Motel Savane Segou

... a limited amount of fruit from a small basket to the more incomprehensible (who buys elaborate bed frames at the junction of busy roads?? And the selection was pretty good). There was some semblance of structure- which probably eliminates Bamako as the worst place to drive through (think anywhere in India)- but practicality definitely took precedence over legality.
Earlier in the day, Back-Alley Mohammed had closed the sale (Neera would have been proud) on ...

... it; they are indomitable:

our guides name is Amadou, one of the cooler dudes i have met traveling; only 28 but knows how to run a boat; speaks like 5 languages and is cool as a cucumber and extremely respectful in his dealings with everyone we have encountered;

... headed for in Lomé giving conflicting reports on the current situation in the office, and how there's apparently been a fast decline in its functioning... this is still a MINOR problem to which I do not yet have an answer. Oh well. I still have... 12 days.

The next morning, I report to the bus station at 10 am to buy a ticket for the 11 o clock bus to Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso.

The 11 o clock bus eventually ...

... but... if they don't want non-Muslims in there I very much feel that I shouldn't go in!), and it's only a wee town with not too much else to see.

You can go up on neighbouring roofs and see over the wall of the mosque, a bit, and it's nice to wander around int he tiny little alleys (but watch your step because there's an old covered drainage system built by the French but it's not covered anymore...). There's a grave ( though there's ...

... hear three differnent languages at the same time. Not anything I would ever exprience in the states. The remainder of the day we spent rebuilding the server for the third time an it was a sucess. Ryan has far more patience then I would have had with all the trouble he ran into rebuilding the server. On that note, our 2 bags are still missing. We now found out that one of the bags was sent to Bamako last week so it is hard to say what happened to it. It is starting to look like we ...

... me. First I am in a part-construction / part hospital site every day. It is starting to feel like routine to get up every day and work very hard. Today was the longest day of all as we worked up until 7pm as we were trying to get the server online with the new switches and converters. We still don't have two of our bags. We believe one of the bags is to arrive in Bamako tonight. We'll see what happens. The real problem is that they other bag had the new ...

Ségou, ancienne capitale de l'Empire Bambara, a été une importante ville de garnison au temps de la Colonie. On y trouve de très beaux bâtiments de cette époque, bien restaurés et dont les habitants sont fi**s. Grandes avenues bordées de caïlcédrats, fleuve ***** majestueux, de 1 à 2 km de large. Thême du jour :LA CIRCULATION ROUTIERE Sur les routes goudronnées ou sur les pistes en latérite, on rencontre de tout : - des hommes et des femmes à pied et qui marchent ...

P**haps I've been in Africa long enough that my expectations for towns have hit rock bottom but Segou, a town on the ***** Riv**'s south bank about a half day's drive east of Bamako, was actually quite lovely. The town seemed almost as poor as oth**s on Mali, but it's no joke that its riv**side location and smatt**ing of French colonial architecture earns it the monik** "The Malian Rivi**a". We stopped in town for ...