journey to konsango

Back in Africa (WAY back in January!). We left Tereli after watching the students quickly take our (heavy) luggage down twisty, turny, rocky, alleys to our vehicles. Our first stop on the way was to this random cayman pond (gators). In the middle of nowhere, there's a pond full of gators. Go figure!

Back in the cars we headed up a STEEP, rocky road (as you may recall, we arrived in Tereli by climbing down an escarpment -- now we went back up). I was quite thankful for Bonine and the fact that I wasn't driving. And then there was the detour -- I think we actually missed the "real" detour because, even by Mali standards, the route we took was horrible -- at one point we drove down over at 18 inch "cliff" -- surprised we didn't bottom out (only the trailer hitch hit the bottom). FINALLY we got onto a "flat" road (picture a rough, stone/rock covered road in the country and you sort of get the idea) and arrived in Kani -- the "big" town near Konsango where we got to greet the officials before going the last kilometer into the village. We met the mayor and the sub-prefect of the town and the sub-prefect joined us the rest of the way, leading a caravan of vehicles. And then we were there......

HUNDREDS of people out to greet us and walk with us into the village. We were swarmed! On our way into the village I was "flirting" with a little baby tied onto her mom's back -- the ladies noticed me and the mom handed me her child. I carried her into the town, with the ladies giggling as I was carrying her in the front rather than strapped on my back. And she peed on me (pampers don't exist!)......Can you imagine handing off your child to a stranger? WOW!

We arrived into the village and were seating in a place of honor (e. g. the shade) to watch the welcoming. LOTS of speeches with multiple translations. Then we headed to our "compound" -- 2 mud huts. We arranged our stuff, had lunch, and went back for more welcoming -- a masked dance, lots of people dancing (and including us), more speeches. I found "my" baby and got to hold her again, until she got fussy and hungry (couldn't help there!).



The dancing continued long after we were tired -- I was an early "header-backer" to enjoy my first "bucket shower" -- nice to get the pee off! We slept outside on our cots as it was warm and perfectly lovely -- dancing continued into the wee hours, long after I was asleep.....