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U cant beat reality - at least not looking for public transport to Dountze\Dogon Country in Mopti around noon in the bursting sun. Dehydration and a sudden heatstroke seem the only exit strategies from Mopti at this time of the day. So we wait patiently till afternoon to fight for a few squarecentimeters on a Minibus.
The hellride starts slow motion with around a hundred bags being stapled to the roof until the car has reached double its hight
moaning like a donkey. It tqkes forever till everything is fixed to the roof like superglue - and we will find out later why.
We start with a stop and go, getting all the necessities like a spare tire, gasoline, cigarettes for the driver and passing several checkpoints - military and police - around Mopti.
The ride starts off with a sightseeing attitude. The sun diving down the famous African sky, painting all kinds of colors to the endless horizon; Baobabs and tamarinds giving structure to the spectacle.
Everything is really appealing except for the fact that I am sandwiched onto my windowseat like a defenseless dead sardine. For the first hour I even find a position that gives me the chance to fall into that universal lethargy ojf public bus rides in poor countries. The world seems still ok ... until i find out that my feet are resting on the plus and minus poles of the car battery, which to me is more minus than plus. Comfort decayed with accelerating speed when a fifth person was condamned to be bruised onto our seat row. For the first ten minutes my fertility was seriously endangered until i could pull a waterbottle between my legs with an inhuman effort pressing my thighs even harder and even more animistic to the carriage on one side and to the ladies hhips to the other side. The pain started off with a feeling of contusion, turned into a cramp and lasted with the sense of needles stitching my broken leg till the end of the ride 6 hours later. The lady beside me would know the excact change in my pockets even a week later by the impression I left on her skin.
The sun was down and the incidence of the carlights threw a totally different light onto the craters in the road.The atmosphere turned into a feeling of war well supported by the constant military roadblocks. It was clear that we will fall apart sooner or later, just a question of time. Bouncing and crashing with highspeed through the darkest night ever not seen it didnt really make any difference to my believes seeing crashed buses on the roadside, roofs off and burnt down. Life is a matter of moments.