Well, all the hype and excitement was for naught today. The President of the country said he was coming to Gamboula today. He sent one of his ministers down ahead of him and we got a place ready for the President to stay in and entertain guests,. Just happened to be the house right next to ours. The people here planned a big parade and people walked long distances from other villages to come and see him. All the ag workers took off this morning and headed for town but he didn't come. He was in Berberati yesterday, about 100 km away and we heard around 9:00 this morning that he had headed back for Bangui. In the meantime, his minister asked the local officials for a car to take him to Kentzou, Cameroon, about an hour away, to go shopping. I guess the missionaries aren't the only ones who do their shopping across the border! We are all kind of dissapointed and glad at the same time that he didn't come. I am not so keen on guns and he had a huge military escourt.
Roy and Kim returned from a week up north where the bandit problem has been pretty bad. They went and returned without incident so life goes on around here. We are leaving for Bayanga tomorrow morning for 5 days. We are going to meet with a couple of missionaries who are stationed down there and work with the Byaka pygmies. We are also going to be meeting with pygmy leaders and visitng a couple of villages. Our plans also include some rainforest hiking to find fruits and hopefully see from rainforest elephants. The guys are all bringing their fishing stuff so hopefully we will be eating fish for dinner. I am looking forward to the trip and it should be interesting as it will be me and 3 guys, Roy, Kim and Darren. I am looking forward to relaying how things go.
In other news, our Sango is progressing, kete kete (little by little) and we are catching more in conversations and such. I haven't had any lessons in a couple of weeks as I was sick, then my helper went away. When we return next week I am looking forward to hitting the books again and having some conversations in Sango. One of my favorite excercises is to go on a walk with Clarice and learn some new vocabulary. My homework is to then write up everything we saw and did or talked about and then she corrects my grammar and sentence structure the following session. It is good practice and keeps me sharp.
I am also happy to say that we are eating the first leaves or our garden this week. I planted mbutu, or vegetable amaranth, a few weeks back and we are starting to pick it. It is a close cousin of pigweed but tastes great and the seeds aren't so spiny. We are having lots of trouble with grasshoppers eating off our greens as they sprout so lettuce and pak choy we only dream of eating right now. It has been very hot and dry for the last week at least so I am praying for rain, especially while we are gone so i don't have to worry if our garden is getting enough water.
Well, I better get going but I will write about our trip when we return so look for something in about a week.
Merci mingui, Ange
