Many people, when they join the Peace Corps, expect to be sequestered in a village--without running water or electricity--for two years, with very little nisarra/toubabou/white person interaction. While some volunteers still have that experience, times are changing, even for the 7th poorest country in the world (AburkinaCHOO). In fact, some volunteers share the same sites, where they may become good friends and even collaborate together on projects. We have just such a situation in Chris Wells' and now Evan Johnson's city--Evan's moving in! We crashed at Chris' house last night, and got to see Evan and Chris share some special bonding time. I do believe they are already bosom buddies...
This morning we headed off--it was the FIRST morning that that car was packed and everyone was ready before it was even daylight--with 4 new riders: Chris Wells, Evan Johsnon, Krystle Austin, and John Barbour. We headed east, and about 20 km outside of town we stopped by new PCV Nick McGregor's site. We only got to chat with him for a couple minutes before we were back on the road.
We rode 85 kilometers today, but it was a gorgeous, breezy day & was very enjoyable. We made lots of stops, changed the 5th flat tire of the trip (Josh Gwinn), ate tons of carbs, and...um...hugged trees (well, Rachel and Julie did)...
We are staying at Bovard Tiberi's site tonight, and arrived around noon. Aundrea Kung's site is about 15 km from Bovard's--we stopped there for a break before finishing the trip. Aundrea--despite the fact that she is moving out of her house within the next two days--welcomed us, made us an awesome snack of benga, attieke, and lemon pork (sooo delicious), and then led us through a beautiful bike trail to Bovard's site. It made a great day even better.
At Bovard's site, he showed us the pump where we could get water for our bucket baths (11 people who ride on a dirt road for 85 km do not smell pretty, especially when we're all standing together). Here, Emma tries out the pump. It takes quite a bit of water to clean us all and provide us with enough water to drink (we carry water with us in the support car, too, so we also have to pump for the next day's supply).
The officials of Bovard's town are pretty cool--they came to see US! We were lounging around our rooms, taking turns taking our bucket baths, and a posse of officials showed up to greet us. Among them were the mayor, the prefet, and the head of the gendarme unit. We gave them certificates and Peace Corps bike tour signs.
We're starting to gear up for the Bobo event, which will be HUGE. It'll be at the Governor's house at 15:45 on Monday the 20th. All volunteers who can come are encouraged to attend. We'll have PCV and bureau speakers, and there may even be an animation...put on by your very own bike tour crew. Should be a good time.
Also, we've earned nearly $4,000 USD by donations for the bike tour!!!! That's awesome! Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of our donors. This will make a drastic difference in the grants that GAD can give out and what volunteers can do. We'll continue to take donations through the end of the bike tour (Sept. 28).
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