Mi somi (Fulfuldé for “I’m tired”) (written Jan 12)

Besides working with my host institution (MINFOF), my job is to seek out other organizations I can work with (this is the reason I visited so many MIN_ offices when I got to post). Project ESA II is the environmental offshoot of SOTECOTON, the French-Cameroonian company that controls anything and everything to do with cotton in this country. Anyway, Project ESA II has an A/F demo plot in this village just over 25km from Poli called WindéPinchoumba. I biked out at 7am, with the hope of reaching the demo plot and finding someone in charge—which I did, in 2 hours. After setting a time to meet next week and taking a short break, at 10am I headed back to Poli, hoping that I had enough in me to make it home in good time, just before the afternoon heat. I didn’t do so bad, 2 hours and 50 minutes—10 of which I spent taking a water break and 30 minutes to walk up the really steep, rocky section. When I reached the hilly section and decided to walk it, I happened to stop right behind a group of women who were walking in my direction; I figured since I was just walking my bike, one of them might as well set it on my saddle while we walk uphill (rather than carry it on her head… I don’t think I’ve mentioned anything about this, but with the exception of babies, who are always tied securely to one’s back with a large cloth, EVERYTHING can be and generally is carried on one’s head… in Lable, it was a regular occurrence to see men walking down the road balancing planks the size of telephone poles on their heads). So I walked uphill with these women, carrying with me a bag of what I later found out to be millet wine, then biked the rest of the way home, promptly rewarded myself with a cold Coke (not as satisfying as ice cream at Morrow) from the bar, and deemed the voyage a success.