16.01.05 - 10:20

OUR TRIP TO MALI part 2

Day Five: Dec 31 Bamako

Another great breakfast at the patisserie. Then we went to the musée national de Mali. The museum was five times the price we expected, but we decided to splurge.

Exhibit 1: Ancient Sculptures, Vases, Tools. The most striking was a crouching man, his head between his knees and held in his hands. His body was covered with snakes. He had an attitude of grief and pain, but I later discovered that snakes are sacred. So who knows?

Exhibit 2: Ritual Items (mainly masks). There were masks made as places for sacrifices (which are usually porridge or chicken blood), antelope masks, a scary two-faced monster mask, and people masks.

Exhibit 3: Textiles. The layout of this exhibit was great. Each type of cloth was displayed in a different way - rolled around barrels, mounted on the wall, flying from the ceiling. I especially enjoyed the hunter clothing, which is mud-colored and covered with protective amulets. The indigo cloth was also striking.

Exhibit 4: Modern Malian Art. It was interesting to see motifs from the ancient artifacts incorporated into the new. Very different from your typical Guggenheim.

After the museum, we walked up to Point G through the "botanical gardens" (read: trees and fitness placards.) The point has a gorgeous vista of the city, as well as very old cave paintings. The paintings were done in a red paint, and are mostly stick figures and horses.

We ate lunch - cheeseburgers and milkshakes (!!!!!!) and bought some luxury items for that night - New Year's Eve. As it was extremely expensive to go to a club or restaurant, we celebrated at the PC house with wine and cheese, then went up on the roof to watch small fireworks, which were set off by people across the city.

Day Six: Jan 1 Bamako - Sevaré

A whole day on the bus as we headed toward Dogon country.

(to be continued the next time i get to a computer, in a month or so. by the way, hello to Andrew's mom! your son has nice biceps.)

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