Jan 23/04
All the men & Thelma & Tina went to Tin to work on Pauls house.  Finished putting on the rest of the screens & nailing them down.  Helped one woman hoad up her pans of water.  It's unreal how much they can carry.  The first time I helped her either I didn't lift enough or she wasn't strong enough so she set it down & took some out and then we put it on her head.  Then I topped it up till it was full again.  I'm sure there was at least 8 gal of water.  Some women show up with a baby strapped to their back & still carry the same amount of water.  Paul came back from Oradara around 11 & we all went for a walk around town.  Stopped for a bite to eat at the local "McDonald's" and had some deep fried sweet potatoes.  We were given a piece of an old cement bag to hold them with.  Talk of recycling.  We stopped at the "laundromat" and watched some women & children doing their laundry.  It was a beautiful setting, the river water ran nice and clear on a rocky bottom & a rocky shore to put the clothes on.  We asked & were given permission to take pictures.  This is the same place where Carmela does her laundry.  We continued our walk greeting people that we met.  Jim & Caleb kept an eye out for birds.  We passed by the mosque.  Just past it was an over flowing well.  We crossed a river where laundry was being done.  The water was not deep & by stepping on stratigically placed stones managed to get only the bottom of my runners wet.  Jim was not so lucky and managed a fall on the slippery bottom.  Not bad, it dried quickly & his camera was not hurt.  Met 2 cattle pulling a cart & the men wanted us to take pictures.  When we came back onto the road to Tin we stopped on a bridge.  This is always the coolest part of our ride back & forth everyday.  We stopped to rest awhile and then continued back to Pauls house.  The total walk was 3.50 km.  When we got back we found out that Thelma, Tina & Melfort who we thought had gone ahead had stopped to see the infirmary to see it and ended up bringing the peace corp worker back with them.  Her name was Ashley & she told us of her travels & experience about trtaveling to Timbucto over Christmas.  We wanted to leave for Oradara at five & actually managed to leave around 6.  Did make it to Oradara befor dark.  Had Pizza for supper.  After supper gave Paul money for Nazinga trip.  The bus will be here at 8:00 AM.  Shower & pill time.  Feet are really tired today.  Between being on a ladder quite a bit the last 2 days & our walk today they feel like a rest.

This was a nice place to stop for a break.  With water down below the bridge and trees completely over the road it was nice and cool  and very relaxing sitting on the bridge railing.
This is the place that I refer to as "McDonalds".  It was in a nicely shaded spot beside the road and people could just stop in and pick up deep fried sweet potatoes.  The food was very hot and the lady gave it to us with paper from cement bags to hold them.  Cement bags are made of a number of layers of paper and the ouside layer and the inside were discarded and the rest was "recycled".
This is the ox cart we saw on our walk around Tin. I suppose the rubber tires make this a modern day ox cart.
This is the river crossing where I just got the bottom of my shoes wet and Jim managed a fall without hurting his camera.
This is the truck that delivered the sand and stone that was needed for our project.  In Burkina is guess it's a major project.  The whole crew came along.  I guess they need lots of help and many shovels to load up.  At the job site one person placed a rock in front of the tire to keep the truck from rolling while dumping.  Another person climbed under the truck to engage the pto.  The pto shaft had badly worn u-joints and the shaft wobbled very badly.  Then when the box was lifed another person opened the latches at the back with a rock to open the endgate.  Dumping the load was almost an event.