Dogon Hiking

I woke up the next day, Tuesday, with my right eye swollen shut. Somehow I got a nasty infection with symptoms similar to a bad case of pink eye. To be honest, I was really scared. I was in Bandiagara, Mali, a full day’s drive away from a real city. I was supposed to be meeting our guide to go hike through Dogon within an hour. I was nervous that my eye infection would ruin my whole trip, if not the whole group’s. When everyone else got up we talked about our options: Since we had already paid a deposit on the trip, at least some of the group should go hiking, while one or two of the girls could go with me back to Bamako and a doctor. I had seen a pharmacy in Bandiagara the evening before, so Julia and I went there to see if the pharamacist had any recommendations. He was great. Looked at my eye and, with extreme nonchalance said that such infections are common. He gave me some antibiotic drops that cost about US $3.50. Within hours my eye started to get better. I confirmed with our guide that in the event that my eye didn’t continue to get better, we could bail at anytime to go back to Bamako.

We left around 9 in the morning an old Peugeot. The driver brought us two hours southeast of Bandiagara and dropped us off on the plateau/escarpement We hiked the next three days along the beautiful Dogon cliffs- les falaises dogon- stopping for lunch and dinner in the tiny villages. If you are interested, the dogon people have an amazing culture and history. There are several different contradictory creation stories- one has something to do with being descendents of aliens with lizard-like features, the others involve the dogon fleeing religious persecution during the spread of Islam from the north. They retreating into the cliffs to be able to continue practicing animism. The dogon are associated with certain human-soul sacrifice, magic masks that only certain people can see, and spooky knowledge of Sirius (the dog-star) centuries before Europeans. The wikipedia site (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogon) had some great information and photos.

We brought Kola nuts with us to give to people (basically payment for our tourism and photos) and slept at the l’encampements arranged specifically for hikers. It is impossible for me to explain what this area looks like, so I’ll try to upload some photos soon. Unfortunately, the Malian heat zapped the batteries out of all my electronics (camera, camcorder, and phone) within a day. Some cameras still worked so we are sharing photos. Much of our time was spent gazing out onto the Séno-Gondo Plains that stretch into Burkina Faso from the Bandiagara escarpment. It was truly amazing.

The trip back home was fairly uneventful. We slept at the Maison des Jeunes in Bamako, where Leah Beth, Emily, and I fell victim to a bad bed-bug infestation. It’s better than scabies, I suppose. We hung out in Bamako for a day and half, tried to enjoy a pleasant afternoon at the market but soon learned that the folks in Bamako are kind of mean. And Bamako is dirty. REALLY dirty. The smog and pollution are so thick that your skin turns kind of grey. We could see the smog begin to cover over the city starting at noon. The smog combined with the heat and the mean people made Bamako feel absolutely oppressive. Lots of finger wagging and yelling over prices. You can’t negotiate in a calm voice in Mali, one must YELL, apparently, with your fist in the air. We were called-out on our Senegalese style of Waxale (price negotiation). I went on a wild goose chase for ‘vintage’ African music on vinyl but fell short with some jimmy cliff. Oh well. We gave up the shopping excursion and hung out in the patisserie where at least you aren’t yelled at when you order a pain-au-chocolate.

The flight back to Dakar was magical. It really was. What took us three days on bus took an hour and a half in air. AND we were served coffee and tea! There’s nothing like going to Mali to make you truly appreciate the little things.