Sahara-update 008
April 13th Ouagadougou -- Sunny
Farewell, Ghana!

Not slept well! Soon we have to be parted with Robert and Ghana, this is sad! And soon we will enter more Sahel area, this is exciting! I have known Robert for a long time. He is a famous photographer in Canada and also he is descendant of the "Flying Tigers." And I know I owe him a lot!

Today would be the last day we are in Ghana! We were going to enter Burkina Faso in the late afternoon, approaching the desert step by step. After breakfast, we toured Sirigu, another community-based eco-tourism initiative that showcases the houses of the people who live in northeastern Ghana. These organic homes seem to just grow out of the earth. They are painted with abstract designs and decorated only by the women. Although this type of home is found throughout the area, Sirigu has some spectacular examples. The women of the village also have a cooperative where they make pottery.

Departing Sirigu we had some African-featured fried rice as lunch at a restaurant of a small town. Then we immediately continued driving to Paga Sacred Crocodile Pond. Like the Monkey Sanctuary, here too the crocodiles are considered to be sacred. The people of Paga believe that within each crocodile there rests the spirit of one of the people of the community. It is therefore forbidden to kill or harm a crocodile. It's really amazing to hear that children can swim in the ponds and ladies do their laundry right next to the deadly animals, but the crocodiles do not eat anyone from the village. There is a respect for one another and the crocodiles can even be called forth from the pond to greet visitors. To tell the truth, at first I was a little afraid. In my experience, this deadly animal is never taken and treated this way. We tried to touch it and then with the encouragement of the guide, we eventually got onto its back! I even pulled its tail! I swear it was the gentlest crocodile I've ever met! I had been in Kenya for Kilimanjaro and I know crocodiles there are killers to gnus and other animals including human beings. If the crocodiles in the Mara River are demons, the crocodile we met today is an angel.

Departing Paga Sacred Crocodile Pond, we continued to drive to Burkina Faso border. The customs formality was very simple. Entering the second country, I could feel the change with our location nearer to the desert. Burkina Faso is a Sahel country with an average altitude of 300 meters.

Then we drove to our hotel in Ouagadougou and I immediately recognized our old guide who is an Malian and will accompany us to Mali.

So, farewell, Ghana!
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Sahara update 009
April 14th Bobo-Dioulasso -- Sunny
Computer Losing Its Temper!

We arrived in Ouagadougou very late yesterday, and our itinerary in Burkina Faso is very tight-only two days. Today's goal was to reach Burkina Faso's second largest city, Bobo-Dioulasso. In the morning I got up and turned on my computer to send some photos back to Kunming, but then there was repeatedly a transmission failure. The time for start-off was close, I had to make internal phone call to one of my friend in Kunming to seek advice on the malfunction of the computer.

We actually brought with us quite much "advanced" equipment, for we knew we would need them in those remote places. And I didn't expect that my computer would "lose its temper" just before we were about to start off!

I explained to him the problem of the computer for around 10 minutes and he explained what I should do for around 20 minutes, and the phone call went on for around another 30 minutes before I got the computer back to work -- very interesting and expensive lesson on computer maintenance!

Ouagadougou is the capital of Burkina Faso. The city's name is often shortened to Ouaga. The inhabitants are called ouagalais. The name Ouagadougou goes back to the 15th century when the Yonyonse and the Ninsi tribes inhabited the area. They were in constant conflict until 1441 when Wubri, a Yonyonse hero and an important figure in Burkina Faso's history, led his tribe to victory. He then renamed the area from "Kumbee-Tenga," as the Ninsi had called it, first to "Sogomogobogoyogowogodogo", meaning "palace of the worshipful camel-faced bushboy where people get honour and respect" and then to "Wogodogo," meaning simply "where people get honor and respect." Ouagadougou is a corruption of Wogodogo. The spelling of the name Ouagadougou is derived from the French orthography common in former French African colonies. The country changed its name from 'Upper Volta' to Burkina Faso in the 1980's. If English orthography were used (as in Ghana or Nigeria), the spelling would be Wagadugu

Ouagadougou's primary industries are food processing and textiles. It is served by an international airport, rail links to Abidjan in Côte d'Ivoire and to Kaya in the north of Burkina, and a highway to Niamey, Niger. Being such a focal point, there are many cinemas, nightclubs, and French, American, and Zaka cultural centers. Ouagadougou was the site of Ouagadougou grand market, one of the largest markets in West Africa, which burned down in 2003 and remains closed. Other attractions include the National Museum of Burkina Faso, the Moro-Naba Palace (site of the Moro-Naba Ceremony), the National Museum of Music, and several craft markets.

