The Goderich Signal-Star, 1974-08-22, Page 4a �
PGE, 4---GQDbRKKH SIGNAL -STAR., THURSDAY.
Takescount.
of tribesmen
Africa
'Ahother, letter has • arrived
from Ron Shaw, formerly a'
reporter -photographer with
The Goderich Signal-Sta'r who
is now working in Africa as
part of a Canadian. government
project.
'Mr. Shaw's letters have
many interesting items which.
the editor feels should be
Shared with the Goderich and
district people, many of whom
were personal 'and valued
fends- of the Signal's roving
,correspondent.
His letter, in' part, is as
follows:
"My temporary work with
the goats (supposedly tem-
porary at least) is going as well
as could be expected, but Ian
finding time to get to: some ° '-
other more interesting Work..I
spent last week with a friend
who was counting Fulani
tribesmen in the bush for 'the
Sudan Interior Mission, relief
effort, and that was an ex-
.perience I will long remember.
It proved beneficial for me as
well since. it is the Fulanis who.
are" to ,be the recipients of our
cattle restocking scheme.
"We. left Maradi late Wed-
nesday
afternoon. pby`' market
truck for a village called.
Geratouha, about half waybet
;,ween here and Dakoro' (ntzrth).
That was, our it "ii`ipiii g4off Point_:
for the cross "pountry jaunt to
Melepba where I was looking
at the possibility of a well
cleaning scheme.More about
that later, but first the market°
• truck.
"Those vehicles are Puegoet
404's whiich is a pickup about
the same size as the small truck
.sold by Toyota. If there is any
way it can be avoided I won't
be riding one agal' he trucks
run north and south each day
taking people to market, as: the
name implies. Market. days are
.held in different villages on dif-
ferent days of the week and the •
trucks • prsvide a sort of com-
muter 'service from the' bush
camps tQ villages.. People walk
from . their camps to the road
where they are picked :up and
for 150 francs taken to market. a
"The problem I suppose is
greed on the part of thedrivers-
. that is 'the more people, the
more profit. I .couldn't believe
the load -they crammed on that
'thing going north but when we
caught another one to come
home r soon discovered my first
trip had been "with, only half a
load: The full load consisted of
22 adults, two • babies,, two
goats, six bags of •sorgum two
spare tires, ' a dozen market
baskets plus all the ,Parcels,
packages, swords, spears, ljows •
and arrows etc. etc. that the
natives' carry.,
make matters worse the
road is loose 'sand and the
driver ,can up his take for the
.day by. seeing how many trips
she can make so he drives like a
demon- An accident leaves un -
describable clirnage, ''Tim.
Hildebrant, the 'chap I ''was
travelling with, once saw bne
which had turned over. Ap-
parently. the ° survivers just
pushed it -,-back' on its wheels,
buried the two dead beside the
road; loaded the injured back
aboard and carried on. It's'
really 'quite an experience to
^ say the least!
"So' back to the main story..'
We had arranged for some of
the tribesmen to meet us' -with
camels at Geratouha for the
trip ', of 20 mile's : across the
desert to Melepba. It was my
first crack at riding a camel but
it's really k not difficult. The
only problem was, that the
tribesmen did not have . proper
riding saddles, only the wooden
pack saddles, and by the time,
we reached the village I had a
case of saddle sores- that mere
words could' not even begin to
describe. ' They started out as
'blisters, but broke open acid
then started to bleed making it
imposaibie to sit, ,stand, walk,
lie•down or indeed 'assume any
position with the slightest sem-,_
blance comfort.
")vfelepba is a Hoyssa village
(farmers) and we were"The
guests of the chief. We got the
fall treatment. A 'goat Was
killed in our honor,andoall the
° pleasantries reserved for the
most Astemmed of visitors-vyere
bestoWed upon'. us. The : chief
knew I was there to see about
repairing 'hii" well and hie did
his best to see. that we were
dhily impressed. $y the waN
node of these people speal+
either lr rench or .English bui
Tim is fluent in' Houma (thf
most common language in thi:
region, acid, he acted as inter,.
prefer. . •'
'"Despite what the Roussa
chief considered first' 'cIas$,,
(iofltinuid on page's),
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a
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