Djenne and Mopti a lot of mud

Up early to catch an early bus to Djenne to arrive before it gets dark. I am lucky and get a ride from a scooter to the busstation and he even does not want money for it, I am surprised and give him some anyway. I let me convince me to buy a ticket to Djenne at one office before the bus has arrived. This proved a stupid thing to do, as loads of busses of other companies arrived, but none for mine. After 4 hours my transport arrived, I deliberately do not say bus as it is a mercedes van. I had asked explicitly if it would be a bus and had pointed to one and they had confirmed. I am very angry and refuse to get in. After a long argument with not to many words, my knowledge of the French language is still very limited, I finally get in the van, but I am allowed to sit next to the driver, still I have to share my seat with a women with her child. I am sitting at the window, so I can stick my arm out of the window and catch some fresh hot air. The problem with the taxi vans is that they stop everywhere. If someone waves at the side of the road, the van stops and tries to get the person and/or his luggage aboard. My van is no exception to this rule and we stop often and long. We transported people, upto 24, wood for boats, aluminium roof parts, bags of rice, potatos and of course the normal luggage. They tried to let me pay extra for my bag but I refused and said I would carry it on my lap. Not to convenient, but this was a matter of princeples, after half an hour the driver allows me to put my bag on the roof free of charge, a little victory that increased comort as well. Still I could not enjoy the ride. Of course we arrived late at the destination, which was not Djenne, but Djenne carrefour, 30 km from Djenne. At 8 I could not find a taxi driver to bring me to Djenne unless I found 8 other people to join me to fill the peugeot 504. I arranged with a guy who had little shop in a shack that I could sleep there if I would not find a ride to Djenne. At 11 a taxi van arrived who went to Djenne and would drop me off at chez baba, the place I wanted to stay. For CFA2500 I got a place on the roof with view on the famous mosque and large other parts of the town. There were poles to tie my mosquito net to, so all was perfect.


Next day I walked through town, initially trailed by a guide. After a quarter of an hour I finnaly could make clear to him I did not want his services and would definitely not pay him. After the guy left I finally could enjoy the city. Around midday I had seen what was to be seen and tried to find a taxi out. In the central square I wrote down my name on a paper with a fellow coordinating the taxis and they would fetch me at chez baba when the taxi would be filled and ready to go. In chez baba I was invited to join a guy to have a great view of the mosque when the friday prayers were done. I went with him to the central square where he tried to arrange a place on one of the buildings facing the mosque. They owners would not let him and I said I did not want it anyway, expecting I would have to pay him in the end. I took some pictures from the mosque from ground level, when he told me that I had to pay CFA 500, because I had taken pictures of the mosque on a friday. I asked him to whom I should pay this and he pointed to an old man, just sitting on the square. I laughed at the guy and said he was telling nonsense and even the little boy sitting next to me he said he was lying. I returned to chez baba and waited the rest of the 3 hours, before we left to Mopti.


It took only 15 minutes before the engine broke down. The vehicules are not to modern, making repairs to it relatively simple and after half an hour we were moving again. Until Mopti we only had to stop twice more, once for another repair job on the engine. The other time was when we all had to get out of the car to cross the river on foot. Te car with only the driver was able to make it aswell. Before nightfall I was able to find mission catholique. Again I had chosen to stay with the catholiques as the previous stay with them pretty ok. Also this time I had to wait a long whil for the sisters, now they were all at mass.

Mopti like Djenne has many mudbricked buildings and I think the old town of Mopti is not much different then Djenne. I was happy that I had visited Djenne first or else it most likely would have been a disappointment.
In the mission Imet 2 nice German girls who had worked on an orphanage in Bamako for a month and had stayed with a local family. They had just visited Dogon country as a sort of holiday before going home. They were very nice company, unfortunately they went south again to visit Djenne, with the last of their money. This was the reason that they moved to an other hotel as that one was CFA 2000 cheaper a night and that was the difference for them to having diner or not. I regretted that, because I would not have mind to spent some more time with them. They left and to Irish guys came in. They wanted to go to Timbuctu by boat, like me. We decided to travel to gether and found one cargo pinasse who would take us. It set us back more than expected, but at least we would go. The boat would leave on monday at 10 in the morning. That ofcourse did not happen. It turned out that it only left the next day at that time, leaving Tony, one of the Irish, and me enough time to bring another visit to the local bar and have some beers (of 1 liter). I decided to sleep on the ship, Tadgh, the other Irish and Tony stayed for the night at the mission. Which was also good for me as I could shower there and get some fresh water.