After a short trip in Ouagadougou, we continued driving to the second largest city of Burkina Faso--- Bobo-Dioulasso. We reached there in the late afternoon, and tonight we stay in Bobo-Dioulasso.
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Sahara Update 010
April 15, Bamako -- Sunny
World's Most Rough and Environmental Customs Station

We started off early as today's destiny is Bamako far away. The weather was intolerably hot. The people living in the roadside villages were very very poor and the villages, most similar to the most remote villages in China. As we were passed, all of the villagers along the road would wave to us and say "ni hao". It was very pleasant, the people are so hospitable to Chinese.

As mentioned by Robert, there were always incidents in Africa, on our way to Mali we had a flat tire and had to wait for about half an hour for the driver to install the spare tire. Fei Xuan and I got off the van to help the driver. It was much hotter outside the van -- like it's burning.

After about three hours drive, we reached the border. It surprised us when told that the shabby, rough place was their customs office. Several red and white-colored paint buckets lay on the road right in our way. A couple of shanty timber shacks stood on the side of the road. I thought we encountered kidnappers -- we had been told too much about rebels, kidnaps and murders taking place in Africa. Then the guide immediately told us it was the border when he saw that we looked so nervous. When we completed entry stamping, the officers said to us in English, "Welcome to Mali."

Entering Mali, we found that the living condition of the locals and the landscape were similar to what we saw in Burkina Faso. The only difference we could discover was that there were a lot of advertisement boards along the road. Those advertisement boards were written in French and I could not understand the meaning, except the one with the red ribbons -- World AIDS prevention. It reminded me that Africa is one of the continents in the world where AIDS was firstly discovered and where AIDS have the most severe threat.

Since 1981, the first case of AIDS in Africa has been found, AIDS spread rapidly on the African continent. This year's UNAIDS and the World Health Organization data shows that there are 3.2 million AIDS carriers in Africa among the 5 million all over the world. AIDS brought disasters to thousands of families in Africa and poverty is one of the reasons why AIDS spreads. In the African countries, at least 44% of the families with AIDS carriers would terminate medication due to economic difficulties; and people's attitude toward AIDS also affected the holdback -- people would rather by all means hide the secret when their family members get infected, so the source of infection could not be effectively controlled and isolated. In Mali, AIDS carriers' total population has reached 10 percent, which is a very high ratio and a severe fact. These honest and kind Malians are suffering from hunger, war, poverty and diseases. It makes us feel a little better when we learn that people in the world are getting more and more aware of the threat and are working hard to prevent it.
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Sahara Update 011
April 16th, Bamako -- Sunny
Kunminese In Mali

Every Time when I was in a foreign country during an expedition, I would visit the Chinese embassy if there was any chance. The Chinese embassy is like the home of all the Chinese people in the country and I feel warm whenever I was there. Workers in the embassy were always like my family members and they could also give me a lot of useful information concerning the local country.

At 10 o'clock this morning, Fei Xuan and I visited the Chinese embassy in Mali, the commission in the embassy Mr. Huo Tianyun hosted us and explained that the ambassador is now taking a vacation in China, he also expressed his praise for our trans-Sahara expedition. Then a BBC journalist Martin Vogl interviewed me. Martin learned about our expedition from a website maintained by my friend Gregg Millett who lives in Schenectady, New York. Martin asked me a lot of questions!
Leaving the embassy, Fei Xuan and I were taken to N'Diaye Bah, Minister of Tourism and Handicrafts for the Republic of Mali. Mr. N'Diaye Bah passed on the best wishes of Malian president and premier for us.

