The Road to Nebubongo

What an adventure!
We did not leave for our bike trip on Friday as planned because Thursday night it rained like it was Noah's flood all over again. There were two inches of water sitting on the front yard because the ground couldn't soak it up fast enough. Some of the mud huts in the valley near the water had two feet of water all around and inside) them.
So on Friday I spent the morning at one tailor to be fitted for my bridesmaid dress for the wedding, and the afternoon at another tailor to have some Congolese clothes made. Then we left bright and early Saturday morning for our adventure to Nebo!
And whew, it was hard! I am not sure how far it was exactly, I would guess about 70 kilometers or so. I could have bikes that fine at home, so I figures it wouldn't be that terrible here. Well, in America you tend to bike on paved roads, or at least roads without huge bumps and ditches in them. So when you get tired of peddling you can coast for a while and the bike will keep going. Not so here, the roads are so bumpy that you stop peddling, the bike stops. It was quite a workout! And the gearshift didn't work on my bike so I just walked it up every hill :)
But it was sooo much fun. There were these huge puddles everywhere for the first half of the trip, puddles sometimes two or more feet deep. We were all covered in mud up to our knees, the bottom of my skirt looked like I had just gotten off of the Oregon Trail or something. We were a huge attraction for the villagers we passed. They would all shout, in Lingala, "White person! White person! Oh look, another one, and another!" Then they would all ask "Where are you coming from?" because of how awful we looked, and "Where are you going?" because everyone just always wants to know that. They would also ask where our car was. A white person going by on that road by bicycle is very very unusual!
We also had more bike brakedowns than I knew were physically possible. One of the bikes, the chain would fall off every half hour or so. Two bikes had tires blow. One of the bikes had the chain break in half. Another had the fender crumble in on itself so we cut it off with a pocket knife. One bike had a chain that was two long so we shortened it. One bike had the seat (literally, the whole seat) fall off... that one took a little longer to fix! They (the boys) widdled a stick so it would fit in place of the broken bolt and then held the whole thing together with rubber rope. And one bike had the brakes break. What a trip! But we made it and it was wonderful.
The forest was so beautiful. We saw gorgeous birds and towering palm trees and just so much green!
In Nebo we stayed with a German missionary couple and I got to see some of the hospital there which was amazing. We also took a walk into the forest to visit a village, the one where Bettina first lived and where she learned Budu, the language she helped translate. It was beautiful! But with so many broken bikes we had someone come with a car and drive us home :)
Life here is getting crazy with visitors starting to arrive for the wedding! It is incredibly exciting!