Dedicated to Dan

September 4, 2005

Woke up yesterday to rain that continued through most of the morning. I was beginning to believe that we would never get to go to the escarpment. It was very depressing. We have only been here two weeks, but we haven’t left the mine village since we arrived. I worked on my bicycle for awhile, patching the tires and adjusting the brakes. When the rain finished around noon, I hunted down Wimpie and Reg and asked them what was up. 4:00 they said, we’ll leave at four o’clock.

We loaded the cooler with beer and tequila and headed out in the Land Rover at 4:00 sharp. The road to the escarpment wasn’t really much of a road. I kept thinking of Dan and his Jeep and how much fun he would have on this path that passes for a road. The rain had created great puddles and rivers across the road. The deepest one came to the tops of the fender wells. Wimpie decided that we weren’t going to make it to the escarpment so we turned around.

Along that road were several villages surrounded by peanut and corn fields. There were several groups of young women bathing in the newly formed lakes next to the road. Everyone we passed smiled and waved and shouted greetings. Wimpie and Reg kept giving me hassle because I wanted to take pictures of everything. They have been here a while and all of these sights are old hat to them.

Eventually we found another path and headed down it. No villages to speak of on this road although there were several corn and peanut fields. Again great streams tumbled across our path. We turned and twisted this way and that through the ponds and fields until at last we came to a large lake. The boys all donned their bathing gear and headed in for a swim. As it turns out, it was a reservoir that had been created by the mine for some purpose or another that never really became clear. The reason for its existence was irrelevant as far as I was concerned. The water was cool and refreshing. We swam out to a stand of palm trees that had been taken over by these little yellow weaver birds. They had built a thousand nests in the trees and they were repairing them and fighting and talking and reeling about while we floated in the water and watched. It was a beautiful thing. I had to keep pinching myself to remind me that a year ago I was in the Bronx, sweating, getting ready for school. Indeed one short year ago I hadn’t imagined in my wildest dreams that I would be living in Africa. Yet here I was, swimming in a lake watching the birds in Mali. As evening approached we swam back to the beach and toasted our day with tequila shots and beer, then into the Rover for the bumpy ride back.

I had started the day depressed, convinced that we weren’t going to see the escarpment and wallowing in my own misery. Carrie kept trying to cheer me and it just didn’t work. In the end we didn’t make it to the escarpment but we had an incredible experience nonetheless. My only regret is that Dan couldn’t be there to “enjoy” the drive.