Law-Law and Lugere

Earlier this week, I went on a little adventure. The woman who works at the disponsaire invited me to go with her and do baby weighings in two villages en brousse (in the bush). They were REALLY out there. We took a charet to the first village, Lugere, and it was just small compounds of mud huts scattered throughout the desert. The people there were herders and subsisted on milk products for the most part. The only way to get to the paved road was back through my village, which would take them at least an hour and a half.

I asked Wuri, the woman I went with, why people still live out here and she told me that they had lived out here for a loooooong time. She told me of a time when the Fuuta was covered with lush vegetation and lions roamed about. Sounds much more interesting than the barren, treeless plain it is now. Maybe I'm the only one, but I think it is amazing that people still live out there 15 km from the road/what I know as "civilization." There was no cell phone reception, no electricity, of course, one well, no school, no disponsaire.

We then traveled another 2 km to another village called Law Law, which thankfully, had a tiny primary school. Everyone was amazed to see a white person, which got really frustrating. The kids all cried when they saw me and the young boys all gawked. It doesn't seem like it would infuriate you, but when it's 100+ degrees and you are in a small, one-window room and everyone is either staring or crying,....

Then for whatever reason, the people I was with decided to leave Law Law at 1 PM, during the HOTTEST part of the day. It took us two hours to get back to Goudoude. I explained what skin cancer was to them: "something that white people can die from." Thankfully, I had my shawl with me to shade me a little from the sun's rays, but I had run out of water, the oven breeze was blowing in my face....oooooooo....that just made me jealous of all the amenities that you guys have back in the States/Europe!

All in all, it was a good adventure though. We weighed about 40 kids and distributed paracetemol and vitamin a tablets to a few people, and I got to see a part of the country that's not in the guide books!