On the way to Bili
Our trip to Bili was to visit the Mono language community. More on that later. As I’ve already shared, it took us 12 hours to get there due to the condition of the roads.
Ours was the only vehicle, other than a couple of motorcycles, that I saw the whole way there. Pastor Gaspard and Marie, who we traveled with, go to Bili about four times a year.
They travel by motorcycle, so when the pick-up truck passed through the villages on the route, it got some attention. Kids seemed to be especially excited, and they would often run along the side of the road yelling, Mbote. Mbote means hello in Lingala. Lingala is the trade language of this region.
The long road trip was great for getting some photos of people and life along the way.
A humorous side note… I really wanted to get out to get a photo of this road. The truck was really packed. When I tried to get out, my foot got stuck under my computer bag. I fell out of the truck, sort of slowly as I gripped the door trying to save myself from the descent. Gravity won. I ended up on the ground, on my back, with my legs in the air above me! Thankfully, the fabric of my skirt was stiff enough that it stayed up!
When we entered Mono land, even more people started coming out to see us. A big welcoming party was waiting just a half hour down the road, but we (that is Maralee and I) didn’t know it, yet.
