Lunchtime yesterday was a bit difficult for me. I find it pretty hard to relax with no less than 20 kids staring at me at any given time. Thing is, it’s really just a cultural prejudice of mine. But its very hard to get over. Here, as in Gambia, children are allowed to watch their elders, in fact its encouraged, its how they learn. For us though, personal space is very important, and someone staring at you is uncomfortable and rude. After a while yesterday I needed to get away and recentre myself. The children here aren’t being disrespectful; they’re just curious. Even so, its hard not to feel like a piece of meat. Since Cassa we’ve been travelling in places that hardly ever see white people. Of course I’m a curiosity here. I’m just as strange as an alien from another planet would be to me. I want these kids to be comfortable with me, but it’s still something I need to work on.
Last night was pretty cool. I didn’t get to talk about it before but I thought I should now. Sirroli was a very nice town on the mountaintop that obviously never gets tourists. They have so little there but somehow they seemed happy. The kids also struck me as having probably almost never seen a white person before. But in Sirroli they didn’t surround us as they did in Vagala. The people were super nice and went out of their way to make us comfortable.
After a simple dinner of rice with peanut sauce we went to the local Protestant church service. I think it must be a pretty big deal to have a church here seeing as there only seem to be a very few families living here at all. The service was short and quite interesting. They’ve had missionaries here in Dogon working for a while now, since the 30s I think. They sang 3 or 4 amazing songs that really touched me. They were obviously in Dogon, but they had so much life in them, it was really special. I know its totally different in a way but it reminded me of the Amazonian singing in the film "Baraka", or that amazing and haunting pygmy music in the film "Until the End of the World". They had a sermon afterwards followed by a prayer time. The Bible, at least the New Testament, has been translated into Dogon and I thought it was very cool that these people who don’t have the resources for even a cut of meat except for special occasions, have so much faith and goodwill. Joe made the point that maybe its easier for people very few of the western materialistic things we cherish so much to give more wholly of themselves. I’m not sure... Afetr the church service we were allowed to sleep on the floor of the church. It was very nice of them and as Tim pointed out a good omen for the last day of our journey through Dogon.
Today’s been pretty good overall, the 25 km we thought we’d have to walk ended up only being 18 instead. We took a shortcut but had to get another person to show us, and Goldfish, this new path. As I said he really hasn’t been guiding too much up here. Tourists just don’t want to go here.
We walked slowly and appreciated the way along the top of the plateau. Although for a plateau it still seemed to have a lot of ups and downs to me. But finally we made it into Douentza after only hiking for 4 ½ hours. Once in the city, which is bigger than Sanga by far, and maybe the size of Sevaré or Bandiagra, Goldfish got a little bit antsy. He really didn’t seem too comfortable here and we could all tell that he wasn’t enjoying himself. So seeing as we were basically done all of our guiding exploits we told Goldfish that he could hop on a taxi and head back to Sevaré tonight. It was sad to see him go, but he really was a great guide.
We on the other hand are pretty much beat. Its been a great trip, 6 days was a very good amount of time, not too short that I feel like I didn’t do anything, but not so long that I passed fully into the ‘I’ve got to be hardcore’ territory. Tonight were staying at a nice place. An encampment with showers and real beds. I really feel so much better being clean now. And its great that we still have so much of our trip to go. We’re heading off to Sevaré tomorrow and after New Years we’ll hit the boat going up to Timbuktoo. Another adventure awaits, I’m pretty stoked.