Sunday- The Village Walk

Lunch and a game of Mancala

Lunch today was another delicious meal. This time it started with a veggie soup and then Nile perch as the entre served with an assortment of local fruits. After lunch I had a game of Mancala, the African version, with Mary, one of the young women who work at the lodge. This Mancala game had about 3 times as many bead holes and was played with real stones instead of nice beads. After the game, I was visiting with Jeremiah at the front desk about other things to do in the lodge and village area. He said something about visiting the local school in the village. I thought that was a great idea. He got me set up with Vincent to take a morning tour of the school before I headed of on my safari.

The Village walk

It turns out the overnight rains were not enough to cancel the village walk. The day was very pleasant, just a bit cool and damp but very enjoyable weather for me. Vincent, who was also one of the servers at the lodge restaurant, was to be our tour guide. We were joined by an older couple from Holland on the walk. The walk would take us about 1 ½ to 2 hours. We started by going into the coffee field to see how they plant red beans under the coffee trees. This way they can get two crops in one field. Sometimes coffee trees are grown under taller banana trees as well.

We then left the plantation and walked down the muddy road of the village. It did not seem much like a real village because we were in a combination of forest and agricultural fields with houses or small shops scattered along the way. This was truly a rural community. We soon stopped at a small cluster of buildings that looked like nothing more than farm old dilapidated out buildings. There were several chickens walking around and a cow around the corner of one of the buildings. There also were several children and a woman. Soon after we stopped, an old man appeared. Vincent introduced us to him explaining that he claims to be 128 years old. He looked awfully good and healthy for 128. He talked, through Vincent’s’ interpreting, about how life was before the Germans came to the area during WW1 and about the turn of the century, 1900. He says he had 25 children and at least 200 grandchildren. He doesn’t even know them all. The picture is me and him in front of his house, which looks to be about 128 years old. After I got home, I read an article in the paper about the oldest know person in the world had just died. He was said to be 113. Either the guy I met is not that old or there is no way to prove it so it is unofficial. It makes for a good story anyway. I never thought I could meet somebody more that 1 ½ times my age (50).

The next most interesting thing on the walk was going into the local brew pub. I really like sampling different kinds of local beers. I always ask for the unique local brew when I travel. But this brew pub was unlike anything at home (or anywhere else I have ever been before). They make banana beer and wine here. The beer ferments for 4 days and then is put into an open plastic 55 gallon barrel (pictured). This is the keg! The beer is then scooped out of the barrel with a large plastic cup (like a pitcher) and then poured into a 600 or 1500ml cup. Three to five men (see picture) sit around a table and pass the cup of beer around, taking a drink before handing off to the next person. It smelled like beer but looked more like soup. It is not filtered and has a lot of fiber in it. The barrel is wide open with no way to keep out the flies and bugs. The man dipping the beer literally had beer up to his elbows on his arms. Obviously, I did not sample this brew. While at the brew pub I found this man wearing a Nova Scotia sweatshirt. I tried to ask him if he knew where Nova Scotia was, but he could not understand me. So I paid him a dollar so that I could take his picture. I thought this was a great picture since my wife is from Nova Scotia. I also took the picture of the old lady walking up the road with the basket on her head. This to me was just too classic to pass up. I paid her a dollar as well. I found that the people do not mind having their pictures taken. They understand that we are in a different world from them. It is common courtesy though to pay people if they know you are taking their picture. I had no problem with this as that one dollar would easily be a days pay for many of them.

The lodge charges $10 dollars for the village tour. The money is used in various ways in the village to help support the people, the road, school supplies and health items. I gave $20 and felt it was a bargain.