Senegal - The Lions on the Road: Cycling London to Cape Town - page 99

was told, was that the man needed to have his hands free just in case of danger such as an
attacking wild animal or person. The man would then be able to defend his wife with his
full strength and with both arms. “How does the palm wine play into this?” I thought.
The fields (see photograph above) were carefully managed by the village liaison.
Wevisitedhishomeandhepulledoutalogbookwithrecordedinformation,fromwatering
times to amounts of daily rainfall. We strolled to the fields where he showed me how the
rain's run-off was carefully managed to minimize soil erosion. I was shown a diversity of
crops that the village maintained which helped in the village's income. However, it wasn't
all positive. When it didn't rain, the usage of the well-water caused its level to be danger-
ously low and since the village was three kilometres inland from the main road, getting
their produce to the market was difficult.
The Bad Water Attacks
I was intending to leave the next day but I became violently ill in the morning
vomiting and running to the toilet (and I do mean running.) For the whole day, I stayed in
the house and drank only fluids. The next day, I resumed my liquid intake which made me
feel better but as night fell, I was back to square one. Trying to sleep was difficult because,
illness aside, there was a restaurant next door that blasted music until 4 a.m.
With great effort I went to mass on Sunday. The whole celebration was unique in
two ways. First, the congregation was divided: women sat on the left and the men sat on
theright.Second,itwasmyfirstmasssaidinWolof.Ifellinlovewiththemusic.Itwasin-
spiringandhelpedmetakemymindoffmyalimentandthefactthattheservicewasnearly
2 hours long.
I stayed yet another day in the volunteer house. Patricia went to the Catholic mis-
sionandmetanursewhojustreturnedwithmedicalsuppliesfromItaly.Patriciacameback
tothevolunteerhousewithseveralsachetsandtoldmetotakethesebeforeeachmeal.Idid