mali 5: on the boat
this is a montage of the second day of the journey, one of languid reading and attempted sleeping. we were mocked by the rest of the boat for putting up mosquito nets, although the real problem, as previously mentioned, was the total lack of thought that went into our sleeping arrangement. even though we had maybe 3 times as much space as the average african on the boat, i reckon we got about 1/3 the sleep. eventually, alex and i had to end of sort of spooning, on opposite sides of a millet sack, because we were sharing a mosquito net. on the flip side, no sleep meant waking up for an amazing sunrise.it was on the afternoon of the second day that we saw the hippos just off the side of the boat - i couldn't get my camera out in time to photograph them, but there were 3 or so paddling around, surfacing, submersing, and it was very cool. everyone else was excited as well, i think.
we kept putting into small towns along the way, mainly to pick up passengers although occasionally to offload some cargo. the terrain began to get more and more sandy as we went north, going from very green rice fields to desert down to the waters edge. it was crazy going up this river, and having the desert on all sides, and then seeing someone walking along the riverbank in the heat of the day in the middle of nowhere. or sometimes we would see a pirogue miles from any river town. there were some fishermen, checking their lines, as well.
1. a town we passed that looks like an oasis.
2. again, a town in the middle of nowhere and a tremendous mud mosque towering over it.
3. as you say from yesterday, we could climb up on top of the boat, which was a nice place to be - i think we got special treatment for being white - also, we made a ritual offering of tea and sugar to the chef du bateau who had the pimp cabin up in the front of the boat - because none of the other passengers were up on top of the boat at all. but it was a great place to see the river, get in the sun a little bit, escape the smell of the cooking fires. but on this day, just after we got up on top, the crew got frantic and were like, get down, get down and off on the east bank we saw the sand begin to kick up and the sky darkened along the fault line of an approaching storm, which moved so fast that we barely had time to swing down from the roof before it hit, where 30 seconds earlier it had been clear and sunny. unfortunately, my shorts and my kenyan blanket were drying from a previous rainstorm and got blown into the river by the sudden wind. when the storm hit, they battened down the hatches, such as it was, by unfurling the tarpaulin down the sides of the boat, completely shutting it off from the daytime - we were about to suffocate from the smoke when, in the process of bringing the boat to the lee side of the river, our captain promptly ran us aground. so, a bunch of people jumped out into the river with a tree trunk and levered the boat off the sand bar in the middle of the pouring rain and in a second the rain ended and we kept moving.
4. this is a good posed picture we were taking before we noticed the tornado forming behind us - (!)
5. and the first mate up to his chest in water, yelling at people to close the tarps and simultaneously calling for volunteers to help lever the boat. chris, my sister's boyfriend, obliged, much to the amusement of all the africans.
6. once the storm cleared, it left some amazing sky behind.
posted by Jon @ 16:32
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