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We were up and had breakfast before the students started arriving for school, but classes had begun before we left at 9. We completed the 50 km to Man then turned north before arriving at the turn off to Silicora.The last 7 km up the dirt track shook up the truck quite a bit as we lurched and rolled along
the ruts and rocks on the road. Before heading up we filled up with water in a village at the junction with the main road. We arrived at the village with about an hour to spare before lunch. The welcome that awaited us was unbelievable. Dave the Hat had to go off and meat the Chief and get permission to stay there. We paid 10,000 cfa each. By the time he got back there must have been about 50 to a hundred kids, and some adults that surrounded the truck before we even got off, and that set the tone for the afternoon, evening and next morning. They were fascinated. Just stood around watching our every move. The kids, mainly the young boys, got involved in helping set up the tents. Some of the group are really great with the children and immediatelty made friends with the older kids and entertained the younger ones. The babies are often scared by the "white man" which the mothers seem to find quite amusing.
Preferring to do things in smaller groups, after lunch, Sally, Ray and I set off on a walk around the village. it was a wonderful experience and we had a lot of fun. One woman invited us into her hut and we were joined by 4 or so of her friends and their babies. The huts are quite simple. Double beds on either side, and a hanging storage platform in the middle. The cooking, washing, toilet, showers, are all communal and outside. They were delighted to have us inside, and giggled, and laughed, and made us take their pictures, and then giggled and laughed some more when they saw them. We went on our way and saw all the daily activities of the people. There was the carpenter using antique plains and saws to make doors for the huts in the village and his wife braiding a friend's hair; we saw a lady brushing up the cotton to make a hammock; we saw the women pounding the rice to separate the husks; we saw women cooking, women washing clothes, We spent a wonderful time at one of the wells (built with aid). We noticed that the women were taking off their shoes so we did the same much to their amusement - not sure why they did this - immediately we walked up to it, one of the women grabbed us and told us to go with her, so I followed, and she led us to a pool of struggling fish under a mango tree. I think the story was that during the wet season this was a river, but when the dry season came it dried up and left this pool where the fish were captured. Anyway, they told me to take pictures.....so I did!! Then we went back to the well and I had my opportunity to try pumping the water. It was reasonably easy, but the loads these women carry on their heads is amazing. A huge basin filled with water that even one of our guys couldn't pick up. Then we found the school, again built with aid, and the new latrines also supplied by aid. Check out the picture of the church bell, similar to the one we saw in the villages outside Ouga. And of course we saw the chickens, the roosters, the goats and the poo eating pigs. Seriously, the pigs would follow you to the loo then stare at you, and as soon as you got up they would be right into investigate what you had done. One pig stole one of our group's toilet paper, and you could get quite a start when you heard the rustling around you but you weren't sure what it was and it turned out to be a pig!!
Around 4 we headed down to the centre of the village where the drummers were staring to call the villagers together for the festivities. It was a unique process of drumming, blowing the whistle, then all the women slowly arrived in their white tops and navy skirts, still with the babies on their backs. Then the men started to arrive, and the elders. I had the privilege of sitting beside 2 of the elders. No idea how old they were but they seemed ancient, and of course we had to shake everyone's hand. Then the dancing started and two men replicated some bird's dancing; this was followed by the stilt man, all the time accompanied by the drums and requests for money. This got a little tedious because we weren't prepared and didn't have any change to give them. Not sure how it went down, the Chief got a little angry at one stage, but then I think our leader reminded him we had already paid the 10,000 cfa each!! About 2 hours later there was a beautiful "thank you" when the Chief supposedly must have told everyone we had paid, and the women and the men, and the kids and the elders came up and shook our hands and said "thank you". Quite an experience.
Although exciting, it was also an exhausting day, and by the end of it, we were qutie tired. The whole experience really highlighted the difference between our "individual" style of living and their "community" style of living. The kids and others stayed around the truck watching us until probably about 9 p.m. The noise was horrendous! Gemma managed to take them all away from the truck, loose them and sneak back to the truck without them seeing her, and then there was peace. Until 3 am when there was a gun shot, 4 a.m. when the rooster started crowing every hour, and just before 6 the tro tro arrived to take them all to market and the meeting place was right where the truck was.
The adults all seemed very healthy. There were a few deformities among the children, such as extended tummies - probably lack of proper nutrtion, bandy legs which in our society would have been corrected, and exended belly buttons and hernias. Quality of teeth was certainly an issue, but although life was simple in the village everyone seemed very happy and warm and friendly and quantity of food didn't seem an issue. There is lots of fruit (mangoes, pineapple, bananas, avodcados) around and food such as rice, millet, corn, plaintain. Meat and chicken are probably not as plentiful, and therefore probably protein is an issue. The women are noticebly strong, and do a lot of work around the home. I think the men work on the field.
As you walked around the village there was a diistint smell, which is hard to describe but is somewhere between being a sweet smell of the drying elephant grass, a rancid smell of human sweat, and smoke from the fires.
People have asked us "how much opportunity do you get on your overlanding trips to mingle with the people?" I would have to say "a lot". We have met with so many people on this trip, at all different levels, and had small conversations, participated in every day life, and tried doing the daily activities. As an example, on the way back to the highway we stopped once again at the Japanese made well to fill our water tanks. We had so much fun talking with the women and we also had the opportunity to fill up their basins in return for using the well. OK, so I know they are much more expert at doing it than we are, but at least we were able to try and they were trying to show us the technique. Hands on tourism, but in places where tourists are very few and far between.
