tombouctou / timbuktu - still (will continue ...)

third attepmt (september, 06)

yes a third attempt had been made the next weekend. this time, the plane company had rescheduled their flights. in which i will be able to get to Timbuktu around 15.00 or 16.00 pm and will be leaving at 08.00 am.

a fourth attempt will be made on a Tuesday, which the planes said to be leaving still 07.00 am. but as i witnessed for another time, nothing can be trusted down in here. we refer time being money for a long time but around these parts of the world, notion (or concern) is different.

effects of the speed can be seen in the business life but on the streets life is still naive...

tombouctou / timbuktu - will continue ...

Tombouctou is referred as

- a city in northern Mali
- a myterious city on the Sahara Desert, mostly believed as a myth by the Westerner's
- one of the most known and used bottled water in Mali
- a restaurant name in Maryland

first and second is the place i am trying to reach, third i drink, fourth just found out on the internet :-)

as far as i know, there are three ways to get to Tombouctou. take a 3 hour plane ride, take a 10 day boat trip, ride a car probably around 24 hours. i would love to do the boat trip but unfortunately haven't got that much time. i tried the first option, but...

as the plane from Bamako to Tombouctou is only on saturdays and tuesdays and as the returns are only sundays and wednesdays, i took my chance with the satuday/sunday one. but...

first attempt (april '06)

as i forgot my passport at work, packed without noticing, went out for dinner and noticed too late, i wasn't able get on the plane. but...

second attempt (august '06)

as the planes were full for last two weekend's (hot season for Mali ???) we could only book for 2nd of September which is today after several attempts. but...

as the plane company decided flying to another city and after to Tombouctou, we end up loosing 5 hours from 06.00 A.M. to 11.30 A.M. waiting and coming back to work. but...

i haven't given up, next weekend i will try again. so that the story will continue on :-)

outcomes of the day

-airport pollice, not even letting us get inside the building because they haven't called for the flight
- beggar, trying to sell soda to us, leaving the soda, coming back, standing staring to us only a meter away and at last just sitting beside us to the floor, in total one and a half hour (an unknown, non-speaking company)
- soldier, wearing pink socks under khaki pants
- beautiful children, 5 year old Fatima & Fatima
- president of Mali, getting out of a plane only 200 meters away, quarded by only six soldiers
- being labelled by everybody at work as the fastest traveller's to Tombouctou in known time

Fatima & Fatima

fog caused by the drops

i first wrote about rain over a year ago (mid-July ‘05) and when i was heading back to Turkey in March for vacation, one of my biggest disappoinmets was that i would not be able to live the rainy season of West Africa again. which proved itself wrong. yes, i am still in here and maybe the best thing to be in here is witnessing this wonderful season again.

to be objective, rain had its work in our delay to leave. at the job-site, we are facing a lot of problems and mud is killing us again but still i keep staring to the world’s water. which malians think is raining lesser every year, is still too much for us. as it turns all the dust around into mud, also washes away the dust on the green which is a lot in the city but hard to recognize as mostly covered with red dust. some days just before sunset, the two small hills seem to be closer as we feel it for the Bosphorus sometimes, back at home. two three layers of clouds can be easily seen as the lights of sun play hide and seek in between them. drops are so pure and swift that one can tell the direction easily, whether it is raining vertical or horizontal. but in it, only when i see the fog caused by the drops, i realize why i needed a break … purity turns into fog, fog falls out and it all becomes clear, but just for a while ... until another condensation ... as it is the life's way and as it is the one's way...

raindrops ...

see the rain
feel the rain
watch how it prepares itself
witness how it lets itself into being
experience how it evaporates

in nature, human awareness can be find...

all matters, prepare themselves to come into being
visualize and evaporate
as they are plain raindrops
which visualize and evaporate
while giving life to others

accepting all as self is up to one...

"Patio"

"Patio" is a small restaurant beside the French Cultural Center in Bamako. Normally we go to this cozy place to have a coke at the lunch break but today we made a difference and went there for lunch which gave us the opportunity to stay there more then an hour. During the four months I spent in West Africa there was only two or three occasions which I felt I was not in Africa and today was one of them... The restaurant is a one storey building which has a rectangular patio in the middle. We were seated on the bambou chairs around the patio listening african music, staring to the white walls decorated with B&W photographs of the african musicians and staring to the clear blue sky through patio's ceiling. Feeling the light breeze on my face caused by the ventilators on the tatch coverd ceiling while the music changed to Phil Collins's long forgotten song, I felt I was in the 70's sitting at a beach restaurant somewhere around the world... Which was a refreshing feeling in the middle of a hot African day...

Lizards ...

Amazing creatures, they can walk on vertical surfaces as they are on the floor... Right now, from half open door of our office, I can see the wood railing of the terrace. One crazy lizard was on the railing walking front and back, afterwards probably he got bored and started to climb the wooden column to the roof, and at the moment he is standing head down on the column and watching around while he is shaking his head up and down... :)

Rainy season differs from region to region

They told me several times that Mali is in the rainy season but I haven't felt it till the beginnning of this week. After having a non-stop rain for two days, one can understand why they say it's not the same as in Turkey. Mud and water all around ...