Christmas in Mao

Christmas in Mao was really fun! I got to/had to stay a week because there’s no transport between Mao and Bol except Wednesday, which is market day in both places. I happened to meet up with Patrick and Darren (fellow volunteers in the same general area) in Ngouri. Their truck left Ngouri a little after mine, so we got into Mao at about the same time. That turned out to be a very good thing because we were all detained at the police station for about an hour. Darren had forgotten his passport and embassy badge. He speaks no French and so I had to manage for him and Patrick.

Mao is the ancient seat of the Kanem-Bornu empire (there’s lots online about Kanem-Bornu – it was huge and lasted a long time). It’s up on top of this huge hill/sand dune and you can see for a bajillion miles around it. The vegetation is much more sparse than in Bol. There is an oasis at the bottom of the hill but other than that, there’s only a tree here and then over there a ways. The architecture is a lot older-looking. The houses are made of white sand and look a lot more middle eastern or Egyptian than in Bol. It was really cool to be in such an ancient and historically significant place.