Trek

I asked to tag along on a trip upcountry (aka. a Trek) to drop off a couple volunteers to their villages. Once out of the main western region known as Kombo the terrain changes from commercial/industrial to almost exclusively sprawling rice paddies accented by huge palm, Baobab and Rubber tree stands. Absolutely beautiful country, like something out of a Nat Geo mag. Thor and I felt like celebrities, every time we stopped, the car was surrounded by village kids, none of them older than about 10 years old. Not sure where they go from pre-teen to adulthood. Most didn't believe Thor was a real dog and many insisted he was actually a cat. I was beckoned as Toubab from every direction the ENTIRE trip as if I was the most famous person in the world. It was like the stadium wave where everyone gets up with hands in the air screaming multiplied by about 300 kilometers.  I could hear tiny little cheers from tiny little children 200 meters into a field as they waved furiously yelling Toubab at the top of their tiny little voices.  The rice paddies are plowed, sowed, trenched, and harvested entirely by hand, and entirely by women. Then these exhausted women walk the 3-5 kilometers back home to cook, clean and tend to the many children.  The driver said the men can be found back in the housing compounds doing absolutely nothing. In the islamic culture its the woman's job to maintain household and raise the children.