Moving On

Tuesday was Travel Day from Mbingo Hospital back to Douala. After going over some last-minute discussions and tours we parted company from the Schotanus's and Doug, Hugh, Earl, and Jerry. Our driver, Hygenous, took us along with a large piece of equipment and we began the journey. Along the way in the high country we had to take a detour through the bush because there was an accident blocking the road ahead. This was a rough road and we followed a bus that had gear piled so high on its roof that it looked like it would tip on some of the ruts. Once we got past it we encountered some other traffic that might have had even more problems. But we were happy to get back to paved road.

Coming down off the high country is very impressive, as you zig-zag down the mountain. Once we were on more level land, we stopped to grab a quick snack. We ate some cow meat and goat meat. The goat meat was pretty peppery, but tasty. We left the digestive part of this in God's hands.

As I sit and write this we are in Douala and none of us have any after-effects yet. We saw much culture along the way and some of the photos will give you a feel for it. How about that truckload of logs, Ernie???

We arrived in Douala later than we had hoped, but before dark. Hygenous joined us for dinner at a local restaurant. The three of us had Spaghetti Bolognese and it was pretty good. After walking back to the rest house we worked on positioning some data onto the maps of the hospital complex while it was still fresh in our minds.

I am writing this in the Douala Airport and we are now waiting for our plane to Ouagadougou to load in about 1/2 hour. The sign says there is Internet and there are many hookup cables but none of them seem to get us on line, so this post is going to go live after we reach Burkina Faso. It doesn't yet look like the plane will be too full, but who knows. Getting checked in at this airport was not really fun, to say the least. A guy helped us get our baggage through Ok without paying extra, but he felt he was owed a lot of money for doing it. Tom finally threatened to call Security if he would no let us alone and he fled from us and we then proceeded through the checkpoints to the gate. I will add more to this post in Burkina Faso.

We arrived ahead of schedule in Ouagadougou and made it OK through customs. No one was there to pick us up when we got out of the terminal and while we were waiting a gentleman tried to help us out, including making 4 calls including one to the US Embassy. While we were waiting, Mark Collier from Friends In Action showed up to pick us up. He had Ismael with him, who works directly with Dr. Peter VanDinginen and Paam Laafi Association, who we are here to assist with an electrical survey. After checking in at the VanDingenen guest house, Mark took us to the SIM Burkina Faso headquarters where we got some cool drinks. We chatted briefly and Mark promised to take us out to the local well drill site where FIAI is drilling in the morning, so we will get to see the operation here and the well driller that has not been seen by any of us since it left the US a number of years ago. I will post some pictures of that tomorrow.

While we wait for Dr. Peter to get back from a mobile clinic he is holding about 150 kilometers from here, we will catch up on our work from Cameroon.