More than a year ago: Baking whole grain bread on a camp fire needs a bit more practise. It takes me 20 kilometer to find a supermarket selling rye, barley and spelt and see who I make happy with it! No better face than a happy face! And I get to see more happy faces: I exchange goat Emma for a human person.
Cycling in the Pampa is nothing spectacular. Since December the vast agricultural lands have changed into swamps, large masses of wetlands have become plain lakes. Mosquitoes dwells happily alongside snakes, storks, owls, foxes, nutria’s and everything in between with wings, feet or no feet crawls around, is caught against the speeding wheels of trucks and cars and… receives the occasionally secretive hair cut.
I meet with Seth, whom I met for the first time 14 years ago. He is coming to Peru and we can meet if we like. Back then, 14 years ago, while I was using the computer in a Nicaraguan internet-cafe he sat next to me and said: ‘Shall we chitchat later?’ I was surprised by the words ‘chitchat’. We were young backpackers, in our late twenties, traveled on and off together between Nicaragua and Costa Rica on a bus. I thought I could do that again. I was wrong.
‘Wat valt je hier op?’ vraag ik aan Oliver, we zitten tegenover 5 mannen bij het half openlucht immigratie kantoor. Hij kijkt om zich heen maar niets valt hem meteen op. ‘Snorren,’ zeg ik, ‘alle mannen hebben snorren.’
‘The Wife, Her Husband, His Brother & The Genuine Bushman’
Our pleasant group of four has start to make fun of each other. I obviously derive great satisfaction out of caring for the three man, like a real Wife does. Very often one of the guys lower his pace to keep up with me, except for Oliver, he keep racing ahead all of us, always arriving as first.
As soon as I reach the first town into this new country I feel a great change. The people are having a refreshing mindset where none is asking, all seem to working and a few are even giving. A real nice change after Senegal, Gambia, both Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia where most people where asking only. I feel a pleasant sense of easiness over the people.
Ik ben in Monrovia aangekomen, geen goedkope stad. Er is een adres waar ik heen kan in deze stad, een Bangladeshi familie, vrienden van Gora. Maar ik verblijf liever met ons groepje, midden in het centrum van de stad, pal aan de UN Drive, de oceaan achter ons, de volheid van de stad ons omringend.
Ik ben in Tujering gaan logeren omdat ik hier een heel huisje gratis tot mijn beschikking heb. Dit huisje staat bijna een heel jaar leeg, is nieuw en prachtig scharlaken rood geverfd. Ik besluit als tegenprestatie les te gaan geven op de school die bij dit huisje hoort. En zo geschiedt…
With a breakfast of yoghurt, real good muesli and acacia honey (a present from a friend, Gora who visited me here) I start my search for the embassy of Ivory Coast.
Cycling Cindy