A Hike Through Dogon Country

Hi all! I just got back from a three-day hike through Dogon Country. The Dogon people are an ethnic group here in Mali. They are the ones who are still primarily animist (although some are Muslim or Christian). They live in the Mopti region (the region between Segou and Timbuktu). If I have my story right, the Dogon people fled from the Muslims into this area about 1000 years ago, and built mud houses high up in the rocky cliffs. People to this day still don't know how they got up to their homes (legend says that they flew, and some hypothesize that there used to be vines running down the cliffs that they could've climbed, but no one knows for sure).

(Some of the old cliff houses -- you can see the entrances on the different levels, although they blend into the cliff really well.)

(Some of the lower cliff dwellings off in the distance.)

After spending a night in Sevare, Yuri, Dom (Yuri's friend visiting from the US) and I met up with Hassimi, a national guide here in Mali. We decided to hike the "Three Yougas" (Youga is the name of three villages in the same area). Hassimi is the unofficial Peace Corps guide -- pretty much every volunteer uses him when they need a guide. And hiking through Dogon without a guide is not recommended (you would miss out on a lot of sacred places and objects -- or you'd trample right through them without knowing and offend/anger the people).

(Yuri, me, Hassimi and some guy Hassimi paid to carry his stuff.)

Hassimi is awesome. He's fluent in French, English, Bambara, and many dialects of Dogon. He drives you in his own car (which he's named "Grandma"), and he loves telling riddles. He's really funny and he made our trip completely awesome. It's no wonder he's got such a good rappor with Peace Corps.

We drove from Sevare to the Dogon village Sanga, where we began our hike. I already couldn't believe the change in scenery. There were rocks EVERYWHERE! In Segou, there is only dirt and sand. To build soak pits in his village (in the Segou region), my friend Kyle had to buy and import rocks from the city. But in Dogon, there were entire buildings made of rocks. It was really beautiful.

(Building and stone wall in Sanga.)

(A Dogon village.)

We began our hike from Sanga down to the valley. I hadn't realized that we were on top of a cliff until we began hiking down it! The view was amazing. There was a tall waterfall way off in the distance, and huge plateaus everywhere.

(View on the way down the first cliff.)

We hiked down the cliff and walked a few kilometers down a sandy road to a village, where we stayed the night. The second day, we got up early and began the long trek. We walked for a long time down that same sandy road, until we reached a village on the base of another cliff.

(A Dogon meeting room -- it's constructed that low so men can't get angry and stand up, and also so they always stay in the shade.) (The beginning of the climb.)

Then we began climbing. It was really steep -- many times I was using my hands just as much as my feet to climb. It also was getting to be midday, so the sun was really strong. We ate lunch next to some old mud cliff dwellings.

(The view of the mud cliff dwellings from where we ate lunch.)

(A village up in the cliff.)

(This is rainwater collected on the cliffs. The women collect this water and carry it down to the village to use for drinking, cleaning, etc. Otherwise they have to hike all the way to the bottom of the cliffs to get water from the lakes that are created during rainy season.)

The children in the villages would come running barefoot down the rocks to hold our hands while we walked. They would ask over and over again, "ca va?" But then they'd always follow up with, "ca va, un bonbon?" or ca va, un cadeau?" (meaning: give me candy or a present). Despite that, they were really friendly -- moreso than the kids I usually run into in Segou.

(Dom surrounded by kids while resting)

(A boy with his brother on his back...they followed us for a bit.)

We had to climb up steep steps and crazy wooden ladders. Getting up the cliff was half the fun...

(Steep stone steps.)

(Yuri climbing up a rock ladder.)

When we finally reached the top of the cliff, the view was breathtaking. Hassimi estimated that you could see about 20k out. It was one of the best views I've ever seen.

(The top of the cliff.)

(Yuri, me and Dom)

(The view again.)

We hiked back down the other side, walking over stick-and-rock bridges and scrambling down boulders.

(A bridge made of tree limbs and rocks -- the cliffs below

(Self portrait.)

We had almost reached the village we were to sleep at when we saw dark clouds off in the distance. We quickened our pace, but we weren't quick enough. Within five minutes of spotting the clouds, the rain had reached us. We suddenly were in the middle of a downpour. I had to take off my sandals and climb down the rocks barefoot just to get some traction. The rain didn't last long, though, and twenty minutes later we reached our destination.

(The storm approaching -- the last picture I got to take before getting drenched.)

The final day, we hiked across the cliff toward Sanga.

(On the way back.)

Before reaching Sanga, we came up on a reservoir. The water flowed off the cliff we were on. We realized we had reached that same waterfall that we'd seen the first day -- the one that had been so far away. It was then that I realized just how far of a loop we'd made.

(View from the top of the waterfall down to a village below.)

