With the ideal (short) trip available, I traveled up with Dave & Marianne Ruten, Fulani team leaders, to Djibo in the north for 3 days. Most of the Fulani team had lived, worked or learned language there. Friends had recently moved there, so it was an ideal time to visit, before work for the year began in earnest.
The road was paved half way, but the dirt second half had some unexpected holes and continuous corrugations that quickly became tiring – still however seen apparently as ‘good’ in the eyes of those who were used to much worse in other seasons. The orange dirt theme of the road was continued into the town, whose ‘streets’ and houses are mostly made of the same stuff.
I tagged along to greet the pastor there who I know from the Fulani Bible school committee, the student sent up for the 4 month internship term, and an Aussie couple who have provided local medical assistance for many decades and now looking for replacements so they can retire. I also watched the church ladies learn how to make bread and peanut butter cookies to sell.
Djibo is known in the region for its lifestock markets, so we visited there and discussed the relative benefits of sheep vs goats (very similar looking here), spotted or plain vs 2-tone … not that I knew anything about it!
