mali 3: daytrip to djenne
djenne's an old town with lots of great muslim architecture, all in mud. it has a great big library of islamic texts and many large mansions as well, all of which bear windows and doors in the moroccan style - heavy wood with ornate metal fastenings and embellishment, for the unsafe times.
one of the neat things we did in djenne was take a pirogue across the river (djenne is on an island, although we heard that during the dry season there is sometimes a land bridge to the mainland) to one of the small bozo ethnic group fishing villages. one of the reasons it was fun because the pirogue might sink at any moment!
once back from the pirogue, we went walking through the old quartier of djenne, much like we had in mopti - the sight of a group of white tourists in the neighborhood was probably rare enough - it would be like seeing a bunch of people exploring the alley in front of casa quirk-cantrell and taking pictures - but i found the old quartier fascinating - djenne, and mopti before, are medieval in their design, which basically means no design at all - houses are piled on top of each other and streets are narrow and twisting. and then you would walk through this shoulder-width alley and stumble into a square shaded by a large tree, in front of the chief's compound or something. there were also many koranic schools, children seated in a noisy room writing in arabic on wooden tablets.
4. djenne, a few hours south of mopti along the river, is known for its large mud mosque; but i think it should also be known for its market, which was large and very lively. we got there pretty early in the morning and the market was already super hopping; so, we had as yet no idea what the day portended.
5. when we tried to leave djenne, we did our usual negotiating game at the taxi gare in front of the mosque. but there was an air of desperation as we discovered that only one taxi was going back to sevare, and it wasn't leaving anytime soon. we eventually agreed to each pay two places in the taxi to allow it to leave earlier. but somehow, we were oblivious to the fact that
it was market day in djenne
that djenne was basically on an island when the river was up
that we had crossed a ferry to get over
and that it was getting dark.
the combination of these things meant, of course, that everyone who had come to town for the market would be trying to get off at the same time; and it began to rain as if to remind us how poorly we had planned.
by the time our taxi finally left, and finally got to the ferry, there was long line of cars, trucks, and mule carts waiting to cross. the loading was intriguing: when the ferry pulled up to the shore (about 10m out) horsecarts and travelers on foot plunged recklessly into the river in an attempt to get on it. each ferry crossing took about 30-45 minutes one way; we were in for quite a wait.
drivers and drovers settled in around fires being lit by the river side; before long, the fires were the only source of light short of the neon blink of mobile phones. a crush of horse carts waiting at the water's edge to get on the ferry - thinking that the ferry counldn't possibly run late enough to get everyone across, we nervously planned to encamp on the riverbank. not entirely unjustifiably, in fact: just before the light died completely, the ferry came over to our side, picked up a massive truck full of goods and people, some horsecarts, etc. and started to pull away from the shore. it got like20 feet out and seemed to founder. the engines killed. it rotated listlessly, leaning heavily to one side - and it looked like it was drifting down the river; well, so much for getting back to sevare!
we weren't very optimistic about the prospect of the ferry being fixed right then, given how late it was. but, it turns out, the ferry was just turning around, after it had already left the bank, to pick up some government functionary who had to get across the river right now. yet even as we cursed the inequity of elite privilege, i confess the continued operation of the ferry was quite a relief. when it came to our turn to cross, a few hours later and very latedark, we went in two stages: sarah, winnie, justin and i waded onto the ferry while chris and alex waited with the taxi, just unable to fit on this go. the ride across was smooth, and we quickly slipped out of side into the middle of the river; it was only a few hundred metres, but as soon as you left sight of the encampment around the bend, the water spread out infinitely in all directions; the captain and crew used a flashlight code to navigate, which was quite impressive in its efficacy.
alex fell in the river when he was trying to get on the ferry, which was funny. well, until we realized this his camera didn't work any more. we found this out after waiting for alex and chris some hours on the other side of the river, convinced the ferry had decided to stop running. it was a beautiful night, to sleep by the river bank beneath a tree on a mat. but no: they arrived, we left, and the ride back to sevare was nervewracking as only a high speed race through the middle of the night with scant headlamps on bad roads can be.
posted by Jon @ 14:27
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