Sevare ice cave

I am currently in Sevare enjoying my AC—it is quite wonderful. Josh and I left the house on foot at 6am yesterday morning and got to the freeway nice and early. We bought tickets for the Binke bus and had time for a fried egg sandwich while we waited. It came around 7:30, probably, and was kind of slow-going, but it’s better than taking turns at break-neck speeds, like Sonef buses are wont to do. My bus seat was not attached to the bus very well, so I felt like I was in a motion simulator a lot of the time. On top of all that, we got pelted by a fine rain of couscous from the open vent above us. All very mysterious.

I wanted us to hop off the bus before the main intersection in Sevare as opposed to going all the way to the bus station, since that would be a longer walk to our respective destinations (Mankante for me, the bank for Josh). After we passed through the police checkpoint for Sevare, a little ways up the road, the bus slowed down to let some people off, so I figured that was our stop. I figured wrong. We probably got off the bus about 2 kilometers outside of Sevare and ended up having to walk a lot farther in the dusty wind than if we had just gone to the station. Oh well, we got our exercise.

We parted ways at the main intersection and I carried on to the Mankante, where I got checked in. I had the choice of a room with a personal bathroom in the villa down the road where the wireless might not reach or a room with a bathroom next door in the main villa. After some debating, I took that one, and the internet has been working great. The AC is also rather arctic and nice.

I hung out and took a nap before lunch, then grabbed some spaghetti at the Mankante restaurant up the road. Right next door to the Mankante is a gift shop/bead museum run by a guy known as Peace Corps Baba. Abbie lived in the apartment above it during her third year of Peace Corps, so I decided to go in and check it out. I told the guys sitting there that I was Abbie’s colleague, and they instantly started exclaiming about how she was their sister, same mother same father, and now I was welcome as well. They all speak English, presumably since they travel the world to show at bead expositions and cultural shows. One of the guys showed me the bead museum then helped me look around the shop, where I was given good “sister” prices on the things I wanted to buy.

I left in a good mood and went back to the hotel, where I skyped with people until it was Bollywood party time. Bollywood party could have been better. I became head chef rather quickly, but the preparations were riddled with small disasters—not the spices I was used to, rice paper to make the samosas in instead of homemade dough, the lentils burned a little, the rice paper split open in the oil… it was rather frustrating. On top of that, there were something like nine or ten people there instead of the three originally planned. That’s fine, the more the merrier, but it diminished the intimacy a bit. Rabayah wanted people to watch Dil Chahta Hai, one of my favorites; since it is a three-hour-long movie, I told them to just start it while I finished up the food.

Despite the mishaps, the food was fairly tasty. I watched a little bit of the movie, then went to skype with Kevin. Afterwards, the movie still wasn’t done, but I decided to go back to the hotel and go to bed before it got any later. I have to go back over and retrieve my movies today.

With the Mankante being a bed and breakfast, I get my morning meal provided, and it was quite delicious. When Kevin and I stayed here, we just got tea and bread with jam and butter, but this morning I got all of that plus an omelette and a big plate of fresh mango and papaya. The guys working here are Dogons, so I talked to them about that for a while. There is really a friendly atmosphere at this place; everyone calls me by my first name and is really helpful, not to mention the lovely courtyard with flowering trees and four large tortoises.

Today I’m just going to take it easy and read and do some work in the AC, then tomorrow I’ll probably go to the bank in the morning, see Seydou for lunch, then go back to Douentza in the afternoon/evening.