Camping trip

What is the difference between camping out in the middle of nowhere in North America and camping out in the middle of nowhere in Africa? The number of people in the middle of nowhere!

heading out of town in our Toyota!

Get out of our way camel!

On Monday, Ginger and Barb (two missionaries I’m interning with) took me, Caitlin, and a team of six visiting sponsors “up country” on an overnight camping trip to visit a Hand-in-Hand orphan school. The Hand-in-Hand orphan schools are the rural schools run by village churches for the orphans in and around their village. Once you are outside of Bangui it really does feel like you are in the middle of nowhere. The villages seem so tiny but as soon as you step out of the car every kid in the whole village seems to flock to you and the village doesn’t seem so small then! Everyone has to shake your hand and all the little kids yell “boundjou, boundjou!” which sounds like the French word for hello but it really is the Sango word for “white person.” The visiting Americans were all saying “Bonjour!” back to the kids and waving very enthusiastically. Those of us who knew what they were actually saying were all thinking, “Yep, we’re white and please stop yelling that or else more people might come out to gawk at the silly looking white people who drove into your village waving and smiling like they’re in a parade.”

a little girl peeking in the church window

We didn’t set up camp outside because of all the onlookers. Instead, we set up camp inside the Bosemebele church building. There were still little kids peeking in through every window and doorway so we hired a guard to do crowd control.

the girls' tent all set up!

I love camping!

Barb enjoying African food

The people of the church at Bosembele are so hospitable! Pastor Dole’s wife made us a traditional African dinner of gozo, rolls, rice, and some meat in a red sauce. It was actually pretty good but I was glad we’d brought along ramon noodles. After a lovely dinner eaten by the light of our flashlights, we all ventured outside to sit around the campfire listening to African campfire stories about hunting for snakes and possessed man-eating hippos. Nothing like a few good scary stories right before laying down to sleep in the middle of the African bush!

It turns out that it was a very good thing we camped inside the church because halfway through the night it started pouring rain! It was raining so hard that water was dripping in through the tin roof and leaking into our tent. The rain was nice, though, because it cooled everything off and covered up all the squeaking sounds of the bats. The bad part about the rain was that the “outhouse” was very muddy the next morning. I was very proud of myself for not slipping and falling into the hole.

At the orphan school the sponsors gave out beanies babies, flip flops, and tennis balls and man were those kids excited! Caitlin and I had work to do taking individual pictures of each kid. This job is fun but it makes things tricky when the whole village is watching and the little kid getting his or her picture taken is really nervous. It is also an added challenge making sure you don’t get random kids going to the bathroom in the tall grass in the background of your photo.

happy kids playing with their new toys

I know this is making you all want to go camping in Africa now! It really is fun. 

We also got to stop by the falls at Boali again. All sorts of little boys like to hang out around the falls so that when tourists come they can be their guides and make some money. A little 11 year old boy named Samson decided that he was going to follow me around the whole entire time we were there. We went exploring all around the falls since it wasn't raining this time. I think this is one of my favorite places to visit!

crossing the bridge above the falls

hanging out with my African "body guards". Samson is on the right.

Overall it was a successful trip. Ginger managed to only kill two chickens on the drive home and we all made it back to the mission station safely. And let me tell you... even though I love camping, the warm shower, dry clothes, and homemade pizza when we got back couldn't have made me more happy!