only half as long to go back as it did to get there, and we were able to still made it home in time for burgers. It was a great vacation.
Mud mosque in Telly
View of Telly from old cliff village (mosque from previous photo seen near center)
Monkey skulls were attached to the walls of the old village as a way for hunters to show off their skills
The crack in the rock face which we used to climbed to the top
Rock staircase inside said crack
View from the top
At the top. Ilana, Sara, and Audrey (from the bottom)
Our fearless leader, Oumar (on his cell phone)
Yours truly enjoying the view
The day coming to an end
Poor monkey (really wanted to set him free)
View from the village Yabatalou
Savanna on top of the escarpment
Along our hike
The most amazing view I've seen in Africa so far, which no photo can do justice. This is me trying.
View from our last village (the previous photo was taken from the cliffs in the background here)
Our group shot with Oumar at his house in Koro.
