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Saturday, March 12, 1977, 8:00 am, Day 410
I had a pretty good day yesterday. I left Kamiendor and I guess it was good to get away. My trek has now started. I wanted to make it to Alikalia yesterday, coming in the back way through Kayima, but I only made it as far as Kayima, where I am now.
The whole trip yesterday, I was not sure that the road would reach through to Alikalia from here. There is one river that I still have to cross. They say there is a bridge now, but it is a seasonal bridge. During the rainy season, the river rises too much and the road becomes impassable. I attempted this route because I heard a rumor that sometimes during the dry season lorries are able to make it through. I wasn't sure until I reached Kayima, where they say the road goes through.
I wasn't planning to spend the night in Kayima, but when I got here they told me that Nancy Nobles was in town. She is a Peace Corps teacher in the Kono area but doesn't teach at one school. Her job is to visit all of the schools, giving workshops for the teachers. She just happened to be in Kayima yesterday. There are two more Peace Corps girls in the Kono area doing the same work, but I haven't even met them yet. Nancy, I've now run across four different times. We got to talking and then finally decided that it was really getting too late for me to try to reach Alikalia before dark, and she wasn't sure if she was going to stay the night until I was going to stay. It worked out good, because now I can pull into Alikalia in the morning instead of late at night. I was planning on spending two nights in Alikalia, but now I will probably cut it to one night and still not lose anything. It will be good to see the people again because I think that Alikalia is probably the nicest village I have seen here.
Saturday, March 12, 1977, 2:00 pm, Day 410
Well, I am not there yet. I finally left Kayima at 12 noon. I was making good time. I crossed over the bridge at the river and went on down the line to a village only a few miles from Yifin. Then the road stopped! A trail continued on to Yifin, but they said my motorcycle wouldn't make it. They said I missed my turnoff and so I had to go back, over the bridge, and 7 1/2 miles back down the road to the junction. I took this new route, which they said went to Yifin, and it took me to the river. This river looks bigger than the other, so maybe the other one was the wrong river. Anyway, this one looks like the right river. There is no bridge here, however. There is a series of sandbars with sandy stretches of river in between. I parked the motorcycle, took off my shoes, pulled up my jeans, and walked across to check it out. The water wasn't flowing very fast, and the deepest part was about 6 inches above my knee. I went to the other side to make sure that there was a road there, because I didn't want to cross over just to find nothing on the other side. The road was there, or at least a trail, so I went back and took my pack off my motorcycle and brought it across the river. I then emptied out my pockets and went back to bring the motorcycle across. I was planning to ride it, but it didn't like the sand. If I sat on it, the back tire would just spin in one spot, so I had to walk it across with my hand on the throttle to keep the motorcycle going. It didn't do too bad. On the deepest stretch, it made it most of the way, but finally, just before the end, the engine conked out, so I pushed it hurriedly up out of the water and onto the other side. I am writing this now, partly to let the engine dry out a little.
Saturday, March 12, 1977, 8:00 pm, Day 410
Well, I made it. I am in Alikalia now, at Elliott's new house. The motorcycle didn't start up right away when I tried it. Water had filled up the space where the air filter goes, and had gotten into the carburator and then some also in the engine itself. I drained that all out, and dried off the spark plug and contact breaker. I noticed there was water in with the engine oil, but there was nothing that I could do about that at the moment. After trying for quite a while, it finally started up and I rode all of the way into Alikalia without a hitch. Once in Alikalia, I stopped first at Elliott's old house, where a new agriculture volunteer, Jim, now lives. When I tried to ride the Honda from there over to Elliott's new house, it only went about 50 yards when the engine started making noises and then it stalled out. I couldn't get it started again. I think it has to do with water in the engine oil, and so I will have to drain the oil, try to seperate the water out, and then put it back in. Jim says he has about half a quart which he will let me have. I'll have to work on it tomorrow.
Alikalia was our training site and Elliott is putting in a water system here. They are actually putting in the pipes at this time.
My sores are still with me. They don't look any worse but are just sort of maintaining, which I guess isn't bad. I haven't had to take any apart lately because of infection, so I guess that is a good sign. I've been keeping my thumb bandaged up and it is keeping out the infection, but is also keeping it from scabbing over quickly. I guess I will have to let it air out inbetween times.
Elliott's house is nice. It is a one-room round bush house with mud walls and thatched roof. It looks small outside but big inside. It has white-washed walls and a concrete floor.
Monday, March 14, 1977, 8:00 am, Day 412
It also sits all by itself, partway up the hillside, overlooking Alikalia. It is really a nice view looking out past the town on a misty morning. All of the trees and hills stick up like cardboard cutouts because their distance away is really pronounced by the mist.
Yesterday morning I worked on my Honda a bit. I drained the oil to see if the water would seperate out of it. It wouldn't, so I had to just put it back inside because that was the only oil that I had available. I adjusted the valve tappets and then tried to start it. It sounded like it didn't have any oil in it. It was really noisy, and I was afraid I would wreak something if I ran it that way. I settled on the fact that me and my motorcycle would have to take a lorry to Kabala.
This morning, I was in the process of asking for a ride and the lorry driver offered to give me some of his oil. Mine was low, so I just added a bit to top it up. I started up the motorcycle and it sounded fine. I ended up riding into Kabala on the Honda and I didn't have any problems. Once here in Kabala, however, I bought some oil and exchanged it with the oil-water mixture in the engine. The motorcycle is back to normal now.
Yesterday in Alikalia, I went and looked at the work that is going on with Alikalia's water system. The pipe is now being installed from the source down to the storage tank site. It is 3" galvanized-steel pipe and is going in a ditch 2 to 3 feet deep. It is probably close to a mile in length. The foundations for the tank are also being made at this time. The tank is a big one. It is an old one that they got free and is formed out of 4' x 4' steel plates bolted together. When finished the tank will be 20' x 24' x 12' high. This is huge compared to my proposed tank sizes of about 12 feet in diameter and 6 feet high for Kamiendor.
They remembered me in Alikalia. The one thing that I did before that they remember best about me was "I was the one that bent iron with his bare hands." Quite a few people remarked on that. I guess I am a legendary figure of a man with incredable strength, in their eyes. The bending iron bit is true, though. When I was preparing the steel reinforcing rods for the bridge we made, I had to bend the ends over to form a hook so that they wouldn't slip in the concrete. I actually used a length of pipe to give me leverage, but it was more technique than strength. I knew how to hold it; the villagers that tried, didn't; so I was able to bend the rods easier than they could. They also remember me from the great quantities of food that I put down and the amount of work I do.
Wednesday, March 16, 1977, 10:00 am, Day 414
I left Kabala yesterday and came down to Kamabai, which is where Skep is working on a water system.
The dust on the road was the thickest that I have yet seen. It must have been 6 inches deep in some places. My feet sometimes dipped into it as I went through, getting them really dirty.
I found out yesterday that I was one day off in my schedule figuring. I had it worked out that I would spend one night here in Kamabai and then go to Gbinti today for the party. Yesterday, it was explained to me that St.Patrick's Day is not until tomorrow. I knew that St.Patrick's Day was on the 17th, and also that yesterday was the 15th, but I guess I just never put the two together to realize that left one day in between. I think that I will probably go to Gbinti today anyway because I have nothing else to do with my day.
John Burke is designing a water system in Gbinti, and he is arranging the party. I estimate that maybe 6 people will show up. All Peace Corps is invited but not too many people know John. Also, it is on a weekday, so that cuts out all of the education people, and Gbinti is also in an out of the way location. John also put a Le10.00 entrance fee on the party, which wouldn't help any.
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