Another one bites the dust

Since we've been in Madaoua, days have started off windy and ended fairly calm. Today the Lord provided for us in a special way ... He gave us a calm morning to allow for a trip to the sand dunes. Mike arranged for a driver of another 4-wheel drive (the town welder) to help us all to get there as the Land Rover couldn't accomodate all of us (13 of us in all). Before setting out on this excursion, gas was needed for the rented vehicle. Since there is no station in town, it has to be bought on the black market. Mike never puts this kind of fuel in his vehicle due to the fact that it isn't pure ... never sure what else has been in the container. All fueled up and ready to go, we're on our way.

The trip from start to finish was pretty much like off-roading - rockin' and rollin' the whole way ... some were feeling fairly queasy and were wishing they had brought Gravol or Pepto-Bismol along! A trip that was to take about 45 minutes took about 2 hours due to the fact that the town of Karafon was in full swing with its market and the location of things had changed somewhat ... the truth is we were kind of lost for a period of time. But, eventually we found what we were looking for ... waves and waves of beautiful, fine sand. As soon as we stepped down out of the vehicles, we were drawn to remove our shoes. What a wonderful feeling!

Up we climbed to the top of the hill to find some steep cliff-like dunes. Look out ... here come the crazy canucks! 1-2-3 cowabunga!!! We would run and jump over the edge in pairs and groups and by ourselves. Marv, once again, did a spectacular dive and roll! Audrey joined us and had a blast. Going down was easy ... coming up again was quite the workout. Stair-master has nothing on this form of excerise! We brought the football along for a game of vertical catch.

Even out in the middle of nowhere, we attracted a crowd of nationals. It is amazing how they are interested in us and what we are doing. Marv, Mitchell, and David played catch with some of the boys who came to watch ... Marv taught them how to throw a football properly and said they caught on really quickly. The women and small children were naturally attracted to our female contingent and proved to be extremely friendly. Alas, all good things must end and we had to head back to Madaoua.

The trip was every bit as bumpy as the ride out but this time it was a lot shorter. We did stop at the market in Karafon which was an awesome sight to behold. Mike led us around and once again we attracted a crowd who followed us around. Maybe it was because there were 5 of us females following him around and he's only allowed to have 4 wives (he said Brooklyn would have to be his "slave wife")!!!

- Jan