Maradi

The region of Maradi enjoys very fertile land, and the region is known for its peanuts, groundnuts, and livestock, and for the Nigerien staples of millet and sorghum. The city also benefits from factories producing cooking oil, plastic bags, and mattresses, and a strategic location along both the country's major east-west highway and along a primary road south to Nigeria. As a result, Maradi has an unusually robust economy for one of the world's poorest countries, and visitors can pick up on kind of a 'boom town' feel as they navigate the city's sprawling market district, stepping around trucks from a half-dozen West African countries and leaping to avoid the swarms of speeding motorcycles. If Maradi isn't Niger's New York, it certainly is Niger's Houston.

Maradi's commercial and industrial identity makes it somewhat less of a draw for most tourists, and while there are many local attractions in the city and in the region that a traveler would find edifying, there are probably few who would view those attractions as being 'worth the trip' (8-10 hours by bus on rough roads from Niamey). Additionally, while international development agencies are prominent in Maradi as they are throughout Niger, the number of foreign aid workers based in the city is much smaller than in Niamey or Zinder, and the presence is far less detectable. As a result, foreigners may find the city far more difficult to visit than places like Niamey, Agadez, or Zinder. This is not because the residents are unfriendly - they are, on the whole, cheerfully welcoming people are delighted to chat with 'nassaru' (fair-skinned people, a word you will here often on your visit). The problem is more that the city has less of a tourist infrastructure than other cities - you will find no 'guides' selling their services in Maradi, and you are far more likely to encounter service providers (especially in restaurants and taxicabs) that don't speak French. However, intrepid travelers (or even those who simply are stuck in town for a night) will find Maradi a lively and entirely pleasant place to visit.

Maradi is on the National Route 1, the main highway between Niamey and the entire southeast of the country (including the cities of Birnin Konni, Zinder, and Diffa, and passing through every administrative region of the country except Agadez). It is also the transportation hub for the region. This makes Maradi as easy and straightforward to travel to as any city in Niger.

Maradi is an easy city to get around in. The city center is very walkable, assuming you wish to brave the heat and the winding morass of unnamed streets. Few streets are named, and even when they are nobody knows them (and certainly not the house numbers on them). When you're taking a taxi or asking for directions, the convention is that you name a landmark near the place you're going to. Each driver's inventory of landmarks is a little different, and he may call the place you're headed something different (or in a different language) than what you or your guidebook think it's called. Most of them know the names of the cultural sites, the major government offices, the hotels, the markets and major stores, the bus stations, the popular bars and restaurants, and so on. If you are making advance arrangements to meet somebody, you might think to ask your party what they tell the taxi to get there. If you know where you're going and are communicating well, you can also give turn-by-turn directions (as you can once you've gotten to your closest landmark); be aware that this is a great loophole for a surprise fare increase (possibly an honest one) as the driver didn't know where he was headed in advance.

• 🌍 Grand Marché. The Grand Marché (Big Market) occupies a two-block area in the center of town; it's a walled-off area studded with gates, so you might not recognize it from the street. Unlike most markets, there is life at here every day of the week, but to really see the orchestrated chaos as the commerce spills out into the surrounding area in all its glory, you should go during the market days, Monday and Friday. The chief attraction of the market is probably the spectacle of the thing; it's the place the locals go to do their shopping, so you won't see much that you would want to buy (though you'll encounter lots of people who would be delighted to sell it to you). One good exception is a corner with a few merchants who sell traditional charms and magic remedies (ask somebody for magani or medicament traditionel); you can get several types of magic charms and traditional jewelry from them, not to mention miles and miles of beads. These are typically extremely cheap and are a great chance to practice your bargaining skills without being out a ton of money, although many of the merchants don't speak French. While you're there, also take a moment to note the collections of traditional medicines and remedies. If you're planning on brushing up on your sorcery, you can find among the piles of herbs and plants things like hedgehog quills, chameleon tails, and even dried monkey heads. They might make fantastic gag gifts, but be forewarned that they are more expensive than you'd guess and that you can legally bring almost none of it back into the US or most European countries. (updated Aug 2017)

