The most interesting and challenging parts for me involved streams and/or swamps. Brad, Joseph, and I passed several bridges on our way to the villages. A few were stone and easy to cross. Others were made out of tree trunks, one of which was crossed on bicycle at full speed, somewhat unexpectedly (and almost certainly stupidly). The most fun, however, were the bamboo bridges. These required us to carry our bikes (along with a backpack fully laden with gear) while we crossed the bridge on foot, careful to avoid the cracked, rotten, and/or loose boards when possible.
The longest such bridge was between 200-300 feet long and consisted of parallel lines of support posts separated by a few feet laterally and between 5-20 feet forwardly. Each of these sets of support posts were spanned by a cross section of about 3 to 8 bamboo sticks of varying diameters and lengths, tied together with grass or vines. I loved that part.
There were two parts of the journey that I didn't love, however. The first was getting across a swamp where the bridge had been destroyed by a flood. Worried about such waterborne pathogens as schistosomiasis (a parasite that is prevalent in Sierra Leone), I had borrowed Dr. Bart's size 8 waders in anticipation of that section.
Passing through the thickest of the brush (the most shallow section of the swamp), although ending up with one thorned and one muddied hand, I was able to avoid exposing my skin directly to the swamp water. Not taking any chances, I applied some hand sanitizer as soon as I was free. On the way back, the crossing was somewhat easier.The other thing I didn't like was the load on my back. Oh my gosh. Between testing equipment, water, and other survival gear, I was carrying quite a bit of weight on my back throughout the trip, which began at 6:30am and ended at 6:30pm. Maybe I need to adjust the seat on the bike or the straps on my backpack better (or attempt too lighten the load). Regardless, I shouldn't keep that up for my back's sake.
Due to the distance traveled (over thirty miles as the crow flies) and the difficulties associated with the path traveled, we were not able to get to as many villages as we wanted, but we did get a few of the farthest ones knocked out successfully. Again, the scenery was quite enjoyable.
The survey was revealing at first, but the responses seem to have become rather predictable, without much useful, novel information being generated, except in a few cases. On the one hand, it means that our suspicions will probably turn out to be fairly accurate and consistent. I guess it should have been fairly easy to guess that our survey won't be able to pinpoint all of the health and sanitation issues in the villages, but we still should be able to do good work with the results. We'll see. Day 1 of the real stuff, over.I will say a couple of more things before I turn in. One, I probably would not have been able to keep this pace up for over a week. Luckily, Joseph is also a teacher, so Brad and I will have the hours when school is in session to recover and to run some much needed tests. Two, it looks like some of us will be going to Mass tomorrow. It should be interesting. Three, this is the longest I've been without shaving, and after finally seeing a photo of myself, I am almost ready to try out the straight razor for the first time. Four, Brad and I ate some dinner with the Paramount Chief, a lifelong elected official. Our lunch was enjoyed in the shade at one of the earlier towns. While it could be my imagination, I feel like the shorts I have been borrowing from Brad are getting looser. I haven't been hungry since I've been getting a good volume of food, but perhaps I am simply not consuming sufficient calories from the simple diet.
Tired and sore and happy. Bed.
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