Strange Waters

Well, the eventful two weeks in village continued after the dog sacrifice. A few days after the event, my friend, Elizabeth, and I decided to travel to an outlying village in order to set up some more savings and loans groups and give another talk on moringa trees. The village is extremely motivated and gives us free food every time we come, however, we are warned against getting too cozy with the place every time we attempt to go there.

The problem with the village is there in a large pond that is apparently impassable during the rainy season. As we are near the height of the season, all bets were that the meeting was going to have to be canceled. As we were leaving Elizabeth's house, her father warned us not to force it and if the water was too high to just turn back. After biking the 15 km we came across the pond. The pond could now officially be called a lake as it was at least 150 yards across. Clearly we could not take the normal route.

As we were about to turn around we ran into a friend of ours who told us that if we went down a little farther, we could wade waist high in the water and "mount some wood" to get across. He went to go get a pirogue (yes LA girls, Heth's pronunciation in the correct one) to ferry our stuff across. We followed his kid to the site of the wood which was actually a sort of homemade bridge. It made the bridge in Indiana Jones look good. The bridge did not go all the way to the bank so we waded waist high, got on the bridge and slowly made our way across. I am just glad I was always good on the balance beam. I am sending the pictures to mom to put up because there is no way really to describe it properly. I will say that half way across I realized the bridge was held together by rusty bike chains.

We made it with only one fall from Elizabeth but now we are both convinced we have flatworms. We will take the test to see in October and I will keep y'all posted. (I am joking here as I really think we probably don't have the worms but we are taking the test just in case. Please no one freak out because it isn't as bad as it sounds).

When I got back to village I told my friends who were impressed but scolded me for crossing the pond. One friend told me the water was "strange." Another told me it "steals" people. These comments alarmed me and I asked for a further explanation. The conversation went as follows:

K: What do you mean the water steals people
N: It kills people. Every year two or the people die.
K: Why?
N: It is strange water.
K: What do you mean it is strange water?
N: There is something in there that kills people.
K: WHAT?
N: Yes
K: What kind of something? An animal?
N: No, not a crocodile. It isn't an animal. It is something mysterious.
K: Is it the flatworms? Are you sure people just don't know how to swim.
N: No it isn't the guinea Worm (note. You cannot get g worm this way). It isn't swimming. It will kill you even in a little bit of water. (At this point he grabbed his ankles). I can't explain it.
K: Is it quick sand?

This conversation continued for about 15 minutes while I was growing increasingly alarmed of the mysterious killer until I realized it was the undertow. So, needless to say, Elizabeth and I have decided to not make another trip to the village until the water recedes.

In other news, I will be in Ouaga for training to help with the new volunteers when they come in. The training is the week of Sept 17-22 so I will be able to email. Also, I know some of you were worried about my procrastination but I am happy to report that I finished my personal statement so now I am just waiting for the letters of recommendation and the transcripts before I send it in.