• 🌍 Sultan's Palace. The traditional chief for the city of Maradi lives in an impressive palace on a huge plaza on the west side of the city. The palace is visually striking from the outside. The chief's palace is actually his family's private home and the place where he holds court, so it isn't explicitly open to tourists. However, rumor has it that he likes meeting foreigners, so you might be able to charm your way in to watch him hold court, or for a tour or a private audience. A gift (money, or a more traditional gift like kola nuts) might grease the wheels. Even if you get in, expect to be shown to a comfortable chair and be kept waiting for some time (this is likely even if you make an appointment); you should seriously consider finding somebody to give you a primer on the etiquette for encountering a Hausa traditional chief before you try to go. (updated Aug 2017)
• 🌍 Artisans' Center. The Artisans' Center is in the north of the city, and is the workplace for a friendly collection of mostly Tuareg blacksmiths, jewelers, and leatherworkers, as well as a store that sells their wares. The selection at the store is less diverse than what is found elsewhere, perhaps because Maradi is neither a Tuareg city nor a place frequented by tourists, but the prices are more reasonable (although the arrangement where every artisan's wares are sold in the same store makes the prices far less negotiable than it might be elsewhere). The prices are certainly more reasonable than they are at the Guest House, the only other place in Maradi where you can reliably buy pieces of world-famous Tuareg silver jewelry. If you're going to go, though, don't just go to buy stuff. Take the time to go around and watch the artisans working; a lot of their work is fascinating to watch, and they are a very friendly, talkative bunch. If you are invited in for tea, feel free to accept or decline; if you accept, be aware that you will be signing up for one of the strongest caffeine kicks you can get and that it is considered rude to leave before you've had three cups. While you're there, wander across the street and have a look at the Grande Mosque; it isn't the same spectacle as Niamey's or even Tibiri's (see below), but it's worth a visit. (updated Aug 2017)

