Day 11 - Nah, That's Not Mud

We set off down the turbulent Watut River in a 35 foot long canoe. Five seconds into the ride the pole the skipper was using to punt broke…

Thankfully the current was slow, because all the guy had was a very sketchy homemade paddle, hardly able to stir the muddy water, much less propel a ridiculously long canoe with at least five adults in it anywhere. Our closest call during the next 15 minutes was immediately after the pole broke, when we bumped ungracefully over a mid-river rock. Certainly preferable to tipping.

For whatever reason the skipper was content to let all 35 feet of the boat float sideways to the current down the river, exposing us that much more to obstacles. I took a short video just as we were about to land of the other surveyors humorously bunched together on a tiny bench in the middle of this ridiculously long canoe, then jumped out onto solid ground.

Or so I thought. I immediately sunk halfway to my knees in a weird sand/mud mix that had convincingly fooled me into thinking it solid. I lurched my way out and watched as our skipper-turned-guide brought a branch back for the others to step out onto. It worked for the first person, then disappeared, and one then had to find it somewhere underneath to avoid sinking like I had.

All made it to shore, and we set off toward Singono. Unfortunately, we were right be the frequently-flooding river, and found ourselves being grabbed by mud determined to suck us down. We finally came to a little stream and our guide instructed us to rinse our black legs, as it would be hard ground from there on. Ha! Good joke, buddy. We continued to flail our arms madly at mosquitoes while trying not to fall face-first into slurpy mud holes. Some of us may or may not have said some unkind things to the mud and about swamps in general.

We made it to Singono, barely rising above the muck. There were an unusual number of men around and we thought, “Great, we’ll get our work done quickly!” Then they told us they’d all gathered for a community meeting, and we’d have to wait. Turned out, though, that they considered themselves in nearly every way identical to Madzim/Babuaf, where we’d been day 5. So some of the work we normally do, like the Word List, we could skip.

It turned out to be a beautiful afternoon. I had a sublime moment, sitting on a porch in the dappled shade, a breeze keeping the heat at bay, listening to music and watching my teammates throw the Frisbee. I felt very blessed to be where I was, doing what I was doing, and to have such good friends and coworkers.

Toward evening I ran the main questionnaire with the community, after which we settled down to a quiet night. Only one day of work to go.