O país real

The real country.

Today commenced a couple of days in the field visiting a remote project site. Various road dramas confronted us including slippery mud and embankments that required a group of young men assembled nearby to help push the vehicle in the right direction and prevent it from rolling down into a house.

We arrived in the foothills of Mount Mabu, a place holding much mystique for all the years since I first heard about it. It is recognised as a ‘rainforest in the clouds’ and a high biodiversity area discovered very late by scientists. Around the mountain are many communities and we visited some farms supported by our project at which people are experimenting with higher yielding crops and diversified methods of production.

Onward we went to the project camp which we will be kind about and say it is somewhat disorganised. A quiet evening of trying to sleep early and catch up on rest. I slept in a big fixed tent with Mbumba and Foloma and we battled an ant infestation and large land snails everywhere inside and out. Foloma suggested dousing our possessions in alcohol to deter the flow of ants, and he produced a bottle of ethanol, indicating it wasn’t his first ant rodeo. Mbumba had an electric iron taking up half of his bag, for reasons that were less obvious.