Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
FromwhereIstood,Icouldn'tseeabridgetocrossthefastflowingKamishaRiver.
AsIwalkedclosertotheriver'sedge,Isawatreethatwasfelledacrosstheriverforpedes-
trians to use. No vehicles could ever make the crossing. Just off in the distance, I also saw
a new bridge under construction. For the first time on the tour I asked myself, “Am I lost?
Where did I go wrong? I mentally retraced my route from the last signpost to try to
remember if there were any forks in the road that I missed. I couldn't think of any for as
soon as the road began to dwindle in size, I became increasingly vigilant. My gut feeling
told me to just keep moving forward and to cross the river. Taking a leap of faith, I stood
on the tree trunk and lifted the bike beside me. The tree was wide enough to accommodate
me and the bike. With my back facing upriver and the bicycle facing downriver, I gingerly
side-stepped the length of the tree in a tremendous feat of balancing that Cirque du Soleil
would be proud of. When I arrived to the other side, I came across a flooded riverbank
which smelled like an open sewer. I pushed the bike through ankle deep muck up to higher
groundandenteredaforest.ThefurtherIgotawayfromtheriver,thequickerthesmelldis-
appeared. When I paused to catch my breath near the top of the hill, a local woman walked
toward me on her way to the river to do her laundry. Since she was the first person I saw
in hours, I didn't want to scare her. So I simply pointed uphill and asked, “Idiofa?” “Oui,
monsieur,” she replied as she turned in the direction to where I was pointing. I could have
kissed her. “Merci!” I excitedly said/shouted.
An Unsung Angel of the Jungle
After I crested the hill, I left the forest and came upon a large clearing where I met
Omer and Daniel, two Zaïrian youth sitting outside what I thought was a small village.
They addressed me in fluent English which I found odd since I was in the rural part of a
French-speaking country. They explained that they were students at the University of Kis-
angani about 1000km to the northeast and both were studying to become doctors. Then
they proudly told me that I had arrived at Orphelinat Intswem an American orphanage and
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