(continued from A dream guides us)
In Kaffrine the World Vision guys dropped us of at the Catholic Mission saying we could try there for a place to sleep. I'm not a big fan of the Catholic Church, but one thing is sure, they have lots of infrastructure across the continent and they are usually very helpful.
During my road accident a year earlier we ended up at a Roman Catholic hospital, in Marrakesh they spoiled us with a meal, in St. Louis we got free accommodation and now once again in Kaffrine they gave us a room to stay in- for free again!
The next morning Detlef and I were still not sure exactly how to proceed. He was convinced that we should continue hitch hiking. It was not that I was less so, just that I had a personal desire to experience the legendary Bamako Express.
We knew that the train would pass through town that day and so we walked down to the little train station. But we discovered the train had already passed through there, which left us with no other choice.
A few minutes later we were standing next to the road with a sign reading: Mali. We thought it would be easy but we were standing there for hours and nobody picked us up. We were about to give up when finally around noon someone stopped. The problem: it was a delivery van and there was already someone in the front!
One more person could squeeze in next to the passenger in the front. But the other one would have to sit in the back among the goods. The problem with this was it was obviously pitch black inside, there were no windows so it became like an oven and the dust from the road filled the space pretty quickly. It was ludicrous but we had no other option. I can't remember who went first but Detlef and I kept swapping places till we arrived, dusty and sweaty, in the next town of Tambacounda, 200 km's on. We survived it!
It was getting dark and we needed a place to stay again. We walked straight into the first building we saw across the road and started talking with someone, explaining that we were looking for a place to pitch our tents. In the end they offered to take us to their compound (in Africa a compound is like a family house built in a rectangular shape with all the rooms facing into a courtyard). It was someone's birthday and they had prepared a huge feast! After having a lovely meal I pitched my tent in the courtyard while Detlef slept in our new friend's room on the ground.
We were now truly in the hands of Africa. We had no money for food or water. Which meant we couldn't buy water like usual but had to drink from the open well in the courtyard. God protected us from not getting sick. Meanwhile the rest of the team experienced the same thing living with the people. And throughout the year none of the team got sick from the water we drank.
The next morning our friend had to leave early so we jumped with him in his pick-up and 5 minutes later we were standing next to the road again, waiting for a lift.
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