Made banana and bran pancakes for breakfast which were demolished by the hordes - along with our last bread.
Stopped early for water in a tiny village, drawing water from an enclosed well with a foot pump, an easy but slow process. Such a modern set-up in a small rural town is almost certainly an aid project.
The short top-up stop became an hour-long photo and washing experience, with gorgeous women and girls and young grinning boys crowding around us and posing for photographs. A lad in a vibrant green jumper photo bombed every photo unless one of us took him aside and pretended to photograph him. The rest stood quietly and calmly, smiling at our "Mercis". Most of the women and girls had striking faces with extensive tribal scarring; a mother with red, green and yellow fabric wrapped around her head brought her baby to her side from her back especially for us, obviously used to travellers with cameras and posing happily. Only her orange-stained grin spoiled the portrait for me, but perhaps that is seen as beauty here.
Wandering deeper into the village we came across some women with the most unusual hairstyles we’ve seen so far, broad strips running back from their foreheads like the mane on a gladiator’s helmet. The whole village laughed when Adri approached to touch one woman's pomade, determining that it wasn’t the acrylic hair we’ve seen so much of but a grand feat of teasing and plaiting. The drumming we could hear was from a couple of women, and their children, pounding millet at the back of the village. Our wanderings left me enough time for a hair wash back at the pump.
Moving on, we bought a bag of bread rolls from a roadside lean-to and lunched near a small collection of what looked like temporary huts. Being on lunch duty, I didn’t get the chance to investigate for myself but found out it was a nomadic leper colony!
We stopped again quite late, to hunt for bread, eggs, and bananas and get another passport stamp. Drove through back alleys on our quest for bread, beginning to think we’d never get out of the eternal loop town, but eventually bought seven tiny loaves for CFA60 each. We refused the exorbitant demand for CFA50 for a banana but found cheap eggs.
Camped again with the Douglases and Kel struck a deal to swap their spare gearbox if he did some mechanical work on their truck.
Cooked plantains and veggies and delicious bran, fruit, date and one-banana cake to celebrate the birthdays of those who won’t have a truck birthday. People were stunned by the huge slab helpings.
Absolutely knackered by the end of dinner, us cooks sitting quietly in the truck trying to catch up on our diaries while others socialised around the fire with our travelling companions. Was really inspired to write, my head all full of musings about the trip and feelings about different people, but while the words were coming my eyelids were closing so I crawled into bed instead.
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