Thursday, January 13, 2011
Death-Defying Expedition of Wonderment & Discovery
Written by
Chad
Even though mankind follows the seven-days-in-a-week rule, our sister village across the gorge has market every five days. So, each time we correctly calculate this clumsy interval, we go through our market day routine: rise and shine, slurp down our instant coffee, trade out our pajamas for dress casual, and kick open the double doors. Time to embark once again into the throes of danger, to scale the canyon, to buy carrots.
As we make our way out of village, we greet women wearing multi-gallon bowls like hats and kids kicking ragged balls in the dust. We shout our Jula greeting "ani sogoma" to everyone within earshot. Oftentimes, a neighbor waves us down, waylaying our galavant with an invitation to kick back in hammock chairs and sip some tea.
Here, tea parties are not rendezvouses solely attended by little girls and their teddy bears. It's adult men who crowd around their meticulously maintained tea sets, pouring an intensely potent Chinese blend into shot glasses. Once brewed, the teapartiers repeatedly pour it from one cup to another, aiming to maximize frothiness. The ultimate mark of a Burkinabe renaissance man, I've learned, is his proclivity for producing an excessively frothy brew. The target ratio appears to be 75 percent foam to 25 percent tea.
Exiting the village, we tread through a papaya grove and past a big termite mound, coming face to face with the half-mile-wide gorge. At the precipice you can look across from either side and see the stone buildings and tin roofs of the adjacent villages. Looking down, it's all treetops. This marks the ideal spot for the hundred-foot zipline I've been dreaming about, should they ever decide to convert the gorge into an amusement park. A zipline or maybe a bungee jump.
The farther you descend into the belly of the canyon, the more tropical greenhousey it gets. The creek in the middle, surrounded by an orchard of banana trees, is passable in winter by way of a two-log bridge. Come rainy season, however, if you're not Michael Phelps, it's best to just bike the three-mile detour. Down in the ravine, women are always washing their clothes. The hodgepodge way they lay out their clothes to dry makes it look like somebody's hamper exploded.
We saw a snake down here last time, but it saw my muscular physique and wisely fled the confrontation. It was hardly the life-flashing-before-one's-eyes kind of safari moment that one leaves his birth continent to chase. But wait, stay on the edge of your seat: by night there is danger afoot in the gorge! The creek is home to a band of nocturnal hungry hippos who consider the nearby cornfields an all-you-can-eat buffet. Tana and I are in talks to assemble a hippo-watching troupe. We will scale trees on summer mornings and train our binoculars on the depths of the creek. Just as birdwatching enthusiasts call themselves "birders," history will know us as "hippers."
Not to mention, there are these giant komodo dragon-esque reptiles called monitors. Modern-day dinosaurs. Tana was lucky enough to see one at a restaurant in November. Her local counterpart and mentor Ibrahim is to monitors what Steve Irwin was to crocodiles, minus the Australian accent. When Ibrahim captures a monitor, an entire family can eat from all the meat. Ibrahim has vowed to let us sample this delicacy following his next hunt. That's an especially awesome bullet point on my bucket list.
The ascent to the destination town involves climbing narrow red clay footholds. Pretty steep and not yet wheelchair accessible. Market is about as busy as Wal-Mart on Black Friday. It's a sea of people cramming through a tight labyrinth of unlabeled products. To avoid head trauma, you have to limbo under the protruding sticks of the vendors' wooden huts. At times it feels like traversing the tubes and ball pits at a McDonald's playplace.
All around you are tons of unidentifiable meats and colored powders in baggies. Products of all shapes and sizes and species. A table full of dried anchovies reminds me of the fishhead on my plate the other night that I respectfully declined, citing lack of courage. They also sell rocks here you're supposed to eat (especially pregnant women, we're told). I might as well try that while Uncle Sam's footing my dental bill.
Wow, I just realized this entry is way too long. I promise I'm not trying to punish you for caring about our whereabouts and whathaveyous. I just need to stop having thoughts, that's all. Maybe take up a hobby like widdling figurines out of soap.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
There was a day when you would rather eat rocks than broccoli. I guess nothing's changed?
I'll live vicariously thru your monitor feast. Let us know how that turns out.
Chip
"Hippers" or "Hipsters"
Dear Chad, Please write a book upon your return. I absolutely love your writing style. I can read your posts forever.
I miss you both so much. I hope Burkina Faso is treating you well. From the looks of it, you guys are having an amazing time. I cannot believe the holidays have come and gone. The holiday celebrations were not the same without you guys. On a sad note, we found out that Rick's dad has cancer (blood cancer) centralized in his legs. He's been in the hospital for quite a while battling things like 2 fractured vertebrates and pneumonia. He's a trooper. It's only a matter of time before he's back on his feet. Recovery is just painfully slow. Rick is about to embark on real estate school so that he can immediately take over all property management for Open Door Reality and one day run the family business. Teaching 3rd grade is extremely rewarding but equally exhausting. The SOL's will be the death of my enthusiasm. My break was wasted on having my wisdom teeth removed. The first of many steps towards braces. Maybe you'll be lucky enough to miss my awful lisp. Swim Champ is recording their album finally and soon after, James will be departing the band to become a full time family man. The rest of the guys are thinking they will pick up vocals. It'll be an interesting transition for sure. I'm slowly turning into an insomniac. I cut a lot of my hair off, but not nearly as short as before. My mom watched a 20/20 episode about the peace corps last night and is extremely terrified for you both. I won't fill you with details but I hope that you are both safe and sound and that it continues to be that way. My kids were very upset that you were stationed in Burkina, Faso instead of Chad considering your name is Chad. To them, it just made more sense for you to be in Chad. I loved having fun things to tell them about when we learned about the continent of Africa. I apologize that this is not as entertaining and for the insanely random rambling, but I thought I'd share our mediocre life update with you guys. Love you both. Can't wait to make you guys dinner when you get home. Thanks for the awesome updates and the great photos. <3
Is the adjoining village by any chance, named Terabithia? Judging by the log bridge and exotic surroundings, it could very well be ..
I was studying up on hippos and it seems that they have an odd pastime where they like to get a running start and then ram into a tree to see what they can shake loose .... maybe some sort of rite of passage? hmmm that could lead to a new technique for you "hippers" called "hip-hop" sorry couldn't resist. You inspire me Chad.
Mental note: Ken needs to stop watching 20/20.
You really should capture all your observations. There could be a book deal in this at the end. You are very readable. You could chronicle it and call it the "Chronicle of ... something"
Wow, eating monitors ... and to think I got excited about the McRib ...
Keep it coming and be careful ... don't let your luxurious accomodations lull you into a false sense of security. You are still in potentially dangerous surroundings.
Love Ken and Leslie
lol, your blog entries are always entertaining to read. sounds like an adventure out sw! can't wait to go visit some day! here, i don't have too many loud animals or children waking me up the early hours, but i am surrounded by mosques, lol. and it sounds like you'll see animals before i do! jealous. no lions or elephants in my courtyard... yet.
Post a Comment