{"id":1321,"date":"2010-03-25T14:08:52","date_gmt":"2010-03-25T14:08:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/?p=1321"},"modified":"2020-10-26T13:40:51","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T13:40:51","slug":"arrival-in-djenne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/blog\/2010\/03\/25\/arrival-in-djenne\/","title":{"rendered":"Arrival in Djenn\u00e9"},"content":{"rendered":"

We arrive in Djenn\u00e9 as the sun is going down, after a gruelling 14 hour bus ride from Bamako.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/span>The Ball arrives in Djenn\u00e9… The ferry crossing.<\/small><\/div>\n

Djenn\u00e9 is basically an island surrounded by the Bani river, a tributary of the Niger. To access Djenn\u00e9, one needs to take a short ferrry ride across the Bani and then a meadering dirt-road into town. The town is a wonderfully close-knit collection of fantasy mud buildings. The central element in this deeply religious muslim community is the world’s largest mud building — the Grand Mosqu\u00e9e. As the sun rapidly and vertically descends, we enter town through a tiny windy road and the side streets look perfect for a pied-piper style kickabout. We are beaming. What potential! Tomorrow awaits.<\/p>\n

Our Dutch bus pulls up in the main square, immediately in front of the Grand Mosqu\u00e9e. We have been dreaming about visiting this place for years. Yet just a few days ago it was looking like we wouldn’t have the opportunity after all. Special Olympics, overwhelmed with enthusiasm for The Ball’s arrival, had planned a schedule so full of events that we were going to have to skip it. Christian put his foot down: “You guys are<\/em> going to Djenn\u00e9. If you don’t go it’s like visiting Paris and not seeing the Eiffel Tower. Or going to London and not watching a Hammers game.” How dare we not visit Djenn\u00e9!<\/p>\n

\"Phil<\/a><\/span>Phil fixes a net for The Ball to Andrew’s backpack<\/small><\/div>\n

We clamber out of the bus and are immediately surrounded by a swarm of people. Some want to sell us food, others are tour guides for Djenn\u00e9 and the Dogon Country trying to hook us, others are hungry children begging for money. The scene is a familiar one, but what follows is not. The Ball is in its net on Andrew’s back. It is the net that Phil carried The Ball in in 2002 and modified in Bamako to fit Andrew’s backpack. Andrew decides to take The Ball out and pass it to some of the kids. This has been the usual case in Mali.<\/p>\n

But this time there is a misunderstanding. The kids assume that The Ball is a gift. In no time, about thirty of them are fighting tooth and nail for it. A dust cloud envelops us all. The locals are watching on with interest. It is getting nasty. There are pushes here and even punches there. Andrew, realising his error, goes in after The Ball. And eventually recovers it. But no without a fight…<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/span>The Ball held high in the air after a football riot in front of the mosque.<\/small><\/div>\n

We soon discover that the children here are actually used to being gifted balls<\/em> by foreigners. It seems that many of the tourist guidebooks recommend giving a football to a child. Mali, like the rest of Africa, is football mad, but these kids are too poor to buy their own footballs. We decide that, in future, before The Ball is unveiled, we must first attempt to explain what The Ball is all about.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/span>Cleaning The Ball<\/small><\/div>\n

Long journeys, desert dust and open sewers have left The Ball feeling and smelling terrible. It is now dirty — very dirty — and it gets a thorough clean in Djenn\u00e9. It scrubs up well after its recent ordeals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We arrive in Djenn\u00e9 as the sun is going down, after a gruelling 14 hour bus ride from Bamako. Djenn\u00e9 is basically an island surrounded by the Bani river, a tributary of the Niger. To access Djenn\u00e9, one needs to take a short ferrry ride across the Bani and then a meadering dirt-road into town. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[210,18,232],"tags":[96,76,48,49],"class_list":["post-1321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mali-countries","category-the-ball","category-the-journey","tag-djenne","tag-mali","tag-peril","tag-rescue"],"geo":{"latitude":13.90555570000000074060153565369546413421630859375,"longitude":-4.55499980000000004309868018026463687419891357421875,"description":"Djenn\u00e9"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2010\/03\/mali_djenne_mosque_ball.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1321"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3380,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1321\/revisions\/3380"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}