The next morning we got up early to finish our bike trip to Labe. We had planned to give the school principal a little money to thank him for putting us up for the night and giving us dinner, but before we got a chance he pulled me aside and asked me if I could return his hospitality by paying to get his motorcycle fixed. According to at least Senegalese rules, it is pretty rude to ask for anything in return for hospitality, so Sira and I were surprised and put off by his request. We decided to just give him the amount we had already planned on, about $5.
So we gave him the money and took off. The villagers had told us that we had about 4 km left of uphill, and after that it would pretty much downhill all the way to Labe. But it turned out to be the longest 4 km in the world. For the next two hours we were pushing, and occasionally trying to ride and quickly giving up, our bikes straight uphill. After about an hour we stopped to take a break and eat a mango, and while we were sitting by the side of the road, who should come zipping up on his motorcycle but the school principal. He told us that he really appreciated the money we had given him, but he really needed a lot more money to get his motorcycle fixed. The motorcycle that he had just ridden up the mountain to catch us. We were so surprised to see him and be asked for money again that we gave him some. And immediately regretted it. I am still kicking myself a little bit for giving it to him. But maybe karma will even things out in the end.
So then we continued on. Uphill. We passed a house with a big orange grove and stopped to ask if they would sell us some. We agreed on a price (forget now what it was) for 5 oranges, but then the woman gave us a bunch more for free! They were the first oranges I've had in months - you can buy them sometimes in Tamba, but they're imported so they're pretty expensive.
Finally, about 2 pm, we made it to Labe. I didn't like the town - there were lots of empty, half-built houses on the way in and it felt kind of creepy. And then when we got downtown there was terrible air pollution from cars, the worst I've experienced in Africa. But maybe I just didn't like the city because I was so tired. We stopped at a restaurant shack and had lunch - sweet potato leaf sauce over rice - very good! Then we started asking around for where the Peace Corps house is, but people either didn't know or they told us it was in the opposite direction from where the last person we'd asked had told us. Finally a kid told us he would take us. But then he just took us to a hotel. So we thanked him and he left, and then we went inside to ask the hotel owner if he knew the Peace Corps house. Found out there is no Peace Corps house; in Guinea, volunteers just get vouchers to stay at a hotel. Score one more point for Senegal.
We decided to stay at the hotel we were at, just because we were there and too tired to go looking around town for another place. They let us stay in a tent in their courtyard for $5 each, and we spent the rest of the afternoon doing laundry (by hand, in a bucket, of course, but at least they had tap water instead of a well). That evening for dinner we had pizza in the restaurant hotel - a special treat after our two days of riding bikes straight uphill, and it turned out to be the best pizza I've had in Africa.
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