• Haggle in the market. Bargaining your way through a West African market can be a fantastically entertaining way to spend an afternoon, and if you're looking for a chance to get into the swing of things before you encounter the markets and tourist shops in Niamey or Zinder (where they have more things that you might actually want to buy, but conversely they are also absolutely trying to screw you) then go out for a dry run to buy a mango, a bolt of fabric, or a piece of minor jewelry in the Maradi market or in one of the specialty shops along the market's periphery. Prices here will be less, and the markup you get for bring a foreigner will also be less. Be friendly; bargaining is a social activity, and you'll want to start by asking after the merchant's health and family, just like any other polite conversation. Ask for a price on what you want; often, you'll be asked to pick out everything you want before you get a final quote (the more you buy, the less you'll be charged per item). For food, you can generally give a counter-offer of about 2/3 the quote; for things like textiles you might even try 1/2. Sometimes this will draw a flat-out refusal; in this case, in Niger it's OK to amend your offer; alternately, you might get a counter-offer from the merchant, and the process will continue. If you're trying to get that last discount, consider flattery ("Because you're a good friend!") or the phrase saboda gobe, a Hausa expression implying that you should get a good price because you'll come back tomorrow or recommend the merchant to your friends; your use of this phrase alone will delight many merchants. Unlike in many Asian or Middle Eastern cultures, bargaining in Niger with all but the most shameless of tourist traps should remain a friendly process; do not insult the merchant or his wares (unless the item is legitimately flawed; if you want it anyway, this justifies a discount) and if you sense that the merchant is become legitimately angry with you, then you're driving too hard. Remember that these people are very poor by any standard you relate to; if he puts you out ten extra cents, is it really that big a deal?
• Club Privé. Jump in the pool (the Club's main attraction; lots of expats just call the place 'the pool') or play a few sets of tennis (you may need your own equipment) on the court, or lift weights in the gym. You are supposed to be a paying member to get in, but the owner, Mainassara, is a very nice guy who runs a business and normally you can persuade him to let you in, especially if you buy food, or sell you a day pass. You are very likely to meet both some wealthy Nigerien families and many of the aid workers and expats who live in Maradi, and it's a perfect place to cool down in one of Earth's hottest countries. The menu is expensive but it caters to foreigners, you also can get cold drinks and alcoholic beverages. Some days, in season, he'll even offer to sell you pomelos off the fruit tree in back. The Club is down a side road and past the city limits; either make arrangements to call a taxi, or be prepared to walk about a mile uphill before you reach a point where you'll find one. Incidentally, the 'water scorpions' you are likely to find sharing the pool with you are truly unsettling to look at, but they are not scorpions and they are harmless. If you still can't bear to be in the water with it and you don't have the nerve to touch it, the staff will fish it out for you; this is a daily occurrence.
• Party at the Mess. This used to be the dining room for a military base, hence the name. Now it's one of Maradi's best-known dance clubs, with both afrobeat and international pop and hip-hop selections and a reasonably diverse crowd of locals and expats. It is a little on the pricy side for a night out in Maradi, but is one of the closest things to a Western-style nightclub in a very conservative Muslim town. It is almost directly opposite the Club Privé, and carries with it many of the same transportation concerns. What's more, you're likely to be leaving the Mess in the dead of night on an unlit road through millet fields in which live animal hazards you've never heard of, and probably wearing sandals. Think it through now, while you're sober.
• Festivals. Check your calendar before you visit, or ask around. Niger has a variety of major festivals, and most are based on the Muslim lunar calendar, and so their dates change. Ramadan, the month of fasting, can bring a general slowdown and some sluggishness to Maradi, but if you're lucky enough to be there for Eid, at the end of the month, then you must absolutely take a taxi out to Tibiri, 20 minutes away. Tibiri is the home of the Sarki, one of the most powerful men in traditional Hausa culture, and the plaza in front of his palace becomes the scene of an extravagant festival during Eid, where people come from hundreds of miles around to watch traditional musicians and the palace guard parade and perform pageants on horseback commemorating the king's triumphs over his enemies and celebrating the end of Ramadan. The city also features the region's most impressive mosque, where the prayers will be held in the morning. Likewise, the cuir salee (salted, or dried leather) festival, a traditional Fulani festival, occurs to the north of Dakoro in this region once a year; the festival features traditional wrestling and beauty pageants, among other things, and if you go you may rest assured that you are witnessing something that only a handful of Western eyes have ever seen.
• Chat with anybody and everybody you meet. Hausas, and Nigeriens in general, are incredibly talkative and very friendly. They love talking about themselves and will be happy to learn everything about you. If you take the time to sit and talk with some of the people you meet, you will have the chance to learn everything you ever wanted to know about life in Maradi and in Niger (not to mention about the weather this season, what your friend's grandfather did and is now famous for, and every member of your companion's family, including his one eligible child who you really should marry). If you are exceptionally friendly, you run the risk of being invited back to your companion's house for a lavish dinner and the chance to drink tea and talk into the late hours of the night, and to come out and see his field or his herd in the morning. Rejecting such an offer is difficult without creating hurt feelings, and frankly, establishing such a relationship is probably the best way to get advice on your visit, as well as creating a lasting friendship.
• Wander. Everyday life in a city like Maradi is like nothing you are likely to have seen before, and though you will certainly be noticed, you will not attract a crowd the way you might in some other cities or in the countryside. It is also very safe; there are no 'bad neighborhoods' in the way Westerners understand the concept, so you are unlikely to be at risk if you leave the beaten path. Especially, take a walk through the older quarters around the Chief's palace on the northwest side of the city; you'll get a real feel for an old African city, complete with some colonial-era houses and some very impressive mud houses, including two-story ones with improbable added features like balconies and glass windows.
• Follow nomads. If you are in the area as the rainy season is ending (in October), ask if the nomads are traveling south at the moment. If they are, consider wandering out to the main highway to see them. Many Fulani and Tuareg herders make the journey south through Maradi down to Nigeria, passing on a trail just to the north and west of the city. At the zenith of this migration, you can witness an incredible spectacle as family after family with thousands of goats, sheep, cattle, and camels pass that way, one after the other, more or less exactly as they have for hundreds have years.

• Hausa. It's not just an interesting language for which you might enjoy learning a few key phrases; it really will make your visit to Maradi much easier if you can find somebody to teach it to you. Learning vocabulary for money and commerce is helpful, as is learning some typical greetings. As in most of West Africa, it is impolite in Niger to get down to business without first asking at length about the health and well-being of your companion and his/her immediate family, their work, how the harvest is going, etc.; being able to do this in Hausa will highly endear your to the people you meet, and you will find it working magical effects: Prices will go down, attempts to cheat you will diminish, helpfulness will increase, and rounds of drinks will suddenly disappear from the tab. It is not an understatement to say that learning some basic Hausa will fundamentally change your relationship with the town, and in an entirely positive way.

