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Trip Start Sep 17, 2003 Trip End Nov 11, 2005 Next
Entry

  Niamey, Niger
Thursday, March 3, 2005

Dear Friends and Family-

Joe and I just took a 3-week "vacation" to Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali (the 2nd, 4th and 7th poorest countries in the world respectively) and we wanted to share our experience.

Niger:
After a grueling 11-hour tros tros ride (imagine 20 people in a Windstar, your knees pressing into the seat so hard there are bruises and every time there was a police stop you had to climb out the window) we arrived at the Peace Corps Hostel in Niamey, Niger. Besides the fact that it was probably the most disgusting house I have ever stepped foot into, the volunteers were a great resource and we got to sleep on the roof (on soiled rusty beds, under mosquito nets with holes, while the volunteers had a drunken frat party below us). As you might expect, Niger doesn't get so much tourism, so the people were laid back and didn't harass us. We went to there petit and gran marches (small and large markets) and were amazed at the variety of foods. Did I mention that not Joe or I or either of our traveling companions, Susannah or Caleb spoke French? The poverty in Niger was something I had never seen before. The children who were begging were literally starving and fought for the bread we gave them. I saw children sucking pineapple rinds and nibbling the ends of carrots people had thrown away. Because Niger is 2/3 desert and becoming more so everyday, food yields are not good. On a lighter note, the silver work is amazing and we were able to get some nice jewelry. Our most amazing experience in Niger was seeing the last herd of wild giraffes. In town we picked a city taxi that drove about an hour out of town to the guide stand, which was a grass lean-to. We picked up a guide, for a fee of course, and he directed us down a VERY sandy bush path that our driver had apparently maneuvered before. He was driving like a madman and we were spinning out and getting stuck, a real safari. About an hour through the sand a herd of maybe 10 giraffes appeared. There was no development anywhere except for a nomadic herder woman and her 2 small children pounding millet outside their hut. I was able to "talk" to her and get some hopefully great shots of them with giraffes in the background. The giraffes are in no way tame, but they aren't scared and we were able to get very close to them. It was surreal, almost like coming across a herd of unicorns. I have done some research on giraffes so if anyone wants to know any interesting facts let me know.

In the gran marche we passed a booth that was selling all these scented wood chips and they smelled amazing. We figured out that it was made into incense, but there were all these tiny bottles and it appeared to us that you could get perfume made. So, Susannah through a mixture of Haussa and French had the man mix all these chips in a bucket and add all these oils and then dump it into a plastic bag and hand it to us. Obviously he didn't get the whole "parfum" idea. I was laughing so hard I had tears coming down my face and amazingly so did the man. He didn't make us buy the weird concoction and told us to go with God. In Ghana, if you said you wanted something and then said you didn't there would be hell to pay, but in Niger it was so relaxed.

Joe and I visited the National Museum, which was amazingly well put together. All the displays were in French but we were able to understand a lot and the costumes and artworks were cool to look at. Joe bought a handmade brass can opener in the shape of a giraffe. There was also a zoo there but we avoided it because even from far away you could see that the lethargic, pacing animals were kept in a cage way too small for it.

Burkina Faso:
We went to the capitol of Burkina, Ouagadougou, after 4 days in Niamey. We only spent a night there before heading to Mali, but we had an amazing dinner at a French restaurant run by a Catholic mission of nuns. They set up the dining room in a garden with amazing flowers and a fountain of the Virgin Mary. The food and the atmosphere were phenomenal, and all proceeds go to the nuns' charitable works. Before we left the nuns sang "Ave Maria" in French.

Mali:
The transport got consecutively worse as we made our way form Ouaga to Mopti, Mali in one day. The last 7 hours was in a covered pickup with metal benches. At one point the car couldn't make it up a series of hills so all the passengers had to get out and walk. It was a relief after sitting on the bench for so long and the scenery was beautiful. We had to wait for an especially large woman and we all clapped when she finally made it. Upon arrival in Mopti, we were assaulted by our soon to be best friend, Omar, the "Peace Corps Guide." Omar had been doing a bit of drinking, but was still able to produce his guide card and find us a decent hotel. Mopti is right on the Niger River and Omar set up a nice boat ride in a huge covered canoe. We even had 3 courses of Arab tea on board (we had it all through our trip. Its 3 courses, each course getting consecutively weaker, and served in a small shot glass with tons of sugar).

