Christmas in Mali

1.12.2010

I have been absent for far too long. I have continued my writing in various forms (letters and journal) but have been neglecting this poor blog. For that, I am sorry. As a token of forgiveness, I offer to you a segment of a letter recently written to my grandmother. Grandma, if you are reading this, STOP, and wait until you get the letter in the mail. It's better that way. More fun.

How was your Christmas? I'm sure it was great and perhaps a little cold. My Christmas was incredible and definitely memorable. Myself and two of my friends (another peace corps volunteer and a friend from New Zealand) decided to take a 2 week Christmas adventure in Mali. We opted to take a bus because it was much cheaper than flying. The bus ride to Mali ended up taking 42 hours! It was pretty painful but we were laughing and having fun the who

le time. All part of the adventure, right?

Our bus blew 3 tires during the journey and after the 3rd one, we were out of spares and stuck in the middle of nowhere. We found out we were about 150km away from Mali's capitol city of Bamako, so we pulled our stuff off the bus and hitch hiked the last bit into the city.

After a day in Bamako, we took another 12 hour bus ride further into Mali to what is called Dogan Country. It's a region of Mali filled with ancient villages, rich in history and beautiful to behold. Here we spent 4 full days hiking from village to village to learn the history of the people. The villages were dotted along a large cliff overlooking flat plains that stretched all the way to Burkina Faso. The villages themselves are breathtaking. Their homes are all built from mud bricks or stacked flat stones. The doors are artwork in of themselves; intricately carved wood with beautiful designs. Many of the homes have

beautifully carved ladders that take you to the flat rooftops. We spent our nights on these rooftops under a spectacular canopy of stars. The people who inhabit these tiny villages are called The Dogan but they weren't the first to settle there. Before them were a strange group of people called the Tellin People. They are said to have been red skinned and pigmy, no taller than my waist. Evidence of their existence can be seen all over the face of the cliffs. Their old houses, some more than 1,000 years old, are still built into the cliff walls. Short little huts and granaries some 50 meters high, completely inaccessible by people today. The dogan people say that they had powers and could fly. That was how they could access their homes high on the cliff face. Some say 1,000 years ago this region would have looked like a dense rain-forest and the cliffs would have had many vines that the tellin people could climb to their homes. Either way, its incredible to see the buildings and wonder at the mystery.

Aside from the beauty of the villages, the people and the culture were incredible as well. Many of the villages we visited are animistic villages and have many mystical beliefs and important rights of passage. Most families still practice animal sacrifice and we even met an old village mage who talked about the importance of a human sacrifice every 100 years!

The hiking was a lot of fun too. We climbed mountains, walked through fields, and even dodged some camels in desert looking areas. One of my favorite things I saw was a small area of farmland between two cliffs that was irrigated by a natural spring running through the middle. Most farming must be done in the rainy season when water is abundant. It was really cool to see the farmers utilize the spring water to irrigate.

After our 4 days in Dogan country, we headed back to the capitol city of Bamako. We stayed at an incredible house belonging to a french guy our age who we had met. We spent Christmas at his house swimming in his pool and relaxing. We even made a huge Christmas eve dinner and Christmas morning brunch. My two travel companions and I went to the market and bought christmas presents for each other as well. Overall, the trip was incredible and I will never forget it.