Then we went to a place that I most wanted to go -- visiting Wang Bingquan, our hometown fellow, who is now service manager of a company based in China. He had learnt about us also from the internet and wrote me an email inviting us to see him in Bamako. We had lunch with them and all the workers in his company were very happy to see us. Wang also told us that they had a Hunan chef ready to prepare dinner for us. Then Wang showed us around Bamako's biggest handcraft market. The crafts in the markets proved Malian people's wonderful memories and unbelievable imagination. The numerous number of types of crafts and the cheap price but wonderful quality was also unbelievable. If we were not to go on another 70 days' difficult journey, we would buy a large collection and bring it back.

Then I found that the Malian people have different ways of making tea. They add a lot of sugar and sometimes even a little mint which make it cooler, though I myself still prefer Pu Er tea. Most of the tea in Mali comes from China but I found that they are not drinking the best tea in China, mostly just the aged liupo tea which is very bitter and I figured this is the reason they would add sugar in the tea.

Due to poverty, people here live in low level and are seldom educated. Most people live on traditional planting and handcraft. But tourism in Mali is not developed and there are only a few tourists. That's why the most wonderful handcraft can only be sold at very low price.
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Update 012
April 17th, Segou -- Sunny
Sailing the Niger River

As originally planned, we should be sailing from Bamako to Segou and start our more than 20 days river trip. But the guide told us that since there is not enough water volume, we would drive to Segou and start the river trip there.

Segou was 240 kilometers away from Bamako and we arrived there at noon. This was really a place of sweet escape. In today's time of unchecked materialistic pursuit, the people in Segou still keep their simple traditions, their serenity and their leisureliness. Some French style buildings of the colonial time also remained and many Europeans would like to come here to spend their vacations for the bright sunshine and the comfortable temperature. There was a famous hostel opened by a Lebanese and we stay in it today.

After lunch, we started preparation for our 20-day sail in the Niger River including a lot of clean fresh water. We moved our materials onto our boat, a "pinasse" or pirogue equipped with a motor. The "pinasse" has been the most traditional transportation boat on the Niger River since a long time ago. Our "pinasse" is as long as ten meters, quite enough to hold us, our sailors and our materials. There will be 6 people aboard the boat, me, Fei Xuan, our guide and three sailors. We will have three meals on the boat but during the evening we will pull over and find a proper place for camping.

People here have not been quite baptized by civilization, most old people even refused to be photographed. And our guide warned us not to photo them unless agreed. This reminded me that there were stories in China during the old time warning people not to be photographed. They believed that their souls would go away along with their photos and they would die very soon without their souls.

The young people, especially the kids, are more approachable. When you waved to them, they would come closer and talk to us. And they wouldn't refuse cameras.

The river water looked very clean. As a mother river, the Niger river goes wandering ahead, efficiently holds back the steps of the desertification. To her north, it is abominable Sahara desert where nothing grows and to her south, the ecologically-well old tropical rain forest remains.

The Niger River is a relatively "clear" river, carrying only a tenth as much sediment as the Nile because the Niger's headlands are located in ancient rocks that provide little silt. Like the Nile, the Niger floods yearly; this begins in September, peaks in November, and finishes by May.

The Niger takes one of the most unusual routes of any major river, a boomerang shape that baffled European geographers for two millennia. Its source is just 240 km (150 mi) inland from the Atlantic Ocean, but the river runs away from the sea into the Sahara Desert, then takes a sharp right turn near the ancient city of Timbuktu (Tombouctou) and heads southeast to the Gulf of Guinea.

This strange geography apparently came about because the Niger River is two ancient rivers joined together. The upper Niger, from the source past the trading city of Timbuktu to the bend in the current river, once emptied into a now-gone lake, while the lower Niger started in hills near that lake and flowed south into the Gulf of Guinea. As the Sahara dried up in 4000-1000 BC, the two rivers altered their courses and hooked up (This explanation is generally accepted, although some geographers disagree).

To protect this mother river, many measures have been taken by the countries where the river flows through. Now the water quality in the river is good with about 2 meters' visibility. This is very good compared to many rivers in China.

