BIG TRIP: Segou

There are TONS of pictures of this trip being posted (as I write this).
YOU CAN SEE THE REST OF THE PICTURES AT
http://www.avivalaloca.smugmug.com/AFRICA

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On Thursday, September 27 at 4 am we hit the road in our big tuba-bus (tubabu is the word for white people, bus is our vehicle for transport; tubabus is our bus!). After about 2 hours we had our first flat tire, right before a big rock hit our windshield and nearly shattered it. We played a lot of music and danced around whenever we were stopped by the police (frequent occurrence). Bus rides were long but we frequently made up songs about the routes and about the other people on the bus. When we weren't singing, we were sleeping.

The first stop was Segou, where we lived the luxury life. A/C rooms, delicious pizza and an amazing swimming pool with great live, interactive music every night. We went on a boat trip (always fun) down the Niger River to a small village on the river bank where we saw some ancient mosques from the 11th century.
In Segou we also went to an amazing bogolon cooperative, where many people work together and make all different kinds of bogolon cloth and then sell it. Bogolon is a cloth that is painted on with mud from the Niger River. The dies (to die the cloth) are all natural, made out of leaves, flowers and plants found locally. More modern bogolon has incorporated stronger colors (less earthy tones--i.e. browns, reds) and added greens and blues and some yellow. The style and ideas have remained the same, but the patterns have changed a bit.
Each shape holds an important meaning, and when different symbols are combined they have certain meanings. For example the shape on the bottom left corner means "traveling."