We passed several baobab trees along the walk and this one had a beehive propped up in its branches.
After walking through a small village we descended through a narrow section in the rock and down into the valley. In the village the children rush up calling 'Baboo' (whiteman) and after greeting us with 'Ca va' (hello in French) stick their hand out for a gift (cadeau), or bic (pen), or bonbon (sweet). Some want to hold hands and walk along with you but the guide shoos them away.
A meeting place.
The Dogon people live beneath the escarpment but in some places they also live above it.
Nombori is the village where our guide Seydou was born, and our first stop for the night. When he was living in the village he was an animist. As a child his job was to look after the families' animals. When he was sixteen he decided that he would like to be a tourist guide. He had very little education but moved to the city where he learnt English and some Italian when he worked for an Italian tour company. He now belongs to a guiding association and does very well guiding.
The Dogon people have a traditional greeting exchange that goes on and on. As Seydou knew many people in the area he was stopped all the time and had to go through the whole ritual. It goes something like this:
The person greeting Seydou : Hello
Hello
How are you?
Good
How is your mother?
Good
How is your family?
Good
How is your work?
Good
How are your clients?
Good
Then it is Seydou's turn.
How are you?
Good
How is your husband?
Good
How are the children?
Good
How are your parents?
Good
How are the animals?
Good.
Then they exchange some news. Sometimes Seydou would greet a group working in the fields or passing us on the road and then the exchanges are like a chant where they all reply in unison.
We stopped at a guesthouse in the village and after a bucket shower we drank tea and they prepared a meal of couscous and vegetables in a tomato sauce for us. The guesthouse was made of mud with an open area where we ate. Only five members of the family lived in the house but locals wandered in and out all the time. After the meal Seydou told us some dancers would come later and dance. They cleared the courtyard and turned on the solar powered lights.
We expected a few people but I counted forty women. Most were dressed in their homemade cotton and indigo-dyed clothes.
The women who danced had a whistle in their mouth which they blew as they danced towards the male musicians. This woman had a sleeping baby strapped to her back who vibrated up and down as she danced. I wondered about our 'Never shake a baby' campaigns, and if this baby would be affected as a result of the vigourous shaking it got from its mother.
The men played different kinds of drums and when the women finished their dance they touched the ground in front of the drummers. The man with the biggest drum rolled his drum towards a woman if he wanted her to dance again. On the ground, in half a calabash, is some millet beer. The women had one that was passed around amongst them while the men had their own. It is not a strong alcohol and is served at room temperature. Chris really enjoyed it as it reminded him of 'real ale'.
Of course we all had to dance as well.
As we danced the women sang and clapped. There was only one song and the same dance the whole night.
A woman places her scarf on the man's neck and after the dance he has to find whose scarf it was. At 10 pm we all danced in a circle to end the evening. There were a few children watching and they enjoyed using Chris's camera to take photos of themselves and then laugh hysterically as they saw themselves on the screen. It was a great evening and if we hadn't been there it would have still been an evening where the locals got together and enjoyed themselves. Seydou left us in the evening as he went home to see his mother and as far as we knew it was not arranged especially for us.
We clambered up a narrow log ladder to mattresses on the roof where we slept the night. The stars were out and we could hear the dancers chatting as they headed home by torch light. As we were dropping off to sleep we could hear drums chanting and drums in the distance.
In the morning Seydou told us it was a male circumcision ceremony that we could hear and they are held every three years. The women are also circumcised in Dogon.
In the morning we had the bread that Seydou had brought from Sevare along with jam and tea.
We had time for a quick visit to the local museum and then headed off towards Tireli.
