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Published: February 16th 2008
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February 14, 2008 Happy Valentine’s Day, my husband wished me in the morning. Wow, couldn’t believe it was February 14th already. Valentine’s day is not a big deal here and did not see anything advertising it. Our ‘romantic’ day was spent traveling around all day looking at Bauxite plateaus. It was a fun day bumping up and down over a portion of the south permit (the permits are too big to see in a day). We began a day looking at the sampling procedures at the yard. Took a look at the splitter and saw the men putting samples of the material into the chip trays. Everything looked really good.
Around the project We travelled over much ground and saw lots of bauxite plateaus, a few quite big. They are interesting to see, as they are so big. We saw the surveyors at one point, who are in for a few days to survey all the drill holes. We took pictures of each of the plateaus we visited and saw many interesting sights (noted them below). I couldn't believe how sore I felt from all the bumpy roads the day before, my body felt like I had been beaten
up so badly, and by the end of the day, felt quite bruised all over.
During our travels today, we stopped to visit the chief of the villages of the Folyea area. We stopped in for a quick visit, and there were many children around, ranging from infants to 15 years old. They were very curious about us, although it looked like a couple of the youngest were about to burst into tears when they saw us. One of the young girls had a t-shirt on that mentioned Canada - very neat!
Interesting Sites While Looking At Bauxite Plateaus! We saw many interesting sights today.
The one that was very different, was coming across a group of men carrying rather large chunks of beef strapped to sticks and carrying a stick between two men’s shoulders. There were about 3 or 4 of these groups of men carrying their loads, the final item being carried was the head.
We saw lots of monkeys running around, sometimes stopping to look at us. They were neat to see.
While driving, we saw a swarm of African Bees flying a slight bit in front of the vehicle, traveling
rather quickly going from our left to right. Wasn’t sure if it was bees at first, but when I asked, was told it was. Sure glad we saw those from the truck!!!!
We saw many people walking in what seemed like the middle of nowhere, but soon began to realize, once you started seeing a few people again, there is a village relatively close by. The road that was put in to access the bauxite plateaus, is well received by many of the villagers as it has helped them tremendously with access issues.
Another neat site, at least to me, was a stick insect at one of the plateaus. I was looking down at the laterite, trying to find a good sample, when I noticed movement. When I looked closer, I realized it was a stick insect, like I saw at the bug museum in Victoria and like all those pictures one sees on TV or in magazines. I think that was one of my favourite sightings of the day.
Koba Village Tour Once we finished going to the plateaus, we came back to the house, and then Aguibou and I headed through the village to
Girls of Madina Junction
Some of the girls we drove by at the village of Madina Junction. They were all giggling after I took the picture. look around and to take a few pictures. This was most interesting to have such a personal tour, as the Koba area is where Aguibou is from. We wandered up the main street, saw a bit and took a few pictures, then we wandered off to the main road, into the heart of the village so that I could see the extent of it. We walked along a dirt path between fences of yards around the huts. There were beautiful trees (oranges, coconut, pretty flowering ones I don’t know the names of), people in their yards working, and I couldn’t believe the feeling of such safeness I had as I walked along. It was such a tranquil experience. People are so polite, greeting us with “Bon Soir” (good evening), although the children were interesting to watch. Many didn’t know what to think of me, a little leery but very curious at the same time. We continued on to see the Mosque, and then a quick stop at the chief’s house. He was very nice. Aguibou took a picture of me sitting in front of his “summer” house (the hut). The chief also had a concrete building, which I guess is
his rainy season house. We managed a quick stop along the way at the Soux-Prefect (think that is the correct spelling), another nice man. Finally we headed back to the office house and had a quiet evening.
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