7. on the road

For the home visits, Richard and I regularly drive through Sandema and surrounding areas. How happy I am with the bike, and even happier that Richard is driving! I now know that you can get anywhere using any bush path. There are always bush paths to a compound, or from the compound to a larger (dust) road.

Just don't ask about the quality of those paths. Sometimes they go straight across the field where last rainy season was ploughed. Doesn't really drive smoothly. Or it is a trench, worn out by the water, which is now full of loose sand. I can't do anything with loose sand anyway, but if it's still very narrow, I start ‘falling down’ before that really happens! You also almost always come out in the middle of a compound. There is no one who says anything about that. I immediately see children playing; bumping into the motorbike, but apparently that does not happen, or rarely.

You greet kindly and drive on. 

At one point we were looking for Ben. We had already met the father, mother was not at home, and Ben loves to roam Sandema. It was said that he can often be found with a motorbike mechanic.

We went there via the above paths. No Ben. But follow me, one of the mechanics said, 'I just saw him walking there!' And there you go: bumping at a snail's pace, right through a compound, with nooks and crannies. This became too much for even Richard. We went back a day later and found Ben: indeed, with the motorbike mechanics, with a beautiful catapult around his neck!