Maradi is a blue-collar city in one of Earth's least developed countries, so you probably won't find much work that will be worth your while unless you're some sort of Discovery Channel-type wanting to demonstrate to the world. Like most of the world's countries, you can find a huge market for people who want to learn English; you can find decent interest in Chinese and Arabic as well. The amount that any but the absolute wealthiest would be able to pay for the service, however, is very small. If you really, really need an income, your best bet may be to contact the NGOs in Maradi, especially if you have any international development experience or can demonstrate a technical skill. The rumors that getting NGO jobs is difficult are true, but they are primarily true if you get hired as a foreign national. Many NGOs would be very happy to have a Westerner walk in their doors on-site and ask for work at a competitive local salary, having already gotten there at his or her own expense. Even this tactic, however, is more likely to work out for you in Niamey or Zinder, so the best recommendation is probably not to travel to Maradi looking for work if you are a Westerner.

• Traditional Tuareg Handicrafts at the artisanal center. The Tuaregs (and also the Fulani) are internationally known for the quality of their silver and their leatherwork; the Center's store has a decent selection of highly distinctive silver or nickel rings, bracelets, necklaces, and earrings for both men and women. Ask about the Tuareg crosses; they are a common motif, and the story behind them is engaging. The leather briefcases and sandals are surprisingly sturdy, though rarely as comfortable or as practical as you would hope. If you want something truly specific (and have space in your luggage), consider a Tuareg camel saddle, sword, or wallet; these are all things you can spot the Tuaregs around you actually wearing and using in their everyday life, and they typically exemplify the skill and the aesthetic of both the leatherwork and the metalwork.
• Kola nut. If you want to sample Niger's most distinctive vice, buy a kola nut. This famously caffeinated tree fruit was one of the early ingredients in Coca-Cola, and it's astoundingly bitter but has a kick that will cause you to never respect your morning coffee again. Kola nuts typically break apart quite naturally into cloves, and many Nigeriens that socially chew goro, as it's known, typically buy only one and share. Dare to eat a whole one only in the early morning, or before your trans-Atlantic flight. Unlike street food, kola nuts are not washed; take it with you and wash it carefully (ideally with a little bleach in the water) or at least peel it (not as foolproof) before you eat it. The flesh has an interesting tendency to turn orange when exposed to air. Kola nuts are a very traditional gift for invited guests at weddings and baptisms.
• Mortar and Pestle. Maradi (and particular the town of Guidan Roumdji, just to the northwest) are widely thought by the locals to sell the best-crafted mortars and pestles in Niger. Most of them are quite large, used by women and girls in the country to grind flour by hand and in industrial quantities all day (the deep thump-thump-thump of this activity is a constant ambient noise in villages; try it once and you'll develop an instant sympathy for them), but they sell smaller ones for crushing vegetables to make thick Nigerien sauces. If you can find a small one and you have the space in your bag, they are actually worth getting; they are infinitely smarter in their design than the European-style ones you find in stores, and your experience with making guacamole might be changed forever.

Maradi is at the heart of a highly conservative, Muslim region of West Africa - so much so that their fellow Hausas across the border in Nigeria have instituted Sharia law in their communities. While the Hausa areas of Niger (as well as their countrymen) have resisted the urge to follow along, it wouldn't be a stretch to claim that you will meet almost nobody who will admit to you that they ever consume alcoholic beverages, and most of them are telling the truth. As a result, beer and wine are difficult to come by. However, the number of foreign nationals (as well as the more moderate bureaucrats and technical workers from the western part of the country) coupled with the Hausa entrepreneurial spirit (as strong as anywhere you'll find) means you can rest assured that when you're ready to relax with that beer, your desire can be fulfilled.

There is one liquor store in the city as of this writing that is run by a couple of agreeable gentlemen who claim to never touch their own product. It is in an unmarked, gray building with a colonnaded front walk opposite the northwest corner of the Grand Marché; facing the building, it's the door farthest to the left. Their hours are variable and unpredictable. A can or bottle of beer might be 600-700 FCFA; a bottle of name-brand spirits costs about what it might in the United States ($12-30). On most days, you will be able to find a couple of types of import beer, some cheap wine, and a few bottles of low-cost, hangover-inducing French spirits (Bony's, who has a line that includes gin, whiskey, and pastis among other things). You can often, but not always, often find a bottle or two of the labels you know; many of the shop's clients are foreigners, so they seem to try to keep inventory. Beefeater gin, Jack Daniel's, and Typhoon rum are common options. Braniger, the national bottler, also does sell beer, but they are the distributor for the country's restaurants: You need an account and must be willing to buy by the flat - one hopes you aren't that desperate.

