We headed out to the Sahara from Timbuktu. I had my turban that I had bought from the Fulani nomad in Mopti that had saved me and the 5 others on the wooden benches in the
landcruiser on our 24 hour journey to Timbuktu and now I was finally putting it to use as the Tuareg used their turbans: protection from sun and sand. Julia, Janine, the French couple, their guide, Alkedi, and I headed out on camels into the desert with our Tuareg guide. We had a blast making jokes and singing Bob Marley on our way. We went through the sand dunes at sunset to finally the encampment were there were 2 huts: one for Tuareg family that we stayed with to sleep and another for food preparation. They laid out a blanket and we ate dates and drank African sweet tea (I should say that we made Janine drink our tea because we weren't supposed to drink the tea as mormons.) The french couple went off to do what couples do. And the girls and I and the two guides from Timbuktu went out into the desert to look at the moon. I brought my harmonica and we danced and played in the sand. The French couple's guide kept touching Julia inappropriately and I had to explain to him that was not right. He apologized when he saw that she was angry. However, I don't think that he understood that this was inappropriate behavior the way he acted that night. We went back to the encampment and rested on the mat outside when all of a sudden a dust storm came. Sand was everywhere and you couldn't see anything. We ran into the hut. They put up the walls to change the canapy of a hut to an enclosed dwelling. Sand still got in so we went under the blanket. It started raining. Under the hut, we had spagetti with camel meat in a big common bowl because the Tuareg food always made even the locals sick. It was pretty good. After we had finished eating, they gave the rest to the 5 kids of the Tuareg family. If we would have known that they were going to eat, we would haven't eaten as much. However, there was still a lot left. The storm finally stopped and we took a mat outside to sleep under the stars. The two guides came with us. During the night there wasn't a lot of sleeping as one of the guides kept putting his hand on the girls stomaches and touching their breasts. They would wake me up and I would switch places with them. He would then switch places also. Finally we told our guide who yelled at him, then our guide slept by the girls and started touching them. Finally everyone went to sleep at about 2am. The french couple slept on their own mat and had to wake up at 5am to catch their bus. We were thankful tha
t their guide would be gone, but to our surprise when we woke up to the sun at 6am our guide had left also. We were left stranded with a Tuareg family in the desert with no idea how to communicate with them or how to get back. We noticed the father was still asleep in the hut. We watched as the mother and the children pounded the millet that the father had brought back from Timbuktu. We made friends with them and Julia had toys for them. Which they loved:plastic frogs, an eraser, a bouncy ball. The children looked like their ages ranged from 10 to 18 months. The 3 year old that we gave the eraser to started eating it. We took it a way and I gave him a plastic spoon from our MRE which he thought was the best thing on earth. We played catch with them with their toys. The little boys ran naked in the sand and we all laughed and had a good time. Julia swung one of the boys around and the parents became concerned and told the children to go away. Finally the father woke up and we had breakfast of bread and coffee for Janine. he then sold Janine and Julia jewelry and we went back on the camels which had huge ticks in their ears. The tuareg father tried to chase away some goats that were eating the follage in the desert, and the goats trotted away with their tail
s in the air. We finally got back to Timbuktu and we met a guy who was waiting to take us back to our place that we were staying. We then met up with Abdulye who gave us a tour of Timbuktu. The sun was blazing hot, but we saw the university that had been built in the 1200's and a library that housed books still from that era. He then took us to the houses of the Europeans that somehow had gotten into Timbuktu during this time by pretending they were muslims. Most of them were killed when they were found out, but some were kicked out or escaped back to Europe. Their families had bought their houses centuries after and put up plaques. We went to one more tent where one of the university students who was Tuareg to visit his family was selling things to help provide for his family. His family still made the 72 day trip from the salt mines to Morocco to sell salt. It was pretty impressive and it would be pretty cool to make that trip, but it is pretty dangerous also. I had some tea at that point because I was dehydrated and tired of making excuses to have Janine drink all of our tea. It was a herby sugar that heated your throut as it went down. It was pretty good. I was also happy for the caffiene at that point. We came back to the house and our friend was making dinner. There were two men from Algeria that were in the house. I was a little afraid because of reports that Al Qaida had infiltrated parts of Mali north of timbuktu. However these guys turned out to be great guys. One of my happiest moments was sitting out under the stars and talking to the guy from Algeria and our friend from Mali in conversation completely in French and understanding about 85 % of the conversation for about an hour. (Most of the conversation was about food which was easy vocab) Algerian made food for US oil companies and loved the US. He made us an amazing dish with mayo, vineager oil, melon, beans and fries. It was great. We also listened to Malian jazz and had a dance party with the girls and did some yoga. It felt so good to be able to finally communicate some. That night we slept under the stars and we were so tired from the past couple of days that we slept great! We woke up the next morning to go to the airport. We got there before it opened because our tickets had too eary of a time on them. It was good because feeling guilty that I hadn't gotten anything to remember this awesome visit to Timbuktu I got a bottle of Sahara sand that I smuggled into the US for my dad and bought my mom a Tuareg bracelette and got a camel skin bag for me. We fl
ew back to Mopti on a flight that took 45 minutes. We were shocked because it took 24 hours to drive and was so crazy. And we sat in air conditioning for the first time in weeks. It felt so good. However, I appreciated the crazy experience to get to Timbuktu and thought that it was worth it for the memories. The girls thought that I was crazy. I just felt that it made getting to the legendary Timbuktu more real.
