Soon...

The sign to Hotel Djenné Djenno still stands by the Carrefour:  the turning to Djenné from the main road to Mopti. It is a little weather beaten and faded but it is still there, and it is all still true: there is a hotel, there are chambres climatisées and there is a bar and restaurant, against all odds... There is a plethora of other signs there advertising other hotels or guest houses and various aid schemes etc, but most have fallen and most have are long since lost their meaning.

A little closer to Djenné, just as one has crossed the Bac , the ferry across the Bani there is another sign advertising the guest house ‘Village de Amis’. That was conceived as a budget  tourist hostel by a Frenchman with a Malian partner during the heyday sometimes in 2008/9 (picture above from that time).  The Frenchman has not been back for years, but the place was still up and running until a couple of weeks ago due to the Malian partner’s tenacity and business sense: he turned the place into a brothel. It was a very popular establishment by all accounts and the girls were recruited from Burkina Faso. But there were grumblings of discontent by the pious population of Djenné, which lies a kilometre or so away. Finally the Imam himself allegedly warned during Friday prayers that he would personally go and shut the place down if such unholy practises continued. In the face of such opposition the Malian partner shut the brothel down.

I am turning my thoughts to Djenné and my imminent return with both excitement and trepidation.  Keita is quite well now and receiving his last Velcade treatments this week. I feel fine and will hopefully receive my all clear when I return to the Tropical Disease hospital on the ninth, the day before I leave for Mali. It seems that I had a particularly nasty attack of amoebic dysentery which had travelled into my liver and had not been treated properly in Mali.

I am committed to Djenné for another two years because of the new projects that have just started at the Djenné Manuscript Library and for which I am responsible. But I go back with some fear: not for my own safety ( although I am sure I am a kidnap target) but I worry that I may not have enough enthusiasm and stamina to see it out.

 It is a lonely place now Djenné...