I am going to Jenne-jeno, it is a important African city that thrives off trade. My boat glides down the Niger river towards the city of Jenne-jeno. The city has a rather small wall by European standards, about 13 feet high.When my boat docks I walk up to the city, a guard questions me about my intentions inside the city, I tell him that I am a traveler touring the city which is incredibly close to the truth.
I walk past the wall towards the center of the city, on the way there I walk past the trading center.On the way through I happen to see a gold ring being traded for a small block of salt. It astounds me to see the value of salt, but it makes sense, salt is very rare in this area and it has many uses like keeping the body healthy.
As I continue into the city center I see a group of people huddling around a small stand shouting OOO and AHHH. I walk up interested in what is going on, when I get close enough to see whats going on I see a blacksmith with singed clothing hammering on a piece of red hot metal. In Jenne-jeno, the people here believe that blacksmiths are magical, they are often asked to perform healing and to tell the future, they are also used as political leaders and judges.
Jenne-jeno was built during the third century B.C. it existed for more than 1,600 years.The city had a population of about 20,000 during ancient times. At first it's houses were made from poles arranged in a circular fashion but later it evolved into mud brick houses.
I am done here for now, but I am yearning for food, on the way towards the gate I buy some food with the coins that TTI supplied me with. I walk through the gate and to my docked boat, I untie it and float downstream, once I am out of sight from the city I time travel back to the present.
Friday, December 16, 2011
Friday, December 2, 2011
M4
I'm walking in the middle of the desert with a bunch of smelly camels. I have joined a Bedouin caravan crossing the Rub Al Khali Desert. We have animal supplies that we traded for with a clan of nomad herders. Our bags are full of goat and sheep hair, we have also brought some live animals trade for other supplies. After walking for two weeks our water is running out, we expected to find more oases than we did. A couple miles after we lost our first goat we see a patch of green on the horizon, when we get closer we see that it is a oasis, we drink our fill and fill our water skins and set out again.
On the next day it started to get very windy, every once and a while a dust devil would pop up and blow us all over. Around midday a giant dust cloud formed directly in our path, we increase our pace to try and make more progress before we hit the sandstorm. Even before we get to the storm the strong winds are buffeting us side to side, pulling at our close and burying us knee deep in sand. We wrap clothes around our head to protect us from inhaling any sand, just leaving our eyes visible. Continuing to struggle against the wind, we entered into the main body of the sandstorm.
It was horrible, one minute you would be walking into the wind, in the next minute the wind direction would change trowing you onto the ground then burying you in a foot of sand. Soon I was out of water still stumbling along in the general direction that I started, hopefully. After what seemed like hours the winds slowed and the storm moved on, and I was left there panting on the ground, not strong enough to pick myself up and keep walking, slowly closed my eyes to the harsh desert sun.
I woke up to the friendly sight of the face's on the other members of the caravan. While I was unconscious they had been dripping water into mouth so when I moved I got the precious liquid all over my face. They told me that that had been a especially fierce storm and that we were all lucky to be alive. It took a couple of hours to gather all of our camels, many of which were laying in the shadow of a sand dune, but we got them upright once more, and we were off again.
Our destination, the city of Makkah loomed on the horizon. I made it, through a sandstorm, and almost died of dehydration but I made it. I felt stronger after the journey, mentally and physically because I had accomplished an almost impossible goal.
On the next day it started to get very windy, every once and a while a dust devil would pop up and blow us all over. Around midday a giant dust cloud formed directly in our path, we increase our pace to try and make more progress before we hit the sandstorm. Even before we get to the storm the strong winds are buffeting us side to side, pulling at our close and burying us knee deep in sand. We wrap clothes around our head to protect us from inhaling any sand, just leaving our eyes visible. Continuing to struggle against the wind, we entered into the main body of the sandstorm.
It was horrible, one minute you would be walking into the wind, in the next minute the wind direction would change trowing you onto the ground then burying you in a foot of sand. Soon I was out of water still stumbling along in the general direction that I started, hopefully. After what seemed like hours the winds slowed and the storm moved on, and I was left there panting on the ground, not strong enough to pick myself up and keep walking, slowly closed my eyes to the harsh desert sun.
I woke up to the friendly sight of the face's on the other members of the caravan. While I was unconscious they had been dripping water into mouth so when I moved I got the precious liquid all over my face. They told me that that had been a especially fierce storm and that we were all lucky to be alive. It took a couple of hours to gather all of our camels, many of which were laying in the shadow of a sand dune, but we got them upright once more, and we were off again.
Our destination, the city of Makkah loomed on the horizon. I made it, through a sandstorm, and almost died of dehydration but I made it. I felt stronger after the journey, mentally and physically because I had accomplished an almost impossible goal.
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