Dogon Landscape Album

It is the beginning of November as I write this and the weather is starting to cool off a little bit.  The nights are cool, the crops are being harvested, and the tourists are starting to trickle in.  There are not many.  Mali is not your typical vacation destination, but there are those people out there who have heard of Mali's hidden treasures.  Some come for the music, others to see the largest mud building in the world, and others to experience the amazing diversity of language and culture that the many ethnicities of Mali have to offer.  There are also those that come to see a cliff.

The Bandiagara Cliff Band is not only one of most defining features of the Dogon physical landscape, but also of the cultural landscape because of the way humans have used it throughout history.  The cliffs get massive!  And the villages around the Cliffs are enchanting to say the least.  The best part is that my house is on one of the (smaller) cliffs.  They run from my village towards the Northwest in fairly continously.  A month ago I hiked along the cliffs from my village to another volunteer's village on the (much bigger) cliffs.  My friend Ashley documented the 2 day trip with the beautiful pictures below.  The pictures can give you a better idea of my life in Dogon culture as well as give a glimpse to the beauty of Mali that most overlook.

The path to my village.  Only 2 or 3 miles from a nice paved road.  The women are taking lunch out to the people working the fields, taking a sheep out to to probably graze or something I guess, and also watching their babies.  Busy life.

My neighborhood.  The far left is my house but you can't really see it.  It is nicer than most houses in that I have a cement floor and a latrine.  Most don't have cement floors and practically the entire village does not have a latrine (a polite way of saying they poop in the fields).

I was never someone who 'likes kids' back in the States.  Mali is changing that.

Peanuts are being harvested now so it adds some nice flavor (and protein) to my diet.  It is also awesome to see how the harvesting, and storing and preparing of foods is done.  In the states I had not idea what my food looked like before it reached the grocery store...  

...These structures are a major feature in Mali's cultural landscape.  Food is stored in them.

...Doing hikes here usually involves seeing the herders out getting their animals fed.

Here women pound millet as part of a meal's preparation.  These women seemed to have a fun time doing it singing songs and keeping beat with each pound.

 

Wells are not easy to build in my area.  Fortunately a couple springs flow from under the rocks and cliffs.   This scene shows the importance of this single spring for a village nearby mine.  The women walk down from the village to wash cloths, wash themselves, and fetch water...

...Then they walk a couple miles on this path to bring water back to there households for cooking and for their husbands.  This is done more than once per day!!

 

One of the four mosques in my village.  I think my village is pretty muslim by Dogon standards, but I feel like there are probably a lot of Animist perceptions diluting the religious believes of my village.

 A mosque in another village.

Water:  A scarce resource.

We experienced a short storm at one point of hiking and for a very brief period water seemed to be plentiful. 

A classic Postcard Pic of Dogon country.  Notice the buildings that are literally under the cliff! 

Cool pictures, yes?  Next time I try to make an album I might try to show some pictures of friends and stuff in my village...   But first I had been wanting to share the beauty that I have the previlege to experience.  Also all the photos are credit to my friend Ashley.  I did not take a single one of these pictures.