Bonsoir, tout le monde!
First off--and most importantly--today is RUDNICKI Jon's birthday! Happy Birthday, Jon! As chance would have it, we are actually WITH Jon right now, helping him celebrate. We're at Kyle Hawk's house in Gaoua right now, though Kyle happens to be in Americaland. How are you at Kyle's house, you ask? Well, Jon lives 25 km to the south, so he came in to open up Kyle's house and welcome us in. Thanks, from afar, Kyle (you have a lovely home) and thanks, Jon!
When I last blogged, we had been at Amanda's site, getting ready for the fete that her village was throwing for us that night. It was great--they had a girls dance troupe, a balafon master (I dubbed him that--he's played all over Europe and could play his balafon while standing on it), traditional men's dance, and lots of speeches. The fete was also to celebrate Amanda and the work that she's done in village. She'll be leaving us in much too short a time for a third year in Senegal, and the village wanted to make sure she knew how much they appreciated her. She's done amazing work there and will be missed greatly.
The next day was slated to be a "car day." Our next stop from Takaledougou was Loropeni, which is about 170 km. A couple of us, however, decided to be "fou" and bike it. Josh Gwinn, Rob Hartwig, Kat Nolte, Neal Lepsetz, and I got up at 4 AM and were on the road by a little after 5 AM. It was dark for about an hour of our ride before the sun came up.
Kat's done similar distances on a couple occasions, but it was the longest distance that the rest of us have ever biked. The final distance was 169.7 km, which is 105.5 miles. It was all dirt roads, and an absolutely amazing ride--gorgeous.
We stopped at around 110 km for lunch, which consisted of Spam/hot sauce/mustard sandwiches, peanut butter sandwiches, and hot sauce/mustard sandwiches. I partook of all three. Definite blunder.
Rob had a mishap while trying to snap a cool photo (aka he busted) and got a little beat up. That's our second complete wipe out during the tour.
I also so on the road one of the funnier things I have seen on this bike tour (aside from the wood markets). As we were biking out of a smallish village, there were two goats in front of us, exactly in the middle of the road. As we approached, one goat reared up on its two hind legs and stayed in the air--waving its forelegs like a boxer--for about 10 seconds. Suddenly it dropped and headbutted the other goat. They were locked up for a second, split apart, and then were about to go at it again...when Josh, who was riding in front, rode by. His bike tire clipped the aggressor goat in the butt, spinning him around and completely derailing the fight. Josh was definitely the winner.
Around 1:30 PM, the Peace Corps car and riders passed us, making good use of our megaphone and speakers to encourage us.
An RPCV now working in Niger, Rebecca, happened to be here visiting her old village. It was only a couple km outside of Loropeni, so the guys stopped and chatted with her and her Burkinabe family. Shortly after, we all made it to the Loropeni ruins--an internationally recognized historical site--where we stopped for a quick look around...
We stayed at a local school (no volunteer lives in Loropeni), and headed out a little later than usual this morning. It was a short ride--only 37 kilometers--and we got to Kyle's house in good time. It's a big town, so we have cold drinks and cold yogurt.
We're about to head back downtown for dinner (we've ordered 6 chickens and a mass of fries) before we bed down for the night.
Only 3 more days of bike tour! :(
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