In the early afternoon, your safest bets for a beer are the restaurant at the Guest House and a slightly more expensive (but highly agreeable) one poolside at the Club Privé. In the evening (read: after sunset prayers), the bars start to open at places like the Jardin (which also sells cheap spirits and liquor) and the Airport, followed by Maradi's clubs around 22:00 or 23:00.

Do not get completely smashed in public in Maradi unless you have your own way home (and, obviously, a driver). Many locals view drunkenness as negatively as they do drink, and there are plenty of anecdotes about taxi drivers who refused to carry somebody who seemed intoxicated. Nigeriens are often more indulgent of foreigners, but don't push your luck too far.

This may not be the normal sense of 'drink' in a guidebook, but as Niger is one of the world's hottest countries, it probably deserves a mention: Drink lots of fluids if you're out wandering. The street is lined with guys with refrigerators to help you meet this goal: you can get water that has historically been safe to drink in sealed and labeled plastic bags for a matter of cents (you take your health into your hands if you accept water or juice in an unmarked, tied-off bag instead; you'll save a few cents but it isn't worth it). You can also find a normal array of Coca-cola products, and a few stores stock Pepsi products and some local sodas that are brought up from Nigeria. Strangely, if your drink came from Nigeria it will be cheaper, and the Nigerian sodas are much cheaper; try a 'Teem', it's like Sprite and quite tasty.

There are only a few hotels in Maradi, and none of what might be truly considered 'budget' hotels. Nigeriens are not avid travelers, as a general rule, and when they do travel, most make arrangements for accommodation with the family member, friend, agency, or co-worker that they are traveling to visit (tourism for the sake of tourism is a concept foreign to most Nigeriens; you are likely to be regarded with a touch of confusion or even interested surprise if you explain that this is what you're doing). For this reason, many of the aid and missionary organizations that work in Maradi have their own accommodations for their people when they are in town; if you happen to have a connection to such an organization, you might do well to inquire, although many of these agencies have fairly strict standards of use.

• 🌍 The Guesthouse, ☏ +227 20 410 754. Most expensive and also nicest hotel in Maradi. 
• 🌍 Hotel Jangorzo, ☏ +227 20 410 140. Also pricey, but also nice. 

Internet infrastructure has developed in Maradi to the point where cyber cafes have become a reasonable business option, though the connection is often slow (typically, they have multiple computers using single connections, so even places advertising a high-speed connection have this problem) and very few have generators, so they are at the mercy of Maradi's frequent power failures. Most of the cyber-cafes are around the market: A Boy Scout-style youth group, GARKUWA, runs one a block west of the main gate of the market; there is another one on the market's west edge, and one on the south. The most prominent one is located in the Ecobank building on the market's southeast corner.

Public phones are available throughout the city; typically, they are in shops with white-and-blue "Cabine Telephonique" signs (don't take "cabine" too literally; you're just as likely to find market stalls telephoniques or even coffee tables telephoniques) where an attendant charges you by the minute on a largely reliable land-line telephone. You also can occasionally find people who charge you to make calls on their cellular phones, though this is more common in villages.

If you need emergency services, they can be called to come to you, but you're far better off going to them if at all possible (summoning help is a slow process; fire trucks and ambulances may need gas before they can be sent out, and nobody knows the phone number for these agencies anyway as there is no 911 or 999 service). Taxi and moto-taxi drivers typically know the police station (which is just west down the street from the main gate of the market), the hospital (a landmark itself, probably 0.5 km southwest from the market) and the fire station (probably 2 km south of the market). If you have serious injuries, most taxi drivers and private drivers are pretty charitable about getting you to help and securing payment after the fact, if at all.

