139.
Several men are resting beside the road in the shade of a shelter they have built of branches.
I ask in gestures if I could join them and they kindly make room for me. One of the men even sends a child into the village and the kid returns soon with a pillow for me! I close my eyes and sleep peacefully surrpumded by these men for the rest of the day.
I wake in the late afternoon, thank my benefactors and hike off. I walk until I can no longer lift my feet then pause for a solitary meal of bread and sardines sitting beside the vacant road.
Good heavens! Here comes a big truck going my way!
It’s the first vehicle I have seen moving since crossing the last border. The laughing driver stops at my frantic waving and, with his buddies from the cab, helps me clamber into the huge empty dump-bed. For me it’s as good as a Rolls Royce limo! I am pitched around the steel bed like a loose pebble as the driver navigates the ruts but we soon arrive at a bridgeless broad brown river--the end of the road. The trucker refuses to be paid! (Hooray!)
Dozens of empty canoes line the shore and clamoring boatmen wanting to ferry the tourist of the day across besiege me but the biggest and meanest puts me into the boat of his choice and in a few moments I am poled across the water.
Alerted by the commotion on the farther shore, a policeman is waiting on the river bank to greet me, confiscate my passport and welcome me to Chad.
...
No comments:
Post a Comment