Trip to the country with Saratou

The other day Saratou and I went out to the country to purchase some fresh tomatoes for making sauce and salsa.

I waited under a tree while Sara went off to negotiate the purchase of the tomatoes. She thought negotiations would go better without a white person being involved. As I waited I found a very long tail feather which I put in a bucket to save. When Saratou returned and saw the feather she promptly broke it off 4 inches from the tip. So I watched in anticipation to see what would transpire with my special feather. She then proceeded to strip off the rest of the fine feathers except for the final 1/3 inch from the tip. Then, surprise, surprise she proceeded to use it as an ear cleaning tool. An African Q Tip. I just chuckled to myself. What was on object of interest for me was of utilitian use to Sara.

While visiting the farmers in the field we had an old man who was our guide from the local village. What was interesting was how he just picked tomatoes and ate them. He must of ate at least 20 while we were there. It was just humorous to watch him grab and eat.

After we got the tomatoes loaded we were returning when we had a flat tire 1 km from home. We called Galmi and Orest and Chad came out to help. The tire was blown and could not be re-inflated, as was the spare tire. The same truck we had 4 flats on when we travelled to Niamey last year. So Chad threw the spare into his truck and went back to town for repairs. Since Saratou had to return home Orest stayed with me in the countryside.

We were amazed at the traffic that flowed by. Goat herders, camel herders and cattle herders streamed by. People walking, people on motorcycles and people on donkey pulled carts. In most cases it was men on the motorcycles and the women were walking, carrying big loads. They loved it when you could great them in Hausa. Grace had so many tomatoes she was able to hand some out to those who looked like they needed them.

It was market day in Galmi and all these people travel great distances to get to and return from market. Some with big loads and some with meagre loads being all they could afford.

As we waited one armed official passed by and checked us out. He then went a little further up the road and just watched over us until we were safely off.