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We were up and on our way around 8:30 a.m. trying to capture as much of the morning coolness as we could before heading into the heat of the day. This was a "long drive" day. We set off just before 8:30 and drove for an hour or so until we got to Faranah where, being on cook duty again our trio set off to do the shopping. Lean pickings. It is hard to find variety and our diet does not contain the Canada Food Guide nutrients. The first thing we came to was a stall with live chickens. Not sure I would have been the "leader" on this but we selected two brown hens and arranged to pick them up ready to cook when we finished our shopping. We walked all around the market, only medium insanity this time and we found the women very delightful. We had decided to do a stir fry with noodles, if we could find noodles as opoosed to rice or pasta. In luck we found packets of tiny noodles which required about 3 mins of cooking and bought 4. Next came the veggies. We discovered some very fresh lettuce and got that for lunch. The hunt was on for tomatoes and shortly we discovered a stall with a limited number of eatable condition tomatoes. Where once all this stuff was plentiful, now it is in low supply and buying food for 17 often means we take everything the vendor has for sale. Trying to find suitable veg for the stir fry was hard and we ended up with a butternut squash which was bright orange inside and red and green egg plant. onions, and garlic. Not bad. When we cooked it we added some peanut butter and it turned out to be quite a delicious meal. We finished off our shopping with fresh eggs, and fruit for breakfast - pineapple, oranges, bananas, and some avocados for lunch. We had two interesting exchanges in the market. We wanted to get some ginger for the stir fry and noticed some for sale lying on a mat on the ground as we scouted a little market side street. Annie asked how much and after receiving a reply that sounded way too much, we discovered the lady was "giving" them to us. Just another act of African kindness. So first Annie gave her a big hug, then I gave her a big hug, and then Dave gave her a big hug all to the delight of the sellers around who were by this stage laughing and chattering and creating quite a commotion. Then there were the chickens. Our big mistake was not to have left one of our group to "supervise". Time means different things in different cultures. Time controls the white man, he is bound by dates, deadlines, and accomplishments all controlled by time. To the African, time is manipulated by man and is purely dependent on man, so hence when we got back the chickens although decapitated and haning to bleed, were otherwise unready. So, I sat down and waited while they boiled the water to de-feather them. The woman disappeared across the road and arrived back with a small charcoal grate with alive coals on which to boil the water. We waited for the water to bubble. Then one of the guys took over the de-feathering. When the water was hot enough, the chickens were dunked in it and most of the feathers came off while the remainng ones were plucked off by hand. They would have cooked them for us ....if we had had time..... so, we headed back to the truck with whole chickens minus only feathers. At night we boiled the chckens and courageous Dave cut off of the head, feet, and cleaned out the insides. tI am grateful to the little brown hens who spent the last moments of their lives traumatised while waiting their death in a hen net on the main street of Faranah. They provided some much needed protein of the highest quality.
On the way out of town we saw the airport built by a former President for a Concord to land on. He was in the habit of renting a Concorde and wanted to be able to land it in his home town. The egos of some of the African dictators/leaders often burdens their countries with useless debt.
There were no other significant events in the day. We travelled the worst roads on earth through beautiful but remote parts of southern Guinea. At one point we came across some little boys filling in the pot holes on the road. Dave stopped to dash them. This could be a new business. Get the kids to fill in the holes in the road and charge the truckers a small fee as they go by. This would give the kids a few dollars, save the truckers loads of money, and probably improve the economy in the country!! Did I tell you the leader of the military was killed in a plane crash in which the Presidente was suspected of playing a part? This resuilted in the flags flying at half mast and a little concern for unrest in the country, but so far all is well.
We found another neat little campsite just off the road in the evening (the Honey Bee stop-) , where we once again put on a show for the locals. They are fascinated with us. They clearly don't see many white people and those they do see are probably business people involved in aid projects in the country, mining, or infrastructure construction. The area we chose seemed to be part of the honey production process. Hanging in the trees were cylindrical baskets - full of bees! Poor Dave got stung under his shirt while sitting around the camp fire at night. You might be confused, Dave the Hatter and Jimmy are our crew. Any other names mentioned are fellow travellers.
One of the hazards of camnping is the "lost tent syndrome". I experienced this the other night when I ended up searching in the dark for my tent. Fortunately, I came across some of the girls going to bed who directed me in the right direction. Last night Ray got up in the night only to find Dave wandering around discombobulated in search of his tent.
One of the hazards of travelling in malaria infested countries is taking the preventative drug larium. Although quite effective, it is renowned for causing nightmares. Takers tolerate it at different levels, but I gather from some of the stories at breakfast that it is somewhat akin to taking halucinatory drugs. I think the closest I got was taking demoral to cure stomach pain after an early morning house call from my doctor - about 30 years!!