Maradi is a highly safe city inhabited by friendly, helpful people and you can reasonably expect to get through your stay without experiencing anything worse than a scam or a petty theft. In particular, you will find Maradi to be a pleasant break from the tourist-targeting con artists that haunt the hotels and markets in places like Niamey and Agadez. Still, be smart: It is a city, and all kinds of people live there. Being an obvious foreigner (assuming you are) makes you less of a target than you are in several other Nigerien cities, but don't worsen your odds by wandering around alone, drunk, and conspicuously wealthy. Hide the 10,000 FCFA notes (or better, change them for denominations actually used on the street, if you can), keep your money in two or three places on your person, and be respectful of local culture.

Foreigners get flirted with all the time, and on-the-spot marriage proposals are fairly common and probably harmless. You should be polite and friendly (and you may reasonably assume that the proposal is largely humorous or facetious in its intent), but don't do things to encourage it like dressing immodestly (men or women), or giving out your cell phone number or hotel room to people you just met on the street (and they will ask).

A simmering Tuareg rebellion in the north of the country comes and goes; you can travel all through the south of the country and never know it was happening beyond maybe passing a convoy on the road. The rebellion has been connected to a bomb attack in Maradi, Tahoua, and Niamey in 2008, but that incident was a shocking and isolated incident. Similarly, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) continues to be active in western Niger as of 2019. So far, incidents in Niger have almost exclusively occurred in the north and west of the country - there was a failed kidnapping attempt on US embassy workers in Tahoua, and a few tourists, aid workers, and diplomatic staff have been snatched, almost entirely in the Tillaberi region; at least one French hostage was killed. The situation is dynamic, and you should contact your embassy or diplomatic service before arriving to get an update.

The biggest threats to your safety in Maradi are not human in nature. Stings from Maradi scorpions and spiders are not normally lethal, but they are painful, and even in the city center you might find a snake from time to time (Nigeriens hate them and will kill them upon finding one). Many of the streets get turned over to wild and semi-wild dogs late at night. The most dangerous animal in the city, however, is without doubt the mosquito. Your guidebook says that Maradi is an arid or semi-arid climate, but the city (more than most in Niger) is lousy with mosquitoes, and the Falciparium strain of malaria they carry is the most virulent and lethal in the world (not to mention less deadly but equally unpleasant illnesses such as dengue fever). During the rainy season (June–August) in particular, the numbers explode and turn the area into a buzzing, itchy purgatory on earth. Repellent helps, and at the Guest House, at least, your bed should have a mosquito net, but know that malaria is largely responsible for Niger's truly obscene child mortality rate and that several foreign aid workers each year stagger (or are carried) into local hospitals each year, where they die without ever regaining consciousness. If you're going to visit, follow what your guidebook is already telling you and get on a good malaria pill before you arrive.

It is a good idea to carry medical evacuation (medivac) coverage as part of your travel insurance.

Maradi can really be a full-blown sensory onslaught, and to a casual traveler there isn't much in the way of escape from it. Worse, it's a grueling ten hours to Niamey and several hours including a border crossing to Kano (to a foreign tourist, neither of which are the most relaxing of places themselves), so when you consider the sinking feeling that you're in over your head, you also come to realize how hard it's going to be to get out of Dodge. The best, and truest advice for a traveler to Maradi is that if you are easily overwhelmed or prone to paralyzing culture shock, this is probably not the place to visit.

That said, there is a decently-sized crowd of foreign nationals that calls Maradi home, including missionaries and aid workers from the United States, France, China, Lebanon, New Zealand, Japan, and elsewhere. As a whole, they are exceptionally compassionate, friendly, and welcoming, and some of them have lived full-time in Maradi for 15 or 20 years. If you are in desperate need of help (or just a place to hide from it all for a while), you can often bump in to some of these folks in the nicer grocery stores around the market, at the Guest House, or down by the pool. Many of these folks are extremely kind and gracious and are willing to help travelers in need, even if all you need is to hear your native language spoken for a little while.

You can stop over in Maradi for a short visit (or just a good night's rest) en route to or from Zinder or Diffa, or use Maradi as a jumping-off point to cross the border into Nigeria on your way to Katsina or Kano. There is supposed to be a Nigerien consulate in Kano; there is no consulate for Nigeria in Maradi, so you'll need to have any necessary documents before you arrive. It may or may not be possible to transit north towards Agadez from Maradi; if it is possible, the method will be neither straightforward nor pleasant (i.e. a series of bush taxis on desert tracks), so you're better off trying it in Zinder or, better yet, from Konni, where you can take the bus.