birthday hike

I had a lovely birthday today. A few volunteers spent the night at my post the night before, and the morning we met up with two Cameroonian friends, Cheik Abdul and Alpha Barry, to hike a mountain. It is a mountain I have seen for the past two years and wanted to hike, and finally this year said, I will climb it on my birthday. It was Cheik's first time climbing a mountain! We set out at around 8 am I think, and probably got to the top around 10 or 10:30. The view from the top was beautiful, views of Garoua, the mountains of Adoumri/Bibemi, Lagdo, the Benoue from Lagdo to Garoua. You could see all the tiny villages, including mine, along the road from Sanguere Paul to Mafa Kilda. The colors were stunning, even though it was slightly hazy. A flock of European beeeaters circled the top as soon as we got up there. I brought my watercolors and Alpha brought his garaya and at the top we ate bananas, painted, played/listened to music and looked and looked. At the top there is a little crest, which was completely covered in grass, which had turned golden. So that when you walked over that ridge, all you saw was golden waist high grass, a few scraggly trees, and blue sky everywhere. Very surreal. I wanted to build a little hut up there to spend the night in. Finally, as the sun broke the cloud cover and started to heat things up, we headed back down. Slipping and sliding down the steep slopes. We also got a sighting of two monkeys from a distance, in the fields.

The afternoon, we sat in my courtyard, and Alpha played and lured in children with his songs, so that my mat was overflowing with people. After, we visited my local market, sampled some bilbil, and then headed into Garoua for dinner at a restuarant and dancing. It was a perfect day.