Fine line between courage and stupidity

Once again Burkina has given me the opportunity to test my limits and hey I survived so this is a good story.

Transport is always an adventure in Burkina. From over crowded buses, to sheep that bite while they're sitting under you, to bush taxis that breakdown every 100 meters are fixed by replacing the filter with a bic pen, you never know what you're going to get (if you get a ride at all). By and far the most reliable transportation is my own two legs via biking, at least usually.

Last week I decided to make the trek up to see another volunteer who lives a little more than 30km away. Since we are in the rainy season it's not too hot, so I figured I would make a nice bike ride out of it and probably beat any bush taxi anyway. The rainy season has other effects besides giving a little break from the heat and since it decided to rain for 16 hours the day before my trip I was expecting some mud, but hey I can handle that. As I was leaving my house a concerned neighbor stopped to tell me I wouldn't be able to bike because there was a lot of water in the dam, but he hadn't left village in a week so what did he know. I said thanks and that I would be fine, turned my ipod on and I was off.

So, once again, I was reminded that when a Burkinabe tells you something about the weather or effects of the weather he probably knows more than you do. I had a nice not too hard bike ride of 15 km and then as I was arriving at the dam I noticed a good amount of people just standing on around on both sides of the dam talking and messing with bikes and motos. So I stopped to see what was up and recognized a guy from village who was motoing a friend north. We said hi and he proceeded to tell me me that the water was really strong. I once again said thanks and that I'd be okay and started to walk my bike across (hey I was smart enough to know riding my bike was not an option). The water was flowing over the dam really fast and was about knee deep. I got about 10 feet across when my bike started being lifted horizontally and dragged away from me. There was no way me and my bike were going to make it across like this. Somehow I managed to turn me and my bike around and made it back to the edge. Of course on arriving all the locals were smiling and telling me that I had given it a good try. But I was going to get across this dam, somehow. My friend from village told me he wasn't going any further because he didn't want to loose his moto, and then suggest we tie his friends stuff on my bike and the other guy would walk the bikes and I just had to walk by the side and hold onto the bike rack. Sounded like a good idea to me. So I put my helmet back on (hey there were big rocks on the other side of the dam) and put my flip flops on my wrist and we were off. Once again we made it about 10 feet and started to loose the bike. This was not good, if that bike went over I would be stuck in the middle of nowhere and would also loose all my stuff that was in my bag. So we stopped. The wonderfully nice guy who I had never met and still don't know his name, said he would just carry my bike the rest of the way and all I would have to do is walk myself. This I could do, and we were off again. About half way across I noticed the bags starting to slip off the back of the bike and tried to hurry up and catch the guy with the bike. Before I got there, plop, there went my nalgene, over the side of the dam. Did I try to grab it? Nope. Not that stupid. But I did get to the bike before the bags fell off. And thus we stopped again in the middle of the dam to take the bags off and strap them on my back. We made the last half of the dam without too much more drama and we were back on at least semi dry land. I was soaked from head to toe but still standing so it was a good morning. I hopped on my bike and rode the last 15 km in relative ease. So courageous for deciding to cross or stupid for doing it. I'm still not really sure, but hey it's one more story.

This a picture of a dam we crossed in a car when it was only about ankle deep.