Ditinn, Guinea, West Africa
7 February 2000
Greetings from Afrique,
I am happy to say that I have finally checked my e-mail
for the first time. Also I had the chance to see the web-page. It was
pretty cool! Thanks a lot Melissa. I was really impressed by all the
different features. I hope you have enough info from me.
Sorry if I haven't been in contact lately, but things were
difficult here for a good couple of weeks after the accident (when my two
friends were killed). I must say that I was questioning my service for a
while. "Work" here itself is hard enough without major tragedies. Peace Corps volunteers are all one
large family here, we are much much more than colleagues here.
Otherwise, I do have quite a bit to say to you.
Mali vacation:
The trip to get to Bamako took roughly 40 hours of traveling in taxis and
buses. It was very slow going in the region called Haute Guinea because
the roads are all dirt and sand and our bus kept breaking down.
One part that made it more difficult was the fact that
everybody was fasting during the day because of the Islam holiday called
Ramadan. (Lots of cranky, hungry, and tired Africans!) They are unable to
eat or drink water when the sun is up for a total of thirty days, some
hard core Muslims don't even swallow their own spit.
Mali's terrain was quite varied, with a gradual south to
north progression of dry savannah to harsh desert, with some beautiful
rock formations (much like Arizona I heard).
We had a Mexican meal for Christmas Eve in Bamako, the
capital. We were at a really hip Tex-Mex restaurant that reminded us of
home. There we sang karaoke and danced and paid a lot of money for food
and drink. Xmas day we hung out in Bamako and exchanged names for Secret
Santa with the 7 other volunteers that were on the trip with me.
Mali has all kind of cool things to buy such as masks,
knives, leatherwork, blankets, jewelry, etc. We stayed at the Peace Corps
house in Bamako where there are 120 volunteers or so, several of which I
had the chance of meeting.
Next we went to Mopti, the stop off place where we caught
the boat to go to Timbuktu. I bought a turban and a booboo, an outfit
which many African men where. I'll send a photo of me in the get-up.
We took a boat to Timbuktu from Mopti, a three-day journey
up the Niger River, fortunately we didn't come across any pissed off
hippos. The boat trip was quite memorable. We paid too much, we barely got
fed, we had to travel on the roof to get back to the boat for "shower and
bathroom". However, it was very peaceful to be on the boat when the sun
was shining and the wind was blowing. I was able to see quite a few
Cicconiformes, my favorite order of birds.
Timbuktu was much cooler than I thought it would be.
It was basically all sand. Even the houses were made of sand and mud. We
stayed with a family that we met and camped out on their roof for 4
nights. In Timbuktu we road camels, drank tea with Tuaregs, saw ancient
manuscripts, and roamed around. We celebrated New Year's with a bunch of
volunteers from all over West Africa at this bar for Timbuk2000. It was
quite an experience. I was a bit dehydrated the next day. Whoops.
Then, we took the boat back to Mopti and me and 5 others
decided to go hiking in Dogon country, which was pretty cool. We hiked for
three days and saw odd villages and cliff dwellings, hard to explain what
it is in this letter.
Then we went back to Bamako, we heard of the accident, and
we took a flight from Bamako to Conakry. Yet, all in all, Mali was really
incredible.
A week later we had a memorial service for my friends,
which was very well done. Next I had my second training session at Mamou.
When I got back to site I started working with my primary school. We're
going to do two ecology clubs with 25 students per group. I'll be helping
two teachers lead them. It won't be easy. More info later.
Also, I'm moving into a quieter, safer, house.
Feel free to e-mail me now because we are on-line in my regional capital.
This is big news. I'm still waiting for packages from Mom and Melissa.
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, etc...!
Love Mike
