propane tank near a campfire ... or how we almost died at Ingly

Ok, it wasn't that bad, but it was kind of a close call. I'll start from the beginning. I went on camping trip starting Monday with some of the people down here. I actually had no idea what I was getting myself into, I originally thought we were going to the Gender and Development camp some volunteers were putting on in that area, but apparently we had other plans to camp at some secret waterfalls the night before heading to the GAD camp. So there's about ten of us going on our bikes, traveling 11 km from a volunteer's village to the falls. The terrain was tough. It's still rainy season here so it's REALLY muddy. So basically it was a hellish bike ride that took forever. At one point we had to cross a river in a hollowed out log-canoe. We had to take 6 or 7 trips across with all of our bikes, people and stuff. So we finally made it to the falls and thankfully it was worth it. BEAUTIFUL. We spent the afternoon swimming, eating, and hanging around. We had an assortment of canned food and camping food to eat for dinner. One of the guys brought a small camping "stove" for two tiny propane tanks to cook some food on. At one point in the night, a PCV who will not be named here (it wasn't me) acidentally knocked over the tank and it started spewing out propane gas. I and many others were sitting right next to it and were like what's that, oh shot that's gas, i get up, one of the guys yells run, and then there's a huge flame that lights up the forest. I turn around and see the whole area where the gas spewed engulfed in flames due to the campfire we had going six feet from the incident. Some people started to douse the fire with water and then someone noticed that there was something flaming that would not die out- it was the extra propane tank (the plastic bag it was in had melted around it). So someone threw it out of the area. The next day we noticed that the tank had imploded like it was about to explode- now that would have been bad. Anyway, it was scary but also cool cause no one got hurt. The falls were great, much more spectacular than the falls at Warani in Sikasso.

The next day we spent six hours going 20 kilometers to Dindelfello, the big tourist attraction around the area. It was a tough ride. At one point we had to cross the same river we crossed the day before (this time we were up river), however, there was no boat here, or bridge for that matter. So we had to cross on our own. The boys took across all the bikes and bags individually. And then I walked/swam across the river that was above my chest. I thought the worst of the ride was over at this point since we covered 10k most of which was mud, haha not yet. The second part of the trip made me wonder what I hated worse mud covered paths or sand pit, then in the last five i wondered what was worse sand or rock or rock and sand?!?!?! It was exhausting. I almost fell over when we arrived in the village. First thing we did was stop at the boutique. I filled up on bread and peanut butter and orange soda... it was a great ride but very very exhausting.

The place we arrived was Dindefello. WE got to hang out there with the kids and counselors for a day. The kids really seemed to be enjoying themselves. I helped when they were planting some trees. In the afternoon we got to visit the waterfalls in Dindefello (two falls in two days-ain't I lucky?). They were really tall and very different but equally beautiful.

Thankfully, a PC car came and picked us up to take us back to Kedougou, sparing us from a 40 k ride in the afternoon heat.



ps aunt Tammy- about the sandwhiches- think pulled pork but ten times more delicious