While Detlef and I hitch-hiked across Senegal and Mali the rest of the team were somewhere in Senegal busy with their Luke 10.
Wayne led the team and they took Luke 10 very literally. Taking just enough money to get somewhere into the interior of Senegal and then the train from there to Bamako.
The intense heat in the interior caught them off-guard, as did the poverty of the people. They ended up in a small village where nobody had much food left. Spending a few days there they basically lived of the Mango trees. Here they made this crazy video: http://youtu.be/W070Kt5xI5M
From there they moved closer to the main road and spent some time at an orphanage before they waited for the train at Guidiguir. It was supposed to arrive early morning but it was twelve hours late! Late afternoon the train finally arrived. By now the team was tired and looked forward to a seat of some sort. The team rushed to board since it was supposed to be a short stop, only to discover that coach after coach was full, very full. In fact they discovered that locals were using the passenger coaches to transport goods and each coach was stacked up to window level with biscuits, drinks, chips an whatever you can imagine. The seats were not visible any more!
Exasperated the team didn't know which way and finally chose a random coach. The people were not happy with them since they had to make their way across their biscuits and other goods, accidentally crushing some of it in the process. But they had to get on. Finally everybody, and their backpacks, were on board and scattered here and there across the coach and lying on top of uncomfortable boxes. Tinet couldn't take it any more and burst out into tears.
From there they spent the rest of the night, the following day and the next night on the train! Arriving at around 3 AM in Bamako. Exhausted they flopped down in the first room they could find. From there they found a Baptist Mission where they pitched their tents.
nThis is where we found them. They were drained by the heat, disillusioned by a Luke 10 that didn't go as planned and broken by a rickety old African train! We had some serious debriefing to do!
In those days as we recuperated small things encouraged us. A few blocks of ice sourced at shops to make cold water was like a tasty delicacy. The discovery of a café with air conditioning and rugby on the TV was heavenly. My birthday was during this time and we literally spent the whole day in the café. Watching rugby match after rugby match and eating cake.
By the time we got our visas for Burkina Faso the team was ready to move again.
Below: pictures of the horrific train ride by Tinet.