Sunday, May 10, 2009

Maradi Road Trip

I know it's been awhile since my last post, I just didn't realize it had been 3 months! Time really goes quickly around here, and I'm sorry I haven't been very faithful in keeping the blog updated. I promise I will now be more faithful and plan on updating with new posts at least everyother week.
So now I'd like to share with you some pictures from my trip over to Maradi. I had been invited by another organization to take part in their orientation, so I did. This also meant that I drove the 10 hours that it takes to get there, but I didn't mind. I love to drive :) However, this road trip was quite a bit different than any other I had ever been on before. First I have a picture of some items I collected along the way. Just like you have to stop in West at the Czech bakery for kolaches, we had to stop and get special items that's well known to certain cities. I got a pinapple in Dosso, onions in Galmi, and honey in Maradi. You know, they would probably tast good all mixed together with some chicken and served on rice. I'll have to try this next time :)
On the trip there were 2 trucks and 6 people initially. We picked up 2 more people in Galmi, making 4 in each truck. My truck included the young singles. It was a great time to share testimonies and just chat. While we were on the road, we passed by a city who was having their weekly market day. Actually, this was on our way home. There were people and cattle everywhere! Market day is a very busy time of trading and selling.




There are not only motorized vehicles on the road, but donkeyized vehicles :) This cart is carrying a load of onions to Galmi to be packaged and sent elsewhere. These onions, I am told, are a major source of income for Galmi because they're a special onion only grown in Galmi. And I can speak from experience, they are very good :).






Here is another interesting vehicle we saw on the road while traveling through a town. I wonder how they got all the goats up there anyway? I've heard, but not seen, that there has been a cow strapped onto the roof of a van before. A cow! Now that would be neat to see :)








The sheep don't have is so lucky, they have to walk to their destination. However, this slows down traffic in the process. Sometimes, if they weren't all together, I'd have to watch for them or else they would jump out of no where. So I had to keep alert at all times. Now there were goats and cattle just roaming around that I had to be careful for as well.









Here is a closer look at our "chocolat dipped" sheep as we like to call them :) Here, sheep look a lot like goats. They way you tell them apart is by their tails. Goats have tails that stick up, and sheep have tails that are long and hand down. Kinda like their ears. They're so cute :).















While we all stopped for lunch on the way home, a Fulani man road passed us on his camel. Just him and his camel out in the wilderness. How peaceful.













Here are some camels waiting to be sold I think. These animals are truely amazing int the way they are able to fold they long legs in sit so contently. Truely amazing.












Along with the sheep, goats and cattle, there would be camel just roaming about in the middle of nowhere. This one is very close to the road! Also, the camels we're used to seeing are tan in color. While we drove, we saw some very interesting colors on camels. . . .
















Like these that are two-toned. Very interesting.
Well, this is all for now. Next time I'll share pictures from my actual trip in Maradi.