We all look forward to tomorrow when we will start our more than 20 days sailing on the Niger.
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Update 013
April 18th, Niger River -- Sunny
Sailors on the Niger

Today we were very tired. We sailed for 12 hours but only advanced about 80 kilometers. The water level is too low and a lot of times we had to carry the boat across the river bottom. Along today's itinerary, most of the places the depth of water was no more than one meter and definitely not enough to carry our boat. The locals still rely on the pinasses but our pinasse is too big to sail across. And on our way, we saw many ferries grounded along the banks. Instead of any preferential treatment as guests. Fei Xuan and I rolled up our trousers, get down to the river and helped carry the boat with the sailors and the guide. We forgot our own identity and became typical sailors on the Niger.

There is no river moistening the dry Sahara desert like the Niger. People rely on her to live and develop. However, the deterioration of the ecology along the river banks has brought to the locals disasters. Just in recent years, the discharge of the river has been reduced significantly. The precipitation fell by 20%, discharge fell by 40% and the area of the riverway zoomed out. This caused serious affect to the life of the locals. During the dry season, many parts of the riverway can be crossed by vehicles, the output of the paddy fields has been reduced tremendously and, in Timbuktu, canals leading downtown have dried up and the port withdrawn to a place 10 kilometers away.

And the herdsmen, are more seriously affected. Due to the decrease of grassland, many herdsmen have moved to the city, which add to its burden. The good news is that the government is quite aware of the crisis and has taken several measures to protect the eco-environment on the Niger River banks. And the locals have grown to learn the importance of environmental protection and they are volunteering to protect the environment.

Most Africans are now fully aware of the importance of the Niger River. Our guide was very sad when he mentioned the environmental crisis.

There were many fishing boat on the river and when we were about to prepare food, we could simply call them to get closer and buy some fish from them at very cheap prices. This is really convenient!

The sunshine is very bright but most of the day swift breezes blew upon our faces which reduced the power of the hotness. Temperature on the river water was much cooler than that on the river banks. As soon as we got to the banks, the temperature would increase by at least 10 degrees higher.

It might surprise most people knowing about our route that we enter the desert by means of sailing. But to me, this is a hard-won chance: you sail on a river and on one side of the river, it's a desert. We all know that water is the source of life, while the desert is a place of death. So on one side it is the vigorous river and on the other side it is desolate dead silence. The comparison of motion and quiescence, of life and death, forces one to contemplate existence.

Tonight, with the bright stars, we will camp on the shore. We bought the fresh catfish from the fisher on the river, our cook made us grilled fish, and we ate our fill.
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Very early this morning I was awaken up by some noise. Opening my eyes, I found the sailors packing the gear and preparing for departure. Getting out of the tent, we could already see the fishermen on the river. Very soon the sailors called us to prepare for departure.

Today's target is again 80 kilometers. As I mentioned the current in the Niger is very slow and the depth of water is very shallow. Our boat grounded for many times and we had to drag it or even carry it in such places. It's already very great for us to move 80-90 kilometers ahead.

The Niger River is not like other rivers we have seen. The riverway is very broad but the depth of water very shallow. And it is hard to imagine that a river with only 1 meter depth can flow for thousands of kilometers without drying up. In most places on the river side, it was sand with only a little vegetation. And even if there is some vegetation, they are mostly bushes and there are seldom large trees.

Most inhabitants here are the Bambaras who have been very hospitable to us. When our boat passed by, we could see many people waving to us. They were the women doing laundry and some even taking baths in the river. The bathing women were half naked, but they didn't seem shy although we felt a little embarrassed.

Our guide Segou is a passionate and open-minded guy. He had been teaching English in a school but quit and became a guide in order to get better pay. Like most families in Mali, Segou has 7 kids and a whole family to feed since he is the only one in the family who works.

We are now much more accustomed to African life. For more than ten days, we have been staying and working with the Africans. Especially during the past two days, we have shared happiness and sorrows. I even took a bath in the Niger River today just like the locals do.
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NEXT -- Reports: April 20to April 26