We were up and on our way around 8:30 a.m. trying to capture as much of the morning coolness as we could before heading into the heat of the day. This was a "long drive" day. We set off just before 8:30 and drove for an hour or so until we got to Faranah where, being on cook duty again our trio set off to do the shopping. Lean pickings. It is hard to find variety and our diet does not contain the Canada Food Guide nutrients. The first thing we came to was a stall with live chickens. Not sure I would have been the "leader" on this but we selected two brown hens and arranged to pick them up ready to cook when we finished our shopping. We walked all around the market, only medium insanity this time and we found the women very delightful. We had decided to do a stir fry with noodles, if we could find noodles as opoosed to rice or pasta. In luck we found packets of tiny noodles which required about 3 mins of cooking and bought 4. Next came the veggies. We discovered some very fresh lettuce and got that for lunch. The hunt was on for tomatoes and shortly we discovered a stall with a limited number of eatable condition tomatoes. Where once all this stuff was plentiful, now it is in low supply and buying food for 17 often means we take everything the vendor has for sale. Trying to find suitable veg for the stir fry was hard and we ended up with a butternut squash which was bright orange inside and red and green egg plant. onions, and garlic. Not bad. When we cooked it we added some peanut butter and it turned out to be quite a delicious meal. We finished off our shopping with fresh eggs, and fruit for breakfast - pineapple, oranges, bananas, and some avocados for lunch. We had two interesting exchanges in the market. We wanted to get some ginger for the stir fry and noticed some for sale lying on a mat on the ground as we scouted a little market side street. Annie asked how much and after receiving a reply that sounded way too much, we discovered the lady was "giving" them to us. Just another act of African kindness. So first Annie gave her a big hug, then I gave her a big hug, and then Dave gave her a big hug all to the delight of the sellers around who were by this stage laughing and chattering and creating quite a commotion. Then there were the chickens. Our big mistake was not to have left one of our group to "supervise". Time means different things in different cultures. Time controls the white man, he is bound by dates, deadlines, and accomplishments all controlled by time. To the African, time is manipulated by man and is purely dependent on man, so hence when we got back the chickens although decapitated and haning to bleed, were otherwise unready. So, I sat down and waited while they boiled the water to de-feather them. The woman disappeared across the road and arrived back with a small charcoal grate with alive coals on which to boil the water. We waited for the water to bubble. Then one of the guys took over the de-feathering. When the water was hot enough, the chickens were dunked in it and most of the feathers came off while the remainng ones were plucked off by hand. They would have cooked them for us ....if we had had time..... so, we headed back to the truck with whole chickens minus only feathers. At night we boiled the chckens and courageous Dave cut off of the head, feet, and cleaned out the insides. tI am grateful to the little brown hens who spent the last moments of their lives traumatised while waiting their death in a hen net on the main street of Faranah. They provided some much needed protein of the highest quality.
On the way out of town we saw the airport built by a former President for a Concord to land on. He was in the habit of renting a Concorde and wanted to be able to land it in his home town. The egos of some of the African dictators/leaders often burdens their countries with useless debt.
There were no other significant events in the day. We travelled the worst roads on earth through beautiful but remote parts of southern Guinea. At one point we came across some little boys filling in the pot holes on the road. Dave stopped to dash them. This could be a new business. Get the kids to fill in the holes in the road and charge the truckers a small fee as they go by. This would give the kids a few dollars, save the truckers loads of money, and probably improve the economy in the country!! Did I tell you the leader of the military was killed in a plane crash in which the Presidente was suspected of playing a part? This resuilted in the flags flying at half mast and a little concern for unrest in the country, but so far all is well.
We found another neat little campsite just off the road in the evening (the Honey Bee stop-) , where we once again put on a show for the locals. They are fascinated with us. They clearly don't see many white people and those they do see are probably business people involved in aid projects in the country, mining, or infrastructure construction. The area we chose seemed to be part of the honey production process. Hanging in the trees were cylindrical baskets - full of bees! Poor Dave got stung under his shirt while sitting around the camp fire at night. You might be confused, Dave the Hatter and Jimmy are our crew. Any other names mentioned are fellow travellers.
One of the hazards of camnping is the "lost tent syndrome". I experienced this the other night when I ended up searching in the dark for my tent. Fortunately, I came across some of the girls going to bed who directed me in the right direction. Last night Ray got up in the night only to find Dave wandering around discombobulated in search of his tent.
One of the hazards of travelling in malaria infested countries is taking the preventative drug larium. Although quite effective, it is renowned for causing nightmares. Takers tolerate it at different levels, but I gather from some of the stories at breakfast that it is somewhat akin to taking halucinatory drugs. I think the closest I got was taking demoral to cure stomach pain after an early morning house call from my doctor - about 30 years!!
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