Mopti
We take a room at the simple, slightly uncomfortable Campement, immediately head in to town to shoot the port sunset. Amazing site sight, boats crisscrossing, sunset, boys poling along. Head over to renowned Bar Bozo (Bozos being the big fisher tribe in this locale) for the “best sunset in Mopti.” Stunning, ancient, exciting, full of quotidian beauty. That is if your quotidian happens to be Mopti, Mali. (BTW, if you’re following the Blog closely you’ll know about our police and border difficulties. We did have a run-in with some police above Bamako, but there are no internal border crossings in Mali, and the few police we see just give Abdullah a nod.)
We have a fine meal, Restaurant Sigui, of three different kinds of capitaine, the big local fish: en brochette (yummy), a Bamako (with bananas and yucca) (m’yumyum), Venise (broiled and covered with a wonderfully piquant red sauce) (c’est tres bon). Bea gets involved in a bidding war for a blanket with three local sheepherders. She compares softness, size, design. The bidding starts at 50,000 CFA (French African Francs, about 500 = $1). Now Bea is down to two, and when one finally hits the 20,000 mark: Yes! says Ms Bea, hands over the cash. Cuddling her new purchase, she says, “How warm I will be in Timbuktu!” at which point the losing seller looks at her plaintively, “15,000?”
By now (9:45), it seems all places to access the internet in Mopti are closed. Bea asks at the Campement, where the clerk wants to know if she really needs it. Bien sur. So we walk over to a group of guys having a beer on the patio and the desk clerk relays our request, in Bambara. One fellow gets up and motions for us to follow. Which we do, all the way to his house/office, part of a travel agency it seems, and we spend an hour doing the basics, mainly informing people we’ll be Off the Grid for 2-3 days. Fitful sleep, fleeting dreams.
Bob Holman is the host of a new travel series focused on endangered languages called ON THE ROAD WITH BOB HOLMAN on LINK TV. He traveled to West Africa, Middle East and Asia and these are his blog stories from his travels. More information at http://www.rattapallax.com/blog/on_the_road/
