Yesterday's Equator Crossing!

I have closed down my home here in Africa and started my six month trip to the States. Yesterday I left home at nearly 7am, about an hour later than I had wanted. There was just too much to do to get ready to leave. I picked up Odile, the wife of the High School Chaplain, and we started out of town.

Here is some of what I saw on the trip:

The highway from the town to the capital city, Libreville, is a mix of newly paved roads, those roads were the tractors are still working and some bridges not yet done, places where there the road is still dirt or mud when it rains and old paved roads. By far, the worst road of the trip was that which had been paved many years ago but has not be repaired for years. The potholes were absolutely terrible!! Three times I had to pull over to close my eyes because I was quite sleepy. We stopped in a larger city for "fast food", in my case, and omelet sandwich. When we got to the capital city the traffic was bumper to bumper because of road construction in many areas. Our trip took 10 1/2 hours.

What did I see? Lots of trees as I live in the jungle. There were "umbrella" trees, palm trees, mango trees, banana plants (bananas do not grow on trees), huge bamboo plants. There were wild flowers, poinsettia looking bushes and some as big as trees, ferns, Safou trees (the “Butterfruit”). Here is an article on the Butterfruit.

 blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/safou-the-%E2%80%9Cbutterfruit%E2%80%9D/

Most houses in a village are on the main highway as there are usually no other roads in town! In front of the houses people put 55 gallon steel barrels and each one usually has a wooden board on top to expand it into a small table. This is where food goods or other items are placed for sale. As we drove around yesterday we say sweet bananas, plantains (cooking bananas), pineapple, mangoes, wild garlic, a monkey, an antelope, manioc (cassava), tomatoes, cabbages, baskets, short wooden stools, etc.

Yes, I did "see" the equator. I wanted a photo for this blog. As soon as I got out of the car the little man pictured with me came up to me and said in French, "God Bless You". It turns out he goes to a church near the equator that is connected with my church. The sign at the equator shows that there are 10,300 kms (6,400 miles) from there to New York City.



Today's Positives:
1. I did not fall asleep on my 10 1/2 hour trip yesterday. Thanks for those who prayed for me about that. I have had a history of falling asleep at the wheel before.
2. I slept very well last night, 7 hours. For me, that is exceptional.
3. I have today and tomorrow until 11pm to catch up on blogging, emails, personal financial files, etc.

Thanks for visiting my blog!