The plane left this morning. After that, I walked up the valley to our west. I walked for a ways up the dry, sandy stream bed. As the stream got rockier, there was water babbling through it. Parts of the stream were quite pretty with boulders and rocks, pools of clear water, small waterfalls, tiny rapids and grass and trees overhanging the bank. After about forty-five minutes of walking, I came to the mountain gardens near the head of the valley. The place seemed drier and sandier than Ahaba. There was quite a bit of ometi (bullrush millet) mixed in with the osingo (sorghum). I walked up to a small hut built up in one of the lower fields and said "mong" (a Lotuko greeting) to the young girls who were there. I always get amusing reactions when I do that. They were cooking some angiria (sorghum porridge). I climbed up a rock for quite a ways. People in some of the fields below me were playing flutes, pounding a drum and singing.
I saw a monkey trap made from a rock, sticks, bark string and a bit of sorghum used as bait. The following sketch of the trap is my best attempt, but is not quite accurate. I am not a very good artist. If the monkey pulls the sorghum, the sticks propping up the rock fall allowing the rock to tumble and pin the monkey's arm.
I saw a young man and woman on a rock in the shade near a sorghum field. They were talking and smiling. It was the closest thing I have seen to romance so far. The man was eating some holé (or ahulé?) and gave me some to try. It was a clearly a cucumber, but much shorter and chunkier than the ones we have in the U.S.A.
This afternoon, Martha, Marcia, Brian and I walked over to Lohofan. This is the place to our east which reminds me of Buttermilk Falls in Ithaca, New York. (There is photo of this area at my blog entry dated June 27, 1980.) I should mention that Brian Arensen is Lanny's younger brother. He is here on a short visit.
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