Into Bamako to check out with immigration but all borders closed. So off to the French Embassy where we were given the go-ahead for Cote d’Ivoire visas and in just two hours. Having discussed getting them on the spot and where we’d be for New Year’s Eve and when we'd reach Ouagadougou, actually getting them was a surprise and relief. But, still and again, it’s one thing at a time on this trip when nothing seems to turn out as expected.
We spent those two hours wandering with Ben; ended up in the best market so far, with multiple alleys of stalls selling fabrics, jewellery, spices, books, shoes (mostly plastic), chemist products and a collection of spanners, gears, bolts, screws, washers, plumbing fittings and all manner of other bits and pieces. There was a huge hall of jewellery and souvenir stalls, selling reds, yellows, whites, gold and silver beads made of cork, plastic, stone and wood, many made-up into strings and men working on others; leather bangles, decorated gourds (one of which I couldn’t resist), Felane hats, brand-new and shiny red and orange. We walked along a long corridor lined with stalls selling fabrics, rugs and clothing, including eye-high mounds of colourful plastic shoes and thongs. Outside passages were lined with piles of hollow gourd-bowls and spoons. Bought a length of black printed material with a huge crocodile on it and two fish.
Read all afternoon in the back of the truck, occasionally looking at the world going past, orange and mango trees with cylindrical baskets placed high in the branches, perhaps man-made beehives.
Having camped, Nikki cut Jeff’s hair to reveal a new man.
Learned from the BBC that fighting had again escalated and Mali forces had on Thursday retaliated against Burkina Faso's bombing of Sikasso - we are heading there tomorrow! - by raiding the Burkina Faso town of Koloko - we are hoping to drive through that town!. Reports, too, that white soldiers had been seen fighting with the Mali forces. So much for a ceasefire and an easy border crossing for us. Looking more and more likely that we will have to detour into Cote D’Ivoire. The latest theory is that the fighting is an attempt to topple the Burkina Faso leader, not a dispute over mineral wealth as the initial reports had stated and instead of leaving the dispute behind us we have driven into a new fighting area; the novelty of being in a war zone is rapidly wearing off. And then the news ended, and we were sitting in the wilds of Mali, close to towns bombed just days before, listing to Treasure Island on the radio.
Bob has developed a weird wound on his wrist that's very sore and Vicki said the only way she could treat it was to cut it open. So, I assisted with the operation under the cooking light. It was awful seeing Bob thrashing with the pain - we have no anaesthetics - and at one point I thought he was going to bite my arm. I had to hold him with all my strength while Vicki probed, and removed a weird lump of something pussy, and comfort him afterwards when he was nursing his arm.
Sat in the truck after the surgery and discussed contraception, religion and the politics of war. Bill became very uncomfortable when we discussed contraception, saying it was a private matter, but we just ignored him. Our evening ended with Bob, Vicki, Hawke, Jeff and I discussing marriage and the trend towards non-religious marriage.
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