My First African Bike Trip

On Tuesday I felt up to the challenge of riding my bike to visit my friend in Tokombere and checking out the market in her town. I didn't know exactly where I was going or how far it was. I knew that other volunteers made the trip and it took them about an hour. So my friends directions were as follows, turn right, its far down that road, go over two bridges which may be full of water but maybe some people will be there to direct you, and then the paved road turns into a dirt road, pass some villages, then the road becomes paved again and you will see the place des fetes. (On a side note, this is how directions are in the rural areas. There are no street names, no names of businesses, nothing). So I venture off at 8:50 am with a water bottle, some pretzels and a vague sense of where I am going. It takes about 10 minutes to ride out of my town. Once I am on the open road, I feel great. The sky is blue, the mountains are all around me. I pass many people on bikes as well, even a couple women. They are not on pleasure rides, though. They are transporting goods like huge sacks of rice or big containers of water. Or another person on the little basket in the back. About 45 minutes into my trip, I start to get tired, which is not surprising considering I have not done any exercise except for a couple of yoga classes in the last few months. So I hope that I am at least half way there. Then my first hill comes. I'm going uphill of course. By the time I get to the top, I want to keel over. Did I mention that I am biking in the desert? Yeah by this time it is hot, I'm an hour into my bike ride, and I'm not sure how long it will take me. Finally I get to the turn off. I try not to think about how she said its a long way off once you turn. The sign said 14 kilometers, which I think is about 10 miles. I'm hoping everything is relative. No, an hour later I am seriously considering pulling over and taking a nap by the side of the road. At this point other bikers are passing me like its their job. I haven't even reached the dirt road yet. Who knows if I'm even going the right way. I've been riding for 2 hours. Then up ahead I see a crowd of kids. This isn't going to be good, I think. Yep, its the first bridge. And there's rushing water going over it. I try to fight them off and say I can carry my bike myself, but they are stubborn. So about 15 boys help me and my bike across the river. Then they say they will take euros or dollars...really?? Next they see that my front tire needs air so they pump a little in it (yes we have little pumps attached to our bikes). So I give them some cfa and continue on. 45 minutes after that, I seriously think I am headed in the wrong direction. How can this be taking me almost 3 hours??? Should I just pull over and have my friend send me a moto? Finally I start to see something like civilization, and I ask someone if that is Tokombere, and she says yes. By this time I am so exhausted I don't know how I'm still pedaling. My muscles are not only sore but so tired they barely work. It seems like forever until I finally reach the place des fetes and call my friend. The first thing I say is I'm taking a moto back. I would like to say I feel a sense of accomplishment from finishing my bike tour, it turns out it was only about 25 kilometers, which I think is about 18 miles. And it took me about 3 hours which is terrible time. I don't know if I'll ever do another bike tour. I did feel good after 3 hours, chugging water, and eating. I had my first salad in 3 months. My friend Claire and I went to the market, which is an experience. The first lady we go up to doesn't speak french, and we dont speak enough fulfulde yet. Some young man says, “you look like you need help” in excellent english. The whole time we were at the market a group of children, also known as pickpockets, were following us. We bumped into everyone Claire knows of course. When we got to her house, we soaked the lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes and onions in bleach water (to prevent cholera). Then I made a vinaigrette dressing and it was one of the best things I've eaten here so far! So then Claire's friend said he would book my car back to my village. I give him the money and he comes back and says they're leaving in 5 minutes! So I rush over there and pack into this conversion size van, with 25 people. There is a chicken by my foot that is thrashing and I don't want it to bite me. Each time the driver needs to start the car it takes 3-4 tries. We get home about an hour later and I ride my bike back to my house. I figured if I didn't want to be sore the next day I should do some yoga. It was really nice out so I put my mat down outside. My neighbors stared at me the whole time and the little boys tried doing it with me. Then I went inside to take a shower. After my shower, I go into my bedroom and see that there is an inordinate amount of termites. Don't get me wrong, there's usually a bunch, and when I first got here I had to destroy like 5 of their little sand houses. So I follow them to the source and see that there is about a million behind my bed and I had missed one house. So I spray them all with insecticide. I made the mistake of coming back into the room 5 minutes later, because I heard the sound of a million little termites writhing in pain and dying. Not a pleasant sound. Still haunting me. 10 minutes later, they are dead. And do you know whats almost as bad as a million termites in your room, a million dead termites in you room. I spent the next 20 minutes sweeping the dead lifeless carcasses up. I slept like a rock that night. I don't know if I'm cut out for this whole bike tour thing.