Le Noel (Christmas)

Our ride into the regional capital went well this time, surprisingly.  We, the other volunteer and I, finally had determined the best route, but I started off and could not understand why I was so tired, and why the students on their way to school were passing me.  We finally stopped at Matt’s village and I checked that my tired was flat.  So we tried checking for a leak and could not find anything.  We pumped my tired back up, then 5 minutes later it was flat again.  So on my bike in, we had to stop every so many miles to pump my tired up, then had to walk our bikes up the last 5 k where there are 5 hills.  At the top of the hill, I am sweating like a pig, sweat dripping down my face, and I am an reddish brown color everywhere from the dust blown up when car or motorcycles were passing us, and there were 3 military men checking identity cards.  One of the guards told me I should not continue into the city that I should wait till his shift ended and go to his village with him.  Then he asked Matt if he was okay with this, because he thought Matt was my husband.  Thankfully Matt said he was not and we were able to continue into the city and get to the Peace Corps house.  I took the longest shower with cold water, but it felt so good to get my hair completely rinsed, and wash and scrub all the dirt off of me.  I think you all got snow, hope it was a white Christmas!

I enjoyed a wonderful christmas eve dinner with the other volunteers in my region of the country, watched the new Harry Potter movie someone's parents had sent to them for christmas and then took off to another volunteers village to do some hiking and camping.  We started off with a local hike in his village and realized half way up the boys who offered to take us did not have a trail they were following, which led to them creating a new trail, via machetes and knifes.  We finally made it to the top and the view was amazing!  Beautiful to look around and a lot of laughs on the way up and back down, sliding, falling, tripping, etc. Then we did a big camp out at his compound where his host family was excited to meet us and feed us a delicious meal.  

At the top of the mountain!

The next morning we woke up early packed our bags for our camping trip, found a taxi driver to take us to the different sites we wanted to go to.  We took off, 10 of us packed into this car, our baggage on top, and the poor car barely making it on some of the crazy roads.  We arrived at our first site which had these amazing rock formations; you could try to see how high you could get to look out.  We then piled back into the car for our next destination.  

A beautiful multi-level waterfall which we all jumped in and swam in.  It was not warm water either, but felt nice and refreshing to submerge my whole body in water.  We hung out there for a while, enjoying the sun shine, the refreshing water and climbing around to places we were able to walk.  

First waterfall where we swam

Rock Formations

Then finally we made our way to the final destination.  We parked the taxi and grabbed our bags and began to hike down the path.  We arrived at the viewing spot and it was incredible.  Breath taking!  Afterwards we ate lunch down on the rocks above the waterfall, walked across a suspension bridge which looked to say the least, a little sketchy.  It brought us up above the waterfall but over the running stream.

At sunset a friend and I walked down and were able to walk to the edge of the waterfall and look down over large decent.  It was quite frightening but amazing to be able to get so close.  Then later that night we made a camp fire, set up the tent and slept on the rocks beside the waterfall.  I know you wont believe me but, it was freezing.  The girls slept in the tent, boys outside, and I have never snuggled so close in my life.  IT WAS FREEZING!  We were so close but slept with out the top of the tent and were able to fall asleep under a star lit sky.  

Crossed this bridge very carefully!

Some other tourists and our friend from the village.  If you look
at the large waterfall, we are standing at the top of the two
levels of the waterfall!  AMAZING!!!!

Next morning we got of, had to jump around to try and warm up, started a fire and heading for home.  View the photos below.

Some funny stories:

I gave a test the last week and I added an additional question, “Que voulez-vous devinir après les etudes?”  First of all the students raised their hands and asked I don’t understand, do you mean after school today or next year?  I said no, what do you want to be when you grow up.  They were so cute, said oh okay, and wrote down their answers.  I forgot to bring the responses with me, but many said, military, doctors, and mathematicians.  But three of the answers I truly enjoyed!  The first one I loved was, the president of the country because I would like to change they lives of the people struggling in the country and make a better life for all.  The second one I really liked was “A teacher because they are the future of the country and my life”; the third “I would like to work in agro-forestry to help my family, village, and country from starvation.”  Some were just so thoughtful and so selfless I was astonished and proud of them.

I was teaching an English class, teaching the days of the week and asked a student to translate in English, “Hier c’est Dimanche” and a girl went up to the board and wrote, “Yesterday, was Sunday Fun-day” I forgot I had explained Sunday as the saying Sunday Fun-day for football Sundays and because there is no schools for students on Sunday.  I just died laughing because she was so innocent in writing that, trying so hard to understand the English language.  Often they ask me questions about song lyrics, and often I have to say its over their head, because the lyrics are so inappropriate and I don’t know how to explain it in a way they would understand.