Vacation, Village Edition

Originally the plan was to leave Sunday afternoon or Monday morning.

 

Saturday evening, I got back from some friends', called another friend, and while I was talking to her, Angèle called to say, "We're leaving at 10:00 tomorrow morning.  Come to the house at 9:00."  This was around 10:00pm.

 

Well...guess that means I'm packing before I go to bed, not Sunday morning.

 

 

- - -

I knew I didn't have an exact idea what I was getting into.  Angèle had told me Julien's family lived in the village.  I assumed this meant we'd be staying somewhere in the city they'd mentioned, and going into the village to see them.

Well, actually, we were staying with them in the village.
 

I'm positive if my sister Sarah had known about the bats and the pet monkeys and the warthog meat, she would have absolutely forbidden me from going.  (Not that she could have stopped me.)  But hey, I made it back safe, sound, and healthy, so there's no cause for alarm.

 

Here's to another African first -

 

 

The house wasn't huge, but it was sufficient for all fifteen (or was there more?) of us to move around without tumbling over each other. :)

 

 

They had four dogs, a cute little cat named Kiki, two monkeys, and an assortment of chickens, ducks, and pigeons.  Unfortunately these two dogs were the only animals I got pictures of.

  

 

The garden was amazing.  There were all sort of different fruit trees: papaya (above), orange, lime, grapefruit, corossol, a brownish fruit about the size of a kiwi (I forget the name), something they called cerise (cherry) but the only thing it had in common with a cherry was the size and the pit.

 

There were also flowers, mini palm trees, potatoes, greens, peppers, carrots.

 

"See?  The village is better," Julien told me.  "If you want something, you go out and pick it, you don't have to buy it." :)

 

 

Here's where they washed the dishes.  The kitchen was indoors, but after the meal, the girls would carry a huge basin with all the dirty dishes piled inside and wash them here.

The bathroom was indoors.  With a real shower (which made me happy)!  And a real-although-not-automatically-flushing toilet.

Not as rustic as you might picture when you hear "African village", eh?
 

- - -

My favorite time of the day was the afternoon.  After lunch, our stomachs full of some rice dish, we'd drag foam mattresses outside under a big shade tree.  We'd chat and drink tiny cups of tea so sweet it was sticky.  We'd greet passers-by.  We'd nap.  We'd stay out there until dusk begin to fall and the bats started their squeaky evening serenade.

Then we'd take the mattresses back inside, pile them up against a wall, and Maman Astou and the girls would start making dinner.

 

 

 

 

 

I brought my camera out there one day, and Germain was like, "Rachel, photo?  Photo?  Photo?"

 

So I gave in, knowing that I'd end up with pictures like this...

 

 

 

 

 

 

But we still got some decent ones. :)

 

   

 

 

I have no idea what I was looking at, but it obviously wasn't the camera...

 

 

I think they were arguing about something here.

 

 

He was killing me with that backwards cap and cheesy grin.
 

 

  

 

 

- - -

 

 

The last day, Julien, Angèle, their boys, Julien's dad, Robert (the boy with the cap), and I piled into the old Jeep and drove into the city to do a little sight-seeing.

 

Along the way, we made a stop to see one of Julien's sisters.  We also picked up a few of his friends.  I think at one point we had nine people in the vehicle.

 

I'm pretty sure the unofficial motto of African transportation is There's always room for more. :)

 

 

 

 

I was so happy to see all that green.

 

 

Everyone else seemed less excited about that.

  

 

Germain fell asleep on me.  I think he'd been playing too hard with his cousins. :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

The architecture was a lot different than here.  The buildings were more artistic, more European-looking.  And most were no more than two stories (as opposed to here, where there are five- and six- story buildings everywhere). 

  

 

We parked and Julien and his dad when to go find some yarn.  The boys amused themselves by taking pictures of the vendors who were pestering us.

 

 

 

"Say hi to Tata Rachel, baby."

Oh, my heart is in a puddle...
 

- - -

 

 

 

Hut spotting!  (Contrary to popular stereotype, Africa is not completely covered with huts.  I think this was the first one I've seen since I've been here. :))

 

 

 

- - -

 

The last night, Mborika asked if I wanted her to braid my hair.  "Sure, if you want to."

 

So I sat there for an hour or so.  She combed and twisted and pulled while I took pictures of the little kids playing.

 

 

 

 

 

The finished product.  This was actually the next morning (after I'd slept on it).

All in all, the trip was a really good experience.  I must admit, I was rather disappointed to leave the green, the quiet, the laid-back pace, and return to city life.

But I was happy to be in my own little apartment again. :)