I was pretty sore by the end of the trip, but it felt so good to do something active outside again. And the scenery was the best I've seen out of anywhere I've been in Africa!

YIRIWASO Accounting Training

Thanks to all of your help, we were able to fully fund a three-day accounting training for the women at YIRIWASO (a tailoring school here in Segou). I worked with Mama Traoré, a trainer with the Peace Corps, to conduct this training. We bussed him up from Bamako to spend four days with the association.

( Outside of YIRIWASO)

Mama actually should take most of the credit for the training. He conducted the three-day training in Bambara, leaving me to observe and try to help whenever there were questions. It was really great to see a Malian training other Malians. I really think there is a bigger impact on a group when they meet and are trained by a successful person of their own culture rather than being trained by an outsider who doesn't speak the local language. It provides an attainable role model -- the girls can relate to and aspire to be like Mama. As much as I want to directly help them, I will always be different because of where I'm from and what I was born with. But it was perfect to have Mama come in and inspire the girls about what they can become.

(Taking notes)

(Filling out an expense sheet.)

The training was held at YIRIWASO in a small straw hut they had built. Unfortunately, we got off to a rocky start...the first morning, it POURED. It rained straight from 4 a.m. to about 10 a.m. Streets were flooded (I had to bike through knee-deep water -- well, to be honest, it was kinda sewer-water...yuck), and the training got postponed. We were paying Mama by the day, so we prayed for the rain to stop. It finally did, and we began the training four hours late and several people short (many Malians don't travel in the rain at all).

(The girls during the training.)

Mama began the training by asking the girls what an entreprenuer was. They all answered that an entreprenuer is a man that constructs houses. He then went on to explain and convince them that THEY are entreprenuers. Before even getting into bookkeeping methods, he worked with them to change their opinion on what a "businessman" is. They never before had considered themselves entreprenuers -- they were just uneducated teenage girls who were learning how to make and dye clothes. This came as an exciting surprise to many of them.

(We had to move to this undercovered area when it started raining again.)

The training was supposed to be for 15 girls. By the second day, there were 21 attendees! And they were all very enthusiastic to learn. The girls were doing group activities and calculating expenses and revenues. They also had recently finished a three-month literacy course with an NGO, so they got to put their newly aquired reading and writing skills to use.

(Group activities)

By the end of the training, I could visibly see a change in the girls. They were filled with new knowledge about how to manage finances. More importantly, however, they were filled with new confidence in their abilities and their importance in the community. Mama told me that most of these girls never had the chance to go to school (at least to several years of school), and they didn't think that they could learn this type of thing. But now they have made that leap from being artisans to being entreprenuers, and I think they are excited to continue down this new road.

(The group)

Again, this would've never happened without your help. Thanks again to all for your contributions and prayers! It took a lot of work for Massey, Mama and myself to organize and implement this training, but I think it definitely paid off!

(The "official" shot: me, Mama, Mme. Koumare and Adama outside of the CRPA)

(Me, Mama and Mme. Koumare at the CRPA)

THANK YOU!

My Peace Corps Partnership Project has been fully funded! Wooooohooooo! Thanks to all who contributed, all who tried to contribute, and all who thought of and prayed for me and the project. I know the women are all super excited to learn accounting/business skills, and they are all appreciative of "mes amis et ma famille aux Etats Unis" for paying for this. Most of these girls weren't able to go to school, so this is a big deal for them.

I know there was a lot of you who wanted to donate but didn't get to because the project amount was small (a lot of people commented on how my project is $250 when most others on the site are in the thousands...I guess it just depends on the type of project) and it quickly got paid for. Never fear: I'm sure I'll be hitting you all up for another project in the future!! ;-)

I'm at Tubaniso right now. We just finished a two-day training about (what else?) financial management. It's a bit different than the accounting training for my tailoring association, but a lot of the material was very similar. There were only three of us volunteers that could make it, but there were around 10 Malians who came as well. It was put on by a woman named Betty. Betty was actually a RPCV (returned volunteer) who served in Segou ten years ago as an artisan volunteer. It was great to meet her and talk about what has changed (for better or for worse) in our site. Mali was her THIRD country she served in! She also was in Cameroon and Barundi. She now lives in Kentucky but travels around Africa doing these financial mngmt trainings -- mostly in Zambia and southern Africa. She is an amazing woman (she's elderly, but extremely vivacious) and was very inspiring.

(The group who attended/led the training. Betty is standing above me and her daughter Cathy is standing on the left)

Other than that, I've been keeping busy planning my Ghana trip and studying for the GMAT. I should actually get back to that, so I'll leave you with a random photo I took while driving down w/Peace Corps from Segou to Bamako the other day:

(Typical way to travel in Mali...those are all goats and what not on that roof. I wish you could've seen (and heard) it in real life -- it was quite something)