Our Trip to Dogon Country And More (by Thom)

Wow! What a trip! Amanda and I went with our friends, Stan and Jaynee Walker, to the cliff dwellings near Sangha, Mali. Sangha is located in Dogon Country, an area of Mali where people have lived in the cliffs for centuries. Unlike the Native American cliff dwellings in the American Southwest, these are still inhabited. Dogon Country is a far drive from Bamako. We left at 7 am, and didn’t arrive in Sangha until about 6 pm, and early the next morning we went out to tour the cliffs. We rented a guide, which you really need to do here to appreciate the area. What we saw was amazing! People live today at the base of the cliffs still, often having to climb the steep ascent of about ¼ mile several times a day carrying water uphill. Life is still very primitive there, with very few traces of outside influence. Further up the sheer faces of the cliffs are the remains of a previous tribe of people to lived there. They had to climb up ropes to go home, sometimes climbing 500 feet or more! Again, water and food would have to go up the ropes as well.

One of the interesting things we saw was that some people have left the cliffs to live in the valley. This is very important because the people tie the cliffs to their animistic beliefs. To move to the valley is to renounce all faith they have in their idol worship. There have been Christian & Missionary Alliance missionaries in this area before, and the influence they had here is striking, praise the Lord!

After our trip to Sangha, we went to Koutiala and toured the new hospital. When Amanda and I visited for the dedication, we weren’t able to go inside. This was our first time to see inside since early November: what a difference! You could really see what is going to happen there.

I’ve posted pictures of our whole trip at our picture page, so please stop by. If you have any questions, please email us at mcmali@gmail.com .