landcruiser on our 24 hour journey to Timbuktu and now I was finally putting it to use as the Tuareg used their turbans: protection from sun and sand. Julia, Janine, the French couple, their guide, Alkedi, and I headed out on camels into the desert with our Tuareg guide. We had a blast making jokes and singing Bob Marley on our way. We went through the sand dunes at sunset to finally the encampment were there were 2 huts: one for Tuareg family that we stayed with to sleep and another for food preparation. They laid out a blanket and we ate dates and drank African sweet tea (I should say that we made Janine drink our tea because we weren't supposed to drink the tea as mormons.) The french couple went off to do what couples do. And the girls and I and the two guides from Timbuktu went out into the desert to look at the moon. I brought my harmonica and we danced and played in the sand. The French couple's guide kept touching Julia inappropriately and I had to explain to him that was not right. He apologized when he saw that she was angry. However, I don't think that he understood that this was inappropriate behavior the way he acted that night. We went back to the encampment and rested on the mat outside when all of a sudden a dust storm came. Sand was everywhere and you couldn't see anything. We ran into the hut. They put up the walls to change the canapy of a hut to an enclosed dwelling. Sand still got in so we went under the blanket. It started raining. Under the hut, we had spagetti with camel meat in a big common bowl because the Tuareg food always made even the locals sick. It was pretty good. After we had finished eating, they gave the rest to the 5 kids of the Tuareg family. If we would have known that they were going to eat, we would haven't eaten as much. However, there was still a lot left. The storm finally stopped and we took a mat outside to sleep under the stars. The two guides came with us. During the night there wasn't a lot of sleeping as one of the guides kept putting his hand on the girls stomaches and touching their breasts. They would wake me up and I would switch places with them. He would then switch places also. Finally we told our guide who yelled at him, then our guide slept by the girls and started touching them. Finally everyone went to sleep at about 2am. The french couple slept on their own mat and had to wake up at 5am to catch their bus. We were thankful tha
t their guide would be gone, but to our surprise when we woke up to the sun at 6am our guide had left also. We were left stranded with a Tuareg family in the desert with no idea how to communicate with them or how to get back. We noticed the father was still asleep in the hut. We watched as the mother and the children pounded the millet that the father had brought back from Timbuktu. We made friends with them and Julia had toys for them. Which they loved:plastic frogs, an eraser, a bouncy ball. The children looked like their ages ranged from 10 to 18 months. The 3 year old that we gave the eraser to started eating it. We took it a way and I gave him a plastic spoon from our MRE which he thought was the best thing on earth. We played catch with them with their toys. The little boys ran naked in the sand and we all laughed and had a good time. Julia swung one of the boys around and the parents became concerned and told the children to go away. Finally the father woke up and we had breakfast of bread and coffee for Janine. he then sold Janine and Julia jewelry and we went back on the camels which had huge ticks in their ears. The tuareg father tried to chase away some goats that were eating the follage in the desert, and the goats trotted away with their tail
s in the air. We finally got back to Timbuktu and we met a guy who was waiting to take us back to our place that we were staying. We then met up with Abdulye who gave us a tour of Timbuktu. The sun was blazing hot, but we saw the university that had been built in the 1200's and a library that housed books still from that era. He then took us to the houses of the Europeans that somehow had gotten into Timbuktu during this time by pretending they were muslims. Most of them were killed when they were found out, but some were kicked out or escaped back to Europe. Their families had bought their houses centuries after and put up plaques. We went to one more tent where one of the university students who was Tuareg to visit his family was selling things to help provide for his family. His family still made the 72 day trip from the salt mines to Morocco to sell salt. It was pretty impressive and it would be pretty cool to make that trip, but it is pretty dangerous also. I had some tea at that point because I was dehydrated and tired of making excuses to have Janine drink all of our tea. It was a herby sugar that heated your throut as it went down. It was pretty good. I was also happy for the caffiene at that point. We came back to the house and our friend was making dinner. There were two men from Algeria that were in the house. I was a little afraid because of reports that Al Qaida had infiltrated parts of Mali north of timbuktu. However these guys turned out to be great guys. One of my happiest moments was sitting out under the stars and talking to the guy from Algeria and our friend from Mali in conversation completely in French and understanding about 85 % of the conversation for about an hour. (Most of the conversation was about food which was easy vocab) Algerian made food for US oil companies and loved the US. He made us an amazing dish with mayo, vineager oil, melon, beans and fries. It was great. We also listened to Malian jazz and had a dance party with the girls and did some yoga. It felt so good to be able to finally communicate some. That night we slept under the stars and we were so tired from the past couple of days that we slept great! We woke up the next morning to go to the airport. We got there before it opened because our tickets had too eary of a time on them. It was good because feeling guilty that I hadn't gotten anything to remember this awesome visit to Timbuktu I got a bottle of Sahara sand that I smuggled into the US for my dad and bought my mom a Tuareg bracelette and got a camel skin bag for me. We fl
ew back to Mopti on a flight that took 45 minutes. We were shocked because it took 24 hours to drive and was so crazy. And we sat in air conditioning for the first time in weeks. It felt so good. However, I appreciated the crazy experience to get to Timbuktu and thought that it was worth it for the memories. The girls thought that I was crazy. I just felt that it made getting to the legendary Timbuktu more real.
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