Spent most of the day in the Dogon Patisserie in Mopti. Had our bags and neither of us was too keen on exploring Mopti further, so we relaxed, drank coffee / soda, had a bite to eat, read, and worked on my journal. At one point I left Andrea with the bags and went for a last wander through the markets. In one of the stalls I found an old Tuareg bag (camel leather) that I liked. It seems that on days when neither the boat or plane land the sellers are much more interested in bargaining. I quickly got the price down from 50,000 CFA to 7,500 CFA (about US$15).
The bus was supposed to depart at four, so at 3:30 we were waiting. At a little before five they were loading the "bus" (it's a passenger van) and at six we were off - for about 20 minutes when we stopped for another hour and a half in Sevoré (where we had started early this morning). Finally cleared the police checkpoint at about nine. We drove until a little before 1 am when we stopped to wait for the border to open (despite the fact that we were told the bus wouldn't have to stop and would drive straight through the night). It was an uncomfortable night trying to sleep in the van, but still a lot better than in a Peugeot 504. Unfortunately I've had just a little too much African life tonight. Lot's of what I'd consider child abuse (the infant in the seat behind us has fallen off his mother or the seat at least four times - and that's the best mother in the group), some of the women are attempting to pee into cups and not aiming well, others (men and women) are just stepping immediately outside the car door and emptying their bladders / bowels, people make no effort to be quiet so others can sleep, and a sprinkling of drunk men just to make things interesting.
