"Watch out for that cow, there..."

So I had the amazing opportunity to go on an upcountry followup trip a few weeks ago - it was awesome in SO many ways! The people I was with were fantastic. We were following up with some of our surgeons that were trained on the ship and it was super encouraging to see that they not only learned new, important OR practices (like don't use instruments that are dropped on the floor), but they have taught these things to their staff.  My French is better than I give myself credit for, and my driving on African roads is greatly improved. (more about that some other time.) Anyway, here are a few photos from the trip, most of them snapped out the window of the moving landrover. Enjoy! 

The country really is stunningly beautiful. Very green in some places and brown and dry in others.

Our home for the week was a cozy LandRover.  The pillow was bigger than Michelle. :)

After a long day of driving, or meeting with Hospitals, it was heavenly to just chill under a mango tree.  Amazingly wonderful conversations with wonderful people.



Wildlife. (Cows. Lots of cows.)

The women staying at the fistula center in Kissidougou were so thankful to us they threw us an impromptu dance party. It was so sweet.  USAID funds this project, and it's those moments I don't quite mind paying taxes as much.

More wildlife. Sheep this time. We saw lots of cows, sheep, goats, and chickens. Nothing any more exotic than that...

The roads were lovely.

This could have been a big problem had it happened out in the bush... thankfully, it didn't!

I think Michelle and I sipped our coffee while the guys fixed the tire...

Me concentrating really hard while crossing the Niger river, which is nearly dry. Learning to drive African roads was quite an experience... I'll write more about that another time.

Pit stop for lunch - apples, pringles, and pretzels.

A sign warning us about cows in the road. One of my favorite quotes from the week - "Watch out for that cow, there..."

Randomly on the way to Labe there was this huge grove of pine trees. Or pine-like trees. They felt very out of place....

There are three guys on top of the full taxi...

Love some of the things you see in a car here...