My new adventure; Mali.

Only six days to go and then I’m already heading for Mali. Africa, a continent I haven’t been yet. It’s waiting for me to put it on my list. I’m really excited. It will be so different.

Yesterday I sat in a shoarmaplace in Amsterdam. A local one, not a lot of dutch people in there. I was thinking of my trips to the Middle East. I got a little bit used to it, I guess. And still I love that continent. I would love to go back to Amman, Cairo, Casablanca, Tel Aviv or Haifa off course. The atmosphere and the interesting culture and beliefs. But now it’s time to get to know something new, to dive in a new culture. Go to country with an other language, with other people, with other customs.

Time flies. Too fast according to my opinion. If I’m ready for it? No, not at all. Some problems and bad luck crossed my path. No pasport and no visa is the result.

Three weeks ago I was that stubborn to refuse to hand in my passport at a visabureau which would charge me a lot of servicecosts. I went there, they told me the price and I walked away. Me got told that I could send my passport, money and all the papers by registered mail to the Malinese ambassy in Brussel. So I went to the postoffice, paid another 8 euro’s to get it there safely and waited for a response. Time went by and I started to worry. Why didn’t I hear something? A lot of calls followed. Not even by myself because the woman on the other side of the phone only spoke french. And what was the case... they never received my passport! I went angry to the postoffice, called with the TNTpost 0900-number and tried to do as much as I could. But now, 6 days before my department to Mali I don’t have any traveldocument.

So tomorrow I have to go to the police, make some extra phonecalls with TNT, go to the municipality and later this week drive to personally to Brussel to get it fix. It will cost me shitloads of money; 150 euro and a lot of effort. My stupidity! It will never happen again. I will never be that greedy again. It will spare me a lot of tears and stress. Because this last week isn’t a week I imagined before...

Anyway, it will be fixed. Like I always say and keep in mind ‘everything will be allright’.

So in one way or the other I will be in the plain coming saturdaynight. I will have a stop over in Casablanca and then arrive in Bamako. Luckily the mum of Ingrid will pick me up this night. So I don’t have to get rid of the men that will carry my lugage myself.

Tuesday my real Africatrip will start. I will take the local transport to Segou, and then find a hostel there. The next day I will go to Mopti. All with my bad french! Then teh next day I will go to Bandiagara. There I will meet my personal guide, a middle aged Malinese man that luckily speaks a little bit of english. I’m gonna track through the Dogonvalley for three days. Backpack on and walk... In the evening we will reach a deserted village where we will sleep. After a week of travelling by myself I will go back to Bamako, the capital and meet Ingrid, my friend whose parents live there.

Other plans are going to Djenne, where the famous claymosque is build and go to two villages where the griots live. It’s not even in the Lonely Planet so that will be an amazing experience. The last week we will stay at her parents house to rest a little bit and... give deaf africans computerlessons. It will be an enrichement.

So a lot of amazing things are coming up. But first I have to overcome this week. I have to arrange too much still. I want to enjoy my time with Or as much as I can and prepare everthing well. I will start the journey quite stressed, I hope it’s immediatly over when I put one step in the airplane. It probably is like that. Besides the fact I’m gonna miss my man like crazy, I’m sure it’s gonna be amazing. So Mali, treat me right, here I come!

Edit:
Today my father was so kind to join me to the Malinese ambassy in Brussel with his car with GPS. And finally... I have my visa! I feel so released! Everything is ready and I'm almost ready to go. The Malinese Ambassy was a mixture between Europe and Africa and I already had to adjust to their culture and language a little bit. They didn't speak anything else then french and men... I really have to practice that language otherwise I'll feel so disabled, like my anthropology teacher (Geert) told me. So we spend the whole day in Brussel till my visa was ready. And now I have to pack my back make copies of my passport before I lose it for the third time in my life and then just... GO! :D