August 27, 2011

It is 9am and I am the only one awake yet. I’m feeling antsy and want to wake up everyone else but I know it was a long night and know their bodies need rest. So I am updating my blog and being patient.
We ate breakfast and met up with our guide that would take us into Dogon Country. For 40,000cfa ($80) we would have a guide for our 2 days of hiking through Dogon villages, up into the cliff dwellings and across part of the saheli (desert). This tour would include 3 meals a day, accommodations and transportation out of and back into Bandiagara which is no easy feat. We left the hotel about noon. We drove just a few minutes on the street until we headed out a dirt road. This trip included about 1 ½ hours of back country, rocky, mud driving in an old Toyota 4 runner. I don’t know how these cars survive here with the abuse they take. I’m grateful I decided at the last minute to put on my sea-bands (motion sickness wrist bands). I would never have survived. Like most of the rest of our trip so far the scenery was incredible. Lots of trees, green landscaping, some running water (thank goodness it’s rainy season or it would have been barren waste land), all the kids out herding cows and sheep. Of course everyone we passed stopped to look, laugh and wave to us. Not a lot of tubobs come out this way. We were an anomily for sure. We finally arrived at the village where we would begin our hike. Although the hike did not cover a lot of ground across, it sure did cover a lot of ground up and down. We hiked through ravines and drop offs where just piles of rocks were the steps that we used. All I can say is never look down. It was exciting, scary and definitely good exercise. My thigh and ass muscles will never be the same. We hiked, stopping in small villages along the way until 6pm. The villages were amazing compared to what we have seen so far in the villages that we live in and/or bank and shop in. They are small (500 or less people), well built considering some of the structures have been there forever and clean. CLEAN...what a nice change. We saw the buildings were they lived, were they cooked and were they stored their food. We also saw the “menstruation” house. This is where, still to this day woman are expected to stay 5 days a month while they have their period. The kids were so excited to see us and no one seems to know the word tubob. Thankfully we had a guide as communication would have been more difficult than usual as there are only a few people in these villages that speak Bambara. Most speak the different Dogon dialects. We ate, we were taken care of and greeted like we were royalty. It was amazing.

This is the type of hiking we did in Dogon for 2 days. Up and down and down and down and up rocks all day long. It was awesome.

The menstration house.

The ravine we had to cross. If you looked down you could see straight to china.

August 28, 2011
This morning we were up, ate breakfast and headed out of village by 7:30. We hiked up and then down and then up and then down most of the day. We finally were able to get to the point where you can see the curvature of the earth. It was hazy and it’s hard to get the full effect as you can’t see to both ends at the same time. This area, the desert, is so vast and enormous and breathtaking. We were sitting on cliffs high above the desert floor and my first thought is that if there is a god certainly he has walked here. I know I use the word amazing a lot, but there is not many other words that can describe what we were looking at. We just sat and watched and looked and contemplated. Amazing!! (Since I have been back I looked up about being able to see the curviture of the earth from the ground. It's pretty much not possible to actually see the curviture from less than 60,000 feet...I'm glad I didn't know that at the time because you think your seeing it and it's a wonderful feeling. Humbling would be the word.)

Contemplating life overlooking the saheli.

Why did the PCVs cross the deep, deep ravine?
To get to the other side of course!

We headed back out and up and down and up and down. I tended to lag behind a bit here and there..not too far behind mind you. I attribute that more to my short legs than my age. I think I did a damn good job considering I don’t do much (any) rock climbing at home. We ended this days adventures in a village just underneath some of the cliff dwellings that we would be hiking up to. When we got back though it was getting late and would be dark soon. We decided to wait until the morning before we left Dogon to hike up the rocks to the dwellings. We ate, we bathed (which we hadn’t done up until now) and we slept. We slept on foam pads under mosquito nets on the roof. I had just gotten into a deep sleep after watching stars and lightning before the men that were taking care of us coming running up onto the roof to move us because it had started to rain. So we readjusted and resettled and right back to sleep. Since we were leaving Dogon and heading back to Bandiagara at 7:30 we had to be up and dressed and ready to move up the cliffs at 6:30.

The hike was steep but not very long. Before you knew it we were standing on cliffs and in dwelling that were hundreds and hundreds or years old. There used to be ladders that went up the cliffs which is how these dwellings were accessed in the past but those are no longer there. There were structures that were graineries (separate ones for the men and women), the living quarters, the meeting places were all disputes were settled and decisions made. We passed an area were up until 1976 they made human sacrifices. There was an area where babies would be delivered. They would sacrifice an animal and then deliver a baby at the same time rubbing the blood on the mother...from what I could understand . There were paintings on the back wall behind the dwellings. These paintings are changed and redone during a festival that takes place once every 60 years. I’d like to be in village for that celebration. Every person, inshallah (god willing) will get to see only one festival in their life time. And I’m sure they spend their lifetime looking forward to it. It is time. It’s almost 7:30 and if we want a ride back out to Bandiagara we must leave now.