We were up and had breakfast before the students started arriving for school, but classes had begun before we left at 9. We completed the 50 km to Man then turned north before arriving at the turn off to Silicora.The last 7 km up the dirt track shook up the truck quite a bit as we lurched and rolled along
the ruts and rocks on the road. Before heading up we filled up with water in a village at the junction with the main road. We arrived at the village with about an hour to spare before lunch. The welcome that awaited us was unbelievable. Dave the Hat had to go off and meat the Chief and get permission to stay there. We paid 10,000 cfa each. By the time he got back there must have been about 50 to a hundred kids, and some adults that surrounded the truck before we even got off, and that set the tone for the afternoon, evening and next morning. They were fascinated. Just stood around watching our every move. The kids, mainly the young boys, got involved in helping set up the tents. Some of the group are really great with the children and immediatelty made friends with the older kids and entertained the younger ones. The babies are often scared by the "white man" which the mothers seem to find quite amusing.
Preferring to do things in smaller groups, after lunch, Sally, Ray and I set off on a walk around the village. it was a wonderful experience and we had a lot of fun. One woman invited us into her hut and we were joined by 4 or so of her friends and their babies. The huts are quite simple. Double beds on either side, and a hanging storage platform in the middle. The cooking, washing, toilet, showers, are all communal and outside. They were delighted to have us inside, and giggled, and laughed, and made us take their pictures, and then giggled and laughed some more when they saw them. We went on our way and saw all the daily activities of the people. There was the carpenter using antique plains and saws to make doors for the huts in the village and his wife braiding a friend's hair; we saw a lady brushing up the cotton to make a hammock; we saw the women pounding the rice to separate the husks; we saw women cooking, women washing clothes, We spent a wonderful time at one of the wells (built with aid). We noticed that the women were taking off their shoes so we did the same much to their amusement - not sure why they did this - immediately we walked up to it, one of the women grabbed us and told us to go with her, so I followed, and she led us to a pool of struggling fish under a mango tree. I think the story was that during the wet season this was a river, but when the dry season came it dried up and left this pool where the fish were captured. Anyway, they told me to take pictures.....so I did!! Then we went back to the well and I had my opportunity to try pumping the water. It was reasonably easy, but the loads these women carry on their heads is amazing. A huge basin filled with water that even one of our guys couldn't pick up. Then we found the school, again built with aid, and the new latrines also supplied by aid. Check out the picture of the church bell, similar to the one we saw in the villages outside Ouga. And of course we saw the chickens, the roosters, the goats and the poo eating pigs. Seriously, the pigs would follow you to the loo then stare at you, and as soon as you got up they would be right into investigate what you had done. One pig stole one of our group's toilet paper, and you could get quite a start when you heard the rustling around you but you weren't sure what it was and it turned out to be a pig!!
Around 4 we headed down to the centre of the village where the drummers were staring to call the villagers together for the festivities. It was a unique process of drumming, blowing the whistle, then all the women slowly arrived in their white tops and navy skirts, still with the babies on their backs. Then the men started to arrive, and the elders. I had the privilege of sitting beside 2 of the elders. No idea how old they were but they seemed ancient, and of course we had to shake everyone's hand. Then the dancing started and two men replicated some bird's dancing; this was followed by the stilt man, all the time accompanied by the drums and requests for money. This got a little tedious because we weren't prepared and didn't have any change to give them. Not sure how it went down, the Chief got a little angry at one stage, but then I think our leader reminded him we had already paid the 10,000 cfa each!! About 2 hours later there was a beautiful "thank you" when the Chief supposedly must have told everyone we had paid, and the women and the men, and the kids and the elders came up and shook our hands and said "thank you". Quite an experience.
Although exciting, it was also an exhausting day, and by the end of it, we were qutie tired. The whole experience really highlighted the difference between our "individual" style of living and their "community" style of living. The kids and others stayed around the truck watching us until probably about 9 p.m. The noise was horrendous! Gemma managed to take them all away from the truck, loose them and sneak back to the truck without them seeing her, and then there was peace. Until 3 am when there was a gun shot, 4 a.m. when the rooster started crowing every hour, and just before 6 the tro tro arrived to take them all to market and the meeting place was right where the truck was.
The adults all seemed very healthy. There were a few deformities among the children, such as extended tummies - probably lack of proper nutrtion, bandy legs which in our society would have been corrected, and exended belly buttons and hernias. Quality of teeth was certainly an issue, but although life was simple in the village everyone seemed very happy and warm and friendly and quantity of food didn't seem an issue. There is lots of fruit (mangoes, pineapple, bananas, avodcados) around and food such as rice, millet, corn, plaintain. Meat and chicken are probably not as plentiful, and therefore probably protein is an issue. The women are noticebly strong, and do a lot of work around the home. I think the men work on the field.
As you walked around the village there was a diistint smell, which is hard to describe but is somewhere between being a sweet smell of the drying elephant grass, a rancid smell of human sweat, and smoke from the fires.
People have asked us "how much opportunity do you get on your overlanding trips to mingle with the people?" I would have to say "a lot". We have met with so many people on this trip, at all different levels, and had small conversations, participated in every day life, and tried doing the daily activities. As an example, on the way back to the highway we stopped once again at the Japanese made well to fill our water tanks. We had so much fun talking with the women and we also had the opportunity to fill up their basins in return for using the well. OK, so I know they are much more expert at doing it than we are, but at least we were able to try and they were trying to show us the technique. Hands on tourism, but in places where tourists are very few and far between.
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