On the road to Timbuktu

When we got back to Mopti, Sek was waiting for us and he was plastered. He was also there with his friends. The girls were pretty angry that he would show up like that. He was with one of his friends named Aisha that he tried to sell to me. We went to see where the 4x4 taxis to Timbuktu and we ended up having to walk through some gray water. The girls were already tired and this pushed them to the edge. We also met some girls from North Carolina that said that they were going to Timbuktu the next day with us. We told Sek that we would see him the next day and headed back to our hostel. When we got back, Yacuba, one of our friends said that his family had some bisap tea for us. I went back with him on his moto to go get it. He also took me by a brothel and asked if I wanted to get a girl. I tried to explain to him that it was against my religion and he then asked if the girls I was with were single. I made up excuses for them to try to keep him from trying to hit on them. We got back and slept. We got up the next day and went to where the landcruiser taxi was going to leave to Timbuktu at 8 am. We met Sek there who apologized for the day before. The girls from NC were cursing up a storm because one girl had left her nalgene in a taxi and they were stopping every taxi in the city to find it. They also then decided that they didn't have enough money to go to Timbuktu. So instead of leaving at 8 we had to wait 5 hours for the car to fill up to go. Janine and I ended up buying turbans from a Fulani man because they said that you needed them for Timbuktu and were a lot more expensive. They ended up being the best purchase of the trip.

The girls sat on the middle seat of the landcruiser along with two other women and a child. I sat in the back of the landcruiser where they had fashioned 2 wooden benches where I sat with 5 other people. It was packed in the back. Our hips were touching along with our knees. There was no way to stretch. I also had my backpack to keep water close for the girls and I. The reason I sat in the back was to save $10. I think the girls $10 was well spent. We traveled on road for about an hour. We then would drive on the river banks of the Niger river. We kept the windows down to air circulation and to keep from dying of overheating. However, the desert sands would come in. Julia had a bandana that she put over her mouth and put on her sunglasses. Janine wore her turban and sunglasses. I shared my turban with the other 5 people to cover our faces from the sand that was blowing in. The 5 people would speak a mixture of French and Bambara. I would try to listen but ended up just giving up because it was too much effort. We ended up driving for about 3 hours along the river bank and through the desert at times (which I could never figure out how the driver knew where we were going becuase there was no road or points of reference in the desert). We stopped for some food at a small adobe village of about 20 houses and that had a barbeque place (it was a grill with lamb). I was so happy to get out to move my legs. We just laughed at how we looked especially Julia because she was by the window and had turned a dark reddish brown from the sand. The other people ended up buying some of the meat at the stand. It smelled so good. We at our MRE's. We finally headed back into the landcruiser and some of the people that continued to share my turban offered me some meat. It was so good. Nothing better than freshly killed meat on the grill! We headed down the road and came back to the Niger river and we picked up a man that had a turban and a large blanket. He came in the back and one of the city guys would make fun of him and would make him angry. He finally got him to sit on the blanket. I never felt so jealous in all of my life that he had that blanket to sit on as my buttocks had fallen asleep so many times and I had to lift up my butt every 20-30 minutes to allow blood to flow back into the tissues. Every time I would stand up, everyone would have to readjust. I tried at one point to straighten my leg and it got stuck in the maze of legs in the middle and I couldn't get out. While we were driving, our landcruiser got stuck in the sand. And we all had to get out. I was so happy to breathe and move again. All of the muslim men prayed. I knelt by the river, not to pray but to wash my face and to stretch out. It felt so good. The thoughts of schistosomiasis and other parasites went through my head as I was dipping my head in the river but the joy of being "clean" and cool was worth any risk. They got the car unstuck and I wasn't too excited to continue on the journey. When we got back into the car, the old man that we picked up offered me his prayer beads probably having seen me kneeling down. The others reprimended him saying things like Euro and Dollar. They must have said that I didn't believe in God or that I wasn't going to heaven. The old man didn't believe them so that he pointed at me then pointed at the ceiling and then shook his finger no. Not thinking that getting into a philosophical discussion on God with people I couldn't communicate with was the best, I just shook my head yes. I couldn't tell him that I did believe in God but I did my best. The younger man than continued to make fun of him and they ended up yelling at each other. They finally ended up laughing with the other people. We followed the river for a couple of hours passing villages and nomads with their flocks. We had to forge the river once and the water came up to the doors. I thought that the car was going to stall but we made it through. We then started going through the desert and left the river for good. Darkness fell and I know that the only way that they found the way was by the stars because there was no other landmarks. We stopped once more to pray. It was a beautiful scene: the middle of the desert, the moon light making the sand glow with its reflection and the people kneeling. I kneeled this time to and prayed to God to thank him for this moment and for this trip to be safe and over soon. We all headed back into the landcruiser and we ended up reaching a larger town. At the edge of the town, we had to stop for security. The guy from the city told the older man that this was the stop and the old man got out with his blanket. We started taking off and two of the men in the back started laughing and looking at the old man. Thinking that we had left him, I tried to communicate (which was impossible to find out if we had left him.) We ended up stopping about a 1/2 mile further in the town center. We stopped here for about an hour. The girls went and bought cold water and apple soda. It was so good because we were so thirsty and dehydrated. I don't think that the people in this village had seen very many white people because they were fascinated by us. They laughed as we started dancing to the disco version of a Kenny Rogers song. The little kids were afraid of us. Julia thought it would be fun to run after one of them until one of the ladies in the village was concerned. It was a pretty good time. We were so excited to be out of the car and moving. However, it was already dark and we were wondering when we were leaving. Unable to communicate, we were at the mercy of the unknown and the driver to get us to our destination. After about 45 minutes we headed back into the car. There were only 2 of us in the back at this point and we laid down on the crowded benches and fell asleep. We finally stopped again about an hour later. At this point it was 1 am and we had been traveling for 12 hours. After about 1 hour at this stopping point I noticed that everyone had left and were no where in site, I woke up my neighbor and asked in my broken french when we were leaving. A little annoyed by being woken up, he asked the driver who said 6 am. I told the girls who were sleeping in the middle seat.