Our next stop was Timbuktu (Tomboctou) and our options for transport was to wait for an old school Land Rover to fill (tros style, meaning we could wait all day and the car doesn't fill) or we could charter a Jeep Cherokee that Omar knew of. Well, we saw the Jeep and we were sold, no waiting, a good price and the driver would wait for 4 days in Timbuktu for us. So, five of us pile in (at this point another volunteer joined us) at 6am and we were off. Within the first 5 minutes our driver, Idrissu (who didn't make any human expressions), dozed off. A good slap on the arm and a pit stop for coffee and we were off. It became very apparent that Idrissu didn't know how to drive and was very nervous. Very reassuring. The guidebook says that the drive can take up to 24 hours. About five hours in the tape player started smoking and all the warning lights came on, including the "Water in Fuel" light, which I have never seen. So we stop the car and Idrissu making no sound or facial expression pulls out the battery, which apparently has been resting against the engine and has melted. Oh good. Luckily Caleb had duct tape on him and that held it together until we got there. Seven hours in we arrive at the shore of the river and we are literally in the middle of nowhere. The wind is whipping sand everywhere and it almost looks like it is snowing. There are no signs, ramps, anything. Idrissu parks, gets out and says, "barge." Okay, we are waiting for a barge. About an hour later it miraculously appears, but unfortunately while unloading a huge dump truck it gets stuck half on the boat and half in the sand. After two hours of digging, they tie the truck to another one on shore and yank it off. We drive aboard and within 20 minutes we are on the other side and in Timbuktu. I don't know what all this 24-hour business was, but we did it in 9...maybe Idrissu did know what he was doing. Omar had arranged for a homestay, which I pictured to be sleeping in a tent while grubby children stared at me and asked for a "cadeau" (gift). Uh-uh, I wasn't eating unhygienic rice and squatting over a hole, I wanted a hotel. But then we got to the house. It was not your usual house. The single man who owned it was impeccably dressed, there was electricity, TV, DVD, the works, and oh did I mention chilled whiskey liqueur in the freezer. So, we unpacked our bags. We spent the next day touring the city and its historic sites. Timbuktu once flourished as a link between the salt mines to the North and the rest of W Africa. We saw houses of some of the first explorers who were killed because whichever tribe was ruling didn't want any foreigners coming in to colonize. We were able to go inside the central mosque, which is huge, holding up to 2000 people, mostly men. We had to take our shoes off but then were encouraged to climb the wood poles supporting the mosque (the whole thing is made from mud).

The landlord, Sakam, set up our camel trek into the Sahara Desert. Susannah made the mistake of saying we "wanted to go as far as we could." So our Toureg (desert nomads) guides, Mohammed and Moma did just that. In two days we went 70 km and almost died in the process. First of all, a camel saddle is the most uncomfortable contraption in the world and camels don't exactly walk smoothly. Oh, and all those rumors about the Sahara being hot, they are true. Mohammed and Moma walked the entire time, which was amazing. The desert was beautiful and peaceful and sleeping there was amazing. Mohammed cooked trice for us over a fire both nights and even shot some birds for our last lunch. Wait until you see the pictures, did I say that we were all wearing turbans? The camel caravans still do to Taodenni, which is an 18-day trip by camel and each camel comes back with 4 slabs of salt weighing 30 - 40 kg each. Tourists can go if they are completely insane.

On or way out of Timbuktu we had an Idrissu moment. He pulled our Jeep onto the barge, took the keys and went to have coffee. After about 30 minutes the barge was ready so we ran to get Idrissu who seemed to understand we needed to go NOW. We ran back to the barge and tried to explain that we needed to wait for our driver. But, the barge left without him and about 2 minutes later we saw him run to shore looking perplexed. He showed up on the other side of the river in a canoe and without saying a word got in the car and drove us away.

After Timbuktu, Joe and I split from the group and went down to Dogon Country (Mali) and spent 2 days and 1 night hiking with the ever-faithful Omar. Dogon has a lot of history, which we weren't able to decipher through Omar's drunken slurs. Amazingly he was able to get us to all the places safely and comfortably and provide us with great meals (salad, cous cous, and fruit), but he drank the entire time. Dogon country is a series of villages along this escarpment (small mountain). Ruins still remain from people that lived in the cliffs, apparently these were pygmies. The hiking was beautiful and we were even able to climb into the ruins. Our transport out of Dogon to the next major village, Bankass, was a cow cart. Picture some wood, 2 wheels and a cow. Mind you it was 12 noon in the Sahara and we were drinking hot water treated with iodine. Oh it was not easy, we kept saying it was character building. We made it to Ouaga that night.

Burkina Faso:
Joe and I spent the next three days pampering ourselves next to the pool of the American club, which had an amazing restaurant, waffles, Mexican burgers, salads, milkshakes...There was also a DVD player in A/C, so we watched "I Heart Huckabees" and "Taxi."

Back in Ghana I could have kissed the ground, I was so happy to be back where I understood the language, food, culture. It made us see the